Book Three

BOOK THREE


1. Of Heaven and the Nine Choirs and Who Is Supposed to Fill the Breach.
Of the Throne of the Apostles and St. Mary and on Which Christ Sits.
Of the Reward of Preachers, Martyrs, andVirgins, and of the Unbaptized Children


The soul spoke thus to its longing: "I beg you, go off and see where my Lover is, and tell him I want to love."

Then longing went quickly off, for it is by nature swift, and reached the heights and called out: "Great Lord, open up and let me in."

The Master of the house said:
"What is it you want that you are making such a fuss?"

"Lord, I report to you that my lady cannot live much longer in her present condition. But if you were to flow, then she could swim. A fish cannot remain alive and stay fresh long on the sand."

"Go on back. I'm not going to let you in unless you bring me the hungry soul that I desire more than anything else."

The messenger returned and the soul heard about her Lord's wish. Oh, how she trembled with love! She rose up with a deft movement and in pleasureful flight. Very soon two angels came to meet her. God sent them to her out of tender love. They said to her: "Lady Soul, what are you doing way up here? You are still clothed with dark earth."

She replied:
"Ye lords, be completely quiet about that
And see that you extend to me a better greeting.
I am going loving.
The closer you sink to earth,
The more you hide your celestial splendor;
And the higher I climb, the brighter I shine."

Then they took the soul between them and with light hearts led her forth. Then the soul first gazed upon the land of the angels where she is known and meets with no ill will, and heaven opened up before her.

She stood there, her heart melting, looked upon her Lover and said: "O Lord, when I look upon you, I have to praise you for your astonishing wisdom. Where have I come to? Am I now lost in you? I cannot even remember earth or any of my interior sufferings. On earth, when I caught sight of you, I used to wish to complain to you about many things. Now, Lord, the sight of you has struck me down. You have elevated me utterly beyond my worth."

Then she knelt down and thanked him for his favors and, taking her crown from her head, put it on the rose-colored scars on his feet and begged that she might come closer to him. He took her in his divine arms and laid his hand on her breast and looked her in the face. Well, was she kissed at all? In the kiss she was drawn up to the most sublime heights above all the angel choirs. The least truth that I saw and heard and understood there was incomparably more than the loftiest wisdom ever uttered here on earth. I saw there things never heard before, my confessors tell me, for I am ignorant of reading or writing. And now I fear God if I keep silent, but I fear uncomprehending people if I write. Dear people, what can I do about it that this happens to me and that it has often happened? In humble simplicity, in lonely poverty, and in demeaning shame did God show me his wonders.

There I saw the creation and order of God's house, which he himself built with his mouth. In it he put what was most dear that he had made with his hands. The creation of the house is called heaven; the choirs in it are called kingdom. Hence one says kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven has a boundary as to where it is placed, but as to its being a boundary will never be found. Heaven goes around the choirs, and between heaven and the lovely choirs the worldly sinners are placed, always equal in height to the choirs, that they better themselves and convert. The choirs are so delicate, holy, and marvelous that no one can enter without chastity, love, and renunciation of all things. For they were all holy who fell from there, and accordingly they must
also be holy who enter. All newly baptized and children up to six years fill the breach not higher than to the sixth choir. Then up to the Seraphim those virgins shall fill the breach who defiled themselves by their childish disposition, but never did so in deed, and who cleansed themselves afterward in confession. Still, they cannot recover from it completely since they have lost their purity. Those who are pure spiritual virgins shall after the last judgment fill the breach above the Seraphim, from where Lucifer and those closest to him were cast out. Lucifer committed at one and the same time three mortal sins: hatred, pride, and greed. These caused the choir to tumble into the eternal abyss as fast as one can say "alleluia." Then the whole kingdom was struck with terror and all the pillars of the kingdom of heaven shook. Then some of the others fell as well.

The desolation is as yet empty and bare. No one is there, and it is utterly pure in itself and sparkles with delight to God's honor. Above the desolation is God's throne vaulted with God's strength in blossoming, shining, fiery brightness, and it descends to the heaven opposite the Cherubim, so that God's throne and heaven are one glorious house; and the desolation and the nine choirs are enclosed within it. Above God's throne there is nothing but God. God infinitely great. Above on the throne one sees the mirror of the Godhead, the likeness of Humanity, the light of the Holy Spirit, and one understands how these three are one God and how they fit together into one. I am able to say no more about this.

John the Baptist will fill Lucifer's breach and will possess his honor in the sweet desolation above the Seraphim, and all pure spiritual virgins together with him. They are all destined for this desolation.

On the throne is our Lady, St. Mary, who shall not fill a breach; for with her Child she has healed the wounds of all men who accepted grace and could and willed to preserve it. Her Son is God and she a goddess. No one can be compared to her. The apostles dwell closest of all to God on the throne and have the empty places among the Seraphim as their reward according to how pure they are. John the Baptist is also a prince at the throne.

Angels dwell no higher than the Seraphim. Those above will all be human beings. The holy martyrs and God's preachers and spiritual lovers enter into the choirs even though they are not virgins. Indeed, they enter gloriously into the Cherubim!

There without asking I saw the reward of preachers as it shall come about. Their chairs are wondrous, their reward is special. The front legs of the chairs are two burning lights. They signify true love, holy example, and faithful intent. The backs of the chairs are so pleasantly free and sweet in delightful repose—more than one can express—in contrast to the strict obedience to which they were subjected here. Their feet are adorned with various kinds of precious stones, so beautiful that I would truly be filled with joy to receive such magnificence as a crown. This they have because of the exertion required of their feet on earth. O ye preachers, how unwillingly now do you move your tongues and so grudgingly incline your ears to the mouth of the sinner! I saw in God's presence that in the kingdom of heaven it shall happen that breath shall shine forth from your mouths which will ascend from the choirs to the throne and will praise the heavenly Father for the wisdom that he placed on your tongues; and it will greet the Son for his glorious company, for he was a preacher himself; and it will thank the Holy Spirit for his grace, for he is Master of all gifts.

Then God's preachers, the holy martyrs, and the loving virgins shall stand up, for the highest honor is given them in the form of special garments, delightful song, and marvelous garlands, which they wear to God's honor. The virgins' garments are white as lilies. The preachers' garments are fiery, bright as the sun. The martyrs' garments are glowing rose-colored because they suffered with Jesus a bloody death. The virgins' garland is many colored; the crown of the martyrs is large, catching the eye. The preachers' garland is made entirely of flowers. These are the words of God through which they have come into great honor here. Thus does this throng of three blessed bands go merrily forth into the presence of the Trinity, dancing finely in a circle. Then toward them a threefold stream flows out playfully from God, filling their minds and hearts so that they sing the truth effortlessly with joy, as God had entrusted it to them.

