 I am the Creator of heaven and earth, one in divinity with the Father and the Holy Spirit. I am he who spoke to the prophets and the patriarchs, the one whom they awaited. For the sake of their longing and in accordance with my promise, I took flesh without sin, without concupiscence, entering the body of the Virgin like the sun shining through the clearest crystal. The sun does not damage the glass by entering it, nor was the Virgin's virginity lost when I took my human nature. I took flesh but without surrendering my divinity.
I was no less God, ruling and filling all things with the Father and the Holy Spirit, although I, with my human nature, was in the womb of the Virgin. Brightness is never separated from fire, nor was my divinity ever separated from my humanity, not even in death. Next I willed for my pure and sinless body to be wounded from the sole of my foot to the crown of my head for the sins of all men, and to be hung on the cross. It is now offered each day on the altar in order that people might love me more and call to mind my favors more frequently.
Now, however, I am totally forgotten, neglected and scorned, like a king cast out of his own kingdom in whose place a wicked thief has been elected and honored. I wanted my kingdom to be within the human person, and by right I should be king and lord over him, since I made him and redeemed him. Now, however, he has broken and profaned the faith he promised me at baptism. He has violated and rejected the laws I set up for him. He loves his self-will and scornfully refuses to listen to me. Besides, he exalts that most wicked thief, the devil, above me and pledges him his faith. The devil really is a thief, since, by evil temptations and false promises, he steals for himself the human soul that I redeemed with my own blood. It is not because he is more powerful, as it were, than I am that he is able to steal it, since I am so powerful that I can do all things by a single word, and I am so just that I would not commit the least injustice, not even if all the saints asked me to.
However, since man, who has been given free will, voluntarily scorns my commandments and consents to the devil, then it is only just that he should also experience the devil's tyranny. The devil was created good by me but fell through his own wicked will and has, as it were, become my servant for inflicting retribution on the wicked. Although I am now so despised, nevertheless I am still so merciful that I will forgive the sins of any who ask for my mercy and who humble themselves, and I shall free them from the evil thief. But I shall visit my justice upon those who persist in holding me in contempt, and hearing it they will tremble and those who experience it will say: 'Alas, that we were ever born or conceived, alas, that we ever provoked the Lord of majesty to wrath!'
But you, my daughter, whom I have chosen for myself and with whom I speak in spirit, love me with all your heart, not as you love your son or daughter or relatives but more than anything in the world! I created you and spared none of my limbs in suffering for you. And yet I love your soul so dearly that, if it were possible, I would let myself be nailed to the cross again rather than lose you. Imitate my humility: I, who am the king of glory and of angels, was clothed in lowly rags and stood naked at the pillar while my ears heard all kinds of insults and derision. Prefer my will to yours, because my Mother, your Lady, from beginning to end, never wanted anything but what I wanted. If you do this, then your heart will be with my heart, and it will be set aflame with my love in the same way as any dry thing is easily set aflame by fire.
Your soul will be filled with me and I will be in you, and all temporal things will become bitter to you and all carnal desire like poison. You will rest in my divine arms, where there is no carnal desire, only joy and spiritual delight. There the soul, both inwardly and outwardly delighted, is full of joy, thinking of nothing and desiring nothing but the joy that it possesses. So love me alone, and you will have all the things you wish, and you will have them in abundance. Is it not written that the widow's oil did not fail until the day that the Lord sent rain upon the earth according to the words of the prophet? I am the true prophet. If you believe my words and fulfill them, oil and joy and exultation will never fail you for all eternity.
I am the Creator of the heavens, the earth, and the sea and of all that is in them. I am one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, not like gods of stone or gold, as people once said, and not several gods, as people used to think then, but one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons but one in substance, the Creator of all but created by none, remaining unchangeable and almighty, without beginning or end. I am he who was born of the Virgin, without losing my divinity but joining it to my humanity, so that in one person I might be the true Son of God and the Son of the Virgin. I am he who hung on the cross, died and was buried; yet my divinity remained intact.
Although I died through the human nature and body that I, the only Son, had taken, yet I lived on in the divine nature in which I was one God together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. I am the same man who rose from the dead and ascended into heaven and who now speaks with you through my spirit. I have chosen you and taken you as my bride in order to show you my secrets, because it pleases me to do so. I also have a certain rightful claim on you, since you surrendered your will to me when your husband died. After his death, you thought and prayed about how you might become poor for my sake, and you wanted to give up everything for my sake. So I have a rightful claim on you. In return for this great love of yours, it is only fitting that I should provide for you. Therefore I take you as my bride for my own pleasure, the kind that is appropriate for God to have with a chaste soul.
