The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena(in the making)

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How the desire of this soul grew when God showed her the neediness of the world.

This desire was great and continuous, but grew much more, when the First Truth
showed her the neediness of the world, and in what a tempest of offense against
God it lay. And she had understood this the better from a letter, which she had
received from the spiritual Father of her soul, in which he explained to her the
penalties and intolerable dolor caused by offenses against God, and the loss of souls,
and the persecutions of Holy Church.

All this lighted the fire of her holy desire with grief for the offenses, and with the
joy of the lively hope, with which she waited for God to provide against such great
evils. And, since the soul seems, in such communion, sweetly to bind herself fast
within herself and with God, and knows better His truth, inasmuch as the soul is
then in God, and God in the soul, as the fish is in the sea, and the sea in the fish, she
desired the arrival of the morning (for the morrow was a feast of Mary) in order to
hear Mass. And, when the morning came, and the hour of the Mass, she sought
with anxious desire her accustomed place; and, with a great knowledge of herself,
being ashamed of her own imperfection, appearing to herself to be the cause of all
the evil that was happening throughout the world, conceiving a hatred and
displeasure against herself, and a feeling of holy justice, with which knowledge,
hatred, and justice, she purified the stains which seemed to her to cover her guilty
soul, she said: "O Eternal Father, I accuse myself before You, in order that You may
punish me for my sins in this finite life, and, inasmuch as my sins are the cause of
the sufferings which my neighbor must endure, I implore You, in Your kindness, to
punish them in my person."

How finite works are not sufficient for punishment or recompense without the
perpetual affection of love.

Then, the Eternal Truth seized and drew more strongly to Himself her desire, doing
as He did in the Old Testament, for when the sacrifice was offered to God, a fire
descended and drew to Him the sacrifice that was acceptable to Him; so did the sweet
Truth to that soul, in sending down the fire of the clemency of the Holy Spirit,
seizing the sacrifice of desire that she made of herself, saying: "Do you not know,
dear daughter, that all the sufferings, which the soul endures, or can endure, in this
life, are insufficient to punish one smallest fault, because the offense, being done to
Me, who am the Infinite Good, calls for an infinite satisfaction? However, I wish
that you should know, that not all the pains that are given to men in this life are
given as punishments, but as corrections, in order to chastise a son when he offends;
though it is true that both the guilt and the penalty can be expiated by the desire of
the soul, that is, by true contrition, not through the finite pain endured, but through
the infinite desire; because God, who is infinite, wishes for infinite love and infinite
grief. Infinite grief I wish from My creature in two ways: in one way, through her
sorrow for her own sins, which she has committed against Me her Creator; in the
other way, through her sorrow for the sins which she sees her neighbors commit
against Me. Of such as these, inasmuch as they have infinite desire, that is, are
joined to Me by an affection of love, and therefore grieve when they offend Me, or  

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see Me offended, their every pain, whether spiritual or corporeal, from wherever it
may come, receives infinite merit, and satisfies for a guilt which deserved an
infinite penalty, although their works are finite and done in finite time; but,
inasmuch as they possess the virtue of desire, and sustain their suffering with
desire, and contrition, and infinite displeasure against their guilt, their pain is held
worthy. Paul explained this when he said: If I had the tongues of angels, and if I
knew the things of the future and gave my body to be burned, and have not love, it
would be worth nothing to me. The glorious Apostle thus shows that finite works
are not valid, either as punishment or recompense, without the condiment of the
affection of love."

How desire and contrition of heart satisfies, both for the guilt and the penalty in
oneself and in others; and how sometimes it satisfies for the guilt only, and
not the penalty.

"I have shown you, dearest daughter, that the guilt is not punished in this finite
time by any pain which is sustained purely as such. And I say, that the guilt is
punished by the pain which is endured through the desire, love, and contrition of
the heart; not by virtue of the pain, but by virtue of the desire of the soul; inasmuch
as desire and every virtue is of value, and has life in itself, through Christ crucified,
My only begotten Son, in so far as the soul has drawn her love from Him, and
virtuously follows His virtues, that is, His Footprints. In this way, and in no other,
are virtues of value, and in this way, pains satisfy for the fault, by the sweet and
intimate love acquired in the knowledge of My goodness, and in the bitterness and
contrition of heart acquired by knowledge of one's self and one's own thoughts.
And this knowledge generates a hatred and displeasure against sin, and against the
soul's own sensuality, through which, she deems herself worthy of pains and
unworthy of reward."

The sweet Truth continued: "See how, by contrition of the heart, together with love,
with true patience, and with true humility, deeming themselves worthy of pain and
unworthy of reward, such souls endure the patient humility in which consists the
above-mentioned satisfaction. You ask me, then, for pains, so that I may receive
satisfaction for the offenses, which are done against Me by My Creatures, and you
further ask the will to know and love Me, who am the Supreme Truth. Wherefore I
reply that this is the way, if you will arrive at a perfect knowledge and enjoyment of
Me, the Eternal Truth, that you should never go outside the knowledge of yourself,
and, by humbling yourself in the valley of humility, you will know Me and
yourself, from which knowledge you will draw all that is necessary. No virtue, my
daughter, can have life in itself except through charity, and humility, which is the
foster-mother and nurse of charity. In self-knowledge, then, you will humble
yourself, seeing that, in yourself, you do not even exist; for your very being, as you
will learn, is derived from Me, since I have loved both you and others before you
were in existence; and that, through the ineffable love which I had for you, wishing
to re-create you to Grace, I have washed you, and re-created you in the Blood of My
only-begotten Son, spilt with so great a fire of love. This Blood teaches the truth to
him, who, by self-knowledge, dissipates the cloud of self-love, and in no other way
can he learn. Then the soul will inflame herself in this knowledge of Me with an  