The preachers sing thus: "O chosen Lord, we have followed your generous kindness in voluntary poverty and have gathered together your straying sheep whom your hired shepherds let go off the right path."

The martyrs sing thus: "Lord, your innocent blood has made our death full, so that we are sharers in your suffering."

The blessed, who now live so blissfully in heaven hovering weightlessly, are all suffused with light and are permeated with love flowing through them and are united in one will, and yet they do not have the dignity that attaches to their glorious chairs. They rest in God's strength and flow in bliss, keeping themselves in God's breath, as does the air in the sun. But after the last day, when God shall hold his festive dinner, one shall seat the brides opposite their Bridegroom and thus shall love come to love, body to soul, and they shall possess full power in eternal glory.
O you charming Lamb and delightful Youth, Jesus, Child of the heavenly Father, when you then rise and pass through all the choirs waving lovingly to the virgins, they shall follow you filled with praise to that most overwhelming place of which I can say no more to anyone. How they shall then entertain themselves with you and devour your love's desire—that is such intimate sweetness and intense oneness—that I know nothing equal to it.

The widows shall follow as well in heartfelt yearning and will be utterly fulfilled in sweet contemplation when they shall see how the Lamb joins the virgins. Married people, too, shall look on lovingly in the measure possible to them according to their nobility, for the more one satisfies oneself with earthly things here, the less heavenly bliss shall be left over for us there.
The choirs each have a special light illuminating them and heaven has its own as well. The light is so extraordinarily glorious that I cannot and may not describe it. Many a dignity has been bestowed by God on the choirs and on heaven, and I can say a word or two about each—about as much as the honey a bee might carry off on its feet from a full hive.

In the first choir bliss is the most exalted among all the gifts they have.
In the second choir it is meekness.
In the third choir it is charm.
In the fourth it is sweetness.
In the fifth it is cheerfulness.
In the sixth it is noble fragrance.
In the seventh it is abundance.
In the eighth dignity.
In the ninth burning with love.
In the sweet emptiness it is pure holiness.

The most exalted thing on the throne is mighty honor and strong dominion. Towering above everything that was ever in heaven is a sense of wonder. The most sublime thing is that they may behold that which is now happening and shall happen forever. Ah, the grand expanse and sweet eternity and the keen power to see into all things and the special intimacy that unceasingly exists between God and each individual soul is of such overwhelming tenderness that even if I had the wisdom of all mankind and the voices of all the angels, I would be incapable of describing it.

Unbaptized children less than five years old dwell in their own special honor, which God from his kingdom has provided for them. They do not have the qualities of someone thirty years old because they were not Christians with Christ. They do not have a crown; God cannot reward them for anything. And yet he has granted them in his goodness that they live in great comfort.

The highest thing they possess is an abundance of favors. They sing thus:
"We praise him who created us,But whom we have never seen.If we were suffering pain,We would forever lament;But, as it is, we are doing quite well."

Now some people might be surprised how I, a sinful person, can undertake to write such a description. I tell you in utter truth: If seven years ago, God had not offered support to my heart with special favor, I would still be silent and would never have written this. Now, because of God's goodness, no harm has come to me from it. This is because of the obvious lowliness I reflect—which is so clearly manifest to my soul—and the nobility of favors that are contained in God's true gift. Indeed, the higher the soul has climbed, the less praise one should give to the body in word and deed. One should also not complain about the troubles one sees, for he is by nature a coward. Rather, one should treat him like an old pensioner who can no longer serve at court, and so one gives him alms purely for the love of God. This is truly of practical value. The nobler the dog, the tighter the collar!

Well, dear Lord, I commend this description to your generous goodness and ask, my dear One, with sighing heart, with weeping eyes, and with desolate soul that no Pharisee may ever read it. And I ask, in addition, dear Lord, that your children find that meaning in the text which you, Lord, in authentic truth have given it.


2. How the Soul Praises God and God the Soul for Seven Things.Of Balsam and Waiting


"O sweet Jesus, most handsome Image, unconcealed to my exiled soul in distress and in love! In love I praise you through yourself in distress and in love in union with all creatures; I yearn to do this above all things.

Lord, you are the sun for all eyes;
You are the delight of all ears;
You are the voice of all words;
You are the force behind all piety;
You are the teaching of all wisdom;
You are the life of all that lives;
You are the ordering of all that is."

Then God praised the loving soul in fine words. He took great delight in doing so:
"You are a light to my eyes;
You are a lyre to my ears;
You are a voice for my words;
You are a projection of my piety;
You are an honor to my piety;
You are a life living in me;
You are a praise in my being."

"Lord, you are constantly lovesick for me.That you have clearly shown personally.You have written me into your book of the Godhead;You have painted me in your humanity;You have buried me in your side, in your hands and feet.Ah, allow me, dear One, to pour balsam upon you."

"O One dear to my heart, where shall you find the balm?"

"O Lord, I was going to tear the heart of my soul in two and intended to put you in it."

"You could never give me a more soothing balsam than to let me unceasingly lie weightlessly in your soul."

"Lord, if you were to take me home with you, I would be your physician forever."

"Yes, I want that.
Still, my solicitude bids you wait;
My love bids you labor;
My patience bids you keep silent;
My concern bids you suffer poverty;
My dishonor bids you bear up;
My sufficiency bids you refrain from complaint;
My victory bids you pursue to the end all virtues;
My goal bids you endure many things;
For this you shall have glory when I remove your heavy burden."


3. A Lament That the Soul Is a Maidservant for the Love of God


"O Lord, what a poor and forsaken soul it is that here on earth is a maidservant for love of you. Oh, who shall help me lament what pain she suffers? For she herself has no idea what it is that she is renouncing!"

"Mistress Bride, in the Book of Love you say to your Lover that he should flee from you. Tell me urgently, Lady, what caused you to do this? For I would rather die, if I might do so in pure love, than in darkened wisdom bid God depart from me. If I may play intimately with my Lover, there is no need for wisdom to teach me about separation. But when I busy myself with other things with my five senses, then I willingly accept its bringing me holy moderation."

The bride speaks: "Listen to me, dear Playmate! I was pleasantly half drunk with love; this is why I speak tenderly from the senses. But whenever I become utterly inebriated, I cannot even think of my body; for love commands me. What she wants has to be. And what God hopes for I boldly undertake. If he takes my life, my soul belongs to him. If you wish to go with me into the wine cellar, it is going to cost you. If you have a thousand marks, you will use it up in an hour. If you drink the wine undiluted, you spend more than you have, and the innkeeper cannot fill your glass to the brim. Then you shall become poor and naked and despised by all those who prefer to enjoy the ooze rather than squander their hoard in the lofty wine cellar. You must also endure the envy of those who go with you into the wine cellar. Oh, how much will they often despise you because they will not risk the great expense! They want to mix water with their wine."

