St Robert of Newminster - remains where?

COMMENTS:

----- Forwarded Message ----- ----- Forwarded Message ----- 
From: Trevor G. . .
To: Donald . . .
Sent: Saturday, 9 June 2012,
Subject: Re: St Robert of Newminster

Hi Father,
Thanks for the info' about Robert of Newminster.
Interesting and filled some gaps.
Do we know where his remains are? 
- - -
Trust you and community are well.

Regards,


Trevor.

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Regarding the question, Trevor, I have to go back to George's book?

June 7: Saint Robert of Newminster

Posted by Jacob

Today, June 7, we celebrate the feast day of Saint Robert of Newminster(1100-1159), man of God, and co-founder of the Cistercian (Benedictine) Abbey at Shedale, England. While little is known about the life of Saint Robert, what is remembered is his gentle spirit, merciful judgment, and love of the Lord. His daily sacrifice and self-denial, through concern for sinfulness, remains a model of temperate living today.

Robert was born in Gargrave in Yorkshire, England. He studied for the priesthood in Paris, France, during which time he wrote a commentary on the Psalms which has unfortunately been lost to history. Upon ordination, he returned home to his place of birth, where he served as a parish priest.

After years serving as rector of Gargrave, Robert joined the Benedictine Order, having received permission from his local bishop, and working with a group of monks founded a monastery in which the strict Benedictine Rule would be revived (a movement initiated by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, whom Robert met). For their community, they chose a beautiful spot—surrounded by natural springs-- in the valley of Sheldale (within the town of Sutton) on land given to them by the local archbishop. The monastery became known as Fountains Abbey, given the natural flowing waters mirroring the flowing of the Holy Spirit from within. The group of monks became known for their holiness, poverty, and austere way of life, with Robert recognized for his devotion and self-denial. In time, Fountains Abbey became the center of religious study in North England, and eventually affiliated with the Cistercian reform.

Given the success of Fountains Abbey, a local lord built another abbey on his land, the Abbey of Newminster. To Newminster, he brought Robert and a dozen companions. Robert was appointed Abbot, and under his leadership, the community prospered, establishing two additional abbeys in later years.

While Robert grew the religious communities at Newminster, his life was not without trials. At one point, while serving as Abbot, members of the community accused him of impropriety, suggesting that he had engaged in lascivious acts with a local pious woman. Saint Robert traveled to France, visiting Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, the head of the Order. Saint Bernard determined the accusations to be false, and as a symbol of his belief in Robert's innocence, presented him with a golden girdle to be used to affect miraculous cures of the sick at Newminster.

Robert ruled and directed the monks at Newminster for 21 years. He was a man of prayer, favored with gifts of prophecy and miracles. He is described as a devout and gentle man. While he is known for being merciful in his judgment of others, and a warm and considerate companion, he was also very zealous toward his own vows of poverty. Saint Robert is recorded as having had supernatural gifts, including visions and encounters with demons, and the gift of exorcism. In one such encounter, the Devil himself entered the church while Robert and his brothers were praying. The Devil, seeking a weak soul to tempt, was thwarted by Robert’s prayers for strength and encouragement for the monks in his charge.

Saint Robert is said to have fasted so rigorously during Lent that his brothers grew concerned, and asked him the reason for his refusal to eat. Robert responded that he might be able to eat a small piece of buttered oatcake, but once it was placed before him, fearing gluttony, he requested that it instead be given to the poor. Over the protest of his brothers, the food was taken to the front gates of the Abbey, where a beautiful stranger took both the cake and the dish it sat upon. While a brother was explaining the loss, the dish miraculously appeared on the table before the abbot, leading the men to realize that the beautiful stranger had been an angel of the Lord.

Saint Robert was close friends with the hermit Saint Godric, whom he visited frequently. On the night Robert died, Godric is said to have seen a vision of Robert's soul, like a ball of fire, being lifted by angels on a pathway of light toward the gates of Heaven. As they approached, Godric heard a voice saying, "Enter now my friends." His relics were translated to the church at Newminster. Numerous miracles have been reported at his tomb, including one in which a brother monk is said to have fallen unhurt from a ladder while whitewashing the dormitory. His tomb remains a center of pilgrimage.

