CHAPTER 45
For the Feast of the Holy Apostles Sts. Peter and Paul.

How we may feed Christ’s sheep spiritually. Of the intercession of the Apostles. And the fruit of Holy Communion.

ON THE great Festival of the princes of the Apostles, as the second Response Si diligis me,111 was chanted at Matins, St. Gertrude asked Our Lord what flock she should feed to testify her love for Him. Our Lord replied: “Feed five lambs which are most dear to Me. Feed your heart with Divine meditations, your lips with edifying words, your eyes with pious reading, your ears with charitable admonitions and your hands with continual labor; for your attachment and application to such things will be the greatest testimony of your affection which you can bestow on Me.”

By these holy meditations she understood all thoughts for the glory of God, for the welfare of others, and for her own salvation; the same was indicated by edifying discourses. By pious reading, she understood all that could contribute to our salvation, as looking upon a crucifix, assisting the poor, giving good example. By charitable admonitions, she understood receiving correction patiently. But as continual reading was inconsistent with manual labor, she understood that the desire of it was sufficient when the accomplishment was not possible.

At Mass, as she returned thanks for the special privileges bestowed on St. Peter, and particularly his having heard these words from Our Lord Himself, “Whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven,” 112 the Saint appeared to her, vested as a Pope,113 and, extending his hands, he gave her his benediction, that it might work in her the same effects as it had worked in others, through the power which God had given him. As she approached the holy altar, and trembled for her unworthiness, St. Peter and St. Paul appeared to her, one on her right hand and the other on her left, as if to conduct her thither with great pomp; and when she had reached it, the Son of God received her Himself, saying to her: “I have brought you thither with the same arms with which I embrace you; but I have done this through the ministry of My Apostles, that your devotion might be fully satisfied.”

Then, as she remembered she had not returned thanks for the graces bestowed on St. Paul, she besought Our Lord to supply for her negligence. After Communion, as she prayed, she seemed to be seated, as a queen beside a king, on the same throne with our Divine Lord; before whom the Apostles knelt as soldiers receiving gifts from a prince; for her Communion had appeared to increase their merits. And as she was surprised at this, and thought that those Saints must have acquired sufficient merit for having offered the Adorable Sacrifice so frequently when on earth, she was told that the Saints took special delight in a soul when it has received Holy Communion with devotion and piety, even as a bride is congratulated on the day of her nuptials.