"Dear Mistress Bride, I shall willingly consume everything I have in the tavern. Let me be pulled through the coals of love and be struck with the firebrands of humiliation, so that I might very often enter the blessed wine cellar. This I gladly choose because regarding love I cannot lose. And so he who tortures and despises me actually pours out for me the innkeeper's wine that he himself drank. From that wine I shall become so drunk that I shall truly become so subordinate to all creatures that it seems to me, given my human lowliness and the baseness I have taken on, that no one has ever so wronged me as to have committed some sin against me, wretch that I am. Therefore, I cannot take revenge on my enemies for my sufferings, even though I well know that they may not break God's commandment in their treatment of me."

"Dear Playmate, if it happens that they close the wine cellar, then you will have to go out onto the road hungry, poor, naked, and so despised that you have no Christian sustenance left except faith. If you can then still love, you shall never go to ruin."

"Mistress Bride, I have such a hunger for the heavenly Father that I forget all cares. And I so thirst for his Son that it removes from me all earthly desires. And I have such a need for the Spirit of them both that it goes beyond the wisdom of the Father, which I cannot grasp; and beyond the Son's suffering, which I cannot bear; and beyond the consolation of the Holy Spirit, which I cannot receive."

Whoever becomes entangled in longing such as this must forever hang blessedly fettered in God.


4. How Our Lady St. Mary Can Sin and How Not; the HolySpirit Teaches This O Mary, glorious Empress, God's Mother and my Lady!


I was asked concerning you whether you were able to sin like other humans when you were on this sinful earth. Now the Holy Spirit, who knows fully all your secrets, has instructed me, Lady, that you were able to sin; for you had been created a full human being in your complete feminine nature and in full virginity. There was no deficiency in your nature, and that makes your lifelong chastity noble and precious in God's eyes.

But, Lady, noble Goddess above all pure humans, you were also able not to sin. This you had not from yourself, for the heavenly Father watched over your childhood with the foresight of his having chosen you long before, and the Holy Spirit bound your youth with the fullness of his fresh love, and Jesus so passed through your body as the dew through a flower that your chastity was never touched. And the power of the Holy Trinity had so pervaded your nature that it did not dare, nor could it, experience all-too-human stirrings. And the eternal wisdom of the almighty Godhead gave you, Lady, a shadow in which you kept your human life so that you could suffer pain, despite not sinning, and so that your thriving humanity would not perish under the sun of the powerful Godhead. In this shadow you carried Jesus in human fashion and, as his mother, raised him. However, Lady, in the message from the Father, in the conception from the Holy Spirit, and in the birth of the Son, Lady, the fire of the Godhead and the light of the Holy Spirit and the wisdom of the Son were so great in you that you could hardly notice the shadow. God knows, Lady, later you would turn wretchedly cold in poverty, in trials, and in heartache. In spite of this, in your heart you continued to burn brightly in good works from that fire which burns in itself unaided without a beginning. This, Lady, pierced your walls with light and drove all darkness from your house.


5. How the Soul Complains That She Hears No Mass NorHours and How God Praises Her in Ten Things


Thus did a forsaken soul complain when God excluded her from his ecstatic love and loved her by means of great suffering: "Alas, how sulkingly does a rich man bear it when after glorious wealth he is led into great poverty!"

And she says: "Oh, Lord, now I am extremely destitute in my sickly body and am so miserable in my soul which is so lacking in spiritual order that no one recites the hours of the office in my presence and no one celebrates holy mass for me!"

The loving Mouth spoke, the Mouth that wounded my soul so terribly with his sublime words that I never received worthily:

"You are the feelings of love in my desire.You are a sweet cooling for my breast.You are a passionate kiss for my mouth.You are a blissful joy of my discovery.I am in youAnd you are in me.We could not be closer,For we two have flowed into oneAnd have been poured into one mold.Thus shall we remain forever content."

"Ah, dear One, how intimately you speak to me. And yet I never dare think upon these words in joy. For I constantly notice with anguish the stench of that dead mongrel, my body; and others of my enemies are always assailing me; and I, Lord, when I consider the matter, have no idea how things shall turn out for me in the end. What is more, just beholding you I lose all awareness of suffering. Thus, Lord, have you taken me from myself and have stealthily entered into me. What you then promised me, may it happen and may it result in your praise."

Our Lord answers thus:
"Downward I reach,Widely I roam,Upward I yearn,Long I wait.

"Again I must teach you: Noble maidens pay a high price for their good breeding. They must maintain restraint in all their suffering and must often tremble before their governess. So it is with my brides on earth as to their bodies. On earth I was oppressively enclosed for love of you, and my raging enemies bore my death in their hands before my very eyes, and in shame I suffered dire poverty. In all this I trusted my Father's infinite goodness. Direct your spirit accordingly."


6. If You Womld Follow God Rightly, You Should Have Seven Things


Whoever wants to follow God in faithful toil should not stand quietly. He should often rouse himself. He should consider what he was in sin, how he is now in virtue, and what can yet become of him if he falls. He should lament and praise and pray day and night. When the faithful bride awakens, she thinks of her lover. If she cannot possess him then, she begins to weep. Alas, how often this happens spiritually to God's brides!


7. Concerning Seven Obvious Enemies of Our Happiness That Cause Seven Kinds of Harm


Aimless activity is a very harmful trait for us. Bad habits harm us everywhere. Earthly desires blot out in us the holy word of God. Base strife because of self-will brings about in us many a harmful murder. Enmity in our heart drives out the Holy Spirit. An angry temperament robs us of God's intimacy. False holiness can never win out. Pure love of God can never perish. If we are not willing to leave these enemies, they will take from us more than heaven; for if we live holy lives here, it is a pre-heavenly existence. But if we allow these enemies their deceits and their power over us, they rob us of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, and they extinguish for us the true light of the genuine love of God. They also blind our eyes to holy understanding and lead us thus blinded into the seven capital sins. Where else does that path lead but to the eternal abyss?


8. Seven Things That All Priests Should Have


The heavenly Father told me seven things that every priest of God should have and said: "They should be innocent in their persons, and the accoutrements for saying mass should be perfect. If there is any doubt about it, one should refrain from it and not do it. They should lay aside all fear from themselves and should forget the Jewish law and should eat my Lamb alive and should drink his blood sighing. Thus they can rightly call to mind his great passion. But if he has some personal guilt, then my children eat the Bread of Heaven and Judas goes to hell. And if the accoutrements for mass are not perfect, then God's table stands empty and the children's food is taken from them. But if they come into danger of death because of their age, it is better for them that they spill their own blood than his


9. Concerning the Beginning of All Things That God Created out of Love


O Father of all goodness, I, an unworthy person, thank you for the faithful caring by which you have drawn me out of myself into your wondrous self in such a way that I have heard you in your whole Trinity and have witnessed the exalted decisions that took place before our time when you, Lord, were enclosed within yourself alone and your indescribable bliss was shared by no one. The Three Persons sent forth beautifully the beams of light in unison, each of them illumined by the other while remaining utterly one. The Father was adorned in his Person with the robust character of omnipotence; the Son was equal to the Father in infinite wisdom; and the Holy Spirit was equal to them both in full generosity.