The life of Saint Robert of Newminster reminds us that one does not need to live a life filled with extravagant miracles or preaching, or die a martyrs’ death to be holy. Saint Robert lived a simple life, rich in the spirit of the Lord. He gave all that he have, sacrificed, and spent his days in prayer and self-denial—oftentimes for the souls of his brothers and those who were less fortunate. Robert considered his actions carefully, always on the look-out for temptation, and wary of the pathways to sinfulness. Through fasting and prayer he converted many souls, grew the Church of God on earth, and earned himself a saint’s place in Heaven. How might we better live up to the example of this holy man?

God our loving Father, you inspired Robert
to establish a new monastery, and to preside as abbot
with gentleness and justice.
As we honor today this man of prayer, may we also learn from his example.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.


Inspired by the origins and spiritual history of the Holy Rosary, we continue our meditation on the psalms, one each day, in order, for 150 days. 
Today’s Psalm: Psalm 44: Israel’s Past Glory and Present Need


1 We have heard with our ears, O God; 
our fathers have told us 
what you did in their days, 
in days long ago. 
2 With your hand you drove out the nations 
and planted our fathers; 
you crushed the peoples 
and made our fathers flourish. 
3 It was not by their sword that they won the land, 
nor did their arm bring them victory; 
it was your right hand, your arm, 
and the light of your face, for you loved them. 
4 You are my King and my God, 
who decrees victories for Jacob. 
5 Through you we push back our enemies; 
through your name we trample our foes. 
6 I do not trust in my bow, 
my sword does not bring me victory; 
7 but you give us victory over our enemies, 
you put our adversaries to shame. 
8 In God we make our boast all day long, 
and we will praise your name forever. 
9 But now you have rejected and humbled us; 
you no longer go out with our armies. 
10 You made us retreat before the enemy, 
and our adversaries have plundered us. 
11 You gave us up to be devoured like sheep 
and have scattered us among the nations. 
12 You sold your people for a pittance, 
gaining nothing from their sale. 
13 You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, 
the scorn and derision of those around us. 
14 You have made us a byword among the nations; 
the peoples shake their heads at us. 
15 My disgrace is before me all day long, 
and my face is covered with shame 
16 at the taunts of those who reproach and revile me, 
because of the enemy, who is bent on revenge.
17 All this happened to us, 
though we had not forgotten you 
or been false to your covenant. 
18 Our hearts had not turned back; 
our feet had not strayed from your path. 
19 But you crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals 
and covered us over with deep darkness. 
20 If we had forgotten the name of our God 
or spread out our hands to a foreign god, 
21 would not God have discovered it, 
since he knows the secrets of the heart? 
22 Yet for your sake we face death all day long; 
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
23 Awake, O Lord! Why do you sleep? 
Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever. 
24 Why do you hide your face 
and forget our misery and oppression? 
25 We are brought down to the dust; 
our bodies cling to the ground. 
26 Rise up and help us; 
redeem us because of your unfailing love.

  http://365rosaries.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/june-7-saint-robert-of-newminster.html

From: Donald  - - -
To: George T...
Sent: Thursday, 7 June 2012
Subject: St Robert of Newminster

Dear George,
At the celebration of the Mass in honour of St. Robert of Newminster this morning we prayed for yourself and for your years and the writing and devotion to the Saint. on Newminter and the Cistercian hertiage
- - -
fr. Donald

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Cistercian Founders 26 Jan 2012

Sent: Thursday, 26 January 2012
Subject: Founders' Sermon - Fr. Mark 

Sts Robert, Alberic and Stephen                                 Chapter Sermon, 2012

