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"I will now speak to you, in order to give a little
refreshment to your soul, and to mitigate your grief
at the darkness of these miserable subjects, of the
holy life of some of My ministers, of whom I have
spoken to you, who are like the sun, for the odor of
their virtues mitigates the stench of the vices of
the others, and the light thereof shines in their
darkness. And, by means of this light, will you the
better be able to understand the darkness and sins of
My unworthy ministers.
"Open then the eye of your intellect and gaze at
the Sun of Justice, and you will see those glorious
ministers, who, through ministering the Sun, have
become like to It, as I told you of Peter, the prince
of the Apostles, who received the keys of the kingdom
of Heaven. I say the same of these others, who have
administered, in the garden of the holy Church, the
Light, that is to say, the Body and the Blood of My
only-begotten Son, who is Himself the undivided Sun,
as has been said, and all the Sacraments of the holy
Church, which all give life in virtue of the Blood.
"Each one, placed in a different rank, has
administered, according to his state, the grace of
the Holy Spirit. With what have they administered it?
With the light of grace, which they have drawn from
this True Light. With light alone? No; because the
light cannot be separated from the warmth and color
of grace, wherefore a man must either have the light,
warmth, and color of grace, or none at all.
"A man in mortal sin is deprived of the life of
grace, and he who is in grace has illuminated the eye
of his intellect to know Me, who gave him both grace
and the virtue which preserves it, and, in that
light, he knows the misery and the reason of sin,
that is to say, his own self-love, on which account
he hates it, and thereby receives the warmth of
Divine love into his affection, which follows his
intellect, and he receives the color of this glorious
Light, following the doctrine of My sweet Truth, by
which his memory is filled with the benefit of the
Blood.
"You see, therefore, that no one can receive the
light without receiving the warmth and the color, for
they are united together and are one thing; wherefore
he cannot, as I have said to you, have one power of
his soul so ordered as to receive Me, the True Sun,
unless all three powers of his soul are brought
together and ordered in My Name. For, as soon as the
eye of the intellect lifts itself with the pupil of
faith above sensual vision in the contemplation of
Me, affection follows it, loving that which the
intellect sees and knows, and the memory is filled
with that which the affection loves; and, as soon as
these powers are thus disposed, the soul participates
in Me, the Sun who illuminates her with My power, and
with the wisdom of My only-begotten Son, and the
fiery clemency of the Holy Spirit.
"See, then, that these have taken on them the
condition of the Sun, for, having clothed themselves,
and filled the power of their soul with Me, the true
Sun, they become like Me. The Sun illuminates them
and causes the earth of their souls to germinate with
Its heat. Thus do My sweet ministers, elected and
anointed and placed in the mystical body of the holy
Church, in order to administer Me, the Sun, that is
to say, the Body and Blood of My only-begotten Son,
together with the other Sacraments, which draw their
life from this Blood; this they do in two ways,
actually, in administering the Sacraments, and
spiritually, by shedding forth in the mystical body
of the holy Church, the light of supernatural
science, together with the color of an honorable and
holy life, following the doctrine of My Truth, which
they administer in the ardent love with which they
cause barren souls to bear fruit, illuminating them
with the light of their science, and driving away the
darkness of their mortal sin and infidelity, by the
example of their holy and regular life, and reforming
the lives of those who live in disorder and darkness
of sin, and in coldness, through the privation of
charity.
So you see that they are the Sun, because they
have taken the condition of the Sun from Me, the True
Sun, because, through affection of love, they are one
thing with Me, and I with them, as I narrated to you
in another place, and each one has given light in the
holy Church, according to the position to which I
have elected him: Peter with preaching and doctrine,
and in the end with blood; Gregory with science, and
holy scripture, and with the mirror of his life;
Sylvester, against the infidels, and with disputation
and proving of the most holy faith, which he made in
word and in deed, receiving virtue from Me. If you
turn to Augustine, and to the glorious Thomas and
Jerome, and the others, you will see how much light
they have thrown over this spouse, extirpating error,
like lamps placed upon the candelabra, with true and
perfect humility.
"And, as if famished for such food, they feed upon
My honor, and the salvation of souls, upon the table
of the most holy Cross. The martyrs, indeed, with
blood, which blood cast up sweet perfume before My
countenance; and, with the perfume of blood, and of
the virtues, and with the light of science, they
brought forth fruit in this spouse and extended the
faith, and, by their means, the light of the most
holy faith was rekindled in the darkened.
"And prelates, placed in the position of the
prelacy of Christ on earth, offered Me the sacrifice
of justice with holy and upright lives. The pearl of
justice, with true humility, and most ardent love,
shone in them, and in their subjects, with the light
of discretion. In them, principally because they
justly paid Me My due, in rendering glory and praise
to My Name, and, to their own sensuality, hatred and
displeasure, despising vice and embracing virtue,
with love of Me and of their neighbor.
"With humility they trampled on pride, and, with
purity of heart and of body, came, like angels, to
the table of the altar, and, with sincerity of mind,
celebrated, burning in the furnace of love. And,
because they first had done justice to themselves,
they therefore did justice to those under them,
wishing to see them live virtuously, and correcting
them without any servile fear, because they were not
thinking of themselves, but solely of My honor and
the salvation of souls, like good shepherds,
followers of the Good Shepherd, My Truth, whom I gave
you to lead your sheep, having willed that He should
give His life for you.
"These have followed His footsteps, and therefore
did they correct them, and did not let their members
become putrid for want of correcting, but they
charitably corrected them with the unction of
benignity, and with the sharpness of fire,
cauterizing the wound of sin with reproof and
penance, little or much, according to the graveness
of the fault.
"And, in order to correct it and to speak the
truth, they did not even fear death. They were true
gardeners who, with care and holy tears, took away
the thorns of mortal sins, and planted plants
odoriferous of virtue. Wherefore, those under them
lived in holy, true fear, and grew up like sweet
smelling flowers in the mystic body of the holy
Church (because they were not deprived of correction,
and so were not guilty of sin), for My gardeners
corrected them without any servile fear, being free
from it, and without any sin, for they balanced
exactly the scales of holy justice, reproving humbly
and without human respect.
"And this justice was and is that pearl which
shines in them, and which gave peace and light in the
minds of the people and caused holy fear to be with
them, and unity of hearts. And I would that you know
that, more darkness and division have come into the
world amongst seculars and religious and the clergy
and pastors of the holy Church, through the lack of
the light of justice, and the advent of the darkness
of injustice, than from any other causes.
"Neither the civil law, nor the divine law, can be
kept in any degree without holy justice, because he
who is not corrected, and does not correct others,
becomes like a limb which putrefies, and corrupts the
whole body, because the bad physician, when it had
already begun to corrupt, placed ointment immediately
upon it, without having first burnt the wound. So,
were the prelate, or any other lord having subjects,
on seeing one putrefying from the corruption of
mortal sin, to apply to him the ointment of soft
words of encouragement alone, without reproof, he
would never cure him, but the putrefaction would
rather spread to the other members, who, with him,
form one body under the same pastor.
"But if he were a physician, good and true to
those souls, as were those glorious pastors of old,
he would not give salving ointment without the fire
of reproof. And, were the member still to remain
obstinate in his evil doing, he would cut him off
from the congregation in order that he corrupt not
the other members with the putrefaction of mortal
sin. But they act not so today, but, in cases of evil
doing, they even pretend not to see. And do you know
why?
"The root of self-love is alive in them, wherefore
they bear perverted and servile fear. Because they
fear to lose their position or their temporal goods,
or their prelacy, they do not correct, but act like
blind ones, in that they see not the real way by
which their position is to be kept. If they would
only see that it is by holy justice they would be
able to maintain it; but they do not, because they
are deprived of light. But, thinking to preserve
their position with injustice, they do not reprove
the faults of those under them; and they are deluded
by their own sensitive self-love, or by their desire
for lordship and prelacy, and they correct not the
faults they should correct in others, because the
same or greater ones are their own.
"They feel themselves comprehended in the guilt,
and they therefore lose all ardor and security, and,
fettered by servile fear, they make believe not to
see. And, moreover, if they do see they do not
correct, but allow themselves to be bound over with
flattering words and with many presents, and they
themselves find the excuse for the guilty ones not to
be punished. In such as these are fulfilled the words
spoken by My Truth, saying: 'These are blind and
leaders of the blind, and if the blind lead the
blind, they both fall into the ditch.'
"My sweet ministers, of whom I spoke to you, who
have the properties and condition of the sun, did
not, and do not (if there be any now) act so. And
they are truly suns, as I have told you, because in
them is no darkness of sin, or of ignorance, because
they follow the doctrine of My Truth. They are not
tepid, because they burn in the furnace of My love,
and because they are despisers of the grandeurs,
positions, and delights of the world. They fear not
to correct, for he who does not desire lordship or
prelacy will not fear to lose it, and will reprove
manfully, and he whose conscience does not reprove
him of guilt, does not fear.
"And therefore this pearl of justice was not
dimmed in My anointed ones, My Christs (of whom I
have narrated to you), but was resplendent in them,
wherefore they embraced voluntary poverty, and sought
out vileness with profound humility, and cared not
for scorn or villainies, or the detractions of men,
or insult, or opprobrium, or pain, or torment.
"They were cursed, and they blessed, and, with
true patience, they bore themselves like terrestrial
angels, not by nature, but by their ministry, and the
supernatural grace given to them, of administering
the Body and Blood of My only-begotten Son. And they
are truly angels. Because, as the angel, which I give
you to be your guardian, ministers to you holy and
good inspirations, so were these ministers angels,
and were given by My goodness to be guardians, and
therefore had they their eye continually over those
under them, like real guardian angels, inspiring in
their hearts holy and good thoughts, and offering up
for them before Me, sweet and amorous desires with
continual prayer, and the doctrine of words, and with
example of life.
"So you see that they are angels, placed by My
burning love, like lanterns in the mystic body of the
holy Church, to be your guardians, so that you blind
ones may have guides to direct you into the way of
truth, giving you good inspirations, with prayers and
example of life, and doctrine as I said.
"With how much humility did they govern those
under them, and converse with them! With how much
hope and lively faith, and therefore with liberality,
did they distribute to the poor the substance of the
holy Church, not fearing, or caring if for them and
their subjects temporal substance diminished. And
they scarcely observed that which they were really
bound to do, that is, to distribute the temporal
substance to their own necessity being the poor in
the Church. They saved nothing, and after their death
there remained no money at all, and there were some
even who, for the sake of the poor, left the Church
in debt. This was because through the largeness of
their charity, and of the hope that they had placed
in My Providence, they were without servile fear that
anything should diminish to them, either spiritual or
temporal.
"The sign that a creature hopes in Me and not in
himself, is that he does not fear with a servile
fear. They who hope in themselves are the ones who
fear, and are afraid of their own shadow, and doubt
lest the sky and earth fade away before them. With
such fears as these, and a perverted hope in their
own small knowledge, they spend so much miserable
solicitude in acquiring and preserving temporal
things, that they turn their back on the spiritual,
caring not for them.
"But they, miserable, faithless, proud ones
consider not that I alone am He who provides all
things necessary for the soul and the body, and that
with the same measure that My creatures hope in Me,
will My providence be measured to them. The miserable
presumptuous ones do not regard the fact that I am He
who is, and they are they who are not, and that they
have received their being, and every other additional
grace, from My Goodness.
"And therefore his labor may be reputed to be in
vain, who watches the city if it be not guarded by
Me. All his labor will be vain, if he thinks by his
labor or solicitude to keep it, because I alone keep
it. It is true that I desire you to use your being,
and exercise the graces which I have bestowed upon
you, in virtue using the free-will which I have given
you, with the light of reason, because though I
created you without your help I will not save you
without it.
