The Sacred Heart is Christ, the Savior, the Word Incarnate, the Redeemer, the Son of God. Through the ages, Jesus appeared to saints, with assigned tasks to honor His Sacred Heart. To Saint Lutgard (Lutgardis) of Aywieres is attributed the “first mystic revelation of Christ’s heart.”
While speaking to a man, who fell in love with her, Jesus, with a spear wound on His side, appeared. “Seek no more the pleasure of this affection: Behold, here, forever what you should have and how you should love…I promise you the most pure of joys.”
With eyes fixed on the wound of Jesus, fear overwhelmed Lutgard. As she approached Him, “Jesus let an arm down, and drew her to Himself. He pressed her lips on the wound at His side and Her heart, overwhelmed with joy, was filled with wisdom.”
First mystical exchange of hearts
Lutgard was born in 1182 in Tongres, Brabant, Belgium. At 20, she entered Saint Catherine, a Benedictine convent at Saint Trond near Tongres.
Her prayerfulness and her love for solitude contributed to her “Christocentric mysticism.” She would have visions of Jesus, Mary and Saint John Evangelist. Some nuns witnessed her levitations. Drops of blood can sometimes be seen on her forehead.
A friend to early Dominicans and Franciscans, she supported their missionary work by fasting and intercessory prayers. The friars called her Mater Praedicatorum (Mother of Preachers).
Some of the sisters believed that she was guided by the devil and would spy on her at the middle of the night. Once, they saw her body wrapped with radiant light. On the Feast of the Pentecost when “Veni Creator Spiritus” was sung, she was seen to levitate, floating in the air. With the touch of her hand, healings occurred.
When Jesus appeared to her, she complained about her gift of healing. It is a great distraction to her and the community.
“Such a grace, Lord, now I hardly have time to be alone with you.” The Lord asked, “what grace do you want me to give you?”
Lutgard asked for proficiency in Latin to evoke more devotion in reciting psalms. But when she met the Lord she confessed that “lofty intuitions only interfered with her devotion instead of nourishing it.”
So when the Lord asked what is it that she wanted, she said: “Lord, I want thy heart.” And the Lord answered, “You want my heart, I too want your heart.”
In Mystics of the Church, it was described as “mystical union of wills,” but the exchange is known as “spiritual betrothal,” and Luthgard “perhaps is the first saint with this mystical exchange of hearts” with Jesus.
Thomas Merton said: “She entered mystical life with a vision of the pierced heart of the Savior and concluded her mystical espousal by exchange of heart with him.”
Thomas Cantimpre, her first biographer, narrated: “She had fever, her flesh shook with chill and she was shivering, and her clothing wet with perspiration.” She heard the bells ring for matins, or prayer after midnight, at about 2:45 a.m.
She leapt from bed when she heard Jesus telling her to get up. “For at this very hour, sinners are wallowing in the mire of their vices and you ought to be doing penance for them,” she said.
Two decades of fasting
In 1205, at the age of 23, she was elected prioress of the Benedictine community. But her thoughts were with austere Cistercian nuns (Trappist) who live a contemplative life.
Asking for an advice from Jean de Lierre, a preacher at Liege, she was urged to follow her conscience.
Her friend Christina advised her to join the Cistercians of Aywieres near Liege. In the new congregation the nuns spoke French, which is so different from Flemish. She experienced loneliness due to language barrier, but her loneliness and solitude developed her Christocentric mysticism.
The Blessed Mother appeared to her asking for penance to appease Jesus because of the increase of bad Christians and heretics. She fasted, for seven years taking only bread, and weak beer, the ordinary drink of the religious. Then in obedience, she was ordered to take other foods which she could not swallow.
After seven years, the Blessed Mother, again in a revelation, requested her to fast for sinners. Her prescribed food was bread with vegetables. She had a vision of Jesus before God the Father showing her His wounds.
“Do you see how I suffer myself entirely to my Father for sinners? In the same way, I would have you offer yourself entirely to me for sinners and avert the anger kindled against them for retribution for sins.”
After 14 years of rigorous fasting, she was fasted again for another seven years against attacks on Mother Church to prevent terrible harm on souls.
Already blind since 1235, the seven-year fasting brought her to her death.
In a vision, Christ informed her of her death, a day after the feast of the Holy Trinity. She died on June 16, 1246. She is the patron saint of the blind and physically disabled
Damo-Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna, and of Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.
Image credits: Wikimedia Commons