Regula, caput XXVIII
The Rule Given from Christ's Lips
Bridget introduces the divine origin of the rule, confessing her unworthiness and the impossibility of naturally grasping how Christ delivered so many words in so brief a time.
Lady Birgitta, the bride of Christ, tells here of the wonderful way the words of this rule of religious life were handed down to her from Christ's blessed lips in a single moment. "God, creator of all things, related every word of this rule to me, an unworthy person, so wonderfully and in so brief a time through his blessed mouth, that I am not sufficient to explain this to anyone. Nor indeed is it possible for anyone to grasp, without a physical analogy, how so many words could be spoken or taken in during the briefest hour.
The Vision of the Opened Vessel
Bridget describes the vision using the analogy of a vessel poured out, receiving all the rule's words at once from Christ's lips and gathering them into her memory by grace.
Hence, just as if many precious and diverse things were kept in some vessel, which, when poured out all at once from that vessel, would each be distinguished from the other by someone watching in a single moment — and the things would linger before him long enough that he could gather each one individually into his lap — in a similar way, at once, when Jesus Christ, who appeared to me, opened his blessed lips and began to speak, immediately in the briefest hour all the articles of this rule, with all the words contained in them, were present before me, not as though written on some parchment, but in what manner this happened, he alone knows from whom they were heard so wonderfully, by whose marvelous power they could be grasped, and each one distinguished from the other by my senses. I lingered in that vision for such a time, until I gathered everything into the bosom of my memory, with the grace of Christ cooperating.
From Jubilation to Written Words
Overflowing with inexpressible joy after the vision, Bridget's heart remains expanded until she dictates the rule to a religious man, after which her nature gradually returns to its normal state.
After this vision, though, my heart was so filled with fervor and jubilation that nothing more could enter into it if I were to live any longer, but it would burst from joy. Like a bladder overly filled with air, so surely my heart was for some days, until I explained all the articles and words of the rule contained in them to a certain religious man, a friend of God, who wrote everything down as quickly as he could. When these were fully written down, my heart and body sensed themselves gradually returning to their natural disposition.
Praise to Almighty God
Bridget concludes the account with a doxology of praise and an amen.
Praise and glory to almighty God! Amen.
Read the original Latin
Domina Birgitta, Christi sponsa, narrat hic mirabilem modum, qualiter dicta regula istius religionis fuit ei tradita a benedicto ore Christi in momento .
"Deus, omnium rerum creator, benedicto ore suo omnia istius regule verba tam mirabiliter et in tam breui tempore michi, indigne persone, retulit, quod alicui homini hoc non sufficio enarrare. Nec quidem possibile est alicui sine similitudine corporali comprehendere, qualiter in breuissima hora tot verba proferri possent aut capi. Vnde, sicut si in aliquo vase res preciose multe et diuerse haberentur, que, dum de ipso vase insimul effunderentur, tunc ab aliquo hoc vidente in vno momento vnaqueque res ab alia discerneretur, tanto eciam tempore res ille coram eo morarentur, vt vnamquamque per se in sinum suum colligere posset, simili modo statim, quando Ihesus Christus, qui apparuit michi, sua benedicta labia aperuit et loqui cepit, confestim in breuissima hora omnes articuli istius regule cum omnibus verbis, que in eis continentur, coram me erant, non quasi in aliqua carta conscripta sed, quali modo hoc fuit, ille solus nouit, a quo tam mirabiliter audiebantur, ex cuius mirifica virtute comprehendi potuerunt et vnumquodque ab altero a sensu meo discerni. Tanto denique tempore in illa visione morabar, donec omnia collegi in memorie mee sinu cooperante Christi gracia. Post hanc autem visionem tanto erat cor meum feruore et iubilo impletum, quod non posset in illud plus intrare, si deberem amplius viuere, sed rumperetur pre gaudio. Sicut vesica vento aliquo nimis plena, sic vtique cor meum erat per aliquos dies, donec omnes regule articulos et verba, que in eis continentur, cuidam viro religioso, amico Dei, enarraui, qui omnia quam cicius conscripsit. Quibus plene conscriptis cor et corpus meum in naturalem disposicionem senserunt paulatim se redire. Laus et gloria sit omnipotenti Deo!
Amen."
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