• What is it that makes us celebrate our founders?  They lived in a very different age and time from our own.  Much of their style of living seems worlds away from what we do today. 
• But if history is anything to go by, it is amazing how much those in the past can still teach us how to live and how to cope with the vagaries and problems of life, whatever the age we happen to be in.
• Robert, Alberic and Stephen were like any other monks who were seeking to answer their call to seek God in a monastery.  Monastic life has not changed all that much in the basics of community living, where there is a spirit of silence and a fair modicum of solitude even as they live together.  There was an obvious structure to their day, centred as it was on the common work of God in choir.  The day was designed for them by creating a balance between their prayer, reading and work.  Because of their practical personal needs, there had to be a common awareness of the requirements of each other so that they had sufficient time to pray, to read or study. It was important that everyone respected that time for personal silence and the space for prayer and silence.
• It is not always easy to find one’s own balance within the one set up for the whole community.  It is also difficult to continue keeping such balance with the passage of time.  That is why communities need from time to time to reassess how they live their monastic life.
• What led Robert, Alberic, Stephen and some of the members of their community to uproot themselves from Molesme and go to the wilderness of Citeaux was their dissatisfaction with their practice of the Rule of St Benedict. Recent historical studies show that there were human elements in our founders which showed a tendency ― perhaps an over-tendency ― to move on to new fields in their zeal to seek God.  Who is to be sure what is a genuine urging of the Spirit to make a radical move from their present circumstances and what may be, as is mostly the case, a temptation to be ignored.  Novices routinely seek something ‘higher’ or ‘more spiritual’, like going to join the Carthusian.  The same can be true of monks who have lived for a number of years in the monastery.  In a time of renewal there are many examples when experiments failed to achieve anything worthwhile.  That was the case in so many instances in the ‘60s. 
• But renewal within monasteries as well as attempting to set up new foundations somewhere else has been successful.  The 11^th century saw much new life in many monasteries right across the board.  This period was an era of renewal when fledgling attempts at setting up new religious communities where people could go to find God in a more radical way took root and flourished.  Citeaux was one of these.  Through the courageous efforts of Robert, Alberic and Stephen and their other companions the Cistercian form of monastic life was established and promoted.  There have of course been other renewals since then.  Each time the new reform has produced new growth and a more vibrant monastic life.
• Perhaps celebrating the feast of our founders is a good opportunity to take a long look at what we had embarked on when we first entered the monastery and how we have journeyed over the years since then.  Does the vision and willingness of Robert, Alberic and Stephen and the other Cistercians who later joined them in the Order still shine as clear for us today?  Would we benefit from going back to look at what they had achieved in their renewal?  Would some of their innovations still be of benefit to us in our own personal lives?  It is by such simple steps that we can go forward and grow in our vocation.  Such attempts help to find and put on Christ and help us to truly seek God. 

St. Aelred of Rievaulx 2nd Patron of Nunraw 12 Jan 2012

Br. Barry

From: Barry . . .
Subject: chapter talk
Date: Thursday, 12 January, 2012.

St. Aelred of Rievaulx 2nd Patron of Nunraw
Community Chapter Talk, Br. Barry.

SAINT AELRED 2012.

Just down the coast there in Yorkshire, St. Aelred sat in his monastery of Rievaulx and wrote his book ‘ The Mirror of Charity’. We might surmise that during breaks in his writing activity, he would have gone outside into the valley where the monastery is situated for a breath of fresh air and to stretch his legs.

If it was winter and a cold, clear dark night or early morning, he would have had a fine view of the stars above. No street lights or other forms of light pollution in those days.

In fact, there may be an allusion in his book to his doing just that. In one passage he writes ( he is addressing human beings ) ‘ O wondrous creature, inferior only to the Creator. Do you philosophise about the harmony of the revolving heavens ? But you are more sublime than the heavens. Do you examine the mysterious causes of creation ? But no creature is a greater mystery than you.’ Was it himself who was philosophising about the heavens and examining the causes of creation?

When he looked at the stars and the night sky, St. Aelred would have seen much the same sight as we do today but he would have interpreted what he saw very differently.

In the 12^th century, the ancient Greek view of the Universe still held sway. The heavens were regarded as a sort of revolving canopy with the stars attached to it – ‘the sphere of the fixed stars’ as it was called. The earth was thought to be stationary as the absolute centre of the Universe.

St. Aelred would have no inkling of the mind–boggling distances and sizes out there in space; that the Universe is reckoned to be 93 billion light years in diameter ( one light year is just under 6 trillion miles ); that it has been estimated that there about 30 billion trillion stars. Nor would he have any notion of perhaps the most amazing modern discovery of all in the field of astronomy, that the galaxies are all moving away from each other at incredible speeds.

What is even more mind-boggling than all this, however, is the lengths to which some people will go to keep the Creator out of the picture. This is so of most popular presentations of science. A recent BBC publication, ‘Planet Earth’ describes all the conditions that were necessary before this planet could become capable of sustaining life. It puts the appearance of these conditions down to ‘plain good luck’. ‘When the cosmic dice were thrown’, it says, ‘our planet came out with a double six’.

