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"The soul who with love has submitted to the yoke of
obedience, to the Commandments, following the
doctrine of My truth virtuously exercising herself,
as has been said, in this general kind of obedience
will advance to the second kind by means of the same
light which brought her to the first, for by the
light of the most holy faith she would have learnt,
in the blood of the humble Lamb, My truth -- the
ineffable love which I have for her, and her own
fragility, which cannot respond to Me with due
perfection.
"So she wanders, seeking by that light in what
place and in what way she can pay her debt, trampling
on her own fragility, and restraining her own will.
Enlightened in her search by faith, she finds the
place -- namely, holy religion -- which has been
founded by the Holy Spirit, appointed as the ship to
receive souls who wish to hasten to perfection, and
to bring them to the port of salvation.
"The Captain of this ship is the Holy Spirit, who
never fails in Himself through the defects of any of
His religious subjects who may transgress the rule of
the order. The ship itself cannot be damaged, but
only the offender. It is true that the mistake of the
steersman may send her down into the billows, and
these are wicked pastors and prelates appointed by
the Master of the ship. The ship herself is so
delightful that your tongue could not narrate it.
"I say, then, that the soul, on fire with desire
and a holy self-hatred, having found her place by the
light of faith, enters there as one dead, if she is
truly obedient; that is to say, if she have perfectly
observed general obedience. And even if she should be
imperfect when she enters, it does not follow that
she cannot attain perfection. On the contrary, she
attains it by exercising herself in the virtue of
obedience; indeed, most of those who enter are
imperfect.
"There are some who enter already in perfection,
others in the childhood of virtue, others through
fear, others through penance, others through
allurements, everything depends on whether after they
have entered they exercise themselves in virtue, and
persevere till death, for no true judgment can be
made on a person's entrance into religion, but only
on their perseverance, for many have appeared to be
perfect who have afterwards turned back, or remained
in the order with much imperfection, so that, as I
have said, the act of entrance into this ship
ordained by Me, who call men in different ways, does
not supply material for a real judgment, but only the
love of those who persevere therein with true
obedience.
"This ship is rich, so that there is no need for
the subject to think about his necessities either
temporal or spiritual, for if he is truly obedient,
and observes his order, he will be provided for by
his Master, who is the Holy Spirit, as I told you
when I spoke to you of My providence, saying that
though your servants might be poor, they were never
beggars. No more are these, for they find everything
they need, and those who observe this order find this
to be indeed true.
"Wherefore, see that in the days when the
religious orders lived virtuously, blossoming with
true poverty and fraternal charity, their temporal
substance never failed them, but they had more than
their needs demanded. But because the stench of
self-love has entered and caused each to keep his
private possessions and to fail in obedience, their
temporal substance has failed, and the more they
possess to the greater destitution do they come. It
is just that even in the smallest matters they should
experience the fruit of disobedience, for had they
been obedient and observed the vow of poverty, each
would not have taken his own, and lived privately.
"See the riches of these holy rules, so
thoughtfully and luminously appointed by those who
were temples of the Holy Spirit. See with what
judgment Benedict ordered his ship; see with what
perfection and order of poverty Francis ordered his
ship, decked with the pearls of virtue, steering it
in the way of lofty perfection, being the first to
give his order for spouse, true and holy poverty,
whom he had chosen for himself, embracing
self-contempt and self-hatred, not desiring to please
any creature but only your will; desiring rather to
be thought vile by the world, macerating his body and
slaying his will, clothing himself in insults,
sufferings, and jibes, for love of the humble Lamb,
with whom he was fastened and nailed to the cross by
love, so that by a singular grace there appeared in
his body the very wounds of your Truth, showing in
the vessel of his body that which was in the love of
his soul, so he prepared the way.
"But you will say, 'Are not all the other
religious orders equally founded on this point?' Yes,
but though they are all founded on it, in no other is
this the principal foundation; as with the virtues,
though all the virtues draw their life from charily,
nevertheless, as I explained to you in another place,
one virtue belongs especially to one man, and another
to another, and yet they all remain in charity, so
with the principal foundation of the religious
orders.
"Poverty belonged especially to My poor man
Francis, who placed the principal foundation of his
order in love for this poverty, and made it very
strict for those who were perfect, for the few and
the good, not for the majority. I say few because
they are not many who choose this perfection, though
now through their sins they are multiplied in numbers
and deficient in virtue, not through defect of the
ship, but through disobedient subjects and wicked
rulers.