Then the Holy Spirit in his superabundance played for the Father, plucking the Holy Trinity, and said to him: "Lord, dear Father, I shall give you out of yourself generous advice. We no longer wish to go on thus, not bearing fruit. We shall have a created kingdom and you shall form the angels in my image so that they are one spirit with me. For, dear Father, that alone is true joy, that in great love and infinite happiness one gather them in your sight."

The Father said: "You are one spirit with me. What you suggest and want is to my liking."
When the angel was created—you well know how it happened: If the angels' fall had been avoided, man would still have had to be created. The Holy Spirit shared his generosity with the angels, so that they serve us and are happy at the blessedness of us all.

Then the eternal Son spoke with great refinement: "Dear Father, my nature shall also bear fruit. Now that we want to undertake wondrous things, let us make man in my image. Even though I foresee great tragedy, I still shall love man forever."

The Father said: "Son, a powerful desire stirs in my divine breast as well, and I swell in love alone. We shall become fruitful so that we shall be loved in return, and so that our glory in some small way shall be recognized. I shall make a bride for myself who greet me with her mouth and wound me with her beauty. Only then does love really begin."

Then the Holy Spirit spoke to the Father: "Yes, dear Father, I shall deliver the bride to your bed."

And the Son spoke: "Father, you well know I shall yet die for love. Still, we want to begin these things joyfully in great holiness."

Then the Holy Trinity bent down to the creation of all things and created us body and soul in infinite love. Adam and Eve were formed and given a noble nature according to the eternal Son, who was born of the Father without a beginning. Then the Son shared with Adam his heavenly wisdom and his earthly power so that he possessed true knowledge and holy understanding in perfect love, and that he might command all earthly creatures. This is now rare indeed for us.
From the goodness of his heart God gave Adam a refined, noble, and delicate lady—that was Eve—and bestowed upon her the loving excellent moderation that his Son possesses to his Father's honor. Their bodies were to be pure, for God created for them no shameful members; and they were clothed with angels' garments. Their children were to be gotten in sacred love—just as the rays of the sun play upon the water, though the water remains intact. But when they ate the forbidden food, they became shamefully deformed in their bodies, as is still evident in us. If the Holy Trinity had created us so hideous, we could never be ashamed of our being because of its noble nature.

The heavenly Father bestowed his divine love on the soul and said: "I am the God of gods; you are the goddess of all creatures, and I give you my solemn assurance that I shall never reject you. If you do not yourself lose your way, my angels shall serve you forever. I shall give you my Holy Spirit as a chamberlain, so that you may not unknowingly fall into any serious sin. And I give you free will in abundance. Dearest Love above all loves, be prudently on your guard. You shall obey a small commandment, so that you will remember that I am your God."

The unblemished sustenance that God promised them in paradise was supposed to remain in great holiness in their bodies. But when they had eaten the disgusting food that did not agree with their pure bodies, they became so filled with poison that they lost the purity of the angels and forgot their virginal chastity. Then for many a year the soul cried out in great darkness for her Lover. Her voice filled with misery, she cried: "O Lord, dear One, where has your most delectable love gone? How bitterly have you called your wife and queen a whore! That is the meaning of the prophets. O great Lord, how can you bear this endless distress and do not give the death to our death? If only you were to be born. But, Lord, since all your deeds are perfect, so is your wrath."

Then another council convened in the Holy Trinity. The eternal Father said: "I regret my work. I gave my Holy Trinity such an admirable bride that the highest angels were to be her servants. Indeed, if Lucifer had retained his honor, she would have been his goddess, for to her alone was given the bridal bed. She decided not to remain in my likeness. Now she is ugly and hideously deformed. Who might accept this filth?"

But look! The eternal Son then knelt before his Father and said: "Dear Father, I shall be the one. If you will give me your blessing, I shall take bloody humanity upon myself. I shall anoint man's wounds with the blood of my innocence and shall bind all man's sores with the cloth of wretched disgrace until my end; and I shall, dearest Father, atone to you for human guilt by means of a human death."

Then the Holy Spirit said to the Father: "O almighty God, we shall form a splendid procession and shall go forth unchanged in great glory down from these heights. I was formerly, after all, Mary's chamberlain."

The Father then bowed to the wills of them both with great love and said to the Holy Spirit: "You shall carry my light before my dear Son into all the hearts that he shall move with my words. And, Son, you shall take up your cross. I shall traverse with you all your paths and I shall give you a pure virgin as your mother so that you might the more gloriously bear up under inglorious humanity."

Then in great joy the grand procession came down to the temple of Solomon. There almighty God would be sheltered for nine months.


10. The Passion That the Loving Soul Has from God, and HowShe Rises and Ascends into Heaven

The loving soul betrays her true love in sighing for God.
She is sold in holy grief for his love.
She is sought with the host of many tears for her dear Lord,
Whom she likes so well.
She is captured in the first experience
When God kisses her in sweet union.
She is assailed with many a holy thought
That she not waver when she mortifies her flesh.
She is bound by the power of the Holy Spirit,
And her bliss is indeed manifold.
She is slapped with the great powerlessness
Of not being able to enjoy without interruption eternal light.
She is brought to reckoning trembling with shame
Because God so often avoids her
Because of the stains of her sins men have claimed but not true.
She responds to all things in a holy manner- far holier than man
And cannot bear to treat anyone shamefully for the weakness in which they dwll
She is beaten at her trial because she is true
When the devils try her spiritually.
She is sent to Herod
When she recognizes herself to be worth and worthy
And stands for herself herself with the great army of her thoughts.
She is delivered up to Pilate again who is a an
When she has to concern herself with earthly affairs.
She is buffeted and beaten with severe blows
When she must return to her body.
She is stripped of all things
When God clothes her with the silk of fair love.
She is delightfully rightfully crowned with manifold praise from Him
When she desires that God no longer reward her for all her woes,
Except to promote in the highest God's honor.
She is ridiculed in holy simplicity

When she is completely dissolved into God
That she forgets all earthly wisdom.
One kneels before her in great shame
Goddess
When in delicate humility she puts herself under the feet of all creatures.


