St Gertrude the Great was born on this day, 6th January, the Feast of the Epiphany.

The following prayer was made by St Gertrude when she noticed that, relying on her own strength, she was inclined to waste the graces of God, particularly the grace of God’s presence with which The Lord had favoured her:

“And that it may please You [Lord] to preserve this precious grace in me, I offer You that excellent prayer which You uttered with such amazing fervour when sweating blood in agony, and which the burning love of Your Divinity and Your pure devotion rendered so efficacious; beseeching You, by virtue of this most perfect prayer, to draw and unite me entirely to Yourself, that I may remain inseparably attached to You.”