Editor's note: 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 fourth 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.
Then the dead granddaughter, that is, the daughter's daughter of the same dead
Beldame, spoke to her own mother who was still alive, saying: "Hear, you
scorpion, my mother, woe is me, because you have evilly deceived me. For you
showed me your merry face, but you pricked me very grievously in my heart. Three
counsels you gave me of your mouth, three things I learned of your works. And
three ways you showed me in your process and going out. The first counsel was to
love bodily in order to get carnal love and fleshly friendship. The second was to
spend temporal goods over abundantly for praise from the world. The third was to
have rest for the delectation and delight of the body.
These counsels were very harmful to me and a great hindrance. For I loved
carnally, therefore I now have shame and spiritual envy. And because I spent
temporal goods wastefully, therefore was I deprived of grace and the gifts of God in
my life, and after my death I have obtained great confusion and shame. For I
delighted in the quest and rest of the flesh in my life, therefore in the hour of my
death began the unrest of my soul without comfort.
Three things also I learned of your works. The first was to do some good
deeds, and nevertheless use them and not to leave that sin which delighted me: as a
man should do who mixed honey with venom, and offered it to a Judge; and he,
moved by that to anger, dropped it on him who offered it. So am I now expert in
many fold anguish and tribulation.
The second is that I learned from you a marvelous manner of clothing myself;
that was to conceal my eyes with a kerchief, to have sandals on my feet, gloves on
my hands and the neck all naked in front. This kerchief concealing my eyes means
the fairness of my body, which so obscured my spiritual eyes that I took no heed
nor saw not the fairness of my soul. The sandals, which protect the feet underneath
and not above, mean the holy faith of the Church, which I held faithfully, but there
followed no fruitful works. For as sandals furthered my feet, right so my
conscience, standing in the faith, promoted my soul. But because good works did
not follow, therefore my soul was naked.
The gloves on the hands mean a vain hope I had; for I extended my works
which are meant by the hands, into so great and large mercy of God, which is
signified in the gloves, that, when I groped for the justice of God, I felt it not nor
took any heed of it. Therefore I was overbold in sinning. But when death came,
then the kerchief fell down from my eyes upon the earth, that is to say, upon my
body. And then the soul saw and knew itself as naked, for few of my deeds were
good, and my sins were many. And for shame I might not stand in the palace of the
eternal king of bliss, because I was shamefully clothed. But then devils drove me
into hard punishment, where I was scorned with shame and confusion.
The third thing, mother, that I learned of was to clothe the servant in the lord's
clothes, and to set him in the lord's seat, and to praise him as a lord, and to minister
to the lord the reliefs of the servant and all things that were despicable. This lord is
charity and the love of God. The servant is a will to sin. Truly in my heart where
ought to have reigned godly charity was set the servant, that is, delight and lust of
sin, whom I clothed then when I turned my will to all temporal things that are
made. And the reliefs and parings and the most abject things I gave to God, not out
of charity, but out of fear. So therefore was my heart glad of fulfilling and delight
of my own will, for the charity and love of God was excluded from me, and the
good Lord cast out and the evil servant closed within. See, mother, these three
things I learned from your doings.
Three ways you showed me also in your going out. The first was bright. But
when I entered in it, I was blinded by its brightness. The second was compendious
and slippery as ice, in which, when I went one step forward, I slid again backward a
whole step. The third was very long, in which, when I went forth, there came after
me a sudden rushing flood and bore me over a hill into a deep ditch.
In the first way is noted the going forth of my pride, which was too much; for
the ostentation and showing which proceeded from my pride shone so much in my
eyes that I did not think about the consequences of it, and therefore I was blind.
In the second way is noted that disobedience in this life is not long; for after
death a man is compelled to obey. Nevertheless, to me it was long, for when I went
one step forward in meekness of confession, I slid backward a step. Because I
would that the sin confessed have been forgiven, but after making confession, I
would not flee from the sin. And therefore I did not stand firmly in the step of
obedience, but I slid again into sin, as does he who slides upon ice; because my will
was cold and would not get up and flee from the things which delighted me. So
therefore when I went a step forward, confessing my sins, I slid a step backward;
because I would fall again to those sins and delectations that delighted me, of
which I had made confession.
The third way was that I hoped for a thing which was impossible; that is to do
more sin and not have lengthy pain; also to live longer, and the hour of death not be
near. And when I went forth by this way, there came after me a hasty rushing flood;
that is to say, death, which from one year to another caught me and turned my feet
upside down with pain of illness.
What were these feet, but when sickness comes about, I might take little heed
of the profit of the body and less to the health of the soul? Therefore I fell into a
deep ditch, when my heart that was high in pride and hard in sin burst, and the soul
fell down low into the ditch of pain for sin. And therefore this way was long; for
after the life of the body was ended, soon there began a great pain. Woe, therefore,
to me, my mother; for all those things that I learned from you with joy, now I wail
about them with weeping and sorrow".
Revelations and Prophecies Imparted to St. Bridget
