A brief repetition of the
preceding chapter; and of the reverence which should be paid to priests,
whether they are good or bad.
"I have shown you, dearest daughter, a sample
of the excellence of good priests (for what I have shown you is only a sample
of what that excellence really is), and I have told you of the dignity in which
I have placed them, having elected them for My ministers, on account of which
dignity and authority I do not wish them to be punished by the hand of seculars
on account of any personal defect, for those who punish them offend Me miserably.
But I wish seculars to hold them in due reverence, not for their own sakes, as
I have said, but for Mine, by reason of the authority which I have given them.
Wherefore this reverence should never diminish in the case of priests whose
virtue grows weak, any more than in the case of those virtuous ones of whose
goodness I have spoken to you; for all alike have been appointed ministers of
the Sun -- that is of the Body and Blood of My Son, and of the other
Sacraments.
"This dignity belongs to good and bad alike --
all have the Sun to administer, as has been said, and perfect priests are
themselves in a condition of light, that is to say, they illuminate and warm
their neighbors through their love. And with this heat they cause virtues to
spring up and bear fruit in the souls of their subjects. I have appointed them
to be in very truth your guardian angels to protect you; to inspire your hearts
with good thoughts by their holy prayers, and to teach you My doctrine
reflected in the mirror of their life, and to serve you by administering to you
the holy Sacraments, thus serving you, watching over you, and inspiring you
with good and holy thoughts as does an angel.
"See, then, that besides the dignity to which
I have appointed them, how worthy they are of being loved; when they also
possess the adornment of virtue, as did those of whom I spoke to you, which are
all bound and obliged to possess, and in what great reverence you should hold
them, for they are My beloved children and shine each as a sun in the mystical
body of the holy Church by their virtues, forevery virtuous man is worthy of
love, and these all the more by reason of the ministry which I have placed in
their hands. You should love them therefore by reason of the virtue and dignity
of the Sacrament, and by reason of that very virtue and dignity you should hate
the defects of those who live miserably in sin, but not on that account appoint
yourselves their judges, which I forbid, because they are My Christs, and you
ought to love and reverence the authority which I have given them. You know
well that if a filthy and badly dressed person brought you a great treasure
from which you obtained life, you would not hate the bearer, however ragged and
filthy he might be, through love of the treasure and of the lord who sent it to
you. His state would indeed displease you, and you would be anxious through
love of his master that he should be cleansed from his foulness and properly
clothed. This, then, is your duty according to the demands of charity, and thus
I wish you to act with regard to such badly ordered priests, who themselves
filthy and clothed in garments ragged with vice through their separation from
My love, bring you great Treasures -- that is to say, the Sacraments of the
holy Church -- from which you obtain the life of grace, receiving Them worthily
(in spite of the great defects there may be in them) through love of Me, the
Eternal God, who send them to you, and through love of that life of grace which
you receive from the great treasure, by which they administer to you the whole
of God and the whole of Man, that is to say, the Body and Blood of My Son
united to My Divine nature. Their sins indeed should displease you, and you
should hate them, and strive with love and holy prayer to re-clothe them, washing
away their foulness with your tears -- that is to say, that you should offer
them before Me with tears and great desire, that I may re-clothe them in My
goodness, with the garment of charity. Know well that I wish to do them grace,
if only they will dispose themselves to receive it, and you to pray for it; for
it is not according to My will that they should administer to you the Sun being
themselves in darkness, not that they should be stripped of the garment of
virtue, foully living in dishonor; on the contrary I have given them to you,
and appointed them to be earthly angels and suns, as I have said. It not being
My will that they should be in this state, you should pray for them, and not
judge them, leaving their judgment to Me. And I, moved by your prayers, will do
them mercy if they will only receive it, but if they do not correct their life,
their dignity will be the cause of their ruin. For if they do not accept the
breadth of My mercy, I, the Supreme Judge, shall terribly condemn them at their
last extremity, and they will be sent to the eternal fire."
Of the difference between the
death of a just man and that of a sinner, and first of the death of the just
man.
