Mother Mectilde (1614–1698), like the great Benedictine mystic Saint Gertrude of Helfta, was an explorer of the divine mysteries. In the solemn celebration of the Divine Office—the “work of God”—and through her hours of Eucharistic adoration, she discovered depths of rare beauty and grace. When she established the Benedictine Nuns of Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, she then devoted herself to sharing these insights with her spiritual daughters. In The True Spirit of the Perpetual Adorers of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, Mectilde sets forth the program of life for her community—a spirituality steeped in Scripture, the sacred liturgy, and the French School of spirituality, to which she was both heir and contributor. Those who hunger and thirst for God’s kingdom and are willing to walk what St. Benedict calls “the hard ways” toward union with Christ on the Cross will find much nourishment in Mother Mectilde’s teaching.
Praise
“The spiritual message of Catherine Mectilde de Bar is very beautiful and deep. She helps us to understand how the humble and silent presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is a priceless gift for the Church. We find in this mystery of love everything we need for our Christian life.”—FR. JACQUES PHILIPPE
“Mectilde’s style is simple, light and luminous; her mind precise and clear…. A sure guide for serious souls who take God and His love seriously.”—ABBOT XAVIER PERRIN, OSB
“We find in her letters one of the clearest applications of the spirituality of Saint Francis de Sales and the French School.”—FATHER THOMAS ACKLIN, OSB
“Mother Mectilde is one of those chosen souls who give themselves to God in Christ without holding anything back.”—ELLEN GRYNIEWICZ, OSB.obl.
“You who hold this book in your hands, you will find real life in it. Don’t just read it, live it.”—MOTHER IMMACULATA FRANKEN, OSBap
“She speaks like a woman in love, and her words can ignite a fire in your soul.”—SR. JULIA MARY DARRENKAMP, FSP
About the Author
Catherine de Bar (1614-1698)--in religion, Mother Mectilde of the Blessed Sacrament--stands out among the luminous spiritual masters of seventeenth-century France as one of the great teachers of the interior life, a woman of the stature of St Gertrude the Great or St Teresa of Avila. Living in a period marked by superstition, sacrilege, and war, Mother Mectilde responded with a call to faithful reparation, self-abandoning adoration, frequent Communion, and total adherence to the Eucharistic Lord. Even while she suffered exile, illness, poverty, dangers, and uncertainties on all sides, she offered counsel and comfort to men and women in every state of life, teaching them how to surrender to Divine Providence and how to become ever more united with Christ.
