The Dialogue

How God farms and prunes His vine ; and how each man's vine is so closely united with his neighbour's, that he cannot either cultivate or ruin the one without the other.

" DOST thou know how I act in order that My servants may be united in following the doctrine of My sweet and amor ous Word ? I prune them in order that they may bring forth much fruit, and that their fruit may be fit for My table, and may not remain wild. In the same way a husbandman prunes and sets in order a good branch of a vine so that it may make better and more wine; and the branch that brings forth no fruit, he cuts away and casts into the fire. So I, the true Husbandman, prune My servants who remain in Me, with many tribulations, so that they may bring forth more and better fruit, and that their virtfce may be proved ; and those that do not bring forth fruit are cut off and cast into the fire. These, then, are true labourers who cultivate well their soul, rooting out all self-love, and turning over the earth of their affection on Me. They nourish and increase the seed of grace which they received in Holy Baptism, arid labouring their own vine, labour their neighbour's, for they cannot labour one without the other. Thou rememberest that all good and all evil were accomplished by means of the neighbour. Thus, then, do you become My husbandmen, proceeding from Me, the Superior and Eternal Husbandman Who have joined you together, grafting you on the true Vine by the union which I have made with you. Remember, then, that all rational creatures have their own vine indeed, but it is joined directly to their neighbour's vine, so closely that no one can do good or harm to his neighbour without doing it to himself, and all of you together make up the universal vine which is the whole congregation of Christians who are united in the vine of the mystical body of Holy Church, from which you draw your life. In which vine yard is planted the Vine of My only-begotten Son, on Which you should be grafted ; for, if you are not

A TREATISE OF DISCRETION 65

grafted on Him, you become rebels to the Holy Church, and, as limbs, cut from the body, which immediately corrupt.

" It is true that, while you have time, you can free your selves from the stench of sin by true repentance, turning to My ministers, the husbandmen, who hold the key of the Wine, that is, of the Blood that issued from His Vine. Which Blood is so perfectly made that, through no defect of the minister, can its effect be hindered. The branches are bound up with the bonds of love, and he who binds them must do so with true humility, acquired by a true knowledge of himself and Me. See, then, that I have placed you all as husbandmen, and now again, I invite you to your labour, because the world is reaching an evil pass ; and the thorns are so multiplied in the vineyard that they have crushed out the seed, so that My vines will bring forth no fruit of grace. I wish you, then, to be true husbandmen, and with great zeal to cultivate souls in the mystical body of the Holy Church, and this, I say, because I wish to do mercy to the world, for which thou prayest to Me so ardently."