"Having told you how the world and the devils
accuse these wretches, which is indeed the truth, I wish to speak to you in
more detail on this point (so that you may have greater compassion on these
poor wretches), telling you how different are the struggles of the soul of a
just man to those of a sinner, and how different are their deaths, and how the
peace of the just man's death is greater or less according to the perfection of
his soul. For I wish you to know that all the sufferings which rational creatures
endure depend on their will, because if their will were in accordance with mine
they would endure no suffering, not that they would have no labors on that
account, but because labors cause no suffering to a will which gladly endures
them, seeing that they are ordained by My will. Such men as these wage war with
the world, the Devil, and their own sensuality through holy hatred of
themselves. Wherefore when they come to the point of death, they die
peacefully, because they have vanquished their enemies during their life. The
world cannot accuse such a man, because he saw through its deceptions and
therefore renounced it with all its delights. His sensual fragility and his
body do not accuse him, because he bound sensuality like a slave with the rein
of reason, macerating his flesh with penance, with watchings, and humble and
continual prayer. The will of his senses he slew with hatred and dislike of
vice, and with love of virtue. He has entirely lost all tenderness for his
body, which tenderness and love between the soul and the body makes death seem
difficult, and on account of it man naturally fears death; but since the virtue
of a just and perfect man transcends nature, extinguishing his natural fear and
overcoming it with holy hatred of himself and desire of arriving at his last
end, his natural tenderness cannot make war on him, and his conscience remains
in peace; for during his life his conscience kept a good guard, warning him
when enemies were coming to attack the city of his soul, like a watch-dog which
stands at the door, and when it sees enemies warns the guards by its barking,
for in this way the dog of conscience warns the sentry of reason, and the
reason together with the free-will know by the light of the intellect whether
the stranger be friend or enemy. To a friend, that is to say, to virtue and
holy thoughts, he gave his delighted love, receiving and using these with great
solicitude; to an enemy, that is to say, to vice and wicked thoughts, he gave
hatred and displeasure. And with the knife of hatred of self, and love of Me,
and with the light of reason, and the hand of free- will he struck his enemies;
so that at the point of death his conscience, having been a faithful guardian,
does not gnaw but remains in peace.
"It is true that a just soul, through
humility, and because at the moment of death she realizes better the value of
time and of the jewels of virtue, reproves herself, seeming to herself to have
used her time but little; but this is not an afflictive pain, but rather
profitable, for the soul recollected in herself, is caused by it to throw
herself before the Blood of the humble and immaculate Lamb My Son. The just man
does not turn his head to admire his past virtues, because he neither can nor
will hope in his own virtues, but only in the Blood in which he has found
mercy; and as he lived in the memory of that Blood, so in death he is
inebriated and drowned in the same. How is it that the devils cannot reprove
him of sin? Because during his life he conquered their malice with wisdom, yet
they come round him to see if they can acquire anything, and appear in horrible
shapes in order to frighten him with hideous aspect, and many diverse
phantasms, but the poison of sin not being in his soul, their aspect causes him
no terror or fear, as it would do to another who had lived wickedly in the
world. Wherefore the devils, seeing that the soul has entered into the Blood
with ardent love, cannot endure the sight, but stand afar off shooting their
arrows. But their war and their shouts cannot hurt that soul, who already is
beginning to taste eternal life, as I said to you in another place, for with
the eye of the intellect illuminated by the pupil of the holy faith, she sees
Me, the Infinite and Eternal Good, whom she hopes to obtain by grace, not as
her due, but by virtue of Jesus Christ My Son.
"Wherefore opening the arms of hope and
seizing Him with the hands of love, she seems to enter into His possession
before she actually does so, in the way which I have narrated to you in another
place. Passing suddenly, drowned in the Blood, by the narrow door of the Word
she reaches Me, the Sea Pacific. For sea and door are united together. I and
the Truth, My only-begotten Son being one and the same thing. What joy such a
soul receives who sees herself so sweetly arrived at this pass, for in Truth
she tastes the happiness of the angelic nature! This joy is received by all
those who pass in this sweet manner, but to a far greater extent by My
ministers, of whom I spoke to you, who have lived like angels, for in this life
have they lived with greater knowledge, and with greater hunger for the
salvation of souls. I do not speak only of the light of virtue which all can
have in general, but of the supernatural light which these men possessed over
and above the light of virtuous living, the light, that is, of holy science, by
which science they knew more of My Truth, and he who knows more loves Me more,
and he who loves Me more receives more. Your reward is measured according to
the measure of your love, and if you should ask Me, whether one who has no
science can attain to this love, I should reply, yes it is possible that he may
attain to it, but an individual case does not make a general law and I always
discourse to you in general.
