Thursday, November 17, 2011

prayer of st. gertrude

Eternal Father, I offer Thee
 the most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus Christ,
in union with the Masses said throughout the world today,
for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory,
 for sinners everywhere,
 for sinners in the Universal Church,
for those in my own home and within my family.  Amen.

how is it that this splendid woman
was never formally canonized how
how is it that she was ignored
untill 1677 when pope clement XII decided
to include her in a list of saints
which was her form of being canonized
she didn't even have to go through scrutiny
a pope said it it was never argued
so it must be thus and so

i  suspect there was considerable trepidation
surrounding the writings and legends of this woman
perhaps it wasn't known what to do
she defied everything
and stood out as a disturbing witness
naked in faith
one willing to express love of Christ
in the most unsettling terms
the rest of us blush


yeah
it's like that

1 comment:

stu said...

jh,

St. Gertrude is outside of the Lutheran pantheon. Too bad, because what I read about her in the Catholic Encyclopedia seemed interesting indeed.

But there was one little tidbit that kind of jumped off of the page. St. Gertrude died in Eisleben, Saxony; a town that is perhaps better known for being the birthplace of Martin Luther.

Small world.