Love of the Sacred Heart as illustrated by Saint Mechtilde

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The Dealings of the Sacred Heart with Men

Chapter 38 – The Sacred Heart and Purgatory

The Sacred Heart does not abandon the souls that have during their lives been devout to it, even amidst the flames of purgatory. He Himself begs for suffrages and prayers for them. In the resurrection of Lazarus He rewarded the faith and confidence of the two sisters. With what delicate skill did our Lord lead Martha and Mary to believe in His power and goodness. And when they said: “I have believed that you art Christ, the Son of the living God, who art come into this world,” He went at once and called Lazarus from corruption: “Lazarus, come forth.”

Mechtilde fulfilled this role during her lifetime. The soul of a Brother had been recommended to her prayers. She did not trouble to remember him. She received a direct inspiration from heaven, and yet did not obey. Our Lord spoke severely to her: “So you wilt not allow Me to satisfy for My friend by thee.” Then taking her by the hand, He said: “Come, and I will introduce you into the admirable tabernacle of My house.” She was ravished into heaven, and there the soul of this brother appeared to her, standing before our Lord, adorned by five rays which came from the divine Heart.

The first ray entered his eyes. It signified the know ledge which had adorned His life, and which led him ceaselessly to contemplate God in the glory of the divinity. The second ray entered his ears. It signified the joy with which he received the words and tender greetings which were ceaselessly spoken to him by God. The third ray entered his mouth, to signify the ineffable praise of God which never ceased coming from his mouth. The fourth ray filled his heart. It signified the marvelous sweetness, joy and delight with which heavenly favours filled him. The fifth ray inundated and illuminated his body with ineffable brightness, showing that in all his members and with all his strength he had been devoted to good works and to the practice of virtue.

Then Mechtilde, filled with admiration, said to our Lord: “My sweetest Lord, why have you taken this soul so soon out of the world, where his words and example might have done good to so many?”

Our Lord replied: “His ardent desire constrained Me. As a child separated from his mother’s breast, he was drawn to Me; so he deserved to come so soon and rest in Me. He had worked so hard and would receive so great glory that his admission had to be a little delayed. During this time I made him rest on My Heart.”

She asked: “O loving Lord, how long did he rest thus?”

“Just one morning,” answered our Lord, “during which love accomplished in him what it had designed for him from all eternity.”

How consoling! Purgatory might be passed in the Heart of Jesus if only we were as much attached to Him as a child to its mother’s breast. From the Sacred Heart come the rays that purify souls and prepare them for the glory of heaven. From the Sacred Heart come the inspirations to help the faithful departed. But all souls do not spend their purgatory on the breast of Jesus.

Mechtilde was allowed one day to witness the torments by which some unhappy souls were purified, each suffering according to the faults it had committed. But the greatest suffering was the privation of the sight of God. “Do you suffer pain?” she inquired of a young man recently deceased. “No,” he replied, “except that I do not yet see my loving Lord. So great is my desire to do so that the united desires of all men would seem nothing in comparison.”

The want of God is therefore the greatest torment of these souls. So Mechtilde made every effort to enable them to enter into the presence of this God so ardently longed for. It had been said to her: “The prayer of a pure soul, offered to God with love, flows into the divine Heart as very limpid water, and is very efficacious.” Our Lord said to her one day after Holy Communion: “Say the Our Father for the dead in union with the intention My heart had in teaching it to men.” By these words she was enlightened to know that the Pater ought to be recited with the following intentions: At the first words, Pater noster qui es in caelis, we ought to ask pardon for souls who have committed faults against a Father so adorable and loving, who by pure goodness has raised men to the great honour of being the sons of God (1) in not loving Him with sufficient respect; (2) in not giving Him the honour due to Him; (3) in driving Him from their hearts where He wishes to reign as in heaven. Christians then pray in union with their innocent Brother, Jesus Christ, who offered for these souls His penances, full of love and satisfaction. Through Him the Father receives in reparation for these sins the love of His Heart offered in His human nature with so great honour and reverence.

Sanctificetur nomen tuum – “Hallowed be Your Name,” to repair and supply (1) what was wanting in their reverence for the Name of God and so great a Father; (2) the fault of having taken this Name in vain, or of having thought so seldom of it; (3) the fault of having shown themselves by their evil lives unworthy of this holy Name, though they are called Christians. The heavenly Father is then begged to accept the perfect sanctity of His Son, who magnified His holy Name in His preaching and glorified Him in all the works of His holy humanity.

Adveniat regnum tuum – “Thy kingdom come.” Here forgiveness is asked for souls (i) who have never desired enough the kingdom of God or God Himself, in whom alone is true rest and eternal joy; (2) for those who have never sought it diligently. The heavenly Father is petitioned to receive the very holy desires of His loving Son to have them for heirs to His kingdom in reparation for the coldness these souls have shown for all that is good.

Fiat voluntas tua sicut in caelo et in terra – “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We should say these words to repair their faults (1) of not having preferred God’s will to their own; (2) for not having loved it in all things. We must beg our heavenly Father to accept, in reparation for their disobedience, the union of the very holy Heart of His Son with His very perfect obedience, for He became obedient unto death. Mechtilde under stood from these words, ” Your will be done,” that religious persons often sinned (1) in very rarely offering to God their whole will; (2) in often drawing it back, and that it was very necessary, at these words, to make mention of them, as many were kept separated from God after death through this negligence.

Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie – “Give us this day our daily bread.” The faults to be repaired are (1) not having received with sufficient desire, devotion, and love the Blessed Sacrament, so great and so necessary for them; (2) that many have rendered themselves unworthy to receive it; (3) that some have rarely or never received it. We should beg our heavenly Father to regard the ardent love, ineffable desires, perfect sanctity and devotion with which Jesus Christ gave us this magnificent and perfect gift.