It is the duty of the bride to be ready when the bridegroom decides to have the wedding, so she can be properly dressed up and clean. You will be clean if your thoughts are always on your sins, on how in baptism I cleansed you from the sin of Adam and how often I have supported and sustained you when you have fallen into sin. The bride should also wear the bridegroom's tokens on her breast, I mean, you should bear in mind the favors and benefits I have done for you, such as how nobly I created you by giving you a body and soul, how nobly I enriched you by giving you health and temporal goods, how kindly I rescued you when I died for you and restored your inheritance to you, if you want to have it. The bride should also do the will of her bridegroom. What is my will but that you should want to love me above all things and want nothing but me?
I created all things for the sake of humankind and placed all things under them. And yet they love everything but me and hate nothing but me. I bought back their inheritance for them, which they had lost, but they have grown so estranged and turned so far from reason that, instead of eternal glory in which there is everlasting good, they would rather have passing glory that is as the ocean spray that rises up one moment like a mountain and then quickly sinks down into nothing. My bride, if you desire nothing but me, if you hold all things in contempt for my sake - both children and relatives as well as wealth and honors - I will give you a most precious and delightful reward.
I will give you neither gold nor silver as your wages but myself to be your bridegroom, I, who am the king of glory. If you are ashamed of being poor and despised, consider how your God has gone before you, once his servants and friends had abandoned him on earth, because I was not looking for friends on earth but friends in heaven. If you are worrying and afraid about being burdened by work and sickness, then consider how severe a thing it is to burn in the fire! What would you have deserved if you had offended some earthly master as you have me? For, although I love you with all my heart, still I do not act against justice, not even in a single detail.
Just as you have sinned in all your limbs, you must also make satisfaction in every limb. However, because of your good will and your resolution to improve, I commute your sentence to one of mercy and remit the heavier punishment in return for a small amount of reparation. For this reason, embrace your small hardships cheerfully so that you can be cleansed and reach your great reward all the sooner! It is good for the bride to grow tired toiling alongside the bridegroom so that she can all the more confidently take her rest with him.
I am your God and Lord, the one you worship. It is I who uphold heaven and earth by my power. They are upheld by nothing else nor do they have any other supports. It is I who am offered up each day on the altar, true God and true man, under the appearance of bread. I am the very one who has chosen you. Honor my Father! Love me! Obey my Spirit! Defer to my Mother as to your Lady! Honor all my saints! Keep the true faith taught to you by one who experienced in himself the conflict between the two spirits,the spirit of falsehood and the spirit of truth, and with my help conquered.
Preserve true humility! What is true humility if not to render praise to God for the good things he has given us? Nowadays, however, there are many people who hate me and who regard my deeds and my words as painful and empty. They welcome that adulterer, the devil, with wide arms, and they love him. Whatever they do for me, they do it with grumbling and resentment. They would not even confess my name, if they were not afraid of the opinion of others. They have such a sincere love of the world that they never tire working for it night and day and are always fervent in their love for it. Their service is about as pleasing to me as if someone were to give his enemy money to kill his son. This is what they do. They give me some alms and honor me with their lips in order to gain worldly success and to remain in their privileges and in their sin. The good spirit is thus impeded in them from making any progress in virtue.
If you want to love me with your whole heart and to desire nothing but me, I will draw you to me through charity, just like a magnet or lodestone draws iron to itself. I will lay you on my arm, which is so strong that no one can stretch it out and so rigid that no one can bend it back once outstretched. It is so sweet that it surpasses every fragrance and cannot be compared with the delights of this world.
EXPLANATION
This was a holy man, a teacher of theology, who was called Master Mathias of Sweden, a canon of Linköping. He wrote an excellent commentary covering the whole Bible. He suffered very subtle temptations from the devil involving a number of heresies against the Catholic faith, all of which he overcame with the aid of Christ, and he could not be overcome by the devil. This is plainly set forth in the biography of Lady Birgitta. It was this Master Mathias who composed the Prologue to these books that begins Stupor et mirabilia, etc. He was a holy man and spiritually powerful in word and deed. When he died in Sweden, the bride of Christ, then living in Rome, heard in her prayer a voice saying to her in spirit: "Happy are you, Master Mathias, for the crown that has been made for you in heaven. Come now to the wisdom that will never end!" One can also read about him in Book I chapter 52 B; Book V, in the response to question 3 D in the last interrogation; and Book VI chapters 75 A and 89.
