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.