Et dimitte nobis debita nostra – “And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us.” At these words we should ask forgiveness (i) for all sins committed, mortal sins and those caused by them; (2) for the many who have been unwilling to forgive offenses committed against themselves; (3) for those who have not loved their enemies. We ought to beg Almighty God in reparation for these faults to accept the prayer, full of chanty, with which His Son prayed for His enemies.

Et ne nos inducas in tentationem – “And lead us not into temptation.” The real evil for these souls is that they did not resist their vices and concupiscences, but were so often led by the devil and their own evil inclinations, throwing themselves wilfully into all kinds of evil. We pray our heavenly Father to accept in atonement and reparation for these faults the glorious victory won by Christ over the devil and the world during His most holy life, in His labours and different sufferings. We finish by supplicating Him to deliver them from all evils, and conduct them to the kingdom of glory, which is Himself. Amen.

When Mechtilde had finished this prayer she saw an immense number of souls, full of joy, giving thanks for their deliverance. This was no doubt owing to the merits and fervour of the holy spouse of the Sacred Heart; but even of itself this prayer is most efficacious, for by it we offer the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart. It is our duty to pray often to God, through the divine Heart, on behalf of the souls kept by the justice of God in the expiatory flames.

On All Souls Day our Lord appeared to Mechtilde in all the brightness of His beauty, bearing three precious jewels on His breast. The first signified the eternal desire with which God is always filled for souls. The second, the insatiable love of His divine Heart for man, for even though man remain cold and insensible, the love of the divine Heart is unchangeable, and burns for him. The third jewel signified the joys of the divine Heart of which the Scripture speaks: “My delights are to be with the children of men.”

He then allowed her to see the souls of the dead on this day consecrated to their remembrance. Approaching, He deigned to serve them Himself. Every word said in choir, in the lessons, all that the whole Church does for these souls seemed different kinds of food and drink which He gave them Himself. The souls were filled with great joy, but in their hearts there was a cruel executioner, the sting of conscience. Hic erat propria conscientia.

And this worm tore and tormented them ceaselessly. This worm never dies in purgatory, and the soul is only liberated from it when it enters into the joy of its Lord and is united to God eternally. Then the soul hears this loving invitation: “From the depths of My Heart drink joy, and that because of those who pray for you ” (Bibe de medulla Cordis mei gaudium ex parte omnium pro te orantium). May we induce Jesus to say these sweet words to our dear dead, and may we hear them ourselves very soon after our last sigh.


Chapter 39 – The Sacred Heart and Heaven

When the soul of the just leaves the body, if it is so entirely exempt from all sin that it may at once enter heaven, God penetrates this happy soul with His divine Spirit, fills and possesses all its senses to such a point that He is the eye by which the soul sees, the light through which it sees, and the beauty which it perceives. So, in a manner as inexpressible as delightful, God, in the soul, and with the soul, contemplates Himself, the soul and all the Saints.

He is also the hearing of the soul, to listen to the sweet words which He speaks with more than motherly love, to hear also the harmony of God with all the Saints. Through Him the soul also breathes the life-giving and divine breath coming from God, the sweetness of which surpasses all perfumes and vivifies the soul for eternity. He is also the taste of the soul and causes it to relish His sweet savour. God is also the tongue and voice of the soul, with which He celebrates, in the soul and for the soul, His praises in the most complete and elevated manner possible. He is the heart of the soul, charming and rejoicing it, Himself revelling in it and with it and filling it with ravishing delight. Furthermore, God is the life of the soul and the motive-power of all its parts, so that all its acts seem done by God, and in the Saints Saint Paul’s words are fulfilled: “That God may be all in all “(2nd Corinthians 15:28).

Has the intimate union of God with His elect ever been better expressed? We have already seen how Mechtilde, at the moment of her death, was admitted to a mysterious union with the Sacred Heart. If this privilege is not granted to all the Saints, it is at least granted to those who have loved the Sacred Heart. When Mechtilde’s Sister, the Abbess Gertrude, died she took her flight into the marvelous and divine Sanctuary of the Heart of Jesus opened to her with such joy and fidelity. What she saw, what she heard, what she felt, what she received of blessedness, from the overflowing tenderness of Jesus, in being transported by a special privilege to such a resting-place, who among men could imagine?

With what exquisite tenderness does her Eternal Spouse draw her to Himself! The daughters of the happy Abbess on earth joined in her bliss by singing Quae pausas sub umbra Dilecti “You who rest under the shadow of Your Beloved.” And they could hear her reply: “It is not enough for me to rest in His shadow, it is in the very Heart of my Beloved that I rest lovingly, sweetly, and securely.” “Then,” said they, “speak for us all to God, since you are so full of bliss.” “I beg for my daughters, that they too may enjoy the rest full of sweetness which I so securely enjoy in the dear Heart of our loving Jesus.”

Behold, therefore, a soul in heaven who declares that it is not enough for her to rest in our Divine Lord’s shadow! She must be hidden in His Heart. May infinite thanks be rendered for ever to our dear Saviour for having satisfied this ardent desire. He has willed to prepare for His elect a dwelling in the depths of His paternal Heart. There, throughout all eternity, they will see how they have been loved and gratuitously chosen for so great a happiness. Here below no one can open the heart of his friend and see there the feelings he entertains for him; but the elect enter into the most intimate secrets of the Sacred Heart; they see and taste, with ineffable joy, the fullness and charm of infinite love.


Chapter 40 – Our Duty Towards the Sacred Heart – Devotion to the Sacred Heart

In her conversations with her two friends Mechtilde spoke from the fullness of her heart, but she had never dreamed of writing a book. Therefore a methodical manner of writing need not be expected in her teaching, such as one would desire in a treatise on the Sacred Heart.

