LXXVI. Suppliciutn amalorum saeculi.

LXXVI. Suppliciutn amalorum saeculi.

And behold, I saw two fires, one having a pale flame, the other a red flame. And the one who had the pale flame was free from worms; but the other was tormented by them. But the souls that had sinned in the love of the world, while they were in their bodies, were punished between these two fires, and they suffered from both; yet they were especially tormented by the heat of the red fire and the bites of the worms. For those souls that had an unceasing desire for the love of the world, they were tormented by this pale fire; and those who clung to it with all their longing were punished by this red fire. And those who had two simulations in the same desire, in their perfected habit, so that they praised what had displeased them and condemned what they had found pleasing, seemed to bear a heavy burden as if they were suffering in distress, yet they did so willingly, enduring the torment of worms that take the form of serpents. But those who were delighted in the pleasures of worldly love were tormented by worms that have sharp faces. Souls that have strayed lightly in the love of this world had this pale fire; but those who have sinned more seriously in it endured this red fire along with worms. And through the living Spirit, I saw and understood these things. Chapter 77: On the Punishments of Purgatory. And I heard a voice coming from the living light saying to me: "What you see is true, and as you see it, so it is, and there is more to see." For the torments of those punishments bring about purification in those souls who, while living in this transient world, have earned through repentance the cleansing of their sins in a non-transient way; from these, those who did not cleanse themselves fully in the flesh before death, and who have not been examined in this world through the divine scourges of the merciful God, will also suffer these penalties, unless they are rescued from them by the labors of men and the virtues of the saints, which God has worked in them through the invoked piety of divine grace.