Gertrude of Helfta Gertrude’s experienced relationship with the incarnate Christ was like that of a child seeking a support. She was a young nun at the time and confesses that she had built up a “tower of vanity”[footnoteRef:1] within herself and that Christ came to tear that tower down so that He could make room for himself. In the first apparition, she wanted to reach and touch Christ, whom she described as the most beautiful of all persons ever seen, but she could not touch Him because of some obstacle that was in the way. She saw that this obstacle was her sins and her attachment to things of the world. In order to fully experience union with God, she had to rid herself of these attachments and empty herself of her vanity and pride. [1: Gertrude of Helfta. The Herald of Divine Love 1 Translated by Margaret Winkworth. Classics of Western Spirituality Paulist Press, 1993, 95.]

Her relationship was characterized by a strong desire on her part for God’s grace, and her strong sense of God’s compassion and charity. She saw that in order to be nearer to God, she had to emulate His suffering and His sacrifice. As the years passed, her experience of that...

She held Christ a newborn babe in the manger. She held him straight from the womb of the Virgin Mary: “I received you from the womb of your virginal mother as a most tender and delicate little newborn Babe, and held you for a moment, clasped to my breast.”[footnoteRef:2] She sensed that in this experience, she was seeing the manifestation of the sorrow and joy of the holy family, which Gertrude herself was feeling “for a certain afflicted soul.”[footnoteRef:3] Gertrude saw that she was making little progress in her own spiritual life because she was not praying for the poor souls in purgatory, for sinners or “for other afflicted souls” and that when she did pray for them she began to feel much closer to God. [2: Gertrude of Helfta. The Herald of Divine Love 1 Translated by Margaret Winkworth. Classics of Western Spirituality Paulist Press, 1993, 115.] [3: Gertrude of Helfta. The Herald of Divine Love 1 Translated by Margaret Winkworth. Classics of Western Spirituality Paulist Press, 1993, 115.]
Gertrude’s infirmity that prevented her from receiving Communion was also an experience that taught her…