"They also receive greater dignity on account
of their priesthood, because they have personally received the office of eating
souls in My honor. For just as everyone has the office of remaining in charity
with his neighbor, to them is given the office of administering the Blood, and
of governing souls.
"Wherefore if they do this solicitously and
with love of virtue they receive, as has been said, more than others. Oh! how
happy are their souls when they come to the extremity of death! For they have
been the defenders and preachers of the faith to their neighbor. This faith
they have incarnated in their very marrow, and with it they see their place of
repose in Me. The hope with which they have lived, confiding in My providence
and losing all trust in themselves, in that they did not hope in their own
knowledge, and having lost hope in themselves, placed no inordinate love in any
fellow-creature or in any created thing; having lived in voluntary poverty,
causes them now with great delight to lift their confidence towards Me. Their heart,
which was a vessel of love, inscribed by their ardent charity with My name,
they showed forth with the example of their good and holy life and by the
doctrine of their words to their neighbor. This heart then arises and seizes
Me, who am its End, with ineffable love, restoring to Me the pearl of justice
which it always carried before it, doing justice to all, and discreetly
rendering to each his due. Wherefore this man renders to Me justice with true
humility, and renders glory and praise to My Name, because he refers to Me the
grace of having been able to run his course with a pure and holy conscience,
and with himself he is indignant, deeming himself unworthy of receiving such
grace.
"His conscience gives good testimony of him to
Me, and I justly give him the crown of justice, adorned with the pearls of the
virtues -- that is, of the fruit which love has drawn from the virtues. Oh,
earthly angel! happy you are in that you have not been ungrateful for the
benefits received from Me, and have not been negligent or ignorant, but have
solicitously opened your eye by the true light, and kept it on your subjects,
and have faithfully and manfully followed the doctrine of the Good Shepherd,
sweet Christ Jesus, My only-begotten Son, wherefore you are really now passing
through Him, the Door, bathed and drowned in His blood, with your troop of
lambs of whom you have brought many by your holy doctrine and example to
eternal life, and have left many behind you in a state of grace.
"Oh, dearest daughter! to such as these the
vision of the devils can do no harm, because of the vision which they have of
Me, which they see by faith and hold by love; the darkness and the terrible
aspect of the demons do not give them trouble or any fear, because in them is
not the poison of sin. There is no servile fear in them, but holy fear.
Wherefore they do not fear the demon's deception, because with supernatural
light and with the light of Holy Scripture they know them, so that they do not
cause them darkness or disquietude. So thus they gloriously pass, bathed in the
blood, with hunger for the salvation of souls, all on fire with love for the
neighbor, having passed through the door of the word and entered into Me; and
by My goodness each one is arranged in his place, and to each one is measured
of the affection of love according as he has measured to Me."
Of the death of sinners, and of
their pains in the hour of death.
"Not so excellent, dearest daughter, is the
end of these other poor wretches who are in great misery as I have related to
you. How terrible and dark is their death! Because in the moment of death, as I
told you, the Devil accuses them with great terror and darkness, showing his
face, which you know is so horrible that the creature would rather choose any
pain that can be suffered in this world than see it; and so greatly does he
freshen the sting of conscience that it gnaws him horribly. The disordinate
delights and sensuality of which he made lords over his reason, accuse him
miserably, because then he knows the truth of that which at first he knew not,
and his error brings him to great confusion.
"In his life he lived unfaithfully to Me --
self-love having veiled the pupil of the most holy faith -- wherefore the Devil
torments him with infidelity in order to bring him to despair. Oh! how hard for
them is this battle, because it finds them disarmed, without the armor of
affection and charity; because, as members of the Devil, they have been
deprived of it all. Wherefore they have not the supernatural light, neither the
light of science, because they did not understand it, the horns of their pride
not letting them understand the sweetness of its marrow. Wherefore now in the
great battle they know not what to do. They are not nourished in hope, because
they have not hoped in Me, neither in the Blood of which I made them ministers,
but in themselves alone, and in the dignities and delights of the world. And
the incarnate wretch did not see that all was counted to him with interest, and
that as a debtor he would have to render an account to Me; now he finds himself
denuded and without any virtue, and on whichever side he turns he hears nothing
but reproaches with great confusion. His injustice which he practiced in his
life accuses him to his conscience, wherefore he dares not ask other than
justice.