Such authors have raised up a new god named Chance. Chance is the origin of everything and explains everything.

Yet is there a better way to come to some appreciation of the immensity and infinity of God than to have a good look at the Universe? Not everyone has received the spiritual gifts of a Blessed Columba Marmion. When he was a young seminarian in Dublin in the 1870’s, he was entering the study hall one day when he was ‘overwhelmed by a light on the infinity of God and seemed to catch a glimpse of the immensity of His Being.’ In the absence of an experience like that it is necessary to use the principle: to go from what is seen to what is unseen. From a notion of near - infinite physical distances and numbers, an idea of God’s infinite qualities can be got: his infinite goodness, power, mercy & etc.

The greater the sense of what divinity is, the greater will be the wonder at the Incarnation or of the Maker of the World appearing under the form of a circle of bread.

When St. Aelred looked at the night sky, he did not see receding galaxies or classes of stars with strange names: quasars, white dwarfs, red giants. He tells us himself what he saw ‘ the tranquillity of that order which charity ordained for the Universe’. As the title of his book indicates, St. Aelred could not see past charity.

St. Joseph Abbey Roscrea

An Abbot's Signature: 

Sometimes as a priest and especially as an abbot, I found myself vested rather grandiosely, perhaps even with mitre and crozier, and the great arch of the Abbey Church overhead, and then being incensed, while all the time having a responsibility to lead a precious family, even in the dark, towards unknown lands. All I could do is to hold on gratefully to the try square, aware that that's all I can master, and with eyes like Joseph's humbly and gently learn to penetrate the mystery of God's ways, and with an un-furrowed brow, journey on to do the will of Him who is the beginning and the end. – LW, St. Joseph, College Chapel-Window, RoscreaAbbey.

Friday, 19 November 2010 St. Mechtildis of Helfta (13th century) Saint Mechtildis of Helfta (13th century)         St. Mechtildis was born to a noble family in Heifta, Saxony, and was placed in a Benedictine convent at age seven.         Mechtildis was a mystic, and aided St. Gertrude with her Book of Special Graces or The Revelation of St. Mechtildis.    ©Evangelizo.org NOVEMBER 19 St Mechtilde of Hackeborn  1241-1298 Of a noble family, when she was seven, her parents placed her in the convent of Rossdorf where her sister, Gertrude, was soon elected abbess. The community moved to Helfta in 1258, and the five-year old St Gertrude was placed in Mechtilde's care. They became close friends and mutually influenced and helped each other. It was Gertrude who first wrote down Mechtilde's mystical experiences in what became The Book of Special Grace, a book whose "every page is alive with color and splendid with light and sound." Mechtilde, who possessed a beautiful voice, was for many years chantress and chant-mistress at Helfta. MBS, p. 303; Peaceweavers, CS 72, p. 213 "What best pleases God in members of religious orders is purity of heart, holy desires, gentle kindness in conversation, and works of charity." Menology OCSO Wrentham + + +  Musical and Spiritual Gifts Gifted with a beautiful voice, Mechtilde also possessed a special talent for rendering the solemn and sacred music over which she presided as domna cantrix. All her life she held this office and trained the choir with indefatigable zeal. Indeed, divine praise was the keynote of her life as it is of her book; in this she never tired, despite her continual and severe physical sufferings, so that in His revelations Christ was wont to call her His "nightingale". Richly endowed, naturally and supernaturally, ever gracious, beloved of all who came within the radius of her saintly and charming personality, there is little wonder that this cloistered virgin should strive to keep hidden her wondrous life. Souls thirsting for consolation or groping for light sought her advice; learned Dominicans consulted her on spiritual matters. At the beginning of her own mystic life it may have been from St. Mechtilde that St. Gertrude the Great learnt that the marvellous gifts lavished upon her were from God.

Evrard des Barres Knight Templar

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2010

Evrard des Barres: A Templar Grand Master Ends His Days at Clairvaux

The arms of Evrard des Barres. (Source.)