What one can appreciate in the Book of Special Grace is the depth and elevation of the doctrine taught, the manifestation of the feelings which filled the Sacred Heart during the different epochs of its life, the account of its dealings with the Father and with each one of us in the exercise of its mediatorial office. In no other place are these admirable secrets recounted with so much exactness and magnificence. Even Saint Gertrude never described the Sacred Heart of Jesus during His mortal life as Saint Mechtilde has done. Saint Margaret Mary depicted it on one occasion only i.e., in the Agony in the garden at Gethsemani.

The knowledge of the Sacred Heart is a great grace, but it would be useless and even become a motive of condemnation, if it did not produce the desired fruit, that of the love and entire gift of our heart. To know without wishing to love is to approach hell; to know, and to strive to love, is to approach heaven.

Mechtilde was very near the abode of the Blessed, for she loved the Sacred Heart with a love her companions called excessive (nimia). No doubt our Blessed Lord constantly fed the flame of divine love in her heart, for each time He appeared He opened His Heart and gave her some special grace. And, after all, had she not within her the furnace of divine love? The Sacred Heart had given itself to her, and she carried it always in her own heart.

The holy Benedictine may therefore be our model in a true devotion to the Sacred Heart. But does the Book of Special Grace, which reveals to us the prerogatives of the divine Heart, betray also the secrets of Mechtilde’s intercourse with it? Are the acts of devotion practised in the thirteenth century in any way the same as those taught by Saint Margaret Mary? Are the marks of devotion of the Virgin of Helfta the same as those of the Virgin of Paray-le-Monial?

We must acknowledge that Saint Mechtilde’s book is a real treasure, and Providence has amply justified the second title given to it by our Lord, who called it The Light of the Church. In reality it exacts from the soul devoted to the Sacred Heart all the acts of the modern devotion: adoration, return of love, outpouring of heart, gratitude, boundless confidence, even reparation for the outrages of which it is the victim.

The devotion taught by Saint Mechtilde to her two companions has also another characteristic, that of absorbing all religion and the whole life. She did not find it enough to kiss the Sacred Heart five times a day, as she had been taught; she would also offer to it all her actions, seek in it all her supernatural intentions and through it praise the divine majesty of God. She sought it in the Sacraments, in the holy tribunal of penance, at the Holy Mass, and above all in Holy Communion. She was entirely absorbed in the Sacred Heart. She no longer lived, the Sacred Heart lived in her. May we, like her, be absorbed and transformed by this Heart so loving.


Chapter 41 – The Adoration of the Sacred Heart

To praise, adore and glorify the Sacred Heart is an imperative need to a soul who knows its infinite perfections. Her inability to acquit herself of her duty worthily becomes an unspeakable torment.

“If I could,” says Saint Mechtilde to our Lord, “I would bend all knees before Thee, my sweet and faithful Friend in heaven, on earth and in hell.”

Our Lord replied with His usual goodness: “Ask Me to accomplish this wish Myself, for in Me are all creatures; and when I come before My Father to fulfil the office of praise and thanksgiving, I am bound to supply perfectly for Myself and in Myself all that is wanting in creatures. My goodness could not suffer that the desire of any faithful soul, which it could not itself accomplish, should remain unsatisfied.”

What a consolation for a soul burning with zeal for the Sacred Heart! The Heart of Jesus accomplishes itself the soul’s desires and supplies for its powerlessness. And that is not all. One day when Mechtilde went to honour her Well-beloved with great love He said to her: “When you salute Me, I salute you in My turn; when you praise Me, I praise Myself in thee; and when you give thanks, I also, in you and by thee, return thanks to God the Father.”

She then said: “My Well-beloved, with what salutation do you address my soul? I do not perceive it.”

He replied: “My salutation is no other than My great love for the soul. A mother caresses her child on her knee, teaching him to repeat the words he must use in saluting and speaking to her. Even if the child does not do this of himself, but only because his mother has taught him, she receives with a mother’s heart what he says, and sometimes rewards him with her embrace. I also teach the soul by My inspirations and love to salute Me. When it does what it can in its small way, I accept that according to the greatness of My paternal affection, returning to the soul its salutation and giving it My grace, without, however, this being perceived by the soul.”

So when we would glorify the Sacred Heart it glorifies itself in us; and it does not value the praise from our lips for what it is worth, but for the immense love Jesus bears us and for what He adds unto Himself.

Saint Mechtilde was enabled to understand this delightful mystery. She saw one day a wonderful harmonious instrument coming out of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She then leaned on the breast of her Well-beloved, using all her strength to praise Him in Himself and through Himself. The more she praised Him thus united to Him, the more her strength failed her, and that to annihilation. As wax melted before the fire, she felt melted and merged in God in a blissful union, close and inseparable. In that moment how she longed that all in heaven and on earth should together participate in the grace of God!

If we ask the Sacred Heart with what we are to praise it, Jesus answers, with all He has poured of praise into the Heart of His Father, with all He has poured of love into the Heart of His Mother, and with all He exhibited of heroism on the Cross.

One Holy Saturday when she would embalm with her adoration the body of her Beloved, He said to her: “Take the ineffable sweetness which eternally has flowed from My divine Heart into the Father and the Holy Spirit, take the sweetness which filled more than any other heart the virginal heart of My Mother; take the devotion which, before My Passion, urged Me with the greatest desire and most ardent love. With these perfumes you may embalm Me worthily.”


Chapter 42 – The Offering of Our Hearts

I. How our Lord wants us to give Him our Hearts

Praebe, fili mi, cor tuum mihi – “My child, give me your heart.” This is all the Sacred Heart of Jesus asks from men in return for His love, His sufferings and His grace.

Our Lord gives us His divine Heart in order to receive from us the gift of our hearts. If we give them with joy and confidence, God will guard them so powerfully that we shall not fall into grievous sin. We should therefore strive to increase our knowledge of the Heart of Jesus, and seek to please Him more. In sadness we should take refuge with confidence near this treasure which is bestowed on us, and seek therein our consolation.

The offering of our heart to Jesus is therefore a pledge of perseverance, but it is also in itself one of the greatest joys to His Sacred Heart. As the eagle always seeks in its prey the choicest morsel, the heart, so our Lord always seeks the heart, asking us to give Him this choice morsel.

Mechtilde, understanding this desire, could only exclaim: “O most loving Lord, with what burning desire would I wish to offer you my heart!”

And Jesus at once taking Mechtilde’s heart into His hands inhaled the odour as of a sweet-scented rose. And she said: “What scent can you find in that which contains no good?” and our Lord replied: “Being Myself in Your soul, it is My sweetness which is breathed forth from thee. I am the Creator of the whole world, and have no need of any reward, but you art thyself My reward, for My heavenly Father has given you to Me as My spouse and daughter.”

Mechtilde then said: “Why, O loving Lord, do you deal so with me who have nothing of good in me?”

He replied: “Solely because, through my goodness, I have placed in you the delight of My Heart.”

II – How we should offer our Hearts to Jesus

It was Pentecost Sunday and they sang at the offertory Tibi offerent reges munera – “Kings shall offer you their gifts,” and Mechtilde said to our Lord: “What shall I offer to Thee, now, O well-beloved of my heart, for I have nothing worthy of Thee? Worldly people give you of their goods: Religious offer themselves, devoting themselves entirely.” Our Lord answered: “Offer Your heart in five different ways, and it will be to Me a very agreeable offering. In the first place, offer it as the pledge of espousals, with all the fidelity of which it is capable, and beg of Me by the love of My Heart to purify it from all the stains of its unfaithfulness. Offer it also as a jewel, and make this offering as joyfully as if you enjoy all happiness and renounce it for Me. Offer it also as a crown, adding to it all the honour you may acquire in this world and even in the next, so as to have Me only for Your glory and crown. Offer it as a golden cup, out of which I may drink My own sweetness, and lastly offer it as a dish, on which exquisite food is served for Me to feed upon Myself.

“This offering ought to be frequently renewed. The Sacred Heart expects it at least daily.? On rising in the morning give Me Your heart, so that I may pour My love into it.”

And the Sacred Heart appeared to her open and as large as the palms of her two hands, like a burning flame. Then our Lord said to her: “It is so I would wish to see the hearts of all men, burning with the fire of love.”

And the Sacred Heart does not leave us alone amidst the turmoil of the world and business. It follows us. “You can never find yourself surrounded by so great a crowd that you art not alone with Me, if only you turn thyself to Me with all Your heart.”

Let us now listen to the Virgin of Helfta explaining this lesson of the perpetual life of love, or union with the Sacred Heart of our Lord: “When a man is alone let him continually raise his heart to God, speaking tenderly to Him, and, with frequent sighs, desiring ardently to possess Him. By this continual conversation with God his heart will be inflamed with divine love. If he is with others, let him turn his thoughts to God as much as he can; let him speak willingly of God to them, and so he will enkindle in them the fire of divine love. In the same way let him do all his actions for God and for His glory, and what he should not or cannot do, let him abstain from, also for the love of God. As to troubles or contradictions, let him accept them generously for the love of God and bear them patiently.

But if the loving soul gives itself to the Sacred Heart, will not the Sacred Heart give itself to him? Mechtilde wished to know the answer to this question. “Lord,” she said, “when I pray or chant the psalms, what do You do?”

“I listen, but when you sing I unite My voice to yours; when you labour I take My repose, and the more you labour with zeal and solicitude, the more sweetly I rest in you. When you eat I labour, and then I nourish Myself of you and you of Me; and when you sleep I watch and guard.”


Chapter 43 – The Outpourings of the Heart

“God,” says the prophet, “is a jealous God.” Even so is the Heart of the Son of God made man. He wants our hearts entirely for Himself alone. On this condition alone will He give us His choice graces. The lover of souls, our Lord Jesus Christ, desires with a great desire to draw the soul to Himself, particularly if it longs to be consoled by Him and to participate in His graces to such a degree as to be willing to reject all consolation from creatures and all joy that does not draw or urge it on in the love of God. Whatever a man loves, or whatever he may have received, he owes all to God, who wishes thereby to draw man to love Him alone. If, therefore, the soul feels it is making no progress in the love of God, that the thought of some loved object returns more frequently to the mind than the thought of God, let it turn its thoughts away from that object, if it does not wish to be deprived of God’s loving friend ship. This friendship is excessively delicate and cannot bear anything to be considered above it, nor even on a level with it. Jesus Christ Himself, the Son of paternal charity, desires to be the Well-beloved of our hearts. This love without alloy and without division is the greatest of the joys of the Sacred Heart, exceeding the joy it receives from our praise and thanksgiving.

The Virgin, who personified love to Mechtilde, took her to our Lord. She, leaning on the wound of the Sacred Heart of our Saviour, which was her all, drew from it long draughts of mildness and kindness, which changed all her bitterness into sweetness and her fear into security. She took also from the sweet Heart of Christ the continual praise which proceeds from the Sacred Heart: for all God’s praise comes from this Heart, which is the pure source from which all good flows. She took also a second fruit, which was that of thanks giving, for, in reality, the soul can do nothing of itself if God does not prevent it with His grace.

Our Lord then said to her: “I expect from thee, more than from all others, that you should give me a fruit.”

She replied: “And what is this fruit, dear Lord?”

“It is that you should refer all that delights Your heart to Me only.”

“O my only Well-beloved, how shall I do this?”