Our Lord Jesus Christ's words to his bride about how she should not worry or think that the things revealed to her come from an evil spirit, and about how to recognize a good or an evil spirit.
Chapter 4
I am your Creator and Redeemer. Why were you afraid of my words? Why were you wondering whether they came from a good or an evil spirit? Tell me, did you find anything in my words that your conscience did not dictate to you to do? Or did I command you anything against reason?" To this the bride answered: "No, on the contrary, they are all true and I was badly mistaken." The spirit, or the bridegroom, answered: "I commanded you three things. From them you could recognize the good spirit. I commanded you to honor your God, who made you and has given you all the things you have.
Your reason also tells you to honor him above all things. I commanded you to keep the true faith, that is, to believe that nothing has been made without God and that nothing can be made without God. I also commanded you to aspire to reasonable temperance in all things, since the world was made for human use so that people might use it for their needs. In the same way, you can also recognize the unclean spirit from three things, the opposites of these. He tempts you to seek your own praise and to be proud of the things given you. He tempts you to betray your faith. He also tempts you to impurity in your whole body and in everything, and makes your heart burn for it.
Sometimes he also deceives people under the guise of good. This is why I commanded you always to examine your conscience and disclose it to prudent spiritual advisors. Therefore, do not doubt that God's good spirit is with you, seeing that you desire nothing other than God and are completely on fire with his love. I am the only one who can do that. It is impossible for the devil to draw near to you. Nor is it possible for him to draw near to bad people at all unless I allow it, either because of their sins or because of some secret decision known to me, for he is my creature, just like all others, and was created good by me, although he became evil through his own malice. I am Lord over him. For this reason, they accuse me falsely who say that the people who serve me with great devotion are insane and have a devil.
They make me out to be like a man who exposes his chaste and trusting wife to an adulterer. That is what I would be if I let someone who was righteous and full of love for me be handed over to a demon. But because I am faithful, no demon will ever gain control of the soul of any of my devoted servants. Although my friends sometimes seem to be almost out of their minds, it is not because they suffer from the devil or because they serve me with fervent devotion. It is rather due to some defect of the brain or some other hidden cause, which serves to humble them. Sometimes it can also happen that the devil either receives power from me over the bodies of good people for their own greater reward or that he darkens their consciences. However, he can never gain control over the souls of those who have faith in me and take their delight in me.
I am the Creator of all things. I am the King of glory and the Lord of angels. I built for myself a noble castle and placed my chosen ones in it. My enemies undermined its foundations and overpowered my friends so much so that the very marrow goes out of my friends' feet as they sit fastened to the wood of the stocks. Their mouth is bruised by stones, and they are tortured by hunger and thirst. Moreover, enemies are persecuting their Lord. My friends are now begging and groaning for help; justice is clamoring for vengeance, but mercy says to forgive.
Then God said to the heavenly host that was standing by: "What do you think regarding these people who have seized my castle?" They all answered with one voice: "Lord, all justice is in you and in you we see all things. All judgment is given to you, the Son of God, who exist without beginning or end, you are their judge." And he said: "Although you know and see all things in me, yet for my bride's sake here, tell me what the just sentence is." They said: "This is justice: that those who undermined the wall should be punished like thieves, that those who persist in evil should be punished like usurpers, and that the captives should be set free and the hungry be filled."
Then Mary spoke, the Mother of God, who had been silent in the first exchange, and she said: "My Lord and most dear Son, you were in my womb as true God and man. You condescended to sanctify me who was an earthen vessel. I beg you: have mercy on them once more!" The Lord answered his Mother: "Blessed be the word of your mouth! Like a sweet odor it ascends to God. You are the glory and the Queen of angels and all saints, because God was consoled by you and all the saints made joyful. And because your will has been as my own from the beginning of your youth, I will once more do as you wish." Then he said to the heavenly host: "Because you have fought bravely, for the sake of your love I will let myself be appeased for now. Behold, I will rebuild my wall on account of your prayers.