We’ve been a little thin on Menology entries in the last few weeks as the saints of the Martyrology and the feasts of the calendar have provided so much material, but this entry for the 15th of November caught my attention when Fr. Joseph read it at supper:

At Clairvaux, Blessed Evrard, Monk, who, after having courageously fought against the Saracens, resigned his office of Grand Master of the Knights of the Temple, and shone as a star in the Order of Citeaux. He had the happiness of beholding the King of the Angels, and of being certified by Him that all his faults were forgiven.

Evrard des Barres was Grand Master of the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, to give the full name, from 1147-1151. He entered Clairvaux near the end of the life of St. Bernard, whose treatise, “In Praise of the New Knighthood,” had provided a significant support for the fledgling order. In that treatise, though parts sound brutal to modern ears, we hear a new ideal of the knight that rebukes the excesses of many contemporary adventurers:

There is no distinction of persons among them, and deference is shown to merit rather than to noble blood. They rival one another in mutual consideration, and they carry one another's burdens, thus fulfilling the law of Christ. No inappropriate word, idle deed, unrestrained laugh, not even the slightest whisper or murmur is left uncorrected once it has been detected. They foreswear dice and chess, and abhor the chase; they take no delight in the ridiculous cruelty of falconry, as is the custom…

When the battle is at hand, they arm themselves interiorly with faith and exteriorly with steel rather than decorate themselves with gold, since their business is to strike fear in the enemy rather than to incite his cupidity. They seek out horses which are strong and swift, rather than those which are brilliant and well-plumed, they set their minds on fighting to win rather than on parading for show. They think not of glory and seek to be formidable rather than flamboyant. At the same time, they are not quarrelsome, rash, or unduly hasty, but soberly, prudently and providently drawn up into orderly ranks, as we read of the fathers. Indeed, the true Israelite is a man of peace, even when he goes forth to battle.

Evrard was born at Meaux in Champagne around 1113 and rose rapidly through the Order of the Temple. By 1143, he was preceptor of France and in Easter of 1147 convoked the general chapter of the Order in France that gave its support to Louis VII in the disastrous Second Crusade, preached by St. Bernard. Evrard accompanied Louis and Eleanor of Aquitaine to the Holy Land and, after a successful march through Anatolia, was given command of the entire French force by King Louis, who praised the Templars in a letter to Abbot Suger, his regent during his absence. Once arrived in Antioch, Evrard arranged a loan for Louis, launcing the Templars career as bankers to the French monarchy and, arguably, sowing the seed of the order’s downfall some 150 years later. He took part in the disastrous siege of Damascus and, after the ensuing debacle, returned to France with the king, resigned his office, and lived for more than 20 years as a monk of Clairvaux, dying in 1174.

The Menology does not tell us of which faults Evrard was assured forgiveness, whether it was deeds in battle that weighed upon him or his less than exemplary record as Grand Master. One might also wonder what he and St. Bernard shared of their experiences. His role as preacher of the Second Crusade proved to be a disaster for the reputation of the dynamic abbot of Clairvaux and a sensitive subject with his biographers.

Whatever the guilt Evrard felt, the vision and his long life as a simple monk seemed to have brought him the solace he had sought in the cloister.

* * *

And, on a more spurious note, I should point out that conspiracy theorists list Evrard as being Grand Master of the Priory of Sion from 1147 to 1150. Here we have yet another connection between the Cistercians and the grand plot to control the universe, and still Opus Dei gets all the credit. Maybe we’re just better at this hidden life business.

Gertrude of Helfta

St. Gertrude the Great: CISTERCIAN

Cistercian Nuns of Helfta today 

In the new Cistercian Calendar, today is the feast of Gertrude the Great. The Holy Father gave an excellent reflection on her importance last month, which you can read here.

In recent times, there has been considerable scholarly argument over whether St. Gertrude was a Cistercian or Benedictine. I think the quote below from The Herald of Divine Love shows that, at the very least, she was a Cistercian by desire:

I was in my 26th year. The day of my salvation was the Monday preceding the feast of the Purification of your most chaste Mother, which fell that year on the 27th of January. The desirable hour was after Compline, as dusk was falling.

My God, you who are all truth, clearer than all light, yet hidden deeper in our heart than any secret, when you yourself resolved to disperse the darkness of my night, you began gently and tenderly by first calming my mind, which had been troubled for more than a month past. This trouble it seems to me served your purpose. You were striving to destroy the tower of vanity and worldiness which I had set up in my pride, although, alas, I was - in vain - bearing the name and wearing the habit of a religious. (…) From that hour, in a new spirit of joyful serenity I began to follow the way of the sweet odor of your perfumes (Song 1:3) and I found your yoke sweet and your burden light (Matt. 11:30) which a short time before I had thought to be unbearable.

