CHAPTER 19
For the Feast of St. Gregory, Pope.

Of the glory and prerogatives of St. Gregory, and the recompense reserved for this Doctor of the Church.

AS ST. Gertrude heard Mass on the Feast of St. Gregory,57 and offered him singular testimonies of veneration and devotion, he appeared to her full of majesty and glory; and she thought that he equaled all the Saints in merit. He was a Patriarch, by the careful and paternal diligence with which he watched, night and day, over the Church which had been confided to him; a Prophet, since in his admirable writings he had discovered the snares and deceits of the ancient enemy, and had given advice and remedies against his wiles, so that he was more glorified than any of the Prophets. He equalled the Apostles from his inviolable and faithful attachment to God in prosperity and adversity, and by his zeal in the promotion of the Gospel. He resembled the martyrs and confessors by his great bodily austerities, and the ardent love which he had for religion and holiness. Above all, he excelled in chastity; and as a recompense for his virginal purity, he enjoyed an incomparable glory for every thought, word or work which had been accomplished to preserve the purity of his body and soul, or to teach others to preserve the same treasure.

Our Lord then said to St. Gertrude: “Consider, now, how suitable this Psalm is to this elect soul—‘According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, thy comforts have given joy to my soul’ (Ps. 93:19)—since he has been recompensed by these inestimable delights for all the pain he suffered in word or works, or even in thought. At his death, which is commemorated today, his body did not rejoice because it had to pass through the torrent of death; and the whole Church, as well as those who stood round him on that day, were exceedingly afflicted at being deprived of so affectionate and thoughtful a father. But now, on the same day, there is the greatest joy when his solemn Feast is observed.”

Then Gertrude said to her Lord: “What glory hast Thou gained by the writings of this Saint, which have so enriched and enlightened the Church?” He replied: “My Divinity and My Humanity find extreme delight therein, and he himself enjoys the same delight with Me whenever the Church recites any of his writings, and whenever anyone is moved by them to compunction, excited to devotion, or influenced by love. And for this he receives the same honor from the celestial court as a soldier or a prince whom the king clothed in his own garments and fed at his own table.” He added: “St. Augustine and St. Bernard, whom you love so much, and the other Doctors of the Church, enjoy the same honor and the same prerogative, each according to the merit and the utility of his labors.”

While the twelfth Response was chanted, which commences with the words, O Pastor,58 St. Gregory knelt before God, and lifted up his hands interceding for the Church. Then the Lord opened His Divine Heart, that he might take what he would; and the Saint, placing both hands therein, took from thence the grace of Divine consolation, and poured it forth for the necessities of the Church. Then she beheld the Lord encircling him with a magnificent cincture of the purest gold. This cincture indicated the justice of God, which withheld him from descending on the earth—suspending him in the air, to prevent him from bestowing these graces on the ungrateful and unworthy, but permitting him to give them freely to those who desired and merited them.