Her eyes are bound with her body's baseness
Because she is so utterly imprisoned in its darkness.
She carries her cross on a sweet path
When she truly surrenders herself in all sufferings.
Her head is struck with a reed
When one compares her great holiness to a fool.
With the hammer of the chase of love
she is nailed so fast to the cross
That all creatures are not able to call her back again.
She suffers terrible thirst on the cross of love as well,
For she would like to drink the pure wine of all God's children.
But they all come thronging and offer her gall.
Her body is killed in living love
When her spirit is raised aloft above all human senses.
After this death she descends into hell with her might
And consoles the dejected souls with her prayer about God's goodness
Without her body's knowing it.
She is pierced in the side by a blind man
With a sweet spear of innocent love.
From her heart flows forth many a holy teaching.
She hangs on the cross of sublime love,
High in the air of the Holy Spirit,
Facing the eternal sun of the living Godhead,
So that she becomes completely dry and bare of all earthly things.
Then in a holy ending she is taken from her cross
And speaks: "Father, receive my spirit; now everything is perfect.
"She is interred in a sealed grave of deep humility,
When she becomes ever aware of being the most unworthy of all creatures.
She also rises joyfully on an Easter Day
After she has enjoyed a lament of love
With her Lover on the narrow bridal bed.
Then she consoles her disciples and Mary early in the morning
When she receives from God true assurance
That God has blotted out all her sins
Because of her love and sorrow.
She comes again to her disciples with the door shut
When she often repeats for her five senses the holy teaching of God.
Then she goes forth from the Jerusalem of Holy Christianity
With many a virtuous throng when the body becomes sad,
Which with its whole being in all its baseness would like to follow its own will.
And she says: "I am your master.
You shall follow me and obey in all things.
If I were not going to my Father,
You would remain as fools.
"She also ascends into heaven
When God takes from her all earthly things in holy transformation.
She is received in a white cloud of holy protection
When she ascends in love and joyfully comes back again, free of all trouble.
Then the angels return and console the men of Galilee
When we call to mind God's chosen friends and their holy example.
This passion is suffered by every soul that in holy moderation of all her activity is truly permeated by genuine love of God.


11. Between God and the Loving Soul All Things Are Beautiful

When the loving soul gazes into the eternal mirror, she says: "Lord, between you and me all things are beautiful; and between the devil and his bride, the damned soul, all things are hideous and horrible indeed. When she remembers dear Jesus, she shudders and all her hellish suffering begins anew."


12. You Should Praise, Thank, Desire, and Beg.

Concerning theLantern and the Light Oh, dear Lord, how poor I then was when I was not able either to remember all these words nor pray nor love! Yet I strove toward you with my forsaken senses and spoke thus: "Oh, dear Lord, by what means shall I now glorify you?"

And you said to the most worthless person you ever created:
"You should praise me for my faithful protection.You should thank me for my generous gifts.You should desire my holy wonder.You should beg for a good end."

Then the soul asked in reverence: "Dearest, what wonder should I desire?" This I must continue writing, weeping all the while. May God help me, the poorest of humans, that I remain in Jesus!
My Lover then spoke thus: "I shall place the light onto the lantern, and for all those whose eyes look upon the light a special beam shall shine from the light into the eye of their knowledge."

The soul then asked with great submissiveness but without fear: "Dearest, what is the lantern supposed to be?"

Our Lord said: "I am the light and your breast is the lantern."


13. Sixteen Kinds of Love

Lavish love arising from holy mercy drives out empty honor and evil sickness.
True love arising from divine wisdom brings satisfaction and drives
out contemptible lust.
Humble love arising from holy simplicity alone conquers pride and
brings the soul forcefully into holy knowledge.
Constant love arising from good manners cannot engage in duplicity.
Grand love arising from a bold deed finds for itself good counsel in all
things.
Love that has discovered God's intimacy effortlessly blinds the earth.
Bound love of holy habit never rests, yet lives with ease within itself.
Permeating love arising from great overflowing lies completely at rest
and finds all things bitter but God alone.
Love that calls out from noble impatience is never silent and has happily forgotten all guilt.
Love that understands God's teaching is quick to incline to a child.
Beautiful love in its exalted power rejuvenates the soul, though the
body become old.
Lovely love with guileless gift blots out the surly heart's complaint.
Powerful love of rich delicacies has the sweetest pleasure in God.
Hidden love turns precious treasure from good will into holy deed.
Bright love of playful flood causes the soul sweet distress.
It causes her to die without death.
Stormy love arising from great power
that is something no one can grasp.


14. Concerning False Virtues; Whoever Dwells There in Lives in Lies

I have a teacher; it is the Holy Spirit. He teaches me very gently what he wants. Other things he withholds from me.

He speaks thus:
Wisdom without grounding in the Holy Spirit turns in the end into a mountain of arrogance.
Peace without the bond of the Holy Spirit very soon becomes empty frenzy.
Humility without the fire of love ends in open hypocrisy.
Justice without the depth of God's humility immediately turns into hatred.
Poverty with constant cupidity is in itself sinful prodigality.
Dreadful fear caused by real guilt brings repulsive impatience.
Right-seeming conduct with wolfish intent is quickly seen through by the wise.
Holy desire out of full integrity is attained by no one without great effort.
A good life without adversity becomes lazy in pursuing useful things.
Presumptuous virtue without God's gift will be struck down by pride.
Lofty promises not kept by deed are duplicity counseled by the devil.
Sweet consolation without true security of the soul and approval of
the Holy Spirit leads in the end to a miserable death.
Great patience without inclining one's heart to God is secret guilt,
for all who are not sustained by God's truth in all things shall in
great shame slip away from God eternal.
Love that does not have humility as its mother and holy fear as its
father is orphaned from all virtues.


15. You Should Approach God's Table with Eight Virtues.

By Ransom a Person Released Seventy Thousand Souls from Ghastly Purgatory,
Which Is of Many Kinds

O you terribly foolish beguines, how can you be so insolent that you do not tremble before our almighty Judge, since you so frequently receive the Body of God out of blind habit. Though I am the least among you, I must feel shame, blush, and tremble.

On a certain holy day I was so troubled that I did not dare receive him, because I was ashamed of my best piety in his eyes. So I asked my very dear One that he deign show me his honor in this matter. He said: "Truly, if you go before me in humble sorrow and holy fear, I shall follow you as the high waters follow the deep millstream. But if you come to me with the blossoming yearning of flowing love, I must go to meet you and caress you with my divine nature as my one and only queen."

I have to make my presence known if I am truly to be able to bring about God's goodness. And that really does not hold me back any more than it impairs an oven to shove in a full load of white rolls. And so I went to God's table in a noble throng. They watched over me with much concern, but also exposed me to much harsh treatment:

Truth was cross with me.
Fear scolded me.Shame scourged me.
Sorrow condemned me.
Yearning pulled me.
Love led me.
Christian faith shielded me.
Pure intention in all good things prepared me.
And all my good works sounded alarm over me.
Mighty God received me.
His pure humanity united itself to me.
His Holy Spirit consoled me.