The Abbey of Helfta, known as "The Crown of German Abbeys" because of the great women mystics it produced, was destroyed and secularized at the Reformation. Cistercian Nuns resettled Helfta in 1999. You can read about their progress in reestablishing this great house here.  

St. Gertrude the Great - window Christ King Catholic Church Min.

NOTE: Gertude is properly known as Saint Gertrude for, although never formally canonized, she was equipollently canonized in 1677 by Pope Clement XII when he inserted her name in the Roman Martyrology.
Her feast was set for November 16. Pope Benedict XIV gave her the title "the Great" to distinguish her from Abbess Gertrude of Hackeborn and to recognize the depth of her spiritual and theological insight.

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BENEDICT XVI

GENERAL AUDIENCE

Saint Peter's Square
Wednesday, 6 October 2010

Saint Gertrude the Great

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

• St Gertrude the Great, of whom I would like to talk to you today, brings us once again this week to the Monastery of Helfta, where several of the Latin-German masterpieces of religious literature were written by women. Gertrude belonged to this world. She is one of the most famous mystics, the only German woman to be called "Great", because of her cultural and evangelical stature: her life and her thought had a unique impact on Christian spirituality. She was an exceptional woman, endowed with special natural talents and extraordinary gifts of grace, the most profound humility and ardent zeal for her neighbour's salvation. She was in close communion with God both in contemplation and in her readiness to go to the help of those in need.
• At Helfta, she measured herself systematically, so to speak, with her teacher, Matilda of Hackeborn, of whom I spoke at last Wednesday's Audience. Gertrude came into contact with Matilda of Magdeburg, another medieval mystic and grew up under the wing of Abbess Gertrude, motherly, gentle and demanding. From these three sisters she drew precious experience and wisdom; she worked them into a synthesis of her own, continuing on her religious journey with boundless trust in the Lord. Gertrude expressed the riches of her spirituality not only in her monastic world, but also and above all in the biblical, liturgical, Patristic and Benedictine contexts, with a highly personal hallmark and great skill in communicating.
• Gertrude was born on 6 January 1256, on the Feast of the Epiphany, but nothing is known of her parents nor of the place of her birth. Gertrude wrote that the Lord himself revealed to her the meaning of this first uprooting: "I have chosen you for my abode because I am pleased that all that is lovable in you is my work.... For this very reason I have distanced you from all your relatives, so that no one may love you for reasons of kinship and that I may be the sole cause of the affection you receive" (The Revelations, I, 16, Siena 1994, pp. 76-77).
• When she was five years old, in 1261, she entered the monastery for formation and education, a common practice in that period. Here she spent her whole life, the most important stages of which she herself points out. In her memoirs she recalls that the Lord equipped her in advance with forbearing patience and infinite mercy, forgetting the years of her childhood, adolescence and youth, which she spent, she wrote, "in such mental blindness that I would have been capable... of thinking, saying or doing without remorse everything I liked and wherever I could, had you not armed me in advance, with an inherent horror of evil and a natural inclination for good and with the external vigilance of others. "I would have behaved like a pagan... in spite of desiring you since childhood, that is since my fifth year of age, when I went to live in the Benedictine shrine of religion to be educated among your most devout friends" (ibid., II, 23, p. 140f.).
• Gertrude was an extraordinary student, she learned everything that can be learned of the sciences of the trivium and quadrivium, the education of that time; she was fascinated by knowledge and threw herself into profane studies with zeal and tenacity, achieving scholastic successes beyond every expectation. If we know nothing of her origins, she herself tells us about her youthful passions: literature, music and song and the art of miniature painting captivated her. She had a strong, determined, ready and impulsive temperament. She often says that she was negligent; she recognizes her shortcomings and humbly asks forgiveness for them. She also humbly asks for advice and prayers for her conversion. Some features of her temperament and faults were to accompany her to the end of her life, so as to amaze certain people who wondered why the Lord had favoured her with such a special love.
• From being a student she moved on to dedicate herself totally to God in monastic life, and for 20 years nothing exceptional occurred: study and prayer were her main activities. Because of her gifts she shone out among the sisters; she was tenacious in consolidating her culture in various fields. 
  Nevertheless during Advent of 1280 she began to feel disgusted with all this and realized the vanity of it all. On 27 January 1281, a few days before the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin, towards the hour of Compline in the evening, the Lord with his illumination dispelled her deep anxiety. With gentle sweetness he calmed the distress that anguished her, a torment that Gertrude saw even as a gift of God, "to pull down that tower of vanity and curiosity which, although I had both the name and habit of a nun alas I had continued to build with my pride, so that at least in this manner I might find the way for you to show me your salvation" (ibid., II, p. 87). She had a vision of a young man who, in order to guide her through the tangle of thorns that surrounded her soul, took her by the hand. In that hand Gertrude recognized "the precious traces of the wounds that abrogated all the acts of accusation of our enemies" (ibid., II, 1, p. 89), and thus recognized the One who saved us with his Blood on the Cross: Jesus.