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ineffable love, through which love she continues in constant pain; not, however, a
pain which afflicts or dries up the soul, but one which rather fattens her; for since
she has known My truth, and her own faults, and the ingratitude of men, she
endures intolerable suffering, grieving because she loves Me; for, if she did not love
Me, she would not be obliged to do so; whence it follows immediately, that it is right
for you, and My other servants who have learnt My truth in this way, to sustain,
even unto death, many tribulations and injuries and insults in word and deed, for
the glory and praise of My Name; thus will you endure and suffer pains. Do you,
therefore, and My other servants, carry yourselves with true patience, with grief for
your sins, and with love of virtue for the glory and praise of My Name. If you act
thus, I will satisfy for your sins, and for those of My other servants, inasmuch as the
pains which you will endure will be sufficient, through the virtue of love, for
satisfaction and reward, both in you and in others. In yourself you will receive the
fruit of life, when the stains of your ignorance are effaced, and I shall not remember
that you ever offended Me. In others I will satisfy through the love and affection
which you have to Me, and I will give to them according to the disposition with
which they will receive My gifts. In particular, to those who dispose themselves,
humbly and with reverence, to receive the doctrine of My servants, will I remit both
guilt and penalty, since they will thus come to true knowledge and contrition for
their sins. So that, by means of prayer, and their desire of serving Me, they receive
the fruit of grace, receiving it humbly in greater or less degree, according to the
extent of their exercise of virtue and grace in general. I say then, that, through your
desires, they will receive remission for their sins. See, however, the condition,
namely, that their obstinacy should not be so great in their despair as to condemn
them through contempt of the Blood, which, with such sweetness, has restored
them.

"What fruit do they receive?

"The fruit which I destine for them, constrained by the prayers of My servants, is
that I give them light, and that I wake up in them the hound of conscience, and
make them smell the odor of virtue, and take delight in the conversation of My
servants.

"Sometimes I allow the world to show them what it is, so that, feeling its diverse
and various passions, they may know how little stability it has, and may come to lift
their desire beyond it, and seek their native country, which is the Eternal Life. And
so I draw them by these, and by many other ways, for the eye cannot see, nor the
tongue relate, nor the heart think, how many are the roads and ways which I use,
through love alone, to lead them back to grace, so that My truth may be fulfilled in
them. I am constrained to do so by that inestimable love of Mine, by which I created
them, and by the love, desire, and grief of My servants, since I am no despiser of
their tears, and sweat, and humble prayers; rather I accept them, inasmuch as I am
He who give them this love for the good of souls and grief for their loss. But I do
not, in general, grant to these others, for whom they pray, satisfaction for the penalty
due to them, but, only for their guilt, since they are not disposed, on their side, to
receive, with perfect love, My love, and that of My servants. They do not receive
their grief with bitterness, and perfect contrition for the sins they have committed,
but with imperfect love and contrition, wherefore they have not, as others,
remission of the penalty, but only of the guilt; because such complete satisfaction  

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requires proper dispositions on both sides, both in him that gives and him that
receives. Wherefore, since they are imperfect, they receive imperfectly the perfection
of the desires of those who offer them to Me, for their sakes, with suffering; and,
inasmuch as I told you that they do receive remission, this is indeed the truth, that,
by that way which I have told you, that is, by the light of conscience, and by other
things, satisfaction is made for their guilt; for, beginning to learn, they vomit forth
the corruption of their sins, and so receive the gift of grace.

"These are they who are in a state of ordinary charity, wherefore, if they have
trouble, they receive it in the guise of correction, and do not resist over much the
clemency of the Holy Spirit, but, coming out of their sin, they receive the life of
grace. But if, like fools, they are ungrateful, and ignore Me and the labors of My
servants done for them, that which was given them, through mercy, turns to their
own ruin and judgment, not through defect of mercy, nor through defect of him
who implored the mercy for the ingrate, but solely through the man's own
wretchedness and hardness, with which, with the hands of his free will, he has
covered his heart, as it were, with a diamond, which, if it be not broken by the
Blood, can in no way be broken. And yet, I say to you, that, in spite of his hardness of
heart, he can use his free will while he has time, praying for the Blood of My Son,
and let him with his own hand apply It to the diamond over his heart and shiver it,
and he will receive the imprint of the Blood which has been paid for him. But, if he
delays until the time be past, he has no remedy, because he has not used the dowry
which I gave him, giving him memory so as to remember My benefits, intellect, so
as to see and know the truth, affection, so that he should love Me, the Eternal Truth,
whom he would have known through the use of his intellect. This is the dowry
which I have given you all, and which ought to render fruit to Me, the Father; but, if
a man barters and sells it to the devil, the devil, if he choose, has a right to seize on
everything that he has acquired in this life. And, filling his memory with the
delights of sin, and with the recollection of shameful pride, avarice, self-love,
hatred, and unkindness to his neighbors (being also a persecutor of My servants),
with these miseries, he has obscured his intellect by his disordinate will. Let such as
these receive the eternal pains, with their horrible stench, inasmuch as they have
not satisfied for their sins with contrition and displeasure of their guilt. Now,
therefore, you have understood how suffering satisfies for guilt by perfect contrition,
not through the finite pain; and such as have this contrition in perfection satisfy not
only for the guilt, but also for the penalty which follows the guilt, as I have already
said when speaking in general; and if they satisfy for the guilt alone, that is, if,
having abandoned mortal sin, they receive grace, and have not sufficient contrition
and love to satisfy for the penalty also, they go to the pains of Purgatory, passing
through the second and last means of satisfaction.