"And I tell you that so great is that shame
and confusion that unless in their life they have taken the habit of hoping in
My mercy, that is, have taken the milk of mercy (although on account of their
sins this is great presumption, for you cannot truly say that he who strikes Me
with the arm of My mercy has a hope in mercy, but rather has presumption),
there is not one who would not despair, and with despair they would arrive with
the Devil in eternal damnation.
"But arriving at the extremity of death, and
recognizing his sin, his conscience unloaded by holy confession, and
presumption taken away, so that he offends no more, there remains mercy, and
with this mercy he can, if he will, take hold on hope. This is the effect of
Mercy, to cause them to hope therein during their life, although I do not grant
them this, so that they should offend Me by means of My mercy, but rather that
they should dilate themselves in charity, and in the consideration of My
goodness. But they act in a contrary way, because they offend Me in the hope
which they have in My mercy. And nevertheless, I keep them in this hope so that
at the last moment they may have something which they may lay hold of, and by
so doing not faint away with the condemnation which they receive, and thus
arrive at despair; for this final sin of despair is much more displeasing to Me
and injures them much more than all the other sins which they have committed.
And this is the reason why this sin is more dangerous to them and displeasing to
Me, because they commit other sins through some delight of their own
sensuality, and they sometimes grieve for them, and if they grieve in the right
way their grief will procure them mercy. But it is no fragility of your nature
which moves you to despair, for there is no pleasure and nothing but
intolerable suffering in it. One who despairs despises My mercy, making his sin
to be greater than mercy and goodness. Wherefore, if a man fall into this sin,
he does not repent, and does not truly grieve for his offense against Me as he
should, grieving indeed for his own loss, but not for the offense done to Me,
and therefore he receives eternal damnation. See, therefore, that this sin
alone leads him to hell, where he is punished for this and all the other sins
which he has committed; whereas had he grieved and repented for the offense
done to Me, and hoped in My mercy, he would have found mercy, for, as I have
said to you, My mercy is greater without any comparison than all the sins which
any creature can commit; wherefore it greatly displeases Me that they should
consider their sins to be greater.
"Despair is that sin which is pardoned neither
here nor hereafter, and it is because despair displeases Me so much that I wish
them to hope in My mercy at the point of death, even if their life have been
disordered and wicked. This is why during their life I use this sweet trick
with them, making them hope greatly in My mercy, for when, having fed
themselves with this hope, they arrive at death, they are not so inclined to
abandon it, on account of the severe condemnation they receive, as if they had
not so nourished themselves.
"All this is given them by the fire and abyss
of My inestimable love, but because they have used it in the darkness of
self-love, from which has proceeded their every sin, they have not known it in
truth, but in so far as they have turned their affections towards the sweetness
of My mercy they have thought of it with great presumption. And this is another
cause of reproof which their conscience gives them in the likeness of the
Devil, reproving them in that they should have used the time and the breadth of
My mercy in which they hoped, in charity and love of virtue, and that time
which I gave them through love should have been spent in holiness, whereas with
all their time and great hope of My mercy they did nothing but offend Me
miserably. Oh! blinder than the blind! You have hidden your pearl and your
talent which I placed in your hands in order that you might gain more with it,
but you in your presumption would not do My will, rather you hid it under the
ground of disordinate self-love, which now renders you the fruit of death.
"Your miseries are not hid from you now, for
the worm of conscience sleeps no longer, but is gnawing you, the devils shout
and render to you the reward which they are accustomed to give their servants,
that is to say, confusion and condemnation; they wish to bring you to despair,
so that at the moment of death you may not escape from their hands, and
therefore they try to confuse you, so that afterwards when you are with them
they may render to you of the part which is theirs. Oh, wretch! the dignity in
which I placed you, you now see shining as it really is, and you know to your
shame that you have held and used in such guilty darkness the substance of the
holy Church, that you see yourself to be a thief, a debtor, who ought to pay
his debt to the poor and the holy Church. Then your conscience represents to
you that you have spent the money on public harlots, and have brought up your
children and enriched your relations, and have thrown it away on gluttony and
on many silver vessels and other adornments for your house. Whereas you should
have lived in voluntary poverty.