I will save and heal those who were oppressed by force and will honor them a hundredfold for the abuse they have suffered. If the doers of violence ask for mercy, peace and mercy will be theirs. Those who scorn it will experience my justice." Then he said to his bride: "My bride, I have chosen you and clothed you in my spirit. You hear my words and those of my saints who, although they see all things in me, yet have spoken for your sake, so that you might understand. After all, you, who are still in the body, cannot see in me in the same way as they who are spirits. I will now show you what these things mean. The castle I spoke about is the Holy Church, which I built with my own blood and that of the saints. I cemented it with my charity and then placed my chosen ones and friends in it. Its foundation is faith, I mean, the belief that I am a just and merciful judge.
The foundation has now been undermined because everybody believes and preaches that I am merciful but almost nobody believes me to be a just judge. They think of me as a wicked judge. A judge would indeed be wicked if, out of mercy, he let the wicked go unpunished so that they could further oppress the righteous. I, however, am a just and merciful judge and will not let even the least sin go unpunished nor the least good go unrewarded. By the undermining of this wall, there entered into the Holy Church people who sin with out fear, who deny that I am just and who torment my friends as much as if they had clapped them in stocks. No joy or consolation is given to these friends of mine. Instead they are punished and reviled as much as if they were diabolically possessed. When they tell the truth about me, they are silenced and get accused of lying. They thirst with a passion to hear or speak the truth, but there is no one who listens to them or speaks the truth to them.
Moreover, I, God the Creator, am being blasphemed. For people say: 'We do not know if God exists. And if he exists, we do not care.' They throw my banner to the ground and trample on it, saying: 'Why did he suffer? What good is it to us? If he would grant our wish, we will be satisfied - let him keep his kingdom and his heaven!' I want to go into them, but they say: 'We would die before giving up our own will!' My bride, see what kind of people they are! I made them and can destroy them with a word. How insolent they are toward me! Thanks to the prayers of my Mother and of all the saints, I remain merciful and patient enough that I am now willing to send them the words of my mouth and to offer them my mercy.
If they want to accept it, I will be appeased. Otherwise they will know my justice and, like thieves, they will be publicly put to shame before angels and men and condemned by every one of them. Like criminals hung on a forkshaped gallows and devoured by crows, they will be devoured by demons but not consumed. Just like the people sentenced to the stocks have no rest, they will find pain and bitterness on all sides. A scalding river will flow into their mouths but their bellies will not be filled, and they will be renewed for their punishment each day. But my friends will be safe, and they will be consoled by the words that come from my mouth. They will see my justice along with my mercy. I will clothe them in the weapons of my love and will make them so strong that the adversaries of the faith will slide back like mud. When they see my justice, they will stand in perpetual shame for having abused my patience."
Christ's words to his bride about how his spirit cannot dwell in the wicked, and about the separation of the wicked from the good and the sending of good people armed with spiritual weapons to war against the world.
Chapter 6
My enemies are like the wildest of beasts who can never get their fill or remain at rest. Their heart is so empty of my love that the thought of my passion never enters it. Not once from their heart of hearts has a word like this escaped: "Lord, you have redeemed us, may you be praised for your bitter passion!" How can my Spirit dwell in people who have no divine love for me, people who are willing to betray others for the sake of getting their will? Their heart is full of vile worms, I mean, full of worldly passions. The devil has left his dung in their mouths; that is why they have no liking for my words. And so with my saw I will sever them from my friends. There is no worse way to die than to die under the saw. Likewise, there is no punishment in which they will not share: they will be sawn in two by the devil and separated from me. I find them so odious that all their adherents will also be severed from me.
For this reason I am sending forth my friends in order that they might separate the devils from my members, since the devils are my true enemies. I send them forth like soldier knights to war. Anyone who mortifies his flesh and abstains from illicit things is my true soldier. For their lance they will have the words of my mouth and in their hands the sword of faith; on their breasts will be the breastplate of love so that no matter what happens they will love me no less. They must have the shield of patience at their side so as to bear all things with patience.
I have encased them like gold in a case: they should now go forth and walk in my ways. According to the designs of justice, I could not enter into the glory of my majesty without enduring tribulation in my human nature. So how will they enter into it? If their Lord suffered, it is not surprising that they should suffer as well. If their Lord put up with the whip, it is no great thing for them to put up with words. They need not fear because I will never abandon them. Just as it is impossible for the devil to get at the heart of God and divide it, so it is impossible for the devil to separate them from me. And since, in my sight, they are like the purest gold, though they be tested with a little fire, I shall not abandon them: it is for their greater reward.