"So you see that satisfaction is made, through the desire of the soul united to Me,
who am the Infinite Good, in greater or less degree, according to the measure of
love, obtained by the desire and prayer of the recipient. Wherefore, with that very
same measure with which a man measures to Me, do he receive in himself the
measure of My goodness. Labor, therefore, to increase the fire of your desire, and let
not a moment pass without crying to Me with humble voice, or without continual
prayers before Me for your neighbors. I say this to you and to the father of your soul,
whom I have given you on earth. Bear yourselves with manful courage, and make
yourselves dead to all your own sensuality."  

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How very pleasing to God is the willing desire to suffer for Him.

"Very pleasing to Me, dearest daughter, is the willing desire to bear every pain and
fatigue, even unto death, for the salvation of souls, for the more the soul endures,
the more she shows that she loves Me; loving Me she comes to know more of My
truth, and the more she knows, the more pain and intolerable grief she feels at the
offenses committed against Me. You asked Me to sustain you, and to punish the
faults of others in you, and you did not remark that you were really asking for love,
light, and knowledge of the truth, since I have already told you that, by the increase
of love, grows grief and pain, wherefore he that grows in love grows in grief.
Therefore, I say to you all, that you should ask, and it will be given you, for I deny
nothing to him who asks of Me in truth. Consider that the love of divine charity is
so closely joined in the soul with perfect patience, that neither can leave the soul
without the other. For this reason (if the soul elect to love Me) she should elect to
endure pains for Me in whatever mode or circumstance I may send them to her.
Patience cannot be proved in any other way than by suffering, and patience is united
with love as has been said. Therefore bear yourselves with manly courage, for,
unless you do so, you will not prove yourselves to be spouses of My Truth, and
faithful children, nor of the company of those who relish the taste of My honor, and
the salvation of souls."

How every virtue and every defect is obtained by means of our neighbor.

"I wish also that you should know that every virtue is obtained by means of your
neighbor, and likewise, every defect; he, therefore, who stands in hatred of Me, does
an injury to his neighbor, and to himself, who is his own chief neighbor, and this
injury is both general and particular. It is general because you are obliged to love
your neighbor as yourself, and loving him, you ought to help him spiritually, with
prayer, counseling him with words, and assisting him both spiritually and
temporally, according to the need in which he may be, at least with your goodwill if
you have nothing else. A man therefore, who does not love, does not help him, and
thereby does himself an injury; for he cuts off from himself grace, and injures his
neighbor, by depriving him of the benefit of the prayers and of the sweet desires that
he is bound to offer for him to Me. Thus, every act of help that he performs should
proceed from the charity which he has through love of Me. And every evil also, is
done by means of his neighbor, for, if he do not love Me, he cannot be in charity
with his neighbor; and thus, all evils derive from the soul's deprivation of love of
Me and her neighbor; whence, inasmuch as such a man does no good, it follows that
he must do evil. To whom does he evil? First of all to himself, and then to his
neighbor, not against Me, for no evil can touch Me, except in so far as I count done
to Me that which he does to himself. To himself he does the injury of sin, which
deprives him of grace, and worse than this he cannot do to his neighbor. Him he
injures in not paying him the debt, which he owes him, of love, with which he
ought to help him by means of prayer and holy desire offered to Me for him. This is
an assistance which is owed in general to every rational creature; but its usefulness
is more particular when it is done to those who are close at hand, under your eyes,  

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as to whom, I say, you are all obliged to help one another by word and doctrine, and
the example of good works, and in every other respect in which your neighbor may
be seen to be in need; counseling him exactly as you would yourselves, without any
passion of self-love; and he (a man not loving God) does not do this, because he has
no love towards his neighbor; and, by not doing it, he does him, as you see, a special
injury. And he does him evil, not only by not doing him the good that he might do
him, but by doing him a positive injury and a constant evil. In this way sin causes a
physical and a mental injury. The mental injury is already done when the sinner
has conceived pleasure in the idea of sin, and hatred of virtue, that is, pleasure from
sensual self-love, which has deprived him of the affection of love which he ought
to have towards Me, and his neighbor, as has been said. And, after he has conceived,
he brings forth one sin after another against his neighbor, according to the diverse
ways which may please his perverse sensual will. Sometimes it is seen that he
brings forth cruelty, and that both in general and in particular.