Then I said: "Lord, now you are mine, for you have been given to me today especially in the passage where it says: 'A boy is given to us.' Now, Lord, I desire your praise and not my advantage, that today your glorious body might come as consolation to the poor souls. You are truly mine. Now, Lord, you shall be today a ransom for those imprisoned."

Then she received such power that with his strength she led him, and they came to as grim a place as ever was seen by human eye—a horrifying bath, a mixture of fire and pitch, of muck, smoke, and stench. A thick dark fog was drawn over it like a black hat. The souls were lying in it like toads in filth. Their form was like that of humans, and yet they were spirits and had about them a similarity to the devil. They boiled and roasted all together. They screamed and suffered countless torments because of their flesh, which had plunged them so deep. Flesh had blinded their spirit. This caused them to boil the most. The spirit of the person spoke: "O Lord, how many are there of these poor beings? You are my real price of ransom. You simply must show mercy."

Our Lord said: "They go beyond human numbering and you cannot comprehend their number as long as your flesh has an earthly share of you. They were all broken vessels and while on earth neglected the spiritual life. They are from all walks of life and from all lands."

Then the human spirit asked: "Alas, dear Lord, where are the hermits? I don't see any of them here."

Our Lord answered: "They sinned in secret. Now they are alone at the bottom, bound together with the devils."

Then the soul of the person became very sad and prostrated herself at the feet of our very dear Lord and yearned powerfully and toiled lovingly and said: "Very dear One, you know full well what I desire."

Our Lord said: "It was right for you to bring me here. I shall not let them go unremembered."
Around them stood an immense throng of devils that tended them in the accursed bath. They also were beyond my reckoning. They rubbed them, washed them, ate them, and were sated; and they struck them with fiery scourges. The spirit of the person spoke to them thus: "Listen, you devourers of sin, look upon this ransom. Is it not of such value that you will be satisfied with it?"

At that they all shuddered, quaking in ghastly shame, and said: "Yes, just lead them away. However wretched we may be, we have to speak the truth to you."

Then our Lord from his divine heart fulfilled a delightful wish for the poor souls. In great joy and love they arose. The stranger soul said: "Alas, very dear Lord, where shall they go now?"

He said: "I shall bring them to a mountain covered with flowers. There they shall find more happiness than I know how to express."

And then our Lord served them and was their chamberlain and their very dear companion. Our Lord told me that there were seventy thousand of them. The soul then asked how long their torment had lasted. Our Lord said: "They have been separated from their bodies for thirty years, and for ten more years they would have been in torment, had not such a precious ransom been offered for them."

The devils fled from them and did not dare accept it. "Dear One," said the soul, "how long shall they be here?"

Our Lord answered and said: "As long as seems good to us."


16. After a Gift There Follows a Scourge and After Disgrace Honor

The soul reminded our Lord of his earlier words thus: "Lord, you said there is no gift on earth that does not have a scourge connected with it. You said this to me with your own mouth and have afterward many a time carried through on it with respect to me. You also told me more than six years ago that religious people would hold me in great contempt. This they are still doing persistently and have done it viciously at times. Is that, Lord, the wonder I am supposed to long for?"

Our Lord answered and said: "My Father gave me power over his truth and the craft of his holiness; afterward he subjected me to numerous humiliations. Still later he gave me great honor and infinite dignity. In this same way do I wish to give my Holy Trinity to you."


17. The Purgatory of a Religious Person, His Five Kinds of Helpout of the Torment, and the Nobility of the Order of Preachers

I also saw a religious man suffering. During his life I had a high opinion of him. For three months I prayed for his soul with anguished heart, that it might never happen that I might have to look upon his distress until the evening of the last day.

When he gave up his spirit, he was immediately shown to me in the prayer I was saying for the poor souls. I saw him alone, and he was not able to show me his suffering. He was pale in a white mist. I asked: "Alas, why did you not go to heaven?"

He answered me in obscure speech, ruefully ashamed and weeping all the while as he read from a book. All the words were screaming at him with all the books that he had ever read chiming in. He said: "In my life on earth I was too fond of ideas, words, and deeds."

Two dragons were lying at his feet and sucked out of him all the consolation that he was supposed to receive from Holy Christianity in return for meager obedience, since he for no reason wanted to live according to his own will rather than according to the determinations of his superiors. I asked him: "Where are the enemies who are supposed to torment you?"

He answered: "Because of the dignity of my order no devil was ever able to touch me. I had a great struggle with my body, and I wanted to achieve a certain thing that would have been very harmful if I had been successful. Because of this God did not let me live any longer. I am burning within myself; my own will must torment me."

I asked: "Alas, tell me, how can anyone help you?"

He said: "If a person were to offer up a hundred venias, twelve disciplines, and many tears with a sorrowful heart from pure eyes every day for a year, that would be a penance for me. And one should say masses for me. Alas, tell virgins and priests that they should pray for me. The end of my torment I do not want to describe for you because I do not want to sadden my brothers with it. Now, leave me!"

Then he took on the likeness of the devil, burned, and became mute toward me.


18. A Knight's Battle in Full Armor Against Sensual Desires

I prayed for a person, as I was bid, that God might free him from those desires of the body that occur without sin for the reason that an evil will does not cause them. But our Lord said: "Stop such talk! Would it please you if there were a knight fully armed, with noble prowess, true manliness, and able hands who had nothing to do, neglected his lord's honor, and lost his rich recompense and the ringing of worthy praise that is the due both of the lord and the knight of the realm? Another thing: if there were a liegeman without armor who never came to battle because he lacked the equipment—if such a person would then take part in a tournament of princes, he would promptly lose his life. For this reason I have to spare people who are so prone to fall. I let such people do battle with children so that they win a garland of flowers as a reward."
19. Two Kinds of Poor People: Those Who Are Cheerfully Poor and Those Who Are Unhappily So

I have seen two kinds of poor people. The ones are cheerfully poor and are always in fear that they will receive too much of this poor earth. The others are involuntarily and quite unhappily poor, and they constantly run around in great anxiety that nothing on this poor earth will ever be theirs. Our Lord commented on this and said: "The unhappily poor are within my justice, for if they had an abundance of earthly things, they would not care to return my love with love nor to know me to the benefit of their holiness. And so I must win them by being very hard on them. To those who are cheerfully poor I give more than they dare desire, but I cannot bear the dust on them that comes from their excessively weighing themselves down with earthly things; and I desire that their hearts remain ever open to me and that I might, unimpeded and unceasingly, illumine them and shine through them and they in turn into mine.


