Gertrude is one of those mystics whose deep prayers and constant interior communion with God brought her to ecstasies and raptures. Once, when hearing the words “I have seen the Lord face to face” sung in chapel, Gertrude

saw, as it were, a divine face, most beautiful and charming, whose eyes pierced her heart, and filled both her soul and body with inexpressible delight which no tongue could express. The divine love which burnt in her breast, and consumed her soul, seemed the only spring of all her affections and actions.

Gertrude’s path to such union with God is explained by Butler: “Divine contemplations and devout prayers, she always looked upon as the principal duty and employment of her state, and consecrated to those exercises the greatest part of her time.”

Divine contemplations…devout prayers.

What are “contemplations”? What makes prayer “devout”? Time, in my opinion for etymologies!

Contemplation: from “com” + “temple”–an intensive (“com”) meaning “very much so” and “temple” as a place for observation and seeking of signs or omens.

Devout: from “de” + “vow”–arising from…a vow or sacred promise.

(As a side note, I believe that Gertrude, who studied Latin “and wrote and composed in that language very well,” wold approve of these side trips to word origins!)

So Gertrude regarded no activities as more important than spending time intently seeking signs from the Divine, and she carried out prayers as part of her vow to God. Put this way, it’s so much more than the idea of some person following some prescription for the ideal “holy life.” Rather, this is a woman who devoted herself more to offering prayers and seeking divine signs or promptings than anything else. And so Gertrude saw the Lord face to face, and divine love bore into her very soul and filled her to overflowing.

Gertrude left behind writings that, translated into English, are entitled “The Life and Revelations of St. Gertrude, Virgin and Abbess, of the Order of Saint Benedict”; these can be read here.