The Dialogue

A repetition of several things already said, and how God promises refreshments to His servants, and the reformation of the Holy Church, together with the means of much endurance.

" Now thou seest that I, the Truth, have spoken truth to thee, and have given thee the doctrine by which thou mayest

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attain and preserve great perfection ; and I have also declared to thee, in what way satisfaction is made, both for the guilt and the penalty, in thyself and in thy neighbour, saying to thee that the sufferings sustained by the creature, while in the mortal body, are not, of themselves, a sufficient expiation for the fault and the pain due to it, unless they are combined with the affection of love, and true contrition and displeasure of sin ; for, when suffering is combined with love it satisfies, not by virtue of the actual suffering endured, but by virtue of the love and the grief for sin committed, which love is obtained by the light of the intellect, with a pure and generous heart gazing at Me, as its object, Who am Love itself. All this I have shown thee because thou didst ask Me if thou couldest suffer for My glory. And I have shown this to thee, in order that thou and My other servants may know how you should sacrifice yourselves to me. In your sacrifice, I say, both act and thought should be united ; as a vessel which is presented to the Lord, is united with the water it contains, for the water could not be presented without the vessel, and the vessel would not be pleasing to Him if it did not contain the water. , So I say to you, that you ought to offer to Me the vessel of > many fatiguing actions, in whatever way I send them to you, choosing, after your own fashion, neither place, nor time, nor actions. Therefore the vessel should be full, that is, you should endure all those fatigues, with affection of love and true patience, supporting the defects of your neighbour, with hatred and displeasure of sin. If you do so, these labours which I have given you become a grateful vessel, full of the water of My grace which gives life to the soul, and then I receive this gift from My sweet spouses, that is from every soul who serves Me well. I receive her anxieties, her desires, her tears, her humble sighs, and her continual prayers ; all which things are a means, by which, through love, I appease My wrath against My enemies, the men of iniquity who so greatly offend Me. So, endure manfully, even unto death, and this will be a sign to Me that you love Me ; and you should not turn your faces away and look askance at the plough, through fear of any

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creature or of any tribulation, rather, in such tribulations should you rejoice. The world rejoices in doing you many injuries, and you are saddened on account of the injuries done in the world, and the offences which you see done against yourselves, which offend both you and Me, because I have become one thing with you. Thou seest truly, that I, having originally given you My image and similitude, and you, having lost My grace through sin, in order to restore to you that life of grace, I united My nature to you, covering it with the veil of your humanity, and thus, while you, by creation, possessed My image, I took your image in taking the human form. I am therefore one thing with you, if indeed the soul do not leave Me through the guilt of mortal sin ; but he, who loves Me, remains in Me, and I in him, and yet the world persecutes him, because the world has no conformity with Me, and, in the same way, persecuted My only begotten Son, even to the shameful death of the Cross. It does the same to you, it persecutes, and will persecute you, even unto death, because it loves Me not, for if, the world had loved Me, it would also have loved you ; but rejoice, because your joy will be great in Heaven. I also say to thee that, as the mystical body of the Church abounds now in tribulation, so shall it one day abound all the more in sweetness, and consolation, and this shall be its sweetness — the reformation produced by holy and good pastors, who are flowers of glory ; for they render glory and praise to My Name, rendering to Me the sweet odours of virtues founded on truth. The reformation concerns those odori ferous flowers, My ministers and pastors, not the fruit of My spouse, which never needs to be reformed, because it neither diminishes nor is hurt by the defects of My ministers.

" So do thou rejoice, and the spiritual father of thy soul, and My other servants, in the bitterness of your sorrow, because, in My Eternal Truth, I have promised to give you refreshment, and after your sorrow I will give you most sustaining consolation, with much substance in the reforma tion of the Holy Church."

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