The glorious Virgin's words to her daughter about the way to dress and the sort of clothes and ornaments with which the daughter should be adorned and clothed.
Chapter 7
I am Mary who gave birth to the Son of God, true God and true man. I am the Queen of angels. My Son loves you with his whole heart. So love him! You ought to be adorned with the fairest of clothes and I will show you how and what kind of clothes they should be. Just as before you had an underbodice, then a bodice, shoes, a cloak, and a brooch upon your breast, so now you should have spiritual clothes. The underbodice is contrition. Just as the underbodice is worn closest to the body, so contrition and confession are the first way of conversion to God. Through it the mind, which once found joy in sin, is purified and the unchaste flesh kept under control. The two shoes are two dispositions, namely the intention of rectifying past transgressions and the intention of doing good and keeping away from evil. Your bodice is hope in God. Just as a bodice has two sleeves, may there be both justice and mercy in your hope. In this way you will hope for the mercy of God because you do not neglect his justice.
Think on his justice and judgment in such away that you do not forget his mercy, for he does not work justice without mercy or mercy without justice. The cloak is faith. Just as the cloak covers everything and everything is enclosed in it, human nature can likewise comprehend and attain everything through faith. This cloak should be decorated with the tokens of your bridegroom's love, namely, the way he created you, the way he redeemed you, the way he nourished you and brought you into his spirit and opened your spiritual eyes. The brooch is the consideration of his passion. Fix firmly in your breast the thought of how he was scoffed at and scourged, how he stood alive on the cross, bloody and pierced in all his sinews, how at his death his whole body convulsed from the acute pain of the passion, how he commended his spirit into the hands of his Father. May this brooch be ever on your breast! On your head let there be set a crown, I mean, chastity in your affections, making you rather endure lashing than be further stained. May you be modest and worthy! Think about nothing, desire nothing but your God and Creator. When you have him, you have everything. Adorned in this way, you shall await your bridegroom.
I am the Queen of Heaven. You were concerned about how you should give me praise. Know for certain that all praise of my Son is praise of me. And those who dishonor him, dishonor me, since my love for him and his for me was so ardent that the two of us were like one heart. So highly did he honor me, who was an earthen vessel, that he raised me up above all the angels. Therefore, you should praise me like this: "Blessed are you, God, Creator of all things, who deigned to descend into the womb of the Virgin Mary. Blessed are you, God, who willed to be in the Virgin Mary without being a burden to her and deigned to receive immaculate flesh from her without sin.
Blessed are you, God, who came to the Virgin, giving joy to her soul and to her whole body, and who went out of her to the sinless joy of her whole body. Blessed are you, God, who after your ascension gladdened the Virgin Mary your Mother with frequent consolations and visited her with your consolation. Blessed are you, God, who assumed the body and soul of the Virgin Mary, your Mother, into heaven and honored her by placing her next to your divinity above all the angels. Have mercy on me because of her prayers!
I am the Queen of Heaven. Love my Son, because he is most worthy; when you have him, you have everything that is of worth. And he is most desirable; when you have him, you have all that is desirable. Love him, too, because he is most virtuous; when you have him, you have all the virtues. Let me tell you how beautiful his love for my body and soul was and how much honor he gave to my name. He, my own Son, loved me before I loved him, since he is my Creator. He joined my father and mother in so chaste a marriage that there was no more chaste couple then to be found. They never desired to come together except in accordance with the Law, solely for the sake of procreation. When an angel announced to them that they would give birth to the Virgin from whom the salvation of the world would come, they would rather have died than come together in carnal love; lust had died in them.
But, I assure you, out of divine charity and on account of the angel's message they did come together in the flesh, not out of concupiscence but against their will and out of love for God. In this way my flesh was put together from their seed through divine love. When my body had been formed, God sent the created soul into it from his divinity; the soul was immediately sanctified along with the body, and the angels watched over and ministered to it day and night. It is impossible to tell you what a great joy came over my mother when my soul had been sanctified and joined to its body. Afterward, when the course of my life was done, he first raised up my soul, as being mistress of the body, to a place more eminent than others next to the glory of his divinity, and then my body, so that no other creature's body is so close to God as my own.
