Below are some highlights of our last prayer group talk. 

St Matilda of Hackeborn was the sister of Abbess Gertrude of Hackeborn. When Matilda was seven, her mother brought her to visit her elder sister Gertrude, who was then a nun in the monastery of Rodardsdorf. Matilda was attracted to the monastic life and entered the monastery as a schoolgirl. In 1258 Matilda became a nun at the convent, which in the meantime had moved to Helfta.

Pope Benedict XVI said that when Matilda was still very young “she became the principal of the convent’s school, choir mistress and novice mistress, offices that she fulfilled with talent and unflagging zeal, not only for the benefit of the nuns but for anyone who wanted to draw on her wisdom and goodness.”

In 1261 the five year old St. Gertrude the Great was entrusted to the convent. The young saint was under the care of Matilda, who was 20 years of age. In 1271 or 1272, Matilda of Magdeburg also entered the convent. Pope Benedict XVI commented: “So it was that this place took in four great women two Gertrudes and two Matildas the glory of German monasticism.”

At the age of 50, Matilda experienced both spiritual and physical suffering. She confided to St. Gertrude the Great and another religious sister the special graces and private revelations she received from God since childhood. However, Matilda did not know that they were writing it all down.

When she found out that Gertrude the Great had almost completed a book of her revelations she was deeply troubled until she had a vision of Christ holding in His hand the book and said, “All this has been committed to writing by my will and inspiration; and, therefore you have no cause to be troubled about it.” Our Lord let her know that those revelations would cause many to increase in His love. He wished the book to be called “The Book of Special Grace.”

Regarding the spirituality of Matilda, Pope Benedict XVI said, “Her visions, her teachings, the events of her life are described in words reminiscent of liturgical and biblical language. In this way it is possible to comprehend her deep knowledge of Sacred Scripture, which was her daily bread. She had constant recourse to the Scriptures, making the most of the biblical texts read in the Liturgy, and drawing from them symbols, terms, countryside, images and famous figures.”

Matilda had a special love for the Gospel. Our Lord said to her: “Consider the immensity of my love: if you want to know it well, nowhere will you find it more clearly expressed than in the Gospel. No one has ever heard expressed stronger or more tender sentiments than these: ‘As my father has loved me, so I have loved you (Jn 15:9)’”.

At the age of 25, St. Gertrude the Great had a vision of Christ (January 27, 1281). She referred this mystical experience as her “conversion”. Pope Benedict XVI said, “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 as negligent, to the life of intense, mystical prayer, with exceptional missionary zeal.... 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”

The life of St. Gertrude the Great was full of extraordinary mystical experiences. These experiences were recorded, over an eight-year period, in her Revelations. She was one of the first to promote devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She died on November 17, 1301 or 1302. The saint said, “Bodily and spiritual affliction are the surest sign of Divine predilection. Gratitude for suffering is a precious jewel for our heavenly crown... Man should always firmly believe that God sends just that trial which is most beneficial for him.”

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God bless,

Father Anthony