O Dawn

 O DAWN, SPLENDOR OF ETERNAL LIGHT, and SUN OF JUSTICE, come!  Give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death
 
 
St. Gertrude prayed, “Ah Jesus, sun of justice, make me clothe myself with you.”  And again, “O light of my soul, very brightest morning, break into me now and begin to shine for me that by your light I may see light and that through you my night may be turned into day…Visit me now in the morning at daybreak that I may suddenly be transformed entirely into you.”

Time and again we find Gertrude speaking as a wise and experienced teacher of the spiritual journey with its various stages.  One of her most complete images is that of pietas, God’s tender mercy, shining like the sun with its healing rays upon the soul.  This gaze has a threefold effect: purifying, ripening and fructifying.  As she explains:
“First the gaze of the divine pietas is like the sun, rendering the soul dazzling white and purified from all stains, whiter than snow.  That effect if acquired through humble acknowledgement of one’s faults. 

Secondly, the gaze of the divine pietas softens the soul and makes it fit to receive spiritual gifts, just as wax is softened by the heat of the sun and is prepared for imprinting by some seal.  This result the soul obtains through devout intention.
Thirdly, the gaze of the divine pietas makes fertile the soul with the varied flowers of the virtues, just as the sun makes the earth fruitful, to produce different kinds of fruit.  This result the soul obtains through the faithful trust with which a person entrusts her whole self to God.”

In Gertrude’s description above we can see very clearly the purgative stage in the first gaze, while in the second we find that process of softening which Ezechiel describes so beautifully: God’s removal of the stony heart and his gift of a new and natural heart in us.  In the third gaze the earth becomes fruitful which is suggestive of the fruit of union with Christ or the unitive way.  But in whatever stage or combination of stages we may be or not be, let us trust with Gertrude that the sun is always shining upon us with its healing rays.