A revelation which Lady Bridget had in Rome after the year of jubilee and in which
the Virgin Mary foretells to her that she will go to Jerusalem and Bethlehem when
it pleases God; and Mary promises her that she will then show her the manner in
which she gave birth to her blessed Son.
When Lady Bridget, the bride of Christ, was in Rome and was once absorbed
in prayer, she began to think about the Virgin Birth and about the very great
goodness of God who willed to choose such a very pure mother for himself. And
her heart then became so greatly inflamed with love for the Virgin that she said
within herself: "O my Lady, Queen of Heaven, my heart so rejoices over the fact
that the most high God forechose you as his mother and deigned to confer upon you
so great a dignity that I would rather choose for myself eternal excruciation in hell
than that you should lack one smallest point of this surpassing glory or of your
heavenly dignity."
And so, inebriated with the sweetness of love, she was above herself, alienated
from her senses and suspended in an ecstasy of mental contemplation. The Virgin
appeared then to her and said to her, "Be attentive, O daughter: I am the Queen of
Heaven. Because you love me with a love so immense, I therefore announce to you
that you will go on a pilgrimage to the holy city of Jerusalem at the time when it
pleases my Son. From there you will go to Bethlehem; and there I shall show you,
at the very spot, the whole manner in which I gave birth to that same Son of mine,
Jesus Christ; for so it has pleased him."
Revelations and Prophecies Imparted to St. Bridget
