The Dialogue

How those who desire the tears of the eyes and cannot have them, have tears of fire ; and why God withdraws from them physical tears.

" I HAVE spoken to thee of perfect and imperfect tears, and how all of them issue from the heart. From this vessel comes every kind of tear, whatever be the cause of it, they may therefore all be called hearty tears. The sole differ ence lies between ordinate and disordinate love, between perfect and imperfect love, as I have said to thee above. I have yet to tell thee, in order to satisfy the request thou didst make to Me, of those who long for the perfection of tears, but apparently cannot have it. Have they any other way of weeping besides the tears of the eyes ? Yes, they have the weeping of fire, namely, of true and holy desire, by which they are consumed through the affection of love and long to melt their life away in weeping, out of self-hatred, and for the salvation of souls, and yet it seems that they cannot. These, I say, have the tears of fire, in which the Holy Spirit weeps before Me for them and their neighbour. Thus, I say, does My Divine love light up with its flame the soul who offers anxious desires

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before Me, without bodily tears. These, I say, are the tears of fire, and in this way does the Holy Spirit lament. Not being able to do so with tears, He offers the will and desires of weeping for love of Me. If thou openest the eye of thy intellect, thou wilt see that the Holy Spirit laments by means of every servant of Mine who sheds holy desires and humble, continual prayers before Me. This, it would seem, is what the glorious Apostle Paul meant when he said that the Holy Spirit grieved before Me, the Father, with unutterable groanings for you.

" Wherefore see that the tears of fire have no less fruit than those of water, often indeed more, according to the measure of the love from which they proceed. A soul, then, who desires tears and cannot have them, should not be put to confusion of mind, or think that she is deprived of anything by Me. She should desire tears with a will humbled, attuned to Mine, desiring them or not, according as pleases My Divine Goodness. Sometimes I do not permit the soul to shed tears physically, in order that she may remain before Me humbled in continual prayer, inas much as to grant her request would not be of the use to her that she thinks. For she would remain content with having received what she had asked for, and so her affec tion would grow weak, together with the desire with which she had been accustomed to ask for it. So, for the sake of the growth, and not the turning back of souls, do I reserve the right of not granting actual tears, but I some times grant them mentally and of the heart only, full of the fire of My Divine Love. In every state, therefore, and in every time will My servants be pleasing to Me, if they never let the eye of their intellect lose sight of the object of My Eternal Truth in the light of faith, with the effect of love. I am the Physician and you the patients, and I give each of you what is necessary for his salvation, and for the growth of perfection in his soul. This is the truth and the explanation of the states of tears, which I, the Eternal Truth, have given thee, My most sweet daughter. Drown thyself then in the Blood of Christ crucified, the humble and immaculate Lamb, marked with

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the cross, growing continually in virtue, so that thou mayest be nourished internally with the fire of My Divine Love."