See how much my Son loved my soul and body! There are some people, however, who wickedly deny that I was assumed body and soul, and there are others who simply do not know better. But the truth of it is certain: I was taken up to God's glory in body and soul. Hear how much my Son has honored my name! My name is Mary, as the Gospel says. When the angels hear this name, they rejoice in their understanding and give thanks to God because he worked so great a grace through me and with me and because they see the humanity of my Son glorified in his divinity. The souls in purgatory rejoice beyond measure, just like a sick man does as he lies in bed and hears a word of comfort from others and it pleases his heart and makes him suddenly glad.
At the sound of my name, the good angels immediately draw closer to the just souls to whom they have been given as guardians and rejoice over their progress. Good angels have been given to everyone as a protection and bad angels as a test. It is not that angels are ever separated from God, but, rather, that they assist the soul without leaving God and remain steadily in his presence while still inflaming and inciting the soul to do good. The demons all dread and fear this name. At the sound of the name of Mary, they immediately let the soul go out of their clutches. Like a bird with its claws and beak on its prey leaves it as soon as it hears a sound, but comes right back when it sees nothing happening afterward, so too the demons let go of a soul, frightened at the sound of my name, but fly back and return to it again as swift as an arrow, unless they see some improvement afterward.
No one is so cold in the love of God - unless he be one of the damned - that the devil does not immediately draw away from him if he invokes my name with the intention of never returning to his bad habits, and the devil keeps away from him unless he resumes his intention of sinning mortally. However, sometimes the devil is allowed to trouble him for the sake of his greater reward, but never to gain possession of him.
I am the Queen of heaven, the Mother of God. I told you that you should wear a brooch upon your breast. I will now show you more fully how, from the beginning, when I first learned and came to an understanding of the existence of God, I was always concerned about my salvation and religious observance. When I learned more completely that God himself was my Creator and the judge of all my actions, I came to love him deeply, and I was constantly alert and watchful so as not to offend him in word or deed. When I learned that he had given his law and commandments to his people and worked so many miracles through them, I made a firm resolution in my soul to love nothing but him, and the things of the world became altogether repugnant to me.
Then, having learned that God himself would redeem the world and be born of a Virgin, I was so smitten with love for him that I thought of nothing but God and wanted nothing but him. As far as I was able, I withdrew from the conversation and the presence of parents and friends and gave away to the needy everything I had come to own. I kept for myself nothing but meager food and clothing.
Nothing but God was pleasing to me. I always hoped in my heart to live until the time of his birth and perhaps merit becoming the unworthy handmaid of the Mother of God. I also made a vow in my heart to preserve my virginity, if that was acceptable to him, and to possess nothing whatsoever in the world. But if God willed otherwise, my wish was that his will, not mine, be done, for I believed he was able to do all things and wanted nothing but the best for me. And so I entrusted all my will to him. When the prescribed time arrived for the presentation of virgins in the temple of the Lord, I was also present with them thanks to the religious compliance of my parents. I thought to myself that nothing was impossible for God, and that, since he knew I desired nothing and wanted nothing but him, he would be able to preserve my virginity, if it so pleased him: otherwise, let his will be done!
Having listened to all the commandments in the temple, I returned home, burning more with the love of God than ever before, being inflamed with new fires and desires of love each day. For that reason I withdrew by myself even more from everything else and was alone night and day, fearing greatly lest my mouth say anything or my ears hear anything against God or lest my eyes look on anything delectable. I felt the same fear in my silence and was very anxious not to be silent upon those subjects about which I ought rather to have spoken.
While I was thus agitated in my heart and alone with myself, entrusting all my hope to God, at that very moment it came into my head to consider God's great power, how the angels and all creatures serve him, and what his indescribable and unending glory was like. As I was wondering at all this, I saw three wonderful sights. I saw a star, but not the kind that shines from the sky. I saw a light, but not the kind that glows in the world. I sensed a smell, not of herbs or anything like that, but indescribably sweet, which quite filled me up so that I felt like jumping for joy. Right then I heard a voice, but not from a human mouth. I was quite afraid when I heard it and wondered whether it was an illusion. An angel of God then appeared before me in the fairest human shape, although not in the flesh, and he said to me: 'Hail, full of grace!'
On hearing it, I wondered what this could mean or why he gave me such a greeting, since I knew and believed that I was unworthy of any such thing, or of any good thing, but also that it was possible for God to do anything he wanted. The angel said next: 'The offspring to be born in you is holy and will be called the Son of God. It will be done as it pleases God.' I neither thought myself worthy nor did I ask the angel 'Why?' or 'When will it be done?' but I asked: 'How is it to be that I, who do not even know a man, am to become the unworthy Mother of God?' The angel answered me, as I said, that nothing is impossible for God, but 'Whatever he wants to do will be done.'