• From that moment her life of intimate communion with the Lord was intensified, especially in the most important liturgical seasons Advent-Christmas, Lent-Easter, the feasts of Our Lady even when illness prevented her from going to the choir. This was the same liturgicalhumus as that of Matilda, her teacher; but Gertrude describes it with simpler, more linear images, symbols and terms that are more realistic and her references to the Bible, to the Fathers and to the Benedictine world are more direct.
• Her biographer points out two directions of what we might describe as her own particular "conversion": in study, with the radical passage from profane, humanistic studies to the study of theology, and in monastic observance, with the passage from a life that she describes asnegligent, to the life of intense, mystical prayer, with exceptional missionary zeal. The Lord who had chosen her from her mother's womb and who since her childhood had made her partake of the banquet of monastic life, called her again with his grace "from external things to inner life and from earthly occupations to love for spiritual things". Gertrude understood that she was remote from him, in the region of unlikeness, as she said with Augustine; that she had dedicated herself with excessive greed to liberal studies, to human wisdom, overlooking spiritual knowledge, depriving herself of the taste for true wisdom; she was then led to the mountain of contemplation where she cast off her former self to be reclothed in the new. "From a grammarian she became a theologian, with the unflagging and attentive reading of all the sacred books that she could lay her hands on or contrive to obtain. She filled her heart with the most useful and sweet sayings of Sacred Scripture. Thus she was always ready with some inspired and edifying word to satisfy those who came to consult her while having at her fingertips the most suitable scriptural texts to refute any erroneous opinion and silence her opponents" (ibid., I, 1, p. 25).
• Gertrude transformed all this into an apostolate: she devoted herself to writing and popularizing the truth of faith with clarity and simplicity, with grace and persuasion, serving the Church faithfully and lovingly so as to be helpful to and appreciated by theologians and devout people.
• Little of her intense activity has come down to us, partly because of the events that led to the destruction of the Monastery of Helfta. In addition to The Herald of Divine Love and The Revelations, we still have her Spiritual Exercises, a rare jewel of mystical spiritual literature.
• In religious observance our Saint was "a firm pillar... a very powerful champion of justice and truth" (ibid., I, 1, p. 26), her biographer says. By her words and example she kindled great fervour in other people. She added to the prayers and penances of the monastic rule others with such devotion and such trusting abandonment in God that she inspired in those who met her an awareness of being in the Lord's presence. In fact, God made her understand that he had called her to be an instrument of his grace. Gertrude herself felt unworthy of this immense divine treasure, and confesses that she had not safeguarded it or made enough of it. She exclaimed: "Alas! If you had given me to remember you, unworthy as I am, by even only a straw, I would have viewed it with greater respect and reverence that I have had for all your gifts!" (ibid., II, 5, p. 100). Yet, in recognizing her poverty and worthlessness she adhered to God's will, "because", she said, "I have so little profited from your graces that I cannot resolve to believe that they were lavished upon me solely for my own use, since no one can thwart your eternal wisdom. Therefore, O Giver of every good thing who has freely lavished upon me gifts so undeserved, in order that, in reading this, the heart of at least one of your friends may be moved at the thought that zeal for souls has induced you to leave such a priceless gem for so long in the abominable mud of my heart" (ibid., II, 5, p. 100f.).
• Two favours in particular were dearer to her than any other, as Gertrude herself writes: "The stigmata of your salvation-bearing wounds which you impressed upon me, as it were, like a valuable necklaces, in my heart, and the profound and salutary wound of love with which you marked it. 
  "You flooded me with your gifts, of such beatitude that even were I to live for 1,000 years with no consolation neither interior nor exterior the memory of them would suffice to comfort me, to enlighten me, to fill me with gratitude. Further, you wished to introduce me into the inestimable intimacy of your friendship by opening to me in various ways that most noble sacrarium of your Divine Being which is your Divine Heart.... To this accumulation of benefits you added that of giving me as Advocate the Most Holy Virgin Mary, your Mother, and often recommended me to her affection, just as the most faithful of bridegrooms would recommend his beloved bride to his own mother" (ibid., II, 23, p. 145).
• Looking forward to never-ending communion, she ended her earthly life on 17 November 1301 or 1302, at the age of about 46. In the seventh Exercise, that of preparation for death, St Gertrude wrote: "O Jesus, you who are immensely dear to me, be with me always, so that my heart may stay with you and that your love may endure with me with no possibility of division; and bless my passing, so that my spirit, freed from the bonds of the flesh, may immediately find rest in you. Amen" (Spiritual Exercises, Milan 2006, p. 148).
• It seems obvious to me that these are not only things of the past, of history; rather St Gertrude's life lives on as a lesson of Christian life, of an upright path, and shows us that the heart of a happy life, of a true life, is friendship with the Lord Jesus. And this friendship is learned in love for Sacred Scripture, in love for the Liturgy, in profound faith, in love for Mary, so as to be ever more truly acquainted with God himself and hence with true happiness, which is the goal of our life. Many thanks.
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  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy4jmkCGcVM 