20. The Five Prophets Who Illumine This Book

Our Lord promised me he wanted to illumine this book with five lights:
Moses' great intimacy, his holy efforts, special humiliation, which he suffered through no fault of his own, his glorious wonders, his joyful teaching, and the intimate conversations that he was chosen frequently to have face to face with God eternal on the high mountain—all these things should be a light; and God has granted and shall continue to grant that I should go forth with a light and cheerful step under his protection through all the evil scheming of my enemies, free of all shame arising through my own fault, just as Moses did with his friends through the Red Sea. And Pharaoh and his friends shall not pursue us very far. Alas, how they were drowned in this sea! Alas, have mercy, dear Lord, that our enemies be converted.

King David is the second light in this book with his psalter, in which he instructs us, laments, begs, admonishes, and praises God.

Solomon's words illumine—but not his deeds, for he is himself darkened—from the book of songs, where the bride is found to be so drunkenly bold and the bridegroom says to her so passionately : "You are so exquisitely beautiful, my Darling, and there is no flaw in you."

Jeremiah illumines also for his part when he speaks of the intimate secrets of our Lady; for God told me that he possessed pure chastity, the most perfect love, and that he bore great torment in Christian faith, which he never saw with his fleshly eyes.

Daniel, too, illumines with marvelous wisdom. God, in his grace, gave him food for soul and body in the midst of all his enemies. The same thing happened to me, unworthy though I be, in my distress. This my enemies have noticed a bit and cannot tolerate it, and so they inflict much suffering on me.

21. Hell: How It Has Three Parts; How Lucifer and Sixteen Kinds of People Are Tormented;
There Is No Help for Them.

Lucifer's Garment
I have seen a city,
Its name is eternal hate.
It was built in the deepest abyss
From all kinds of stones of huge capital sins.
Pride was the first stone,
As is manifest in the case of Lucifer.
Disobedience, base greed, gluttony, lust—
These were four very heavy stones
Which our father Adam sent here.
Anger, duplicity, and murder—
These three stones Cain brought with him.
Lying, betrayal, despair of God, and rendering oneself lifeless:
With these four stones poor Judas murdered himself.
The sin of Sodom and false piety:
These are the essential cornerstones laid out for the structure.
The place was built many years ago.
Woe to all those who send their helpers there.
The more they send in advance,
The greater the shame with which they shall be received
When they themselves follow.


This place is so perverted that the highest are consigned to the lowest and basest place. Lucifer sits bound by his guilt in the deepest abyss. There flows forth unceasingly out of his fiery heart and out of his mouth all the sins, torments, sickness, and shame in which hell, purgatory, and the earth are so wretchedly entangled. In the bottommost part of hell the fire, gloom, stench, shuddering, and all kinds of intense pain are the greatest. It is there that Christians are placed according to their deeds. In the middle part of hell the suffering is more moderate. There the Jews are ranked according to their works. In the topmost part of hell the various kinds of pains are the least severe, and there the heathens are ranked according to their works.

The heathens lament thus:
"Oh woe! If we had had a law,We would not be suffering eternally such pain."

The Jews lament as well:"Alas! If we had obeyed God according to the teachings of Moses,We would not be so terribly damned."

The Christians lament even more, that they have lost great honor through their own evil will, though Christ had chosen them for himself with great love. In great anguish they constantly behold Lucifer and, naked with all their guilt, they are forced to parade publicly before him.

Alas, how ignominiously they are received by him! He greets them grimly and speaks bitterly:
"O you cursed along with me,What joys do you expect here?You certainly never heard good spoken of me.How could you then enjoy yourselves nicely?"

Then, first of all, he grabs the proud one and thrusts him under his tail and says: "I have not sunk so deep that I shall not lord it over you."

All the Sodomites pass down his throat and live in his belly. Whenever he draws a breath, they slide into his belly. But when he coughs, they are expelled again.

The false saints he puts upon his lap, kisses them hideously, and says: "You are my equals. I, too, was enveloped in false holiness ; all of you are similarly duped."

Unceasingly he gnaws the usurer and rebukes him for never having been moved by mercy.
The robber he robs himself and hands him over to his henchmen to be chased and beaten mercilessly.

The thief is strung up by the feet to serve in hell as a beacon, but the damned do not see the better for it.

Those who were unchaste together on earth have to lie bound in like manner before Lucifer; but if such a one comes there alone, the devil is his partner. And I write this, thus as I am.

The unbelieving teachers sit at Lucifer's feet so that they might look at their impure god directly. He also holds disputations with them that they might be humiliated.

The miser he eats, for he always wanted more. When he has swallowed him, he forces him out again by the tail.

Murderers must stand before him bloody and must receive fiery sword thrusts from the devil.
Those who here gave themselves over to fierce hatred must there serve as a smelling pot, ever hanging before his nose.

Those who here so keenly ate and drank to excess must there stand before Lucifer in unending hunger and eat glowing stones.

Their drink is sulphur and pitch. There everything is sour instead of sweet. We see there what we have done here.

The slothful person is weighed down with all kinds of pain.
The hot-tempered is beaten there with whips of fire.
The bitterly poor minstrel who with high spirit can excite to sinful frivolity weeps in hell more tears than all the water contained in the sea.

I saw beneath Lucifer the ground of hell, a hard black pebblestone that shall bear the structure forever. Though hell has neither bottom nor boundary, it has as to ordering both depth and end.
How hell roars And moans within itself. And how the devils brawl With the souls, and how these Boil and roast, And how they swim and wade In the stink and swamp In the vermin and foul puddle; And how they bathe in the sulphur and pitch.

Neither they themselves nor all creatures can fully describe it.
When I had seen this misery without my own doing but rather as a gift from God, I was so wretchedly in pain from the stink and the unearthly heat that I could neither sit up nor walk and was without the use of my five senses for three days, like someone struck by thunder.

My soul, however, suffered no distress since that malady that is called eternal death had not brought it there. But if it were possible that a pure soul could be among them, that would be for them eternal light and a great consolation. For the innocent soul must of its nature ever radiate and shine since she is born painlessly out of the eternal light.

But if she takes on the likeness of the devil, she loses her beautiful light. Is it possible in eternal hell that any consolation at all might come to the damned from prayer and from alms? I never heard that. They are constantly in such a grim state of mind that they feel loathing toward anything good.

After the last day, Lucifer shall put on a new garment that has spontaneously come about out of the manure of all filthy sins that he was ever able to suggest to men or angels. For he is the primary vessel of all sin. Then he is released, but his grimness and fierceness are so much a part of all the souls and all the devils that one is aware of his presence everywhere. At times he will swell up enormously and his muzzle shall open very wide. Then in a single breath he shall devour all of us. Still, they shall have their full reward in his belly and their special feast. Woe then to soul and body! What a human mouth is able to say about it here is nothing at all compared to the indescribable anguish taking place there. For in truth I cannot bear to think about it for as long as it takes to say "Hail, Mary." Alas, so horrible is it there!