"His general cruelty is to see himself and other creatures in danger of death and
damnation through privation of grace, and so cruel is he that he reminds neither
himself nor others of the love of virtue and hatred of vice. Being thus cruel he may
wish to extend his cruelty still further, that is, not content with not giving an
example of virtue, the villain also usurps the office of the demons, tempting,
according to his power, his fellow-creatures to abandon virtue for vice; this is cruelty
towards his neighbors, for he makes himself an instrument to destroy life and to
give death. Cruelty towards the body has its origin in cupidity, which not only
prevents a man from helping his neighbor, but causes him to seize the goods of
others, robbing the poor creatures; sometimes this is done by the arbitrary use of
power, and at other times by cheating and fraud, his neighbor being forced to
redeem, to his own loss, his own goods, and often indeed his own person.
"Oh, miserable vice of cruelty, which will deprive the man who practices it of all
mercy, unless he turn to kindness and benevolence towards his neighbor!

"Sometimes the sinner brings forth insults on which often follows murder;
sometimes also impurity against the person of his neighbor, by which he becomes a
brute beast full of stench, and in this case he does not poison one only, but whoever
approaches him, with love or in conversation, is poisoned.

"Against whom does pride bring forth evils? Against the neighbor, through love of
one's own reputation, whence comes hatred of the neighbor, reputing one's self to
be greater than he; and in this way is injury done to him. And if a man be in a
position of authority, he produces also injustice and cruelty and becomes a retailer
of the flesh of men. Oh, dearest daughter, grieve for the offense against Me, and
weep over these corpses, so that, by prayer, the bands of their death may be loosened!

"See now, that, in all places and in all kinds of people, sin is always produced against
the neighbor, and through his medium; in no other way could sin ever be
committed either secret or open. A secret sin is when you deprive your neighbor of
that which you ought to give him; an open sin is where you perform positive acts of
sin, as I have related to you. It is, therefore, indeed the truth that every sin done
against Me, is done through the medium of the neighbor."  

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How virtues are accomplished by means of our neighbor, and how it is that virtues
differ to such an extent in creatures.

"I have told you how all sins are accomplished by means of your neighbor, through
the principles which I exposed to you, that is, because men are deprived of the
affection of love, which gives light to every virtue. In the same way self-love, which
destroys charity and affection towards the neighbor, is the principle and foundation
of every evil. All scandals, hatred, cruelty, and every sort of trouble proceed from
this perverse root of self-love, which has poisoned the entire world, and weakened
the mystical body of the Holy Church, and the universal body of the believers in the
Christian religion; and, therefore, I said to you, that it was in the neighbor, that is to
say in the love of him, that all virtues were founded; and, truly indeed did I say to
you, that charity gives life to all the virtues, because no virtue can be obtained
without charity, which is the pure love of Me.

"Wherefore, when the soul knows herself, as we have said above, she finds
humility and hatred of her own sensual passion, for she learns the perverse law,
which is bound up in her members, and which ever fights against the spirit. And,
therefore, arising with hatred of her own sensuality, crushing it under the heel of
reason, with great earnestness, she discovers in herself the bounty of My goodness,
through the many benefits which she has received from Me, all of which she
considers again in herself. She attributes to Me, through humility, the knowledge
which she has obtained of herself, knowing that, by My grace, I have drawn her out
of darkness and lifted her up into the light of true knowledge. When she has
recognized My goodness, she loves it without any medium, and yet at the same time
with a medium, that is to say, without the medium of herself or of any advantage
accruing to herself, and with the medium of virtue, which she has conceived
through love of Me, because she sees that, in no other way, can she become grateful
and acceptable to Me, but by conceiving, hatred of sin and love of virtue; and, when
she has thus conceived by the affection of love, she immediately is delivered of fruit
for her neighbor, because, in no other way, can she act out the truth she has
conceived in herself, but, loving Me in truth, in the same truth she serves her
neighbor.

"And it cannot be otherwise, because love of Me and of her neighbor are one and
the same thing, and, so far as the soul loves Me, she loves her neighbor, because
love towards him issues from Me. This is the means which I have given you, that
you may exercise and prove your virtue therewith; because, inasmuch as you can do
Me no profit, you should do it to your neighbor. This proves that you possess Me by
grace in your soul, producing much fruit for your neighbor and making prayers to
Me, seeking with sweet and amorous desire My honor and the salvation of souls.
The soul, enamored of My truth, never ceases to serve the whole world in general,
and more or less in a particular case according to the disposition of the recipient and
the ardent desire of the donor, as I have shown above, when I declared to you that
the endurance of suffering alone, without desire, was not sufficient to punish a
fault.

"When she has discovered the advantage of this unitive love in Me, by means of
which, she truly loves herself, extending her desire for the salvation of the whole
world, thus coming to the aid of its neediness, she strives, inasmuch as she has done
good to herself by the conception of virtue, from which she has drawn the life of  

