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"It now remains to be told you how it can be seen
that souls have arrived at perfect love.
"This is seen by the same sign that was given to
the holy disciples after they had received the Holy
Spirit, when they came forth from the house, and
fearlessly announced the doctrine of My Word, My
only-begotten Son, not fearing pain, but rather
glorying therein. They did not mind going before the
tyrants of the world, to announce to them the truth,
for the glory and praise of My Name.
"So the soul, who has awaited Me in self-knowledge
as I have told you, receives Me, on My return to her,
with the fire of charity, in which charity, while
still remaining in the house with perseverance, she
conceives the virtues by affection of love,
participating in My power; with which power and
virtues she overrules and conquers her own sensitive
passions, and through which charity she participates
in the wisdom of My Son, in which she sees and knows,
with the eye of her intellect, My Truth and the
deceptions of spiritual self-love, that is, the
imperfect love of her own consolations, as has been
said, and she knows also the malice and deceit of the
devil, which he practices on those souls who are
bound by that imperfect love.
"She therefore arises, with hatred of that
imperfection and with love of perfection, and,
through this charity, which is of the Holy Spirit,
she participates in His will, fortifying her own to
be willing to suffer pain, and, coming out of the
house through My Name, she brings forth the virtues
on her neighbor. Not that by coming out to bring
forth the virtues, I mean that she issues out of the
House of Self-Knowledge, but that, in the time of the
neighbor's necessity she loses that fear of being
deprived of her own consolations, and so issues forth
to give birth to those virtues which she has
conceived through affection of love.
"The souls, who have thus come forth, have reached
the fourth state, that is, from the third state,
which is a perfect state, in which they taste charity
and give birth to it on their neighbors, they have
arrived at the fourth state, which is one of perfect
union with Me. The two last-mentioned states are
united, that is to say, one cannot be without the
other, for there cannot be love of Me, without love
of the neighbor, nor love of the neighbor without
love of Me."
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