At the top hell has a head that is hideous and has on it numerous fierce eyes which shoot forth flames and envelop the poor souls that dwell in the anteroom from which God took Adam and others of our fathers. This is now the worst purgatory that a sinner can enter. There I saw bishops, high officials, and great lords in long-lasting anguish with countless sufferings. All who came there God had barely spared from everlasting hell.

I found no one there who at the end had made a pure confession with his fleshly mouth. When because of the nature of dying their outer senses had been taken from them, the body lay still—though the soul and body still had a common will. When they had left behind earthly darkness, God gave them true knowledge in secret. Oh, how narrow there is the path to the kingdom of heaven! The union of body and soul, not yet separated, spoke thus: "True God, grant me pardon; I sincerely regret my sins!" This is a brief hour in which God has secretly saved many a soul that to all appearances had been lost. I never saw a case where this happened to a person who had not done something good with a well-intentioned will. The devils lead the stained souls from their bodies to purgatory because the pure angels cannot touch them as long as they are not radiant with a brightness similar to theirs. However, a soul can have the aid of friends on earth that prevents the devils from ever attacking the soul. But if she is very guilty, she must nevertheless suffer other torments.

All this she can better endure if the devils are not able to grab her and constantly ridicule her.

When our holy fathers went down to hell, what they brought with them was true hope in the Christian faith with the holy love of God and very many humble virtues and faithful striving. Although they went to hell, they had been prepared for heaven. Nothing in hell could daunt them. What they brought with them that kept them from burning was love. This shall burn everlastingly in all the children of God; otherwise, they shall never reach heaven. This God has so ordained: What we take along with us we have to eat and drink there.

But the procrastinators, who leave here without having done penance for great sins, can never, short of being damned, suffer as terribly as they do before the mouth of hell. There at all times the breath of Lucifer shoots forth with all torments and permeates them so torturously that the poor wretches are just as utterly congealed in the flames and in the various kinds of savagery as the much blessed fathers were united in the sweet knowledge that God loved them. Of women there I saw only exalted ladies who here love all kinds of sins just as their husband lords do.
Hell also has a mouth at the top that remains ever open. All who enter into the mouth are never delivered from eternal death.


22. Of God's Mercy, His Concern, and Justice

I have heard and seen such boundless mercy from God that I said:
"Lord, how can this happen? After all, your justice is equal to your mercy. How is it that your goodness is so great?"

Then our Lord spoke a sincere word thus:
"I say to you by my divine faithfulness
That there are more Christians who from the mouth enter the
kingdom of heaven
Than there are who enter everlasting hell.
Justice has, indeed, its continual power.
Whatever is brought before it indicating guilt
Is never taken away by me from it.
Before all else, however, I want to come to the troubled soul as a
Father
If I have heard anything clearly good about her.
This arises from the great concern that I have for my children."

The soul said:
"Ah, my very dear Love, would you describe to me this concern
So that your pleasure and my desire might be united?"

Our Lord said:
"Now hear of my concern:
My goodness and my generosity,
My faithfulness and my mercy
Press me so urgently
That I let them flow over the mountains of pride
And over the valleys of humility
And over the tangles of confusion
And over the smooth paths of purity.
And my goodness actually presses me more insistently than an evil man is pressed
Dampness,
And yet my justice is even greater than the malice of all the devils."

The soul said:
"Lord, your justice corresponds quite well
with the living truth,
So that it gives me boundless joy
without suffering of the heart.
Wherever it tends,
Truth is always joyful."


23. The Intensity of Yearning Takes Away Words;
God Cannot Do Without Virgins;
God's Countenance, His Embrace, and His Joy Overcome a Thousand Deaths

Whoever has burned in the powerful fire of love cannot endure abruptly cooling off through any kind of sin. Virgins are of the mind.

"Ah, dear Lover, when shall you yearn for what I yearn for?" Thus did a lonely soul speak.

Her dear One responded to her and spoke as though he did not know what she wanted: "What are you yearning for? You can be made whole again."

She said in response: "Lord, the urgency of my desire has taken from me the ability to speak my thoughts."

He said: "Virgins do not know how to woo well because their modesty is by its nature refined."

She complained: "Alas, Lord, you certainly have been away from me much too long. If I could only win you, Lord, with magic, so that you could find rest only in me—ah, that would be a loving! Then you would have to beg that I behave sensibly."

Then he answered thus, saying: "O you spotless Dove, now grant me that I might spare you. The earth cannot yet do without you."

She said: "O Lord, if it could ever happen to me that I might gaze upon you as my heart desires and hold you in my arms, then the divine pleasures of your love needs would permeate my soul to the degree possible for people on earth. What I would be willing to suffer thereafter has never been seen by human eyes. Indeed, a thousand deaths were too little. Such, Lord, is my painful longing for you! For now I shall remain steadfast in my faithfulness. If you, Lord, can bear it, let me long pursue you in yearning. I know well, Lord, that the beginnings of desire for me will begin to stir in you."

24. Two Kinds of Spirits—from God and from the Devil—Are Offered to Two Kinds of Religious People. The Seven Kinds of Love

Now I want to write you about a true spiritual sister and about a worldly beguine. They dispute with each other thus: The spiritual sister speaks from the true light of the Holy Spirit, free from interior suffering; but the worldly beguine speaks from her flesh in Lucifer's spirit with dreadful effort.

There are two kinds of religious people on this earth, to whom two kinds of spirits are offered. God offers his Holy Spirit to pure spirits who live here in a faithful holy attitude with their whole being. Here two pure natures meet: the hot fire of the Godhead and the flowing wax of the loving soul. If a pure wick of constant humility is there, a beautiful light shall burn by which one shall see far. O loving Soul, you shall become so rich that no one can make you poor—and yet you are the poorest of all! Humility makes one rich and well-brought-up; good habits make one noble and well-bred. Love makes one beautiful and praise- worthy.

Being scorned exalts one aloft in God. Mark this well, spiritual Sister, and let no one drive you away from your good habits. Then shall you remain holy.

The devil, too, offers his spirit to the spirits who are ready to do the worst with hatred and with arrogant rapacity. They do not know what good things love brings. They become so poor from mean hatred and from the devil's grimness that it would be impossible for them to find or follow God's love.

Faithful love raises constant praise to God. Yearning love causes a pure heart much sweet anguish.Searching love belongs to herself alone. Knowing love shares itself with all creatures. Clamoring love is still mixed with sadness. Silent love enjoys effortless pleasure.

Ah, the body knows nothing of what love does in stillness.

Pure love finds rest in God alone Because the two of them have a single will, And no creature is important enough to disturb them.

Knowledge has written this out of the eternal book:
Gold is often made very impure by copper.
Duplicity and empty honor do the same.
They erode all virtues from a person's soul.
The base soul is so attracted to transitory things
That she has never been shaken by love.
In her God has never spoken lovingly.
Alas, for her this life is total night.