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"Now I will reply to that which you asked Me
concerning the ministers of the holy Church, and, in
order that you may the better understand the truth,
open the eye of your intellect, and look at their
excellence and the dignity in which I have placed
them. And, since one thing is better known by means
of contrast with its contrary, I will show you the
dignity of those who use virtuously the treasure I
have placed in their hands; and, in this way, you
will the better see the misery of those who today are
suckled at the breast of My Spouse."
Then this soul obediently contemplated the truth,
in which she saw virtue resplendent in those who
truly taste it. Then said the Eternal God: "I will
first, dearest daughter, speak to you of the dignity
of priests, having placed them where they are through
My Goodness, over and above the general love which I
have had to My creatures, creating you in My image
and similitude and re-creating you all to the life of
grace in the Blood of My only-begotten Son, whence
you have arrived at such excellence, through the
union which I made of My Deity with human nature; so
that in this you have greater dignity and excellence
than the angels, for I took your human nature and not
that of the angels.
"Wherefore, as I have said to you, I, God, have
become man, and man has become God by the union of My
Divine Nature with your human nature. This greatness
is given in general to all rational creatures, but,
among these I have especially chosen My ministers for
the sake of your salvation, so that, through them,
the Blood of the humble and immaculate Lamb, My
only-begotten Son, may be administered to you.
"To them have I given the Sun to administer,
giving them the light of science and the heat of
Divine Love, united together in the color of the Body
and Blood of My Son, whose Body is a Sun, because He
is one thing with Me, the True Sun, in such a way
that He cannot be separated or divided from Me, as in
the case of the natural sun, in which heat and light
cannot be separated, so perfect is their union; for,
the sun, never leaving its orbit, lights the whole
world and warms whoever wishes to be warmed by it,
and is not defiled by any impurity on which it
shines, for its light and heat and color are united.
"So this Word, My Son, with His most sweet Blood,
is one Sun, all God and all man, because He is one
thing with Me and I with Him. My power is not
separated from His wisdom, nor the fiery heat of the
Holy Spirit from Me, the Father, or from Him, the
Son; for He is one thing with us, the Holy Spirit
proceeding from the Father and the Son, and We
together forming one and the same Sun; that is to
say, I, the Eternal God, am that Sun whence have
proceeded the Son and the Holy Spirit.
"To the Holy Spirit is attributed fire and to the
Son wisdom, by which wisdom My ministers receive the
light of grace, so that they may administer this
light to others, with gratitude for the benefits
received from Me, the Eternal Father, following the
doctrine of the Eternal Wisdom, My only-begotten Son.
This is that Light, which has the color of your
humanity, color and light being closely united. Thus
was the light of My Divinity united to the color of
your humanity, which color shone brightly when it
became perfect through its union with the Divine
nature, and, by this means of the Incarnate Word
mixed with the Light of My Divine nature and the
fiery heat of the Holy Spirit, have you received the
Light. Whom have I entrusted with its administration?
"My ministers in the mystical body of the holy
Church, so that you may have life, receiving His Body
in food and His Blood in drink. I have said to you
that this Body is, as it were, a Sun. Wherefore, you
cannot receive the Body without the Blood, or the
Blood or the Body without the Soul of the Incarnate
Word; nor the Soul, nor the Body, without the
Divinity of Me, the Eternal God, because none of
these can be separated from each other, as I said to
you in another place that the Divine nature never
left the human nature, either by death or from any
other cause.
"So that you receive the whole Divine Essence in
that most Sweet Sacrament concealed under the
whiteness of the bread; for as the sun cannot be
divided into light, heat, and color, the whole of God
and the whole of man cannot be separated under the
white mantle of the host; for even if the host should
be divided into a million particles (if it were
possible) in each particle should I be present, whole
God and whole Man.
"When you break a mirror the reflection to be seen
in it is not broken; similarly, when the host is
divided God and man are not divided, but remain in
each particle. Nor is the Sacrament diminished in
itself, except as far as may be in the following
example.
"If you have a light, and the whole world should
come to you in order to take light from it -- the
light itself does not diminish -- and yet each person
has it all. It is true that everyone participates
more or less in this light, according to the
substance into which each one receives the fire. I
will develop this metaphor further that you may the
better understand Me.