When I heard the words of the angel, I felt the most fervent desire to become the Mother of God, and my soul spoke out of love: 'Here I am, may your will be done in me!' At that word, right then and there, my Son was conceived in my womb to the indescribable thrill of my soul and all my limbs. When I had him in the womb, I bore him without any pain, without any heaviness or weariness in my body. I humbled myself in every way, knowing that the one I bore was the Almighty. When I gave birth to him, I did so without any pain or sin, just as I had conceived him, with such a thrill of soul and body that I felt like I was walking on air out of the thrill of it all.
Just as he entered my limbs to the joy of all my soul, so to the joy of all my limbs he left me, with my soul rejoicing and my virginity unscathed. When I looked upon him and contemplated his beauty, knowing myself to be unworthy of such a son, joy seeped through my soul like drops of dew. When I contemplated the places where, as I had learned through the prophets, his hands and feet would be nailed at the crucifixion, my eyes filled with tears and my heart was torn by sadness. My Son looked at my crying eyes then and became deathly saddened. When I contemplated his divine power, I was consoled again, realizing that this was the way he wanted it and so it was the right way, and I conformed all my will to his. So my joy was always mixed with sorrow.
When the time of my Son's passion arrived, his enemies seized him. They struck him on his cheek and neck and spat at him as they made sport of him. When he was led to the pillar, he took off his clothes himself and placed his own hands on the pillar, and his enemies then mercilessly bound them. Bound to the pillar, without any kind of covering, just as he had been born, he stood there and suffered the embarrassment of being naked. His friends had fled, but his enemies were ready for action. They stood there on all sides and scourged his body that was clean from every stain and sin. I was standing nearby and, at the first lash, I fell down as if I were dead. When I revived, I could see his body whipped and scourged to the ribs. What was even more horrible was that when they pulled the whips back, the weighted thongs tore his flesh.
As my Son was standing there all bloody and covered with wounds, so that no sound spot was left on him that could be whipped, then someone, aroused in spirit, asked: 'Are you going to kill him thus unsentenced?' And straightaway he cut his bonds. Then my Son himself put his clothes back on. I saw that the place where my Son had been standing was covered with blood, and by his footprints I could tell which way he walked, for the ground seemed to be soaked with blood wherever he went. They had no patience with him to let him get dressed, but pushed and dragged him to hurry him on. As my Son was being led off like a thief, he dried the blood from his eyes.
Once he was sentenced, they placed the cross on him to carry. He did carry it for a while, but then someone came along and undertook to carry it for him. As my Son was going to the place of his passion, some people struck him on the neck, while others hit him in the face. He was hit so hard and with so much force that, although I did not see who hit him, I heard the sound of the blow clearly. When I reached the place of the passion with him, I saw all the instruments of his death ready. When my Son got there, he took off his clothes himself, while the servants said to each other:
'These are our clothes and he will not get them back since he is condemned to death.' My Son was standing there, naked as he had been born, when someone came running up and offered him a veil with which he joyfully covered his shame. Then his cruel executioners seized him and stretched him out on the cross, nailing first his right hand to the crossbeam that had a hole in it for the nail. They pierced his hand at the point where the bone was more solid. With a rope they pulled his other hand and attached it to the crossbeam in similar fashion. Then they crucified his right foot with the left on top of it using two nails so that all his sinews and veins became overstrained and burst. After that they put the crown of thorns on his head and it cut so deeply into my Son's venerable head that the blood filled his eyes as it flowed, blocked up his ears and stained his beard as it ran down. As he stood on the cross wounded and bloody, he felt compassion for me who was standing by in tears and, looking with his bloodied eyes in the direction of John, my nephew, he commended me to him.
At the time I could hear some people saying that my Son was a thief, others that he was a liar, still others that no one was more deserving of death than my Son. My sorrow was renewed from hearing all this. But, as I said before, when the first nail was driven into him, that first blow shook me so much that I fell down as if dead, my eyes covered in darkness, my hands trembling, my feet unsteady. In the bitterness of my grief I was not able to watch until he had been fastened entirely to the cross. When I got up, I saw my Son hanging there in misery and, in my thorough dismay, I his most unhappy Mother, could hardly stand on my feet due to grief.