“My love will accomplish it in thee.” Then in a transport of gratitude she cried out: “Oh yes, yes, love, love, love!”

Our Lord added: “My love shall be Your mother, and as children draw milk from their mother’s breast, so you shalt drink from the breast of this mother interior consolation and unutterable sweetness, and this mother shall nourish thee, quench Your thirst, clothe you and provide for all Your necessities, as a mother would do for her only daughter.”

While praying, with a heart full of fervour, desiring the Well-beloved of her soul, she suddenly felt herself powerfully drawn by divine grace; she seemed to see her self sitting at our Saviour’s side. And our Lord clasping her soul to His Sacred Heart filled it with His grace. It seemed to her that it flowed into all her members. Love said to her soul: “Enter into the joy of Your Lord.” And at these words she entered into an ecstasy. As a drop of water in wine cannot be distinguished from the wine, so this* blessed soul, lost in God, became one spirit with Him. In this union her soul annihilated itself, but God consoled it, saying: “I will shower all my gifts down on thee; rest here, leaning on the Heart of Him who loves thee.”

Happy a thousand times the souls who find their rest on the Sacred Heart of Jesus! And shall we poor sinners be for ever deprived of this happiness f Let us ask our Blessed Lady how we may make ourselves worthy and so testify our love for her beloved Son.

Mechtilde asked the Mother of God one day to obtain for her the grace to be cleansed from all her sins in the living waters of the divine Heart. Immediately the Blessed Virgin took her into her arms and led her to the divine Heart; her soul embraced the Heart of Jesus five times.

At the first embrace, she felt herself purified from all her stains. At the second, she felt that the true peace of our Lord was given her. At the third, she received the gift of a special sweetness as to a most dear friend. At the fourth, she was transported into the divine Heart, where she saw and recognized all the elect and all creatures. And our Lord said: “What will you or can you desire more? Now all that constitutes the joy of heaven is thine.” At the fifth, it seemed to her that she was sitting with our Lord at a table sumptuously served and that she was eating with Him.

So we see a soul that is drawn to the Heart of Jesus by love to give proofs of its affection finds itself overwhelmed by numberless favours. It came bringing the offering of its love, and it carries away with it the treasures of the Sacred Heart. Continue, O Jesus, to treat us as a mother treats her child. For if You seek in our hearts for the generosity of the Saints, steeped in Your love, you wilt never be able to open Your Heart to all the children of Adam.


Chapter 44 – Reparation for Sin

The Sacred Heart was particularly honoured in the Monastery of Helfta by a return of love, the imitation of its virtues, by perfect praise and by thanksgiving. Reparation was not, however, unknown, and the inmates strove to repair the insults offered to it. At the time of the Carnival Mechtilde macerated her flesh till the blood flowed, offering this slight reparation to her Well-beloved for all the excesses and wickedness of the world. And our Lord, several times, said He loved to rest on Mechtilde’s heart, where He could forget the pain caused Him by other hearts. It was the Sacred Heart just as Margaret Mary was to know it.

One day our Lord appeared to Mechtilde as though suspended, with hands and feet tied, and said to her: “Every time a man sins mortally he ties Me thus, and as long as he perseveres in his sin he keeps Me in this torture.”

He had already complained of being so ill-treated in His Church. Three things particularly grieved Him: the clergy did not study the Holy Scriptures in the right way, but made it contribute to their vanity; Religious neglected interior things and gave all their attention to things exterior; the people took no care to hear the word of God nor to receive the Sacraments of Holy Church.

Mechtilde asked our Lord to teach her how she could offer satisfaction to Him for the many members of the Church who at this time (it was Quinquagesima Sunday) showered so many insults on Him. Our Lord replied: “Say 350 times the anthem: Tibi laus, tibi gloria, tibi gratiarum actio, beata Trinitas! – ‘To you be praise, to you glory, to you thanksgiving, O blessed Trinity,’ in reparation for all the indignities offered Me by those who are My members.”

We see, therefore, that already Mechtilde was intent on offering reparation for the sins of others. But, above all others, she thought of her own sins. One day when she was grieving over the uselessness of her past life, she offered herself to live if possible in ceaseless sorrow and to suffer on earth to the uttermost.

Our Lord said to her: “To repair Your omissions and make up for the past, praise My Heart for its divine goodness. It is the source and origin of all good, and every blessing flows from it. Then praise My Heart for the numberless graces which have flowed, flow now, and shall for ever flow, on all the Saints and on all the souls that shall be saved. Afterwards praise My Heart for all the sweetness which, so many times, has sprung from My loving Heart and flowed into thine, intoxicating it with heavenly delight.”

Once, on Good Friday, at the time when she was going to kiss the Cross, by a divine inspiration she said: “Be hold, Lord, all my desires. I attach them to Your Cross, and I submit them all to Your desires, so that, completely purified and perfectly sanctified by this union, they may never incline again to earthly things.”

At the wound of the right hand our Lord said to her: “Hide here Your spiritual treasures, so that all the negligences you committed while wearing the religious habit may be fully repaired by My riches.”

At the left hand He said: “Place here all Your sorrows and pains; united to My sufferings they will be sweet and exhale an agreeable odour before God; as a garment impregnated with musk or any other scent, spreading abroad a sweet perfume, or as a piece of bread dipped in honey tasting of sweetness.”

At the wound in His Heart He said: “This wound is so large that it embraces heaven and earth and all they contain; come, place Your love near to My divine love, that it may be perfected and so blended with it as to become one only love, as iron is identified with the fire.”

The servant of God prayed for a person who had complained to her of the sorrow she felt because she did not love God enough and did not serve Him with enough devotion. She was herself also filled with sorrow at the thought, feeling herself in every way useless, having received such great blessings from God and yet loving Him so poorly. Our Lord answered her: “Come, My well-beloved, be not sad; all that is Mine is also thine.”

“If, therefore,” said Mechtilde, ” all that is Thine is mine, I possess also Your love, for You have said Thyself by Saint John, God is love’ (John 4:16). I offer Thee, then, this love, that it may supply for all that is wanting in me.”

Our Lord accepted this offering with pleasure, and said to her: “Thou must always do this; when you desire to praise or to love Me without being able always to fulfil Your desire, you shalt say: ‘Good Jesus. I praise Thee; supply, I beg of Thee, all that is wanting to me. If you desire to love you shalt say: ‘Good Jesus, I love Thee; in order to supply what is wanting to my love, I beg of you to offer to Your Father for me the love of Your Heart. Also tell the person for whom you have prayed to do the same. If she does it a thousand times a day, her offering shall each time be presented to the Father, for it could never tire or weary Me.”

What a magnificent occupation for the Sacred Heart to offer itself to the Father every time that we wish it in order to supply for our defective praise and love! Thus does it heal a delicate wound in a loving heart, zealous for God’s glory.

“I am come with all My divine power,” Jesus said to her one day, “to heal the wounds which cause you pain.” Mechtilde said, within herself: “Oh, if He would offer for Me an act of full and complete praise to God the Father, how happy I should be.”

Answering her thought our Lord said: “In what does the praise of God consist, if not in a lamentation of the soul that it can never praise Him as it desires? And the desires, devotion, prayer and good will that a soul has to do good, all this is a sorrowful lamentation, and when I come to supply for it Myself, I heal it of all its wounds.”

But this was not enough for Mechtilde. It did not suffice that our Lord said to her: “Do not trouble, I will pay all Your debts and I will supply for all Your negligences.” She could not be consoled for having so wastefully squandered the gifts God had given her, for having loved Him so coldly, and for having been so unfaithful to Him who had been so faithful to her and to all. The Sacred Heart, however, had the last word, and it was adorable: “Even if you were perfectly faithful to Me, you should infinitely prefer that My love repair your negligences rather than that you should do it, so that My love may have the honour and glory.”


Chapter 45 – Thanksgiving

All the graces we have ever received have flowed from the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is the love burning there that caused Him to bestow them on us so abundantly.

From the Sacred Heart flowed the Precious Blood that merited these graces for us during the Passion. So gratitude is a duty for the disciple of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and with Saint Mechtilde we should say: “What thanksgiving, O source of all sweetness, should be paid you for that loving wound received by you on the Cross for man? Victorious love pierced Your loving Heart with a dart, and for our healing water and blood gushed forth. And you also, conquered by the love You had for Your spouse, did die of love.”

The Blessed Virgin, safe guide of grateful souls, will teach us our duty: “Draw nigh and kiss the wounds my Son received for love of thee. But kiss thrice His loving Heart, thanking Him for having given Himself, now and for ever, to you and to all the elect.”

And our good Mother continues offering us the other wounds of her well-beloved Son. “In kissing the wound in His right hand, thank Him for having helped and cooperated in all Your good works. At the left hand thank Him that He will always be for you an assured refuge. Kiss also the wound in His right foot in thanks giving for the ardent desire which caused Him to thirst after thee, all His life. Kiss gratefully also the wound in His left foot, for there you shalt always find forgiveness for Your sins.”

It is a pious practice often to press our lips to the wound of His most sweet Heart, from which springs for us refreshing water and inebriating wine, the Blood of Christ and, with it, all graces in an infinite number; but in order to please the Sacred Heart we should also add a continual remembrance of it. “Let men meditate with profound gratitude, and keep always in their memory the acts of virtue I practised while on earth, all the sufferings and injuries I bore during thirty-three years, the destitution in which I received the affronts I had to bear from My own creatures, and at last My death on the Cross, that most bitter death borne for love of man. By it, I bought his soul with My Precious Blood to make it My spouse. Let each one have as much love and gratitude for all these benefits as if I had suffered them for his salvation alone.”

Such thanksgiving is a joy to the Sacred Heart and profitable to ourselves. This joy and profit cannot be better expressed than by the following passage: Mechtilde thanked our Lord for His sacred wounds, begging Him to wound her soul with as many wounds as He had received in His holy body. Our Lord then said to her: “As often as a man grieves in his soul over the memory of My Passion, so often does he seem to lay a sweet rose on My wounds. From this wound will go forth a dart of love to pierce his soul with a saving wound.”

“O Sacred Heart of Jesus, we lay on Your wound this rose of gratitude, but in return pierce our hearts with the dart of Your love.”


Chapter 46 – Confidence

Confidence in the Sacred Heart is only a practical faith in its love and infinite goodness.

If this confidence relates to the past, it can be defined as a sweet experience of the help of the Sacred Heart in our needs. It then assumes the character of gratitude.

If this confidence relates to the future, it is the profound certainty of the faithfulness of the Sacred Heart in helping us and fulfilling all its promises. If this confidence relates to the present, it is an actual and lively feeling of the goodness of the Sacred Heart in all circumstances, even that of our own unworthiness. “If He kill me, I will yet hope in Him,” said holy Job. Confidence, then, places the soul in a particular attitude towards the Sacred Heart. Like to that of a child to wards its father, it relies on him for its nourishment, for its clothing, for its education, for its future. It feels itself and its destiny to be entirely at its father’s disposal, but as it believes firmly in the goodness of its father’s heart, it expects all from him and rests in peace. Such is the state of a soul who really trusts the Sacred Heart. It expects all from it, bread for soul and body, forgiveness of its sins, strength to fight the battles of life, deliverance from all evil, and it also expects choice graces and favours of predilection.

Notwithstanding its repeated falls, it hopes still in the infinite tenderness of the Sacred Heart. And this because its confidence does not rest on its own merits, but on the infinite love of God. “His Heart,” says Mechtilde, “is simple as that of a dove. It never changes in its feelings of goodness for man, even though he is so often unfaithful.” Too often those who profess piety are lukewarm and feel no love; but the love of the divine Heart is always unchangeable and burning for us. To inspire us with an absolute confidence in His Sacred Heart, Jesus gives us through Mechtilde this admirable lesson:

“I will teach you three things on which you may meditate each day. you shalt gain great profit from them.

“(1) In returning thanks to Me, remember the graces prepared for you in the Creation and Redemption. I created you to My own image and likeness. For you I was made man, and after countless torments for the love of you suffered a most bitter death.

“(2) Remember with gratitude the benefits I have bestowed on thee, from Your birth to this present moment. By a choice grace I called you from the world; many times I have lowered Myself to Your soul; I have filled and inebriated it with My grace; I have enlightened it with knowledge and inflamed it with love; every day I come to you ready to fulfil Your desires and will.

“(3) Remember with praise and thanksgiving the great gifts I am prepared to bestow on you in heaven; the greatest riches, far beyond what you can believe or realize, all that you desire shall be there.

“It is a great joy to Me that men expect great gifts from Me. If any of them expected to receive from Me greater rewards than he had deserved after this life and, if, in consequence, he thanked Me for them during his life, he would thus give Me so much pleasure that, no matter how great his faith or extraordinary his confidence, I would reward him beyond his merit; it is impossible that a man should not receive what he has believed and hoped for. Therefore it is good for a man to hope much in Me, and to place in Me all his confidence.”

Mechtilde therefore said: “O sweetest Jesus, if it is so pleasing to you that man should trust in Thee, tell me, I pray Thee, what I should believe of Your ineffable goodness?”

Our Lord replied: “Thou must believe with a firm hope that after Your death I will receive you as a father receives his well-beloved son, that I will share all that I have with thee, and will give you part of Myself.

“Further, I will receive you as a friend receives his dearest friend, and I will show you a greater love than friend ever received from friend.

“I will also receive you as a spouse receiving his newly-made bride whom he loves intensely, with so much delight and sweetness. No spouse ever multiplied for his bride so much tenderness as I will lavish on thee, filling you with joy and inebriating you with a torrent of happiness from My divinity.”

Mechtilde replied: “What wilt you give to those who, because of these promises, trust in Thee?” Our Lord answered: “I will give them a thankful heart, with which they will receive My gifts gratefully; I will give them a loving heart, with which they will love Me faithfully; and lastly I will give them hearts to praise Me as the heavenly choirs praise Me, loving and blessing Me always.”

Deign to give us such hearts, O Jesus!


Chapter 47 – Ordinary Actions Done in Union with the Sacred Heart

True devotion to the Sacred Heart leads us to sacrifice to it our entire selves. The soul truly devoted to it has only one thought, the thought of the Sacred Heart; one desire, to please the Sacred Heart; one only preoccupation, to labour, to be spent in one word, to live for the Sacred Heart. From this proceeds a delicate solicitude to consecrate to it all one’s actions, even the most ordinary; the simple use of our senses and material needs, such as eating and sleeping.

And indeed, did not the “Word made Flesh” subject Himself to all these weaknesses and needs of our nature during the thirty-three years He lived on the earth? A soul full of faith knows how to find Him amidst these humiliations and seeming trifles as really as in the Crib, on Thabor, or on Calvary. I say more: He awaits it, so that He may teach it the dispositions it must have in order to be conformed to His own.

Let us listen to Him: “On first awakening in the morning, salute My loving Heart, from which has flowed, flows, and will flow for ever, every good, every joy and every happiness in heaven and on earth. Strive to place Your heart in Mine, and to this end say: ‘Praise, blessing, glory and salvation be to Thee, O sweetest and most loving and faithful Heart of Jesus Christ. I thank you for having guarded and protected me during this night, and for having praised and thanked God the Father in my stead.

“And, O Jesus, who loves me more than any other, I offer you my heart as a refreshing rose;, may its beauty draw on it Your blessing during the whole of this day, and its perfume rejoice Your divine Heart. I also offer you my heart as a cup from which You can drink of Your own sweetness, with all that you wilt do in me during this day. I also offer you my heart as an exquisite pomegranate, fit to appear on Your royal table. I wish that You would consume it in such a manner, that this poor heart of mine may in future joyfully know itself to be in Thee. I also supplicate you to grant that all my thoughts, words, works and will may be directed to-day according to Your will and good pleasure. Make, then, the sign of the Cross, saying: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Holy Father, in union with the love of Your adorable Son I commend my spirit. And you shalt repeat this prayer at the commencement of all Your actions.

“Refer Your looks, interior as well as exterior, to divine wisdom, and beg it to give you light. Refer Your ears to divine mercy, and beg it to preserve you from hearing what might hurt thee. Offer Your mouth and voice to the ever faithful God, so that they may only say words of wisdom and be preserved from all sin. Offer Your hands to the good God, begging Him to unite Your actions to His works, to sanctify and perfect them in His own and to prevent you from doing evil. Also offer Your heart to divine love, and beg that it may be so united to the Sacred Heart as to be charmed and inflamed with its love, and may feel no other love or joy on earth. In the same way, during the Mass, offer Your heart to God, and before the Secret purify thyself, turning Your thoughts away from all things of earth, preparing thyself to receive the stream of divine love, which flows into and fills the hearts of those who assist.”

Our Lord in this way recommends us with great insistence always to remain united to Him, and He wishes to realize in some way in us Saint Paul’s expressive words, “I live, now not I: but Christ lives in me.” Hence one day He said to His spouse: “I give you My eyes that you may see all things through them, My ears so that by them you may understand all you nearest; I also give you My mouth that by it you may accomplish all that you have to say, to pray or to sing; and lastly I give you My Heart, so that you may think by it, and love Me with Myself.”