"Your conscience represents to you the divine
office which you neglected, by which you fell into the guilt of mortal sin, and
how even when you recited it with your mouth your heart was far from Me.
Conscience also shows you your subjects, that is to say, the love and hunger
which you should have felt towards nourishing them in virtue, giving them the
example of your life and striking them with the hand of mercy and the rod of
justice, and because you did the contrary your conscience and the horrible
likeness of the Devil reproves you.
"And if as a prelate you have given prelacies
or any charge of souls unjustly to one of your subjects, that is, that you have
not considered to whom and how you were giving it, the Devil puts this also
before your conscience, because you ought to have given it, not on account of pleasant
words, nor in order to please creatures, nor for the sake of gifts, but solely
with regard to virtue, My honor and the salvation of souls. And since you have
not done so you are reproved, and for your greater pain and confusion you have
before your conscience and the light of your intellect that which you have done
and ought not to have done, and that which you ought to have done and have not
done.
"I wish you to know, dearest daughter, that
whiteness is better seen when placed on a black ground, and blackness on a
white, than when they are separated. So it happens to these wretches, to these
in particular and to all others in general, for at death when the soul begins
to see its woes, and the just man his beatitude, his evil life is represented
to a wicked man, and there is no reason that any one should remind him of the
sins that he has committed, for his conscience places them before him, together
with the virtues which he ought to have practiced. Why the virtues? For his
greater shame. For vice being placed on a ground of virtue is known better on
account of the virtue, and the better he knows his sin, the greater his shame,
and by comparison with his sin he knows better the perfection of virtue,
wherefore he grieves the more, for he sees that his own life was devoid of any;
and I wish you to know that in this knowledge which dying sinners have of
virtue and vice they see only too clearly the good which follows the virtue of
a just man, and the pain that comes on him who has lain in the darkness of mortal
sin. I do not give him this knowledge so that he may despair, but so that he
may come to a perfect self-knowledge and shame for his sins, with hope, so that
with that pain and knowledge he may pay for his sins, and appease My anger,
humbly begging My mercy. The virtuous woman increases thereby in joy and in
knowledge of My love, for he attributes the grace of having followed virtue in
the doctrine of My truth to Me and not to himself, wherefore he exalts in Me,
with this truly illuminated knowledge, and tastes and receives the sweet end of
his being in the way which I have related to you in another place. So that the
one, that is to say, the just man, who has lived in ardent charity, exults in
joy, while the wicked man is darkened and confounded in sorrow.
"To the just man the appearance and vision of
the Devil causes no harm or fear, for fear and harm can only be caused to him
by sin; but those who have passed their lives lasciviously and in many sins,
receive both harm and fear from the appearance of the devils, not indeed the
harm of despair if they do not wish it, but the suffering of condemnation, of
the refreshing of the worm of conscience, and of fear and terror at their
horrible aspect. See now, dearest daughter, how different are the sufferings and
the battle of death to a just man and to a sinner, and how different is their
end.
"I have shown to the eye of your intellect a
very small part of what happens, and so small is what I have shown you with
regard to what it really is, to the suffering, that is, of the one, and the
happiness of the other, that it is but a trifle. See how great is the blindness
of man, and in particular of these ministers, for the more they have received
of Me, and the more they are enlightened by the Holy Scripture, the greater are
their obligations and more intolerable confusion do they receive for not
fulfilling them; the more they knew of Holy Scripture during their life, the
better do they know at their death the great sins they have committed, and
their torments are greater than those of others, just as good men are placed in
a higher degree of excellence. Theirs is the fate of the false Christian, who
is placed in Hell in greater torment than a pagan, because he had the light of
faith and renounced it, while the pagan never had it.