"I loved you before you were, and those My beloved
ones saw and knew this, and therefore they loved Me
ineffably, and through their love hoped so greatly in
Me that they feared nothing. Sylvester feared not
when he stood before the Emperor Constantine
disputing with those twelve Jews before the whole
crowd, but with lively faith he believed that I being
for him, no one could be against him; and in the same
way the others all lost their every fear, because
they were not alone but were accompanied, because
being in the enjoyment of love, they were in Me, and
from Me they acquired the light of the wisdom of My
only-begotten Son, and from Me they received the
faculty to be strong and powerful against the princes
and tyrants of the world, and from Me they had the
fire of the Holy Spirit, sharing the clemency and
burning love of that Spirit.
"This love was and is the companion of whosoever
desires it, with the light of faith, with hope, with
fortitude, true patience and long perseverance even
until death.
"So you see that because they were not alone but
were accompanied they feared nothing. He only who
feels himself to be alone, and hopes in himself,
deprived of the affection of love, fears, and is
afraid of every little thing, because he alone is
without Me who give supreme security to the soul who
possesses Me through the affection of love.
"And of this did those glorious ones, My beloved,
have full experience, for nothing could injure their
souls; but they on the contrary could injure men and
the devils, who oftentimes remained bound by the
virtue and power that I had given My servants over
them. This was because I responded to the love,
faith, and hope they had placed in Me. Your tongue
would not be sufficient to relate their virtues,
neither the eye of your intellect to see the fruit
which they receive in everlasting life, and that all
will receive who follow in their footsteps.
"They are like precious stones, and as such do
they stand in My presence, because I have received
their labor and poverty and the light which they shed
with the odor of virtues in the mystic body of the
holy Church. And in the life eternal I have placed
them in the greatest dignity, and they receive
blessing and glory in My sight, because they gave the
example of an honorable and holy life, and with light
administered the Light of the Body and Blood of My
only-begotten Son, and all the Sacraments.
"And these My anointed ones and ministers are
peculiarly beloved by Me, on account of the dignity
which I placed in them, and because this Treasure
which I placed in their hands they did not hide
through negligence and ignorance, but rather
recognized it to be from Me, and exercised it with
care and profound humility with true and real
virtues; and because I, for the salvation of souls,
having placed them in so much excellency they never
rested like good shepherds from putting the sheep
into the fold of the holy Church, and even out of
love and hunger for souls they gave themselves to
die, to get them out of the hands of the devil.
"They made themselves infirm with those who were
infirm, so that they might not be overcome with
despair, and to give them more courage in exposing
their infirmity, they would oftentimes lend
countenance to their infirmity and say, 'I, too, am
infirm with you.' They wept with those who wept, and
rejoiced with those who rejoiced; and thus sweetly
they knew to give everyone his nourishment,
preserving the good and rejoicing in their virtues,
not being gnawed by envy, but expanded with the
broadness of love for their neighbors, and those
under them.
"They drew the imperfect ones out of imperfection,
themselves becoming imperfect and infirm with them,
as I told you, with true and holy compassion, and
correcting them and giving them penance for the sins
they committed -- they through love endured their
penance -- together with them. For through love, they
who gave the penance, bore more pain than they who
received it; and there were even those who actually
performed the penance, and especially when they had
seen that it had appeared particularly difficult to
the penitent. Wherefore by that act the difficulty
became changed into sweetness.
"Oh! My beloved ones, they made themselves
subjects, being prelates, they made themselves
servants, being lords, they made themselves infirm,
being whole, and without infirmity and the leprosy of
mortal sin, being strong they made themselves weak,
with the foolish and simple they showed themselves
simple, and with the small insignificant.
"And so with love they knew how to be all things
to all men, and to give to each one his nourishment.
What caused them to do thus? The hunger and desire
for My honor and the salvation of souls which they
had conceived in Me. They ran to feed on it at the
table of the holy Cross, not fleeing from or refusing
any labor, but with zeal for souls and for the good
of the holy Church and the spread of the faith, they
put themselves in the midst of the thorns of
tribulation, and exposed themselves to every peril
with true patience, offering incense odoriferous with
anxious desires, and humble and continual prayers.
"With tears and sweat they anointed the wounds of
their neighbor, that is the wounds of the guilt of
mortal sin, which latter were perfectly cured, the
ointment so made, being received in humility."
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