At these last words our Lord absorbed the whole soul, and united Himself so intimately with it, that it seemed to see with the eyes of God, hear with His ears, speak by His mouth, and have no other heart than that of God.

So intimate and perfect a union is a privilege of the few only. Yet our Lord exacts from all the ordinary union accomplished by a supernatural intention.

“Man ought to unite himself to Me in all his actions as, for instance, if he wishes to eat or sleep, he ought to say in his heart: Lord, in union with the love which made you create this food for me, I take it for Your eternal praise, and because I need refreshment.'”

For sleep our Lord Himself indicates the intention with which we ought to take it. He wishes we should go to sleep in drawing five sighs from His divine Heart.

“Before sleep draw from My Heart a sigh in union with that praise which it dispensed in favour of all the Saints and as a supplement of what was owing from all creatures. Also a sigh in union with that gratitude which the Saints drew from My Heart, and which they returned for all the gifts I had bestowed on them. The soul ought, then, to sigh for its own sins and those of others, in union with that compassion which made Me bear the sins of all. It must also sigh for the love and desire it has to obtain for men all that is necessary for the glory of God and their own needs; it will thus unite itself to the divine desires I had on earth for man’s salvation. Lastly, it must sigh in union with all the prayers which were poured forth from My Heart and from those of My Saints for the salvation of all, whether living or dead; it ought to desire that each breath, during the sleep of this night, might be accepted by Me as an incessant sigh. As it is impossible for Me to refuse anything to a loving soul, I will fill them according to the plenitude of My divine truth.”

How holy would one night be, if preceded by such sighs! Happy the souls faithful to a perpetual union with the Sacred Heart.


Chapter 48 – Divine Praise

Through the Sacred Heart alone can we adore God in a manner worthy of His infinite Love.

Nothing is more in accordance with the doctrine of the Church than Saint Mechtilde’s teaching on the part taken by the Sacred Heart in the divine praise. The Son of God made man alone offers a homage worthy of the Blessed Trinity; and it is through Him that Angels and men may praise the divine Majesty.

This doctrine is fully expressed in the Preface of the Mass: “It is truly meet and just, right and salutary, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto Thee, Holy Lord, Father Almighty, Everlasting God: through Christ our Lord. Through whom the Angels praise, the Dominations adore and the Powers fear, Your Majesty; the Heavens also and the Heavenly Powers, and the Blessed Seraphim glorify it in common exultation. With whom, we beseech Thee, bid that our voices also be admitted in suppliant praise, saying: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God of Hosts. Full are the Heavens and the Earth of Your glory: Hosanna in the Highest!”

So we see that all praise reaching heaven must pass through the lips and Heart of Christ.

Leaning one day on the wound of the sweet Heart of our Saviour, which was all hers, Saint Mechtilde drew from it a most delicious kind of fruit and raised it to her lips. This signified the eternal praise which proceeds from this divine Heart; indeed, all divine praise comes from this Heart, pure source of all good.

Mechtilde sang thanksgivings to God and prayed the Son of God Himself, the youthful Spouse of all loving souls, to render to God the Father loving praise for so great and inestimable a gift.

O admirable condescension! The Son of God at once presented Himself respectfully before His heavenly Father and praised His greatness in these terms:

Caetas in excelsis te laudat caelicus omnis,
Et mortalis homo et cuncta creata simul.
“All the celestial choirs praise you in the highest
And mortal man and all creatures join in the concert.”

By these words “celestial choirs” Mechtilde understood that our Lord drew to Himself in one accord the praises of all the heavenly citizens; and by the words “mortal man,” that He united to them the intentions of all men; and by “all creatures” that He united in Himself the substance of all creatures in order to celebrate the praise of God the Father. In the same way, He resounded for them, in the presence of God the Father, praise in the name of heaven, earth and hell.

The greatest desire of the Sacred Heart is that we should excite in ourselves the spirit of praise and of adoration in spirit and truth, which He announced to the Samaritan woman as the mark of His true disciples. Saint Mechtilde continued: “O sweet and loving Jesus, what do You prefer that I should do?”

He replied: “Praise.”

Mechtilde answered: “But do you teach me to praise you worthily.”

She then learnt from our Lord that she should strike three times on the Sacred Heart. The first stroke was to praise the Blessed Trinity for Its infinite greatness and she accompanied it with these words ” To you be honour and empire, to you glory and power, to you praise and jubilation, during eternity, O Blessed Trinity.” At the second stroke she gave to the Sacred Heart she praised God for all the graces granted to the Blessed Virgin and to the Saints already in possession of heaven; she then said: “It is just that all Your creatures should praise, adore and glorify Thee, O Blessed Trinity. To you praise, glory and thanksgiving!” The third time that Mechtilde knocked on the Sacred Heart it was to praise God for all the graces He had showered on the just to sanctify them, on sinners to convert them, on the souls in purgatory who, each day, are absolved by His mercy and brought to the joys of heaven; and this last time she said: “All comes from God, in Him all live. To Him be glory for ever and ever! To you praise – Tibi laus!“

After these praises her soul entered the sweet Heart of Jesus and there, become one with her Well-beloved, she saw and tasted what is not possible for man to express.

The virgins who follow the Lamb sing a new song, not known to profane lips. But it is still from the Sacred Heart that comes the heavenly harmony. Three strings, like those of a harp, detached themselves, went through the Heart of the Immaculate Virgin, then through the hearts of all holy virgins and met in the Heart of Jesus. There also Mechtilde heard music like that from an organ, and she remembered the words: “There resound continually the musical instruments of the Saints.”