The Dialogue

How GOD does not withdraw Himself from the aforesaid perfect ones by sentiment or by grace, but how He withdraws the union of Himself from them.

" I HAVE said, that, from these pertect ones, I never with draw by sentiment. But, in another way, I depart from them, for the soul, being bound in the body, is not sufficient continually to receive that union which I make with her. And because she is not sufficient, I withdraw Myself, not by sentiment or by grace, but by that union which I

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make with her. For souls, arising with anxious desire, run, with virtue, by the Bridge of the doctrine of Christ crucified, and arrive at the gate, lifting up their minds in Me, and in the Blood, and burning with the fire of love they taste in Me, the Eternal Deity, Who am to them a Sea Pacific, with Whom the soul has made so great union, that she has no movement except in Me. And, being yet mortal, they taste the good of the immortals, and having yet the weight of the body, they receive the joy of the spirit. Wherefore oftentimes, through the perfect union which the soul has made with Me, she is raised from the earth almost as if the heavy body became light. But this does not mean that the heaviness of the body is taken away, but that the union of the soul with Me is more perfect than the union of the body with the soul ; wherefore the strength of the spirit, united with Me, raises the weight of the body from the earth, leaving it as if immovable and all pulled to pieces in the affection of the soul. Thou rememberest to have heard it said of some creatures, that were it not for My Goodness, in seeking strength for them, they would not be able to live, and I would tellthee, that, in the fact that the souls of some do not leave their bodies, is to be seen a greater miracle, than in the fact that some have arisen from the dead, so great is the union which they have with Me. I, therefore, sometimes for a space, withdraw from the union, making the soul return to the vessel of her body, that is, to the sentiment of the body, from which she was separated though the affection of love. From the body she did not depart, because that cannot be, except in death, the bodily powers alone departed, becoming united to Me, through affection of love. The memory is full of nothing but Me, the intellect, elevated, gazes upon the object of My Truth ; the affection, which follows the intellect, loves and becomes united with that which the intellect sees. These powers, being united and gathered together and immersed and inflamed in Me, the body loses its feeling, so that the seeing eye sees not, and the hearing ear hears not, and the tongue does not speak, except as the abundance of the heart will sometimes permit it for the

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alleviation of the heart and the praise and glory of My Name.

"The hand does not touch and the feet walk not, because the members are bound with the sentiment of love, and as, it were, contrary to all their natural functions, cry to Me the Eternal Father for the separation of the soul from the body, as did My glorious Paul, saying, ' Oh wretched man that lam, who will separate Me from this body ? for I feel within Me a perverse law which wars against the Spirit.' Paul was not referring to the warring of senses against the Spirit, from which he knew he was secured by My words : My grace is sufficient for thee. Why then, did he utter those words ? Because he found himself bound in the vessel of the body, which for a space of time impeded his vision of Me, that is to say, that, until death, his eyes were bound so as not to be able to see Me, the Eternal Trinity, Who am in the sight of the Blessed Immortals, who render praise and glory to My name. Whereas he found himself in the midst of mortals who always offend Me, deprived of the sight of Me, that is of Me in My Essence. Not that he and My other servants see Me not in the virtue of Charity in diverse ways, according as pleases My Goodness, but they see Me not in Essence. But every vision, which the soul, while it is in the mortal body, receives of Me is a darkness compared to that sight which the soul has who is separated from the body. So that it seemed to Paul that the bodily vision warred against the vision of the Spirit, and that the feeling of the grossness of the human body impeded the intellectual eye, not allowing him to see Me face to face, and it seemed to him that his will was so bound that he could not love as he wanted to love, for every love in this life, until it reaches its perfection, is imperfect. Not that the love of Paul and of My other servants was imperfect in grace and in charity, because it was perfect, but it was imperfect in that it had not satis faction, which gave him pain, for, had his desire been filled with that which he loved, he would have felt no pain. But the soul, who is separated from the body, has her desire filled, and has therefore no pain. She is satisfied, the tedium of

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satiety, being far from her, and the pain of hunger. Her vessel is filled, and she is firm and stable in Me, the Truth, so that she can desire nothing which she has not. Desiring Me, she sees Me face to face, desiring to see the glory and praise of My Name in My saints, she sees them in the angelic as well as in the human nature."