Saturday, March 9 : Saint Gertrude of Helfta

At the hour of Terce you will place yourself in presence of the divine peace and of love…: O peace of God, you pass all understanding (Phil 4,7), you are unutterably sweet and fair and full of charms. Wherever you penetrate reigns untroubled security. You alone can stay the wrath of the sovereign king; you adorn with clemency the king’s throne; you illumine his glorious kingdom with pity and mercy. Come, then, and take my cause in hand, the cause of a wretch most guilty and most forlorn… Already the creditor is at the door… if I speak with him, I am undone, for I have nothing with which to repay my debt. Sweetest Jesus, my peace, how long will you keep silent?… Be pleased to speak on my behalf, uttering that word of love: «I myself will redeem her.» Most surely you yourself are the refuge of all the poor. You never pass by anyone without granting them healing. Oh, you have never let anyone who has sought refuge at your side leave you without being reconciled… Be pleased, my love, my Jesus at this hour when you were scourged for my sake, crowned with thorns, pitifully drowned in suffering. You are my true king and, apart from you, I know none other. You made yourself the insult of the people, abject and repulsive like a leper (Is 53,3), so that the Jews refused to acknowledge you as their king (Jn 19,14-15). By your grace, grant that I, at least, may acknowledge you as my king! O my God, give to me that innocent, so greatly beloved, my Jesus, who so fully «paid» for my sake «what he had not stolen» (Ps 69[68],5);give him to me to be my soul’s stay. May I receive him into my heart; may he console my spirit by the bitterness of his pains and Passion… As for you, O peace of God: be the dear bond binding me to Jesus for ever. Be the support of my strength… that I may be but «one heart and soul» with Jesus (Acts 4,32)… Through you shall I be bound to my Jesus for ever.

maronite readings – rosary,team