Verba Domini nostri Iesu Christi ad sponsam de informacione dileccionis et honoris sponse ad ipsum sponsum et de odio iniquorum ad Deum et de dileccione ad mundum.
The Divine Call to Fidelity
God reveals His sovereignty and calls the soul to honor, love, and true humility.
I am your God and the Lord you worship. I am the One who sustains heaven and earth by my power; they aren't held up by any other things or pillars. I am the One who is offered daily on the altar under the appearance of bread, true God and true man. I am the same One who chose you. Honor my Father! Love me! Obey my Spirit! Respect my Mother as your own lady! Honor all my saints! Hold fast to the true faith that will be taught to you by the one who, having experienced the conflict of the two spirits—falsehood and truth—within himself, conquered them with my help! Maintain true humility. What is true humility, if not giving praise to God for the gifts you've been given?
The Vanity of the Worldly Heart
The Lord contrasts the lukewarm service of the world with the true devotion He desires.
But now, many hate me and consider my deeds and words to be a burden and a vanity; yet they embrace and love the adulterer—that is, the devil. For whatever they do for me, they do with grumbling and bitterness. They wouldn't even confess my name if they weren't embarrassed by the fear of other people. They love the world so sincerely that they never tire of working for it night and day, and they are always burning with love for it. Their service is as pleasing to me as if someone were to give money to his enemy so that his own son might be killed. That is how they act. They give me a small alms and honor me with their lips, all so that worldly prosperity might follow them and they can remain in their status and in their sin. Because of this, their good spirit is killed and prevented from growing in what is good.
The Magnet of Divine Love
God promises to draw the soul to Himself with a love that surpasses all worldly pleasure.
If, however, you want to love me with your whole heart and desire nothing but me, I will draw you to myself through love, just as a magnet—that is, a lodestone—draws iron to itself, and I will place you in my arm, which is so strong that no one can stretch it out, and so rigid that once it is extended, no one has the power to bend it. It is also so sweet that it surpasses all spices and bears no comparison to the pleasures of the world.
The Witness of Master Mathias
The life and death of Master Mathias serve as a testament to the victory of faith and the reward of heaven.
He was a holy man, a master of theology named Master Mathias of Sweden, a canon of Linköping. He wrote an excellent commentary on the entire Bible. He was also subtly tempted by the devil with many heresies against the Catholic faith, all of which he overcame with Christ’s help; he couldn't be defeated by the demon, as this is more clearly described in the life of Lady Birgitta. This Master Mathias also wrote the prologue to these books, which begins, "Stupor et mirabilia," and so on. He was a holy man, powerful in spirit, both in his deeds and his words. When he died in Sweden, the bride of Christ, who was then in Rome, heard a voice in her spirit while she was praying, saying: "How happy you are, Master Matthias, because of the crown that has been prepared for you in heaven." Come, then, to the wisdom that will never end!"
Read the original Latin
"Ego sum Deus tuus et Dominus, quem colis. Ego sum ille, qui celum et terram potencia mea sustento, et non aliquibus rebus aliis sustentantur vel columpnis. Ego sum, qui sub specie panis in altari cotidie verus Deus et verus homo immolor. Ego idem sum, qui elegi te.
Honora Patrem meum! Dilige me! Obedi Spiritui meo! Defer matri mee tamquam domine tue! Honora omnes sanctos meos! Obserua fidem rectam, quam ille te docebit, qui duorum spirituum conflictum, falsitatis scilicet et veritatis, in se expertus auxilio meo deuicit!
Custodi humilitatem veram! Que est humilitas vera nisi laudem Deo pro bonis datis tribuere?
Sed nunc multi odiunt me et facta mea et verba reputant dolorem et vanitatem, adulterum autem, idest diabolum, amplectuntur et diligunt. Quidquid enim faciunt pro me, cum murmure et amaritudine est. Nec confiterentur nomen meum, si non timore hominum confunderentur.
Mundum autem sic sincere diligunt, quod nocte et die in labore eius non lassescunt et in amore eius semper feruent. Horum seruicium sic michi placet, ac si quis daret inimico suo pecuniam ad hoc, ut interficiatur filius eius.
Sic faciunt ipsi. Dant enim michi modