I have had occasion in the past to highlight the treasures to be found in the writings of Mother Mectilde de Bar (1614-98), whose works, though well known in their original French and in Italian translation, have only recently begun to be published on a large scale in English.
For this, we have Angelico Press to thank, which has, so far, brought out four volumes: The Mystery of Incomprehensible Love (a fine introduction); The “Breviary of Fire”: Letters by Mother Mectilde of the Blessed Sacrament; My Kingdom Is in Your Heart: Letters to the Duchess of Orleans & Meditations on Christian Life; and, just released, The True Spirit of the Perpetual Adorers of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
For this, we have Angelico Press to thank, which has, so far, brought out four volumes: The Mystery of Incomprehensible Love (a fine introduction); The “Breviary of Fire”: Letters by Mother Mectilde of the Blessed Sacrament; My Kingdom Is in Your Heart: Letters to the Duchess of Orleans & Meditations on Christian Life; and, just released, The True Spirit of the Perpetual Adorers of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
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I cannot enter into the solemnity of this holy day without inviting you to come to adore greatness humbled, power become weakness, infinite majesty reduced to nothing, eternal Wisdom become a babe, immensity in miniature, and the Holy of Holies, the one whom the seraphim extol as thrice holy, reduced to the likeness of a sinner, and as St. Paul says, made sin, in order to become the victim for sinners. Here, come to earth, is the pure victim, the holy victim, the spotless victim....
Oh holy day! Oh glorious day! Oh sacred moment, in which Jesus becomes a babe and in which the august Trinity receives from Him an infinite glory and delight. Oh day of love! Oh day of joy! Gaudium magnum. Oh day of blessing and glory. Gloria in excelsis Deo. Oh day so ardently desired, which restores the reign and kingdom of God over all mankind. Day beyond description because of its excellence, but which we should bless and love with all our hearts, since it re-establishes us in peace: Et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.
The causes of our jubilation are the humiliations, poverty, contempt, sufferings, annihilations, and death of a God. Jesus comes into the world, in our flesh, to be the victim of the divine justice and holiness. He comes to be sacrificed and to lose His life, and this is our joy. Oh depth! Oh abyss full of mysteries! The miseries, the pains, the poverty, the humiliations of a God, all this causes our felicity. Yes, this is the happiness and hope of our eternal destiny; for it is by being born, suffering, and dying that He begins to reconcile us with His Father.
Since we receive such great benefits from the Child-God, let us go to pay Him homage; let us go to gaze upon Him in the stable, on the straw where He makes His first sacrifice in the capacity of victim. Oh Jesus, Child-God! As soon as You appear on earth, You are destined to die, You breathe only sacrifice; and the love that drew You from the bosom of Your Father brings You to the Cross and to death. This was the first act You made on coming into the world, immolating Yourself to give an infinite glory and honor to Your Father, and to make reparation for the insults He received through the sins of men. Oh Jesus! From this moment we should regard You as a host. You came to die, and by dying You give us life.
Grant us the grace that the moment of Your birth may be the moment of our death; that Your life alone may be our life. We ask You, Lord, to annihilate our life, so that we may have no other life than Yours. That is what He desires of us, my Sisters. Therefore, let us cease to live [a natural life].
But how? Let us stop pursuing our own interests, following our humors, loving vanity and creatures. Let us stop being submerged in our senses, acting as if we were self-sufficient. God becomes a child for us to teach us littleness, simplicity, docility, surrender, abandonment, poverty, and so on. Let us bring to Him our poverty, our weaknesses, our darkness, our infirmities, our ignorance, our afflictions, our temptations, our sufferings, our abjection. All of this will be leasing to Him; a child receives everything given to him. He does not expect heavenly gifts from us. He knows that we are in the world of sinners, which only brings forth thorns and thistles. It is pride for us to want to give Him what we do not have. He came to clothe Himself in our miseries and to bear our sorrows, as it says in the Prophet; since He came to take these on Himself, can we give Him anything else?
