|
"I have shown you, dearest daughter, that the guilt
is not punished in this finite time by any pain which
is sustained purely as such. And I say, that the
guilt is punished by the pain which is endured
through the desire, love, and contrition of the
heart; not by virtue of the pain, but by virtue of
the desire of the soul; inasmuch as desire and every
virtue is of value, and has life in itself, through
Christ crucified, My only begotten Son, in so far as
the soul has drawn her love from Him, and virtuously
follows His virtues, that is, His Footprints.
"In this way, and in no other, are virtues of value,
and in this way, pains satisfy for the fault, by the
sweet and intimate love acquired in the knowledge of
My goodness, and in the bitterness and contrition of
heart acquired by knowledge of one's self and one's
own thoughts. And this knowledge generates a hatred
and displeasure against sin, and against the soul's
own sensuality, through which, she deems herself
worthy of pains and unworthy of reward."
The sweet Truth continued: "See how, by contrition of
the heart, together with love, with true patience,
and with true humility, deeming themselves worthy of
pain and unworthy of reward, such souls endure the
patient humility in which consists the
above-mentioned satisfaction.
"You ask me, then, for pains, so that I may receive
satisfaction for the offenses, which are done against
Me by My Creatures, and you further ask the will to
know and love Me, who am the Supreme Truth. Wherefore
I reply that this is the way, if you will arrive at a
perfect knowledge and enjoyment of Me, the Eternal
Truth, that you should never go outside the knowledge
of yourself, and, by humbling yourself in the valley
of humility, you will know Me and yourself, from
which knowledge you will draw all that is necessary.
"No virtue, my daughter, can have life in itself
except through charity, and humility, which is the
foster-mother and nurse of charity. In
self-knowledge, then, you will humble yourself,
seeing that, in yourself, you do not even exist; for
your very being, as you will learn, is derived from
Me, since I have loved both you and others before you
were in existence; and that, through the ineffable
love which I had for you, wishing to re-create you to
Grace, I have washed you, and re-created you in the
Blood of My only-begotten Son, spilt with so great a
fire of love.
"This Blood teaches the truth to him, who, by
self-knowledge, dissipates the cloud of self-love,
and in no other way can he learn. Then the soul will
inflame herself in this knowledge of Me with an
ineffable love, through which love she continues in
constant pain; not, however, a pain which afflicts or
dries up the soul, but one which rather fattens her;
for since she has known My truth, and her own faults,
and the ingratitude of men, she endures intolerable
suffering, grieving because she loves Me; for, if she
did not love Me, she would not be obliged to do so;
whence it follows immediately, that it is right for
you, and My other servants who have learnt My truth
in this way, to sustain, even unto death, many
tribulations and injuries and insults in word and
deed, for the glory and praise of My Name; thus will
you endure and suffer pains.
"Do you, therefore, and My other servants, carry
yourselves with true patience, with grief for your
sins, and with love of virtue for the glory and
praise of My Name. If you act thus, I will satisfy
for your sins, and for those of My other servants,
inasmuch as the pains which you will endure will be
sufficient, through the virtue of love, for
satisfaction and reward, both in you and in others.
"In yourself you will receive the fruit of life, when
the stains of your ignorance are effaced, and I shall
not remember that you ever offended Me. In others I
will satisfy through the love and affection which you
have to Me, and I will give to them according to the
disposition with which they will receive My gifts.
"In particular, to those who dispose themselves,
humbly and with reverence, to receive the doctrine of
My servants, will I remit both guilt and penalty,
since they will thus come to true knowledge and
contrition for their sins. So that, by means of
prayer, and their desire of serving Me, they receive
the fruit of grace, receiving it humbly in greater or
less degree, according to the extent of their
exercise of virtue and grace in general.
"I say then, that, through your desires, they will
receive remission for their sins. See, however, the
condition, namely, that their obstinacy should not be
so great in their despair as to condemn them through
contempt of the Blood, which, with such sweetness,
has restored them.
"What fruit do they receive?
"The fruit which I destine for them, constrained by
the prayers of My servants, is that I give them
light, and that I wake up in them the hound of
conscience, and make them smell the odor of virtue,
and take delight in the conversation of My servants.
"Sometimes I allow the world to show them what it is,
so that, feeling its diverse and various passions,
they may know how little stability it has, and may
come to lift their desire beyond it, and seek their
native country, which is the Eternal Life.