"Now look at the ship of your father Dominic, My
beloved son: he ordered it most perfectly, wishing
that his sons should apply themselves only to My
honor and the salvation of souls, with the light of
science, which light he laid as his principal
foundation, not, however, on that account, being
deprived of true and voluntary poverty, but having it
also. And as a sign that he had it truly, and that
the contrary displeased him, he left as an heirloom
to his sons his curse and Mine, if they should hold
any possessions, either privately or in community, as
a sign that he had chosen for his spouse Queen
Poverty.
"But for his more immediate and personal object he
took the light of science in order to extirpate the
errors which had arisen in his time, thus taking on
him the office of My only-begotten Son, the Word.
Rightly he appeared as an apostle in the world, and
sowed the seed of My Word with much truth and light,
dissipating darkness and giving light. He was a light
which I gave the world by means of Mary, placed in
the mystical body of the Holy Church as an extirpator
of heresies. Why do I say by means of Mary? Because
Mary gave him his habit -- this office was committed
to her by My goodness.
"At what table does he feed his sons with the
light of science? At the table of the cross, which is
the table of holy desire, when souls are eaten for My
honor. Dominic does not wish his sons to apply
themselves to anything, but remaining at this table,
there to seek with the light of science, the glory
and praise of My name alone, and the salvation of
souls. And in order that they might do nothing else,
he chose poverty for them, so that they might not
have the care of temporal things. It is true that
some failed in faith, fearing that they would not be
provided for, but he never.
"Being clothed in faith, and hoping with firm
confidence in My providence, He wishes his sons to
observe obedience and do their duty, and since impure
living obscures the eye of the intellect, and not
only the eye of the intellect, but also of the body,
he does not wish them to obscure their physical light
with which they may more perfectly obtain the light
of science; wherefore he imposed on them the third
vow of continence, and wishes that all should observe
it, with true and perfect obedience, although today
it is badly observed.
"They also prevent the light of science with the
darkness of pride, not that this light can be
darkened in itself, but only in their souls, for
there, where pride is, can be no obedience. I have
already told you that a man's humility is in
proportion to his obedience, and his obedience to his
humility, and similarly, when he transgresses the vow
of obedience, it rarely happens that he does not also
transgress the vow of continence, either in thought
or deed; so that he has rigged his ship with the
three ropes of obedience, continence, and true
poverty; he made it a royal ship, not obliging his
subjects under pain of mortal sin, and illuminated by
Me the true light, he provided for those who should
be less perfect, for though all who observe the order
are perfect in kind, yet one possesses a higher
degree of perfection than another, yet all perfect or
imperfect live well in this ship.
"He allied himself with My truth, showing that he
did not desire the death of a sinner, but rather that
he should be converted and live. Wherefore his
religion is a delightful garden, broad and joyous and
flagrant, but the wretches who do not observe the
order, but transgress its vows, have turned it into a
desert and defiled it with their scanty virtue and
light of science, though they are nourished at its
breast. I do not say that the order itself is in this
condition, for it still possesses every delight, but
in the beginning its subjects were not as they are
now, but blooming flowers, and men of great
perfection. Each scented to be another St. Paul,
their eyes so illuminated that the darkness of error
was dissipated by their glance.
Look at My glorious Thomas, who gazed with the
gentle eye of his intellect at My Truth, whereby he
acquired supernatural light and science infused by
grace, for he obtained it rather by means of prayer
than by human study. He was a brilliant light,
illuminating his order and the mystical body of the
Holy Church, dissipating the clouds of heresy. Look
at My Peter, virgin and martyr, who by his blood gave
light among the darkness of many heresies, and the
heretics hated him so that at last they took his
life; yet while he lived he applied himself to
nothing but prayer, preaching, and disputation with
heretics, hearing confessions, announcing the truth,
and spreading the faith without any fear, to such an
extent that he not only confessed it in his life but
even at the moment of his death, for when he was at
the last extremity, having neither voice nor ink
left, having received his death-blow, he dipped his
finger in his blood, and this glorious martyr, having
not paper on which to write, leaned over, confessing
the faith, and wrote the Credo on the ground.
"His heart burnt in the furnace of My charity, so
that he never slackened his pace nor turned his head
back, though he knew that he was to die, for I had
revealed to him his death, but like a true knight he
fearlessly came forth on to the battlefield; and I
could tell you the same of many others, who though
they did not actually experience martyrdom, were
martyrs in will like Dominic; great laborers were
these sent by My Father to labor in His vineyard to
extirpate the thorns of vice, planting the virtues in
their stead.
"Of a truth Dominic and Francis were two columns
of the holy Church. Francis with the poverty which
was specially his own, as has been said, and Dominic
with his learning."
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