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grace, to fix her eye on the needs of her neighbor in particular. Wherefore, when she
has discovered, through the affection of love, the state of all rational creatures in
general, she helps those who are at hand, according to the various graces which I
have entrusted to her to administer; one she helps with doctrine, that is, with
words, giving sincere counsel without any respect of persons, another with the
example of a good life, and this indeed all give to their neighbor, the edification of a
holy and honorable life. These are the virtues, and many others, too many to
enumerate, which are brought forth in the love of the neighbor; but, although I
have given them in such a different way, that is to say not all to one, but to one, one
virtue, and to another, another, it so happens that it is impossible to have one,
without having them all, because all the virtues are bound together. Wherefore,
learn, that, in many cases I give one virtue, to be as it were the chief of the others,
that is to say, to one I will give principally love, to another justice, to another
humility, to one a lively faith, to another prudence or temperance, or patience, to
another fortitude. These, and many other virtues, I place, indifferently, in the souls
of many creatures; it happens, therefore, that the particular one so placed in the soul
becomes the principal object of its virtue; the soul disposing herself, for her chief
conversation, to this rather than to other virtues, and, by the effect of this virtue, the
soul draws to herself all the other virtues, which, as has been said, are all bound
together in the affection of love; and so with many gifts and graces of virtue, and not
only in the case of spiritual things but also of temporal. I use the word temporal for
the things necessary to the physical life of man; all these I have given indifferently,
and I have not placed them all in one soul, in order that man should, perforce, have
material for love of his fellow. I could easily have created men possessed of all that
they should need both for body and soul, but I wish that one should have need of
the other, and that they should be My ministers to administer the graces and the
gifts that they have received from Me. Whether man will or no, he cannot help
making an act of love. It is true, however, that that act, unless made through love of
Me, profits him nothing so far as grace is concerned. See then, that I have made men
My ministers, and placed them in diverse stations and various ranks, in order that
they may make use of the virtue of love.

"Wherefore, I show you that in My house are many mansions, and that I wish for
no other thing than love, for in the love of Me is fulfilled and completed the love of
the neighbor, and the law observed. For he, only, can be of use in his state of life,
who is bound to Me with this love."

How virtues are proved and fortified by their contraries.

"Up to the present, I have taught you how a man may serve his neighbor, and
manifest, by that service, the love which he has towards Me.

"Now I wish to tell you further, that a man proves his patience on his neighbor,
when he receives injuries from him.

"Similarly, he proves his humility on a proud man, his faith on an infidel, his true
hope on one who despairs, his justice on the unjust, his kindness on the cruel, his
gentleness and benignity on the irascible. Good men produce and prove all their
virtues on their neighbor, just as perverse men all their vices; thus, if you consider  

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well, humility is proved on pride in this way. The humble man extinguishes pride,
because a proud man can do no harm to a humble one; neither can the infidelity of
a wicked man, who neither loves Me, nor hopes in Me, when brought forth against
one who is faithful to Me, do him any harm; his infidelity does not diminish the
faith or the hope of him who has conceived his faith and hope through love of Me,
it rather fortifies it, and proves it in the love he feels for his neighbor. For, he sees
that the infidel is unfaithful, because he is without hope in Me, and in My servant,
because he does not love Me, placing his faith and hope rather in his own
sensuality, which is all that he loves. My faithful servant does not leave him
because he does not faithfully love Me, or because he does not constantly seek, with
hope in Me, for his salvation, inasmuch as he sees clearly the causes of his infidelity
and lack of hope. The virtue of faith is proved in these and other ways. Wherefore,
to those, who need the proof of it, My servant proves his faith in himself and in his
neighbor, and so, justice is not diminished by the wicked man's injustice, but is
rather proved, that is to say, the justice of a just man. Similarly, the virtues of
patience, benignity, and kindness manifest themselves in a time of wrath by the
same sweet patience in My servants, and envy, vexation, and hatred demonstrate
their love, and hunger and desire for the salvation of souls. I say, also, to you, that,
not only is virtue proved in those who render good for evil, but, that many times a
good man gives back fiery coals of love, which dispel the hatred and rancor of heart
of the angry, and so from hatred often comes benevolence, and that this is by virtue
of the love and perfect patience which is in him, who sustains the anger of the
wicked, bearing and supporting his defects. If you will observe the virtues of
fortitude and perseverance, these virtues are proved by the long endurance of the
injuries and detractions of wicked men, who, whether by injuries or by flattery,
constantly endeavor to turn a man aside from following the road and the doctrine
of truth. Wherefore, in all these things, the virtue of fortitude conceived within the
soul, perseveres with strength, and, in addition proves itself externally upon the
neighbor, as I have said to you; and, if fortitude were not able to make that good
proof of itself, being tested by many contrarieties, it would not be a serious virtue
founded in truth."  

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A TREATISE OF DISCRETION

How the affection should not place reliance chiefly on penance, but rather on
virtues; and how discretion receives life from humility, and renders to each
man his due.