Prayer of St. Gertrude the Great

The Holy Souls Will Repay Us A Thousand Times Over Now who can be in more urgent need of our charity than the souls in Purgatory? What hunger, or thirst, or dire sufferings on Earth can compare to their dreadful torments? Neither the poor, nor the sick, nor the suffering, we see around us, have such an urgent need of our help. Yet we find many good-hearted people who interest themselves in every other type of suffering, but alas! scarcely one who works for the Holy Souls. Who can have more claim on us? Among them too, there may be our mothers and fathers, our friends and near of kin. When they are finally released from their pains and enjoy the beatitude of Heaven, far from forgetting their friends on earth, their gratitude knows no bounds. Prostrate before the Throne of God, they never cease to pray for those who helped them. By their prayers they shield their friends from many dangers and protect them from the evils that threaten them. To promote charity toward the poor souls order and distribute large quantities of these cards.  To have a better understanding of Purgatory and the terrible sufferings of the poor souls, order Purgatory Explained, an excellent book of 427 pages.

Prayer of St. Gertrude the Great Our Lord dictated the following prayer to St. Gertrude the Great to release 1,000 Souls from Purgatory each time it is said. "Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen." St. Gertrude's life was the mystic life of the Cloister – a Benedictine nun. She meditated on the Passion of Christ, which many times brought a flood of tears to her eyes. She did many penances and Our Lord appeared to her many times. She had a tender love for the Blessed Virgin and was very devoted to the suffering souls in Purgatory. She died in 1334. Her feast day is November 16th. Approval and recommendation (sgd.) M. Cardinal Pahiarca at Lisbon, Portugal, on March 4, 1936.

www.olrl.org/pray/

Our Lady of the Rosary Library

Hedwig St Cistercian

Saturday, 16 October 2010

St. Hedwig, Religious (1174-1243)

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SAINT HEDWIG
Religious
(1174-1243)

        St. Hedwig, the wife of Henry, Duke of Silesia, and the mother of his six children, led a humble, austere, and most holy life amidst all the pomp of royal state.

        Devotion to the Blessed Sacrament was the key-note of her life. Her valued privilege was to supply the bread and wine for the Sacred Mysteries, and she would attend each morning as many Masses as were celebrated.

        After the death of her husband she retired to the Cistercian convent of Trebnitz, where she lived under obedience to her daughter Gertrude, who was abbess of the monastery, growing day by day in holiness, till God called her to Himself, in 1242.

Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]