Seeing me and his friends weeping inconsolably, my Son cried out in a loud and doleful voice to his Father, saying, 'Father, why have you abandoned me?' It was as if to say: 'There is no one who takes pity on me but you, Father.' At that stage his eyes looked half-dead, his cheeks were sunken, his face mournful, his mouth open and his tongue bloody. His stomach was sucked in toward his back, all the liquid having been consumed, as if he had no vital organs. All his body was pale and languid due to the loss of blood. His hands and feet were rigidly extended, being pulled toward the cross and shaped like the shape of the cross. His beard and hair were completely covered with blood.
There he stood, bruised and livid, and only his heart was still fresh, since it was of the best and strongest constitution. From my flesh he had received a most pure and well-wrought body. His skin was so thin and tender that if it was even slightly scourged the blood would flow out immediately. His blood was so fresh that it could be seen in his pure skin. Precisely because he had the very best constitution, life contended with death in his wounded body. At certain moments the pain in the limbs and sinews of his wounded body rose up to his still vigorous and unbroken heart and inflicted incredible pain and suffering on him. At other moments the pain went down from his heart into his wounded limbs and, in so doing, bitterly prolonged his death.
Surrounded by these sorrows, my Son looked at his friends who were weeping and who would rather have borne his pain themselves through his help or have burned in hell forever than to see him tortured so. His sorrow at his friends' sorrow exceeded all the bitterness and tribulations that he had endured in body and heart, due to the tender love he had for them. Then, out of the exceeding bodily anguish of his human nature, he cried out to the Father: 'Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.' When I his most sorrowful Mother, heard those words, my whole body shook with the bitter pain of my heart.
As often as I have thought on that cry since then, it has still remained present and fresh in my ears. As his death drew near and his heart burst from the violence of the pain, his whole body convulsed and his head raised itself a little and then drooped back down again, his mouth fell open and his tongue could be seen to be all bloody. His hands pulled back a little from the place of perforation and his feet had to bear more of the weight of his body. His fingers and arms stretched themselves out somewhat and his back stiffened tightly against the cross.
Then some people said to me: 'Mary, your Son is dead.' Others said: 'He has died but he will rise again.' As everyone was going away, a man came and drove a lance into his side with such force that it almost went out the other side. When the spear was withdrawn, its point appeared red with blood. And it seemed to me as if my own heart had been pierced when I saw my beloved Son's heart pierced. Then he was taken down from the cross. I took his body on my lap; it was like a leper's, all livid. His eyes were lifeless and full of blood, his mouth as cold as ice, his beard like twine, his face grown stiff. His hands had become so rigid that they could not be bent farther down than to about his naval.
I had him on my knee just as he had been on the cross, like a man stiff in all his limbs. After that they laid him in a clean linen and with my linen cloth I dried his wounds and his limbs and then closed his eyes and mouth, which had been opened when he died. Then they placed him in the sepulcher. How I would rather have been placed in there alive with my Son, if it had been his will! These things done, dear John came and brought me to his house. See, then, my daughter, what my Son has endured for you!
Chapter 11
The Son of God spoke to his bride, saying: "I am the Creator of heaven and earth, and it is my true body that is consecrated on the altar. Love me with all your heart, because I have loved you and delivered myself up to my enemies of my own free will, while my friends and my Mother were left in bitter grief and mourning. When I saw the lance, the nails, the whips, and the other instruments of suffering ready, I still went on to suffer with joy. When my head was bleeding on all sides from the crown of thorns, and blood was flowing on all sides, then, even if my enemies had got hold of my heart as well, I would rather have let it be sundered and wounded than lose you. So you are extremely ungrateful, if, in return for such great charity, you do not love me.
If my head was pierced and inclined on the cross for you, your head should be inclined toward humility. Since my eyes were bloody and full of tears, your eyes should keep away from pleasurable sights. Since my ears were filled with blood and heard mocking words against me, your ears should turn aside from frivolous and unfitting talk. Since my mouth was given a bitter drink to drink but was denied a sweet one, keep your own mouth from evil and let it be open for good. Since my hands were stretched out by nails, let your works, which the hands symbolize, be stretched out to the poor and to my commandments. Let your feet, that is, your affections, with which you should walk toward me, be crucified as to lusts, so that, just as I suffered in all my limbs, so may all your limbs be ready to obey me. I demand more service of you than of others, because I have given you a greater grace."
Comment deleted at the request of the thread owner. Comment deleted at the request of the thread owner.
| |