"These are the holy and sweet works which I seek from My servants; these are the
proved intrinsic virtues of the soul, as I have told you. They not only consist of
those virtues which are done by means of the body, that is, with an exterior act, or
with diverse and varied penances, which are the instruments of virtue; works of
penance performed alone without the above-mentioned virtues would please Me
little; often, indeed, if the soul perform not her penance with discretion, that is to
say, if her affection be placed principally in the penance she has undertaken, her
perfection will be impeded; she should rather place reliance on the affection of love,
with a holy hatred of herself, accompanied by true humility and perfect patience,
together with the other intrinsic virtues of the soul, with hunger and desire for My
honor and the salvation of souls. For these virtues demonstrate that the will is
dead, and continually slays its own sensuality through the affection of love of
virtue. With this discretion, then, should the soul perform her penance, that is, she
should place her principal affection in virtue rather than in penance. Penance
should be but the means to increase virtue according to the needs of the individual,
and according to what the soul sees she can do in the measure of her own
possibility. Otherwise, if the soul place her foundation on penance she will
contaminate her own perfection, because her penance will not be done in the light
of knowledge of herself and of My goodness, with discretion, and she will not seize
hold of My truth; neither loving that which I love, nor hating that which I hate.
This virtue of discretion is no other than a true knowledge which the soul should
have of herself and of Me, and in this knowledge is virtue rooted. Discretion is the
only child of self-knowledge, and, wedding with charity, has indeed many other
descendants, as a tree which has many branches; but that which gives life to the tree,
to its branches, and its root, is the ground of humility, in which it is planted, which
humility is the foster-mother and nurse of charity, by whose means this tree
remains in the perpetual calm of discretion. Because otherwise the tree would not
produce the virtue of discretion, or any fruit of life, if it were not planted in the
virtue of humility, because humility proceeds from self-knowledge. And I have
already said to you, that the root of discretion is a real knowledge of self and of My
goodness, by which the soul immediately, and discreetly, renders to each one his
due. Chiefly to Me in rendering praise and glory to My Name, and in referring to Me
the graces and the gifts which she sees and knows she has received from Me; and
rendering to herself that which she sees herself to have merited, knowing that she
does not even exist of herself, and attributing to Me, and not to herself, her being,
which she knows she has received by grace from Me, and every other grace which
she has received besides.

"And she seems to herself to be ungrateful for so many benefits, and negligent, in
that she has not made the most of her time, and the graces she has received, and so  

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seems to herself worthy of suffering; wherefore she becomes odious and displeasing
to herself through her guilt. And this founds the virtue of discretion on knowledge
of self, that is, on true humility, for, were this humility not in the soul, the soul
would be indiscreet, indiscretion being founded on pride, as discretion is on
humility.
"An indiscreet soul robs Me of the honor due to Me, and attributes it to herself,
through vainglory, and that which is really her own she imputes to Me, grieving
and murmuring concerning My mysteries, with which I work in her soul and in
those of My other creatures; wherefore everything in Me and in her neighbor is
cause of scandal to her. Contrariwise those who possess the virtue of discretion. For,
when they have rendered what is due to Me and to themselves, they proceed to
render to their neighbor their principal debt of love, and of humble and continuous
prayer, which all should pay to each other, and further, the debt of doctrine, and
example of a holy and honorable life, counseling and helping others according to
their needs for salvation, as I said to you above. Whatever rank a man be in,
whether that of a noble, a prelate, or a servant, if he have this virtue, everything
that he does to his neighbor is done discreetly and lovingly, because these virtues
are bound and mingled together, and both planted in the ground of humility which
proceeds from self-knowledge."
A parable showing how love, humility, and discretion are united; and how the soul
should conform herself to this parable.
"Do you know how these three virtues stand together? It is, as if a circle were drawn
on the surface of the earth, and a tree, with an off-shoot joined to its side, grew in
the center of the circle. The tree is nourished in the earth contained in the diameter
of the circle, for if the tree were out of the earth it would die, and give no fruit. Now,
consider, in the same way, that the soul is a tree existing by love, and that it can live
by nothing else than love; and, that if this soul have not in very truth the divine
love of perfect charity, she cannot produce fruit of life, but only of death. It is
necessary then, that the root of this tree, that is the affection of the soul, should grow
in, and issue from the circle of true self-knowledge which is contained in Me, who
have neither beginning nor end, like the circumference of the circle, for, turn as you
will within a circle, inasmuch as the circumference has neither end nor beginning,
you always remain within it.
"This knowledge of yourself and of Me is found in the earth of true humility, which
is as wide as the diameter of the circle, that is as the knowledge of self and of Me (for,
otherwise, the circle would not be without end and beginning, but would have its
beginning in knowledge of self, and its end in confusion, if this knowledge were not
contained in Me). Then the tree of love feeds itself on humility, bringing forth from
its side the off-shoot of true discretion, in the way that I have already told you, from
the heart of the tree, that is the affection of love which is in the soul, and the
patience, which proves that I am in the soul and the soul in Me. This tree then, so
sweetly planted, produces fragrant blossoms of virtue, with many scents of great
variety, inasmuch as the soul renders fruit of grace and of utility to her neighbor,
according to the zeal of those who come to receive fruit from My servants; and to  

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Me she renders the sweet odor of glory and praise to My Name, and so fulfills the
object of her creation.
"In this way, therefore, she reaches the term of her being, that is Myself, her God,
who am Eternal Life. And these fruits cannot be taken from her without her will,
inasmuch as they are all flavored with discretion, because they are all united, as has
been said above."

How penance and other corporal exercises are to be taken as instruments for
arriving at virtue, and not as the principal affection of the soul; and of the
light of discretion in various other modes and operations.