"And so I draw them by these, and by many other ways,
for the eye cannot see, nor the tongue relate, nor
the heart think, how many are the roads and ways
which I use, through love alone, to lead them back to
grace, so that My truth may be fulfilled in them.
"I am constrained to do so by that inestimable love
of Mine, by which I created them, and by the love,
desire, and grief of My servants, since I am no
despiser of their tears, and sweat, and humble
prayers; rather I accept them, inasmuch as I am He
who give them this love for the good of souls and
grief for their loss.
"But I do not, in general, grant to these others, for
whom they pray, satisfaction for the penalty due to
them, but, only for their guilt, since they are not
disposed, on their side, to receive, with perfect
love, My love, and that of My servants. They do not
receive their grief with bitterness, and perfect
contrition for the sins they have committed, but with
imperfect love and contrition, wherefore they have
not, as others, remission of the penalty, but only of
the guilt; because such complete satisfaction
requires proper dispositions on both sides, both in
him that gives and him that receives.
"Wherefore, since they are imperfect, they receive
imperfectly the perfection of the desires of those
who offer them to Me, for their sakes, with
suffering; and, inasmuch as I told you that they do
receive remission, this is indeed the truth, that, by
that way which I have told you, that is, by the light
of conscience, and by other things, satisfaction is
made for their guilt; for, beginning to learn, they
vomit forth the corruption of their sins, and so
receive the gift of grace.
"These are they who are in a state of ordinary
charity, wherefore, if they have trouble, they
receive it in the guise of correction, and do not
resist over much the clemency of the Holy Spirit,
but, coming out of their sin, they receive the life
of grace. But if, like fools, they are ungrateful,
and ignore Me and the labors of My servants done for
them, that which was given them, through mercy, turns
to their own ruin and judgment, not through defect of
mercy, nor through defect of him who implored the
mercy for the ingrate, but solely through the man's
own wretchedness and hardness, with which, with the
hands of his free will, he has covered his heart, as
it were, with a diamond, which, if it be not broken
by the Blood, can in no way be broken.
"And yet, I say to you, that, in spite of his
hardness of heart, he can use his free will while he
has time, praying for the Blood of My Son, and let
him with his own hand apply It to the diamond over
his heart and shiver it, and he will receive the
imprint of the Blood which has been paid for him.
"But, if he delays until the time be past, he has no
remedy, because he has not used the dowry which I
gave him, giving him memory so as to remember My
benefits, intellect, so as to see and know the truth,
affection, so that he should love Me, the Eternal
Truth, whom he would have known through the use of
his intellect.
"This is the dowry which I have given you all, and
which ought to render fruit to Me, the Father; but,
if a man barters and sells it to the devil, the
devil, if he choose, has a right to seize on
everything that he has acquired in this life. And,
filling his memory with the delights of sin, and with
the recollection of shameful pride, avarice,
self-love, hatred, and unkindness to his neighbors
(being also a persecutor of My servants), with these
miseries, he has obscured his intellect by his
disordinate will.
"Let such as these receive the eternal pains, with
their horrible stench, inasmuch as they have not
satisfied for their sins with contrition and
displeasure of their guilt. Now, therefore, you have
understood how suffering satisfies for guilt by
perfect contrition, not through the finite pain; and
such as have this contrition in perfection satisfy
not only for the guilt, but also for the penalty
which follows the guilt, as I have already said when
speaking in general; and if they satisfy for the
guilt alone, that is, if, having abandoned mortal
sin, they receive grace, and have not sufficient
contrition and love to satisfy for the penalty also,
they go to the pains of Purgatory, passing through
the second and last means of satisfaction.
"So you see that satisfaction is made, through the
desire of the soul united to Me, who am the Infinite
Good, in greater or less degree, according to the
measure of love, obtained by the desire and prayer of
the recipient. Wherefore, with that very same measure
with which a man measures to Me, do he receive in
himself the measure of My goodness.
"Labor, therefore, to increase the fire of your
desire, and let not a moment pass without crying to
Me with humble voice, or without continual prayers
before Me for your neighbors. I say this to you and
to the father of your soul, whom I have given you on
earth. Bear yourselves with manful courage, and make
yourselves dead to all your own sensuality."
|