Interrogacio dulcissima Matris ad sponsam et responsio humilis sponse ad Matrem, et replicacio utilis Matris ad sponsam et de profectu bonorum inter malos.
The Mother's Gentle Inquiry
The Virgin Mary invites the bride to share her inner burdens and concerns.
The Mother spoke to the bride of her Son, saying, "You are the bride of my Son." Tell me what's on your mind and what you're asking for! The bride answered her, "You, my Lady, know well, because you know all things." Then the blessed Virgin said, "Even though I know all things, I will still learn them as you speak them in the hearing of those standing by."
Remedies for Personal Sin
The Mother provides three spiritual remedies to help the bride overcome her fear regarding her own sins.
The bride said, "My Lady, there are two things I fear." First, for the sins that I don't weep over or amend as I should. Second, I am saddened that there are so many enemies of your Son." Then the Virgin Mary replied, "For the first, I give you three remedies." First, consider that all things that have a spirit—like frogs and other animals—sometimes suffer hardships, yet their spirit doesn't live forever, but dies with the body. Your soul, however, and the soul of every human being, lives forever. Second, think about the mercy of God, because no person is such a sinner that, if they ask with a purpose of amendment and with compunction, their sin won't be forgiven. Third, reflect on how great the glory is for the soul that lives with God and in God forever.
Understanding the Wicked
The Mother instructs the bride on how to view the enemies of God, emphasizing the necessity of preaching and the hope for conversion.
To address the second point—that the enemies of God are many—I also offer you three remedies. First, consider that your God and Creator is also their Judge, and they will never again judge Him, even if He patiently puts up with their malice for a time. Second, consider that they are children of damnation, and how heavy and unbearable it will be for them to burn forever. They are the worst kind of servants, who will lack the inheritance, but the children will receive the inheritance. But you might ask, "So, shouldn't they be preached to?" Certainly. Keep in mind that among the wicked, there are often good people. And adopted children sometimes turn away from what is good, just like that prodigal son who went off to a far country and lived poorly. Yet sometimes they are pierced by compunction through preaching and return to the Father, and they will be all the more acceptable to Him for having been sinners before. Therefore, they should be preached to all the more, because even if a preacher sees that almost everyone is wicked, he should still consider within himself: 'Perhaps there are some among them who are future children of my Lord.' I will preach to them, then. This preacher will receive an excellent reward.
The Rose Among Thorns
The Mother uses the metaphor of the rose and thorns to explain how the presence of the wicked serves to test and refine the virtuous.
Third, consider that the wicked are allowed to live to test the good, so that those provoked by their behavior may be rewarded with the fruit of patience, just as you can see from this example. For a rose smells sweet, is beautiful to look at, and soft to the touch, yet it doesn't grow except among thorns, which are rough to the touch, ugly to look at, and have no sweet scent at all. In the same way, good and just people—even if they are gentle in their patience, beautiful in their character, and sweet in their good example—cannot grow or be tested except among the wicked. Sometimes a thorn even protects a rose, so it isn't plucked before it's ripe. In this way, the wicked provide an opportunity for good people to avoid falling into sin, as they are restrained by the malice of the wicked and kept from being undone by excessive joy or other sins. Wine is never kept well in its own goodness unless it's in the dregs, nor can the good and just stand and progress in virtue unless they are tested by tribulations and the persecutions of the wicked. Therefore, willingly endure the enemies of my Son, and consider that He Himself is their judge, and that if justice were such that they all ought to be destroyed, He could easily wipe them out in a moment. So, you must endure them for as long as He endures them.
Read the original Latin
Mater loquebatur ad sponsam filii dicens: "Tu es sponsa filii mei. Dicas, quid habes in animo et quid petis!" Cui sponsa respondit: "Tu domina, bene nosti, quia scis omnia." Et tunc beata Virgo ait: "Licet ego omnia sciam, tamen te loquente audientibus astantibus cognoscam."
Et sponsa dixit: "Duo", inquit, "timeo, domina. Primo pro peccatis, que non ploro nec emendo, ut vellem. Secundo contristor ex eo, quod inimici filii tui sunt multi." Tunc virgo Maria respondit: "Contra primum do tibi tria remedia. Primo cogita, quod omnia, que spiritum habent, sicut rane et cetera animalia, quandoque habent incommoda, nec tamen in eternum viuit spiritus eorum sed cum corpore moritur. Tua autem anima et omnis hominis viuit in eternum.
Secundo cogita misericordiam Dei, quia nullus homo sic peccator est, si cum emendacionis proposito et contricione rogauerit, quod non dimittatur ei peccatum. Tercio cogita, quanta gloria est anime, que cum Deo et in Deo sine fine viuit.
Contra secundum, scilicet quod inimici Dei sunt multi, do eciam tibi tria remedia. Primo considera, quod Deus tuus et creator tuus et eorum est iudex super eos, et numquam amplius ipsi iudicabunt eum, licet pacienter supportet ad tempus maliciam eorum. Secundo, quod filii dampnacionis sunt et quam graue et intolerabile erit eis semper ardere.
Ipsi sunt serui pessimi, qui carebunt hereditate, filii autem recipient hereditatem. Sed dices forte: 'Ergo non est eis predicandum?' Utique! Considera, quod inter malos frequenter sunt boni. Et filii adoptiui quandoque recedunt a bono, sicut ille filius prodigus, qui abiit in aliam regionem longinquam et vixit male.
Sed ipsi quandoque per predicacionem compuncti reuertuntur ad patrem et erunt eo accepciores, quo prius peccatores. Ideo eis magis predicandum est, quia, licet predicator fere omnes videat malos, consideret tamen secum: 'Forte sunt aliqui inter eos filii futuri Domini mei. Predicabo ergo eis.' Hic predicator optimam habebit mercedem.
Tercio considera, quod mali viuere permittuntur ad bonorum probacionem, ut ex eorum moribus exasperati paciencie fructu remunerentur, sicut eciam per exemplum intelligere poteris. Rosa enim suauiter redolet, pulchra est visu, lenis tactu, et tamen non crescit nisi inter spinas, que sunt aspere tactu, deformes visu, nichil boni redolentes.
Sic eciam boni et iusti homines, licet lenes sint paciencia, pulchri moribus, suaues bono exemplo, non tamen possunt proficere vel probari nisi inter malos. Quandoque eciam spina defendit rosam, ne carpatur ante maturitatem. Sic mali occasio sunt bonis, ne excedant in peccatis, quando per eorum maliciam refrenantur, ne immoderata leticia vel alio peccato dissoluantur.
Numquam eciam vinum seruatur bene in bonitate sua nisi in fece nec boni et iusti in virtutibus stare et proficere possunt, nisi probentur tribulacionibus et iniquorum persecucionibus. Ideo tu libenter supporta inimicos filii mei et cogita, quod ipse iudex eorum est et quod ipse, si sic esset iusticia, ut deberent destrui omnes, bene posset in momento delere eos. Ergo tolera tu, quamdiu ipse tolerat eos!"
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