"These are the fruits and the works which I seek from the soul, the proving,
namely, of virtue in the time of need. And yet some time ago, if you remember,
when you were desirous of doing great penance for My sake, asking, 'What can I do
to endure suffering for You, oh Lord?' I replied to you, speaking in your mind, 'I
take delight in few words and many works.' I wished to show you that he who
merely calls on me with the sound of words, saying: 'Lord, Lord, I would do
something for You,' and he, who desires for My sake to mortify his body with many
penances, and not his own will, did not give Me much pleasure; but that I desired
the manifold works of manly endurance with patience, together with the other
virtues, which I have mentioned to you above, intrinsic to the soul, all of which
must be in activity in order to obtain fruits worthy of grace. All other works,
founded on any other principle than this, I judge to be a mere calling with words,
because they are finite works, and I, who am Infinite, seek infinite works, that is an
infinite perfection of love.
"I wish therefore that the works of penance, and of other corporal exercises, should
be observed merely as means, and not as the fundamental affection of the soul. For,
if the principal affection of the soul were placed in penance, I should receive a finite
thing like a word, which, when it has issued from the mouth, is no more, unless it
have issued with affection of the soul, which conceives and brings forth virtue in
truth; that is, unless the finite operation, which I have called a word, should be
joined with the affection or love, in which case it would be grateful and pleasant to
Me. And this is because such a work would not be alone, but accompanied by true
discretion, using corporal works as means, and not as the principal foundation; for it
would not be becoming that that principal foundation should be placed in penance
only, or in any exterior corporal act, such works being finite, since they are done in
finite time, and also because it is often profitable that the creature omit them, and
even that she be made to do so.
"Wherefore, when the soul omits them through necessity, being unable through
various circumstances to complete an action which she has begun, or, as may
frequently happen, through obedience at the order of her director, it is well; since, if
she continued then to do them, she not only would receive no merit, but would
offend Me; thus you see that they are merely finite. She ought, therefore, to adopt
them as a means, and not as an end. For, if she takes them as an end she will be
obliged, some time or other, to leave them, and will then remain empty. This, My
trumpeter, the glorious Paul, taught you when he said in his epistle, that you  

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should mortify the body and destroy self-will, knowing, that is to say, how to keep
the rein on the body, macerating the flesh whenever it should wish to combat the
spirit, but the will should be dead and annihilated in everything, and subject to My
will, and this slaying of the will is that due which, as I told you, the virtue of
discretion renders to the soul, that is to say, hatred and disgust of her own offenses
and sensuality, which are acquired by self-knowledge. This is the knife which slays
and cuts off all self-love founded in self-will. These then are they who give Me not
only words but manifold works, and in these I take delight. And then I said that I
desired few words, and many actions; by the use of the word 'many' I assign no
particular number to you, because the affection of the soul, founded in love, which
gives life to all the virtues and good works, should increase infinitely, and yet I do
not, by this, exclude words, I merely said that I wished few of them, showing you
that every actual operation, as such, was finite, and therefore I called them of little
account; but they please Me when they are performed as the instruments of virtue,
and not as a principal end in themselves.
"However, no one should judge that he has greater perfection, because he performs
great penances, and gives himself in excess to the slaying of his body, than he who
does less, inasmuch as neither virtue nor merit consists therein; for otherwise he
would be in an evil case, who, from some legitimate reason, was unable to do actual
penance. Merit consists in the virtue of love alone, flavored with the light of true
discretion, without which the soul is worth nothing. And this love should be
directed to Me endlessly, boundlessly, since I am the Supreme and Eternal Truth.
The soul can therefore place neither laws nor limits to her love for Me; but her love
for her neighbor, on the contrary, is ordered in certain conditions. The light of
discretion (which proceeds from love, as I have told you) gives to the neighbor a
conditioned love, one that, being ordered aright, does not cause the injury of sin to
self in order to be useful to others, for, if one single sin were committed to save the
whole world from Hell, or to obtain one great virtue, the motive would not be a
rightly ordered or discreet love, but rather indiscreet, for it is not lawful to perform
even one act of great virtue and profit to others, by means of the guilt of sin. Holy
discretion ordains that the soul should direct all her powers to My service with a
manly zeal, and, that she should love her neighbor with such devotion that she
would lay down a thousand times, if it were possible, the life of her body for the
salvation of souls, enduring pains and torments so that her neighbor may have the
life of grace, and giving her temporal substance for the profit and relief of his body.
"This is the supreme office of discretion which proceeds from charity. So you see
how discreetly every soul, who wishes for grace, should pay her debts, that is, should
love Me with an infinite love and without measure, but her neighbor with
measure, with a restricted love, as I have said, not doing herself the injury of sin in
order to be useful to others. This is St. Paul's counsel to you when he says that
charity ought to be concerned first with self, otherwise it will never be of perfect
utility to others. Because, when perfection is not in the soul, everything which the
soul does for itself and for others is imperfect. It would not, therefore, be just that
creatures, who are finite and created by Me, should be saved through offense done to
Me, who am the Infinite Good. The more serious the fault is in such a case, the less
fruit will the action produce; therefore, in no way should you ever incur the guilt of
sin.  