"So these wretches will be punished more than
other Christians for the same sin, on account of the ministry which I entrusted
to them, appointing them to administer the sun of the holy Sacrament, and
because they had the light of science, in order to discern the truth both for
themselves and others had they wished to; wherefore they justly receive the
greater pains. But the wretches do not know this, for did they consider their
state at all, they would not come to such misery, but would be that which they
ought to be and are not. For the whole world has thus become corrupt, they
being much more guilty than seculars, according to their state; for with their
stench they defile the face of their soul, and corrupt their subjects, and suck
the blood from My spouse, that is, the holy Church, wherefore through these
sins they make her grow pale, because they divert to themselves the love and
charity which they should have to this divine spouse, and think of nothing but
stripping her for their own advantage, seizing prelacies, and great properties,
when they ought to be seeking souls. Wherefore through their evil life,
seculars become irreverent and disobedient to the holy Church, not that they
ought on that account to do so, or that their sins are excused through the sins
of My ministers."
How this devout soul, praising
and thanking GOD, made a prayer for the Holy Church.
Then this soul, as if inebriated, tormented, and on
fire with love, her heart wounded with great bitterness, turned herself to the
Supreme and Eternal Goodness, saying: "Oh! Eternal God! oh! Light above
every other light, from whom issues all light! Oh! Fire above every fire,
because You are the only Fire who burn without consuming, and consume all sin
and self-love found in the soul, not afflicting her, but fattening her with
insatiable love, and though the soul is filled she is not sated, but ever
desires You, and the more of You she has, the more she seeks -- and the more
she desires, the more she finds and tastes of You -- Supreme and Eternal Fire,
Abyss of Charity. Oh! Supreme and Eternal Good, who has moved You, Infinite
God, to illuminate me, Your finite creature, with the light of Your Truth? You,
the same Fire of Love are the cause, because it is always love which
constrained and constrains You to create us in Your image and similitude, and
to do us mercy, giving immeasurable and infinite graces to Your rational
creatures. Oh! Goodness above all goodness! You alone are He who is Supremely
Good, and nevertheless You gave the Word, Your only-begotten Son, to converse
with us filthy ones and filled with darkness. What was the cause of this? Love.
Because You loved us before we were. Oh! Good! oh! Eternal Greatness! You made
Yourself low and small to make man great. On whichever side I turn I find
nothing but the abyss and fire of Your charity. And can a wretch like me pay
back to You the graces and the burning charity that You have shown and show
with so much burning love in particular to me beyond common charity, and the
love that You show to all Your creatures? No, but You alone, most sweet and
amorous Father, are He who will be thankful and grateful for me, that is, that
the affection of Your charity itself will render You thanks, because I am she
who is not, and if I spoke as being anything of myself, I should be lying by my
own head, and should be a lying daughter of the Devil, who is the father of
lies, because You alone are He who is. And my being and every further grace
that You have bestowed upon me, I have from You, who give them to me through
love, and not as my due.
"Oh! sweetest Father, when the human race lay
sick through the sin of Adam, You sent it a Physician, the sweet and amorous
Word -- Your Son; and now, when I was lying infirm with the sickness of
negligence and much ignorance, You, most soothing and sweet Physician, Eternal
God, have given a soothing, sweet, and bitter medicine, that I may be cured and
rise from my infirmity. You have soothed me because with Your love and
gentleness You have manifested Yourself to me, Sweet above all sweetness, and
have illuminated the eye of my intellect with the light of most holy faith,
with which light, according as it has pleased You to manifest it to me, I have
known the excellence of grace which You have given to the human race,
administering to it the entire God- Man in the mystic body of the holy Church.
And I have known the dignity of Your ministers whom You have appointed to
administer You to us. I desired that You would fulfill the promise that You
made to me, and You gave much more, more even than I knew how to ask for.
Wherefore I know in truth that the heart of man knows not how to ask or desire
as much as You can give, and thus I see that You are He who is the Supreme and
Eternal Good, and that we are they who are not. And because You are infinite,
and we are finite, You give that which Your rational creature cannot desire
enough; for she cannot desire it in itself, nor in the way in which You can and
will satisfy the soul, filling her with things for which she does not ask You.
Moreover, I have received light from Your Greatness and Charity, through the
love which You have for the whole human race, and in particular for Your
anointed ones, who ought to be earthly angels in this life. You have shown me
the virtue and beatitude of these Your anointed ones who have lived like
burning lamps, shining with the Pearl of Justice in the holy Church. And by
comparison with these I have better understood the sins of those who live
wretchedly. Wherefore I have conceived a very great sorrow at Your offense and
the harm done to the whole world, for they do harm to the world, being mirrors
of sin when they ought to be mirrors of virtue. And because You have manifested
and grieved over their iniquities to me -- a wretch who am the cause and
instrument of many sins -- I am plunged in intolerable grief.
