Editor's note: We don't have Chapter Fifty-One. Chapter Fifty-Two is 47 paragraphs long! We will be publishing this 10 paragraphs (approximately, depending on content) and posting over the next 5 days (including today). We will link to the next ten paragraphs at the end of the page.
This is the first section of a revelation sent to the holy spouse of Christ, Saint Bridget, in which our
Lady Saint Mary reproached the pride of women in their stance, bearing, speech,
dress, and other behavior, with the example of three wretched women: of which one
was in Hell, another in Purgatory, and the third, alive.
The holy spouse of Christ, Saint Bridget, spoke to our Lord Jesus Christ words
of love and praise for the great grace that he shaped with her, and said: "Praise to
you, almighty God, for all the things that have been made, and praise for all your
virtues. Service be rendered to you by all creatures for your great love and charity.
I, therefore, always unworthy and sinful from my childhood, thank you, my God,
that you do not deny grace to any sinner who asks for it. But you spare and have
mercy for all. O my sweetest God, it is truly marvelous that you work with me; for
when it pleases you, you bring my body into a spiritual sleep, and then you excite
and raise up my soul to see and hear and feel spiritual things.
O my most sweet God, how sweet have been your words to my soul, which
swallows them as the most sweet food. And then enter with joy into my heart, for
when I hear your words, I am both full and hungry; full, because nothing delights
me except your words; hungry, because the more I hear them the more fervently I
want them. Therefore, blissful God, give me help always to do your will".
Our Lord Jesus Christ answered and said: "I am without beginning and
without end. And all things which are are made by my power; all things are
disposed by my wisdom and all things are governed by my judgement and will; and
all my works are ordered by charity. Therefore for me there is nothing that is
impossible. But that heart is over-hard which neither loves me nor fears me, since I
am ruler of all things and Judge. And yet man fulfills the will rather of the devil,
who is my tormentor and a deceiver, who gives out venom largely through the
world, for which souls may not live, but they are drowned down into the death of
Hell. This venomous sin, which, though it is bitter to the soul, yet to many tastes
sweet, and each day it is drawn out of the devil's hand upon many people.
But who ever heard any such things, that life is offered to all, and they choose
death rather than life. Nevertheless I, God of all, am patient and have compassion
on their wretchedness. For I do as a king who sends wine to his servants and says:
'Pour it forth to many, for it is wholesome. It gives health to the sick, mirth to them
who are depressed, and a courageous heart to those who are whole.' But yet the
wine is not sent but by an appropriate vessel. So I have sent my words, which are
like wine, to my servants by you, who are my vessel, which I will fill and draw out
after my own will. My Holy Spirit shall teach you where you will go and what you
shall say. Therefore speak joyfully and without fear the things that I order; for there
is no one who shall prevail against me".
Then answered the spouse, Saint Bridget: "O king of all glory and bliss, giver
of all wisdom and granter of all virtues, why do you choose me for such work, who
has wasted my body in sins? I am like a donkey, unlearned and unwise and
defective in virtues; and I have trespassed in all things and amended nothing".
Our Lord Jesus Christ answered: "If money or other metal were presented to a
lord, who should marvel, though he made of it for himself crowns or rings or coins
to his own profit. So it is no marvel though I receive the hearts of my friends
presented to me and do my will in them. And just as much as one has less
understanding and another more, so do I use the conscience of each as is expedient
to my praise. For the heart of a rightful man is my money; therefore be firm and
ready to do my will".
Then spoke the Mother of God to Saint Bridget, saying: "What do the proud
women say in your kingdom?" Saint Bridget answered: "O Lady, I am one of them,
and therefore I am ashamed to speak in your presence". "Though I know it better
than you, yet I would hear it from you".
Saint Bridget answered: "When", she said, "true humility was preached to us,
we said that our ancestors willed to us and gave us in heritage great possessions and
a good education as to behavior and class. Why therefore should I not follow them?
My mother sat with the first and the highest and was clad and arrayed nobly, having
many servants and educating them with praise. Why should I not also pass on such
things to my daughter, who has learned to bear herself nobly and to live with bodily
joy and to die with great praise from the world?"
The Mother of God answered: "Each woman who has these words and follows
them in deed goes by the true way to Hell. And therefore such an answer is very
difficult. What does it profit to have such words, when the Creator of all things
suffered his body to live and dwell on earth in all humility from the time of his
birth until his death, and never wore upon himself the clothing of pride. Truly, such
women do not consider his face, how he stood living and dead upon the cross,
bloody and pale from pain; nor those who reckon nothing of the criticism which he
heard, nor of his despicable death which he chose; neither have they in mind the
place where he gave up the spirit, for where thieves and robbers had received many
wounds, there was my Son wounded.
And I, who before all creatures, am most dear to him, and in me is all
humility, was present there. And therefore they who did such proud and pompous
things, and given other occasion to follow them, are like a sprinkler, which, when it
is filled with a burning liquid, burns and befouls all of them whom it sprinkles.
Right so do the proud give examples of pride and very grievously they burn souls
by evil examples.
And therefore I will now do like a good mother, who, fearing for her children,
makes them see the rod, which the servants also see. But the children, seeing the
rod, fear to offend their mother, thanking her for threatening them but not beating
them. The servants fear to be beaten if they trespass. And so from dreading the
mother the children do more good deeds than they did before, and the servants do
less evil.
So truly, because I am the mother of mercy, therefore I will show you the
reward of sin, that the friends of God may be more fervent in the charity of God.
And sinners, knowing their peril, flee from sin, at least, from fear. And in this way I
have mercy on both good and evil; on the good people, that they may obtain and
get more crowns and rewards in heaven, on the wicked, that they suffer less pain.
And there is none who is so great a sinner, but I am ready to help him; and my Son
to give him grace, if he ask mercy with charity".