"Suppose that there are many who bring their
candles, one weighing an ounce, others two or six
ounces, or a pound, or even more, and light them in
the flame, in each candle, whether large or small, is
the whole light, that is to say, the heat, the color,
and the flame; nevertheless you would judge that he
whose candle weighs an ounce has less of the light
than he whose candle weighs a pound. Now the same
thing happens to those who receive this Sacrament.
Each one carries his own candle, that is the holy
desire, with which he receives this Sacrament, which
of itself is without light, and lights it by
receiving this Sacrament. I say without light,
because of yourselves you can do nothing, though I
have given you the material, with which you can
receive this light and feed it. The material is love,
for through love I created you, and without love you
cannot live.
"Your being, given to you through love, has
received the right disposition in holy baptism, which
you receive in virtue of the Blood of the Word, for,
in no other way, could you participate in this light;
you would be like a candle with no wick inside it,
which cannot burn or receive light, if you have not
received in your souls the wick which catches this
Divine Flame, that is to say, the Holy Faith, which
you receive, by grace, in baptism, united with the
disposition of your soul created by Me, so fitted for
love, that, without love, which is her very food, she
cannot live. Where does the soul united in this way
obtain light?
"At the fire of My Divine love, loving and fearing
Me, and following the Doctrine of My Truth. It is
true that the soul becomes more or less lighted
according to the material which it brings to the
fire; for although you all have one and the same
material, in that you are all created to My image and
similitude, and, being Christians, possess the light
of holy baptism, each of you may grow in love and
virtue by the help of My grace, as may please you.
"Not that you change the form of what I have given
you, but that you increase your strength in love, and
your free-will, by using it while you have time, for
when time is past you can no longer do so. So that
you can increase in love, as has been said, coming
with love to receive this Sweet and Glorious Light,
which I have given you as Food for your service,
through My ministers, and you receive this Light
according to the love and fiery desire with which you
approach It.
"The Light Itself you receive entire, as I have
said (in the example of those, who in spite of the
difference in weight of their candles, all receive
the entire light), and not divided, because It cannot
be divided, as has been said, either on account of
any imperfection of yours who receive, or of the
minister; but you personally participate in this
light, that is in the grace which you receive in this
Sacrament, according to the holy desire with which
you dispose yourselves to receive it.
"He who should go to this sweet Sacrament in the
guilt of mortal sin, will receive no grace therefrom,
though he actually receive the whole of God and the
whole of Man. Do you know the condition of the soul
who receives unworthily? She is like a candle on
which water has fallen, which can do nothing but
crackle when brought near the flame, for no sooner
has the fire touched it, than it is extinguished, and
nothing remains but smoke; so this soul has cast the
water of guilt within her mind upon the candle which
she received in holy baptism, which has drenched the
wick of the grace of baptism, and, not having heated
it at the fire of true contrition and confession,
goes to the table of the altar to receive this Light
with her body, and not with her mind, wherefore the
Light, since the soul is not disposed as she should
be for so great a mystery, does not remain by grace
in that soul, but leaves her, and, in the soul,
remains only greater confusion, for her light is
extinguished and her sin increased by her darkness.
"Of the Sacrament she feels nothing but the
crackling of a remorseful conscience, not through the
defect of the Light Itself, for that can receive no
hurt, but on account of the water that was in the
soul, which impeded her proper disposition so that
she could not receive the Light. See, therefore, that
in no way can this Light, united with its heat and
its color, be divided, either by the scanty desire of
the soul when she receives the Sacrament, or by any
defect which may be in the soul, or by any defect of
him who administers it, as I told you of the sun
which is not defiled by shining on anything foul, so
the sweet Light of this Sacrament cannot be defiled,
divided, or diminished in any way, nor can it be
detached from its orbit.
"If all the world should receive in communion the
Light and Heat of this Sun, the Word, My
only-begotten Son, would not be separated from Me --
the True Sun, His Eternal Father -- because in His
mystical Body, the holy Church, He is administered to
whoever will receive Him. He remains wholly with Me,
and yet you have Him, whole God and whole man, as I
told you, in the metaphor of the light, that, if all
the world came to take light from it, each would have
it entire, and yet it would remain whole."
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