Let us stay at His feet, adoring Him along with His most holy Mother, and offer Him our poverty; provided we give it to Him gladly, He will be content. In exchange, He will give us the graces, virtues, and mercies contained in His littleness. Let us not leave Him, let us gaze at Him ceaselessly; and if we have no other way to honor Him than to behold Him, He will be very pleased with that, and our souls will be strengthened from it. (pp. 67-69)
Let us speak of Your poverty, oh my Savior! Alas! Who can comprehend it? A life poor, unknown, and suffering. A life of unfathomable privation: poor in the womb of His glorious Mother, poor in the manger, poor on the flight into Egypt, poor in the house of St. Joseph, poor in the desert of His penitence, poor in His public life, poor on the Cross, poor in His death, and prodigiously poor in His divine Eucharist! This extraordinary poverty gives an infinite glory to God His Father and makes Him reign fully. This same kingdom of God is ours, but only the one who is perfectly poor understands it. Those who do not have a pure heart will never possess it; it is shown only to the poor and the little, who are no longer anything in themselves, to those who are buried in littleness and nothingness. When everything in the soul is consumed in this way, then Jesus rises like a glorious sun in the sky of the soul (which is the deepest part of its mind and of its substance), and He sheds His divine rays, which fill the soul’s interior completely, with glory, joy, love, and blessing beyond description. (p. 94)
Oh holy day! Oh glorious day! Oh sacred moment, in which Jesus becomes a babe and in which the august Trinity receives from Him an infinite glory and delight. Oh day of love! Oh day of joy! Gaudium magnum. Oh day of blessing and glory. Gloria in excelsis Deo. Oh day so ardently desired, which restores the reign and kingdom of God over all mankind. Day beyond description because of its excellence, but which we should bless and love with all our hearts, since it re-establishes us in peace: Et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.
The causes of our jubilation are the humiliations, poverty, contempt, sufferings, annihilations, and death of a God. Jesus comes into the world, in our flesh, to be the victim of the divine justice and holiness. He comes to be sacrificed and to lose His life, and this is our joy. Oh depth! Oh abyss full of mysteries! The miseries, the pains, the poverty, the humiliations of a God, all this causes our felicity. Yes, this is the happiness and hope of our eternal destiny; for it is by being born, suffering, and dying that He begins to reconcile us with His Father.
Since we receive such great benefits from the Child-God, let us go to pay Him homage; let us go to gaze upon Him in the stable, on the straw where He makes His first sacrifice in the capacity of victim. Oh Jesus, Child-God! As soon as You appear on earth, You are destined to die, You breathe only sacrifice; and the love that drew You from the bosom of Your Father brings You to the Cross and to death. This was the first act You made on coming into the world, immolating Yourself to give an infinite glory and honor to Your Father, and to make reparation for the insults He received through the sins of men. Oh Jesus! From this moment we should regard You as a host. You came to die, and by dying You give us life.
Grant us the grace that the moment of Your birth may be the moment of our death; that Your life alone may be our life. We ask You, Lord, to annihilate our life, so that we may have no other life than Yours. That is what He desires of us, my Sisters. Therefore, let us cease to live [a natural life].
But how? Let us stop pursuing our own interests, following our humors, loving vanity and creatures. Let us stop being submerged in our senses, acting as if we were self-sufficient. God becomes a child for us to teach us littleness, simplicity, docility, surrender, abandonment, poverty, and so on. Let us bring to Him our poverty, our weaknesses, our darkness, our infirmities, our ignorance, our afflictions, our temptations, our sufferings, our abjection. All of this will be leasing to Him; a child receives everything given to him. He does not expect heavenly gifts from us. He knows that we are in the world of sinners, which only brings forth thorns and thistles. It is pride for us to want to give Him what we do not have. He came to clothe Himself in our miseries and to bear our sorrows, as it says in the Prophet; since He came to take these on Himself, can we give Him anything else?
Let us stay at His feet, adoring Him along with His most holy Mother, and offer Him our poverty; provided we give it to Him gladly, He will be content. In exchange, He will give us the graces, virtues, and mercies contained in His littleness. Let us not leave Him, let us gaze at Him ceaselessly; and if we have no other way to honor Him than to behold Him, He will be very pleased with that, and our souls will be strengthened from it. (pp. 67-69)
Let us speak of Your poverty, oh my Savior! Alas! Who can comprehend it? A life poor, unknown, and suffering. A life of unfathomable privation: poor in the womb of His glorious Mother, poor in the manger, poor on the flight into Egypt, poor in the house of St. Joseph, poor in the desert of His penitence, poor in His public life, poor on the Cross, poor in His death, and prodigiously poor in His divine Eucharist! This extraordinary poverty gives an infinite glory to God His Father and makes Him reign fully. This same kingdom of God is ours, but only the one who is perfectly poor understands it. Those who do not have a pure heart will never possess it; it is shown only to the poor and the little, who are no longer anything in themselves, to those who are buried in littleness and nothingness. When everything in the soul is consumed in this way, then Jesus rises like a glorious sun in the sky of the soul (which is the deepest part of its mind and of its substance), and He sheds His divine rays, which fill the soul’s interior completely, with glory, joy, love, and blessing beyond description. (p. 94)