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"And this true love knows well, because she carries with herself the light of holy
discretion, that light which dissipates all darkness, takes away ignorance, and is the
condiment of every instrument of virtue. Holy discretion is a prudence which
cannot be cheated, a fortitude which cannot be beaten, a perseverance from end to
end, stretching from Heaven to earth, that is, from knowledge of Me to knowledge
of self, and from love of Me to love of others. And the soul escapes dangers by her
true humility, and, by her prudence, flies all the nets of the world and its creatures,
and, with unarmed hands, that is through much endurance, discomfits the devil
and the flesh with this sweet and glorious light; knowing, by it, her own fragility,
she renders to her weakness its due of hatred.
"Wherefore she has trampled on the world, and placed it under the feet of her
affection, despising it, and holding it vile, and thus becoming lord of it, holding it as
folly. And the men of the world cannot take her virtues from such a soul, but all
their persecutions increase her virtues and prove them, which virtues have been at
first conceived by the virtue of love, as has been said, and then are proved on her
neighbor, and bring forth their fruit on him. Thus have I shown you, that, if virtue
were not visible and did not shine in the time of trial, it would not have been truly
conceived; for, I have already told you, that perfect virtue cannot exist and give fruit
except by means of the neighbor, even as a woman, who has conceived a child, if she
do not bring it forth, so that it may appear before the eyes of men, deprives her
husband of his fame of paternity. It is the same with Me, who am the Spouse of the
soul, if she do not produce the child of virtue, in the love of her neighbor, showing
her child to him who is in need, both in general and in particular, as I have said to
you before, so I declare now that, in truth, she has not conceived virtue at all; and
this is also true of the vices, all of which are committed by means of the neighbor."

How this soul grew by means of the divine response, and how her sorrows grew
less, and how she prayed to God for the Holy Church, and for her own people.

"Then that soul, thirsting and burning with the very great desire that she had
conceived on learning the ineffable love of God, shown in His great goodness, and,
seeing the breadth of His charity, that, with such sweetness, He had deigned to reply
to her request and to satisfy it, giving hope to the sorrow which she had conceived,
on account of offenses against God, and the damage of the Holy Church, and
through His own mercy, which she saw through self-knowledge, diminished, and
yet, at the same time, increased her sorrow.
"For, the Supreme and Eternal Father, in manifesting the way of perfection, showed
her anew her own guilt, and the loss of souls, as has been said more fully above.
Also because in the knowledge which the soul obtains of herself, she knows more of
God, and knowing the goodness of God in herself, the sweet mirror of God, she
knows her own dignity and indignity. Her dignity is that of her creation, seeing that
she is the image of God, and this has been given her by grace, and not as her due. In
that same mirror of the goodness of God, the soul knows her own indignity, which
is the consequence of her own fault. Wherefore, as a man more readily sees spots on
his face when he looks in a mirror, so, the soul who, with true knowledge of self,
rises with desire, and gazes with the eye of the intellect at herself in the sweet mirror
of God, knows better the stains of her own face, by the purity which she sees in Him.  

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"Wherefore, because light and knowledge increased in that soul in the aforesaid
way, a sweet sorrow grew in her, and at the same time, her sorrow was diminished
by the hope which the Supreme Truth gave her, and, as fire grows when it is fed
with wood, so grew the fire in that soul to such an extent that it was no longer
possible for the body to endure it without the departure of the soul; so that, had she
not been surrounded by the strength of Him who is the Supreme Strength, it would
not have been possible for her to have lived any longer. This soul then, being
purified by the fire of divine love, which she found in the knowledge of herself and
of God, and her hunger for the salvation of the whole world, and for the
reformation of the Holy Church, having grown with her hope of obtaining the
same, rose with confidence before the Supreme Father, showing Him the leprosy of
the Holy Church, and the misery of the world, saying, as if with the words of Moses,
'My Lord, turn the eyes of Your mercy upon Your people, and upon the mystical
body of the Holy Church, for You will be the more glorified if You pardon so many
creatures, and give to them the light of knowledge, since all will render You praise
when they see themselves escape through Your infinite goodness from the clouds of
mortal sin, and from eternal damnation; and then You will not only be praised by
my wretched self, who have so much offended You, and who am the cause and the
instrument of all this evil, for which reason I pray Your divine and eternal love to
take Your revenge on me, and to do mercy to Your people, and never will I depart
from before Your presence until I see that you grant them mercy. For what is it to
me if I have life, and Your people death, and the clouds of darkness cover Your
spouse, when it is my own sins, and not those of Your other creatures, that are the
principal cause of this? I desire, then, and beg of You, by Your grace, that You have
mercy on Your people, and I adjure You that You do this by Your uncreated love
which moved You Yourself to create man in Your image and similitude, saying,
"Let us make man in our own image," and this You did, oh eternal Trinity, that
man might participate in everything belonging to You, the most high and eternal
Trinity.'
"Wherefore You gave him memory in order to receive Your benefits, by which he
participates in the power of the Eternal Father; and intellect that he might know,
seeing Your goodness, and so might participate in the wisdom of Your only-begotten
Son; and will, that he might love that which his intellect has seen and known of
Your truth, thus participating in the clemency of Your Holy Spirit. What reason had
You for creating man in such dignity? The inestimable love with which You saw
Your creature in Yourself, and became enamored of him, for You created him
through love, and destined him to be such that he might taste and enjoy Your
Eternal Good. I see therefore that through his sin he lost this dignity in which You
originally placed him, and by his rebellion against You, fell into a state of war with
Your kindness, that is to say, we all became Your enemies.
"Therefore, You, moved by that same fire of love with which You created him,
willingly gave man a means of reconciliation, so that after the great rebellion into
which he had fallen, there should come a great peace; and so You gave him the
only-begotten Word, Your Son, to be the Mediator between us and You. He was our
Justice, for He took on Himself all our offenses and injustices, and performed Your
obedience, Eternal Father, which You imposed on Him, when You clothed Him
with our humanity, our human nature and likeness. Oh, abyss of love! What heart
can help breaking when it sees such dignity as Yours descend to such lowliness as