"You, oh! inestimable love, have manifested
this to me, giving me a sweet and bitter medicine that I might wholly arise out
of the infirmity of my ignorance and negligence, and have recourse to You with
anxious and solicitous desire, knowing myself and Your goodness and the
offenses which are committed against You by all sorts of people, so that I
might shed a river of tears, drawn from the knowledge of Your infinite
goodness, over my wretched self and over those who are dead in that they live
miserably. Wherefore I do not wish, oh! Eternal Father, ineffable Fire of Love,
that my heart should ever grow weary, or my eyes fail through tears, in
desiring Your honor and the salvation of souls, but I beg of You, by Your
grace, that they may be as two streams of water issuing from You, the Sea
Pacific. Thanks, thanks to You, oh! Father, for having granted me that which I
asked You and that which I neither knew nor asked, for by thus giving me matter
for grief You have invited me to offer before You sweet, loving, and yearning
desires, with humble and continual prayer. Now I beg of You that You will do
mercy to the world and to the holy Church. I pray You to fulfill that which You
caused me to ask You. Alas! what a wretched and sorrowful soul is mine, the
cause of all these evils. Do not put off any longer Your merciful designs
towards the world, but descend and fulfill the desire of Your servants.
"Ah me! You cause them to cry in order to hear
their voices! Your truth told us to cry out, and we should be answered; to
knock, and it would be opened to us; to beg, and it would be given to us. Oh!
Eternal Father, Your servants do cry out to Your mercy; do You then reply.
"I know well that mercy is Your own attribute,
wherefore You can not destroy it or refuse it to him who asks for it. Your
servants knock at the door of Your truth, because in the truth of Your
only-begotten Son they know the ineffable love which You have for man,
wherefore the fire of Your love ought not and cannot refrain from opening to
him who knocks with perseverance. Wherefore open, unlock, and break the
hardened hearts of Your creatures, not for their sakes who do not knock, but on
account of Your infinite goodness, and through love of Your servants who knock
at You for their sakes. Grant the prayer of those, Eternal Father who, as You
see, stand at the door of Your truth and pray. For what do they pray? For with
the Blood of this door -- Your truth -- have You washed our iniquities and destroyed
the stain of Adam's sin. The Blood is ours, for You have made it our bath,
wherefore You can not deny it to any one who truly asks for it. Give, then, the
fruit of Your Blood to Your creatures. Place in the balance the price of the
blood of Your Son, so that the infernal devils may not carry off Your lambs.
You are the Good Shepherd who, to fulfill Your obedience, laid down His life
for Your lambs, and made for us a bath of His Blood.
"That Blood is what Your hungry servants beg
of You at this door, begging You through it to do mercy to the world, and to
cause Your holy Church to bloom with the fragrant flowers of good and holy
pastors, who by their sweet odor shall extinguish the stench of the putrid
flowers of sin. You have said, Eternal Father, that through the love which You
have for Your rational creatures, and the prayers and the many virtues and
labors of Your servants, You would do mercy to the world, and reform the
Church, and thus give us refreshment; wherefore do not delay, but turn the eye
of Your mercy towards us, for You must first reply to us before we can cry out
with the voice of Your mercy. Open the door of Your inestimable love which You
have given us through the door of Your Word. I know indeed that You open before
even we can knock, for it is with the affection of love which You have given to
Your servants, that they knock and cry to You, seeking Your honor and the
salvation of souls. Give them then the bread of life, that is to say, the fruit
of the Blood of Your only-begotten Son, which they ask of You for the praise
and glory of My name and the salvation of souls. For more glory and praise will
be Yours in saving so many creatures, than in leaving them obstinate in their
hardness of heart. To You, Eternal Father, everything is possible, and even
though You have created us without our own help, You will not save us without
it. I beg of You to force their wills, and dispose them to wish for that for
which they do not wish; and this I ask You through Your infinite mercy. You
have created us from nothing; now, therefore, that we are in existence, do
mercy to us, and remake the vessels which You have created to Your image and
likeness. Re-create them to Grace in Your mercy and the Blood of Your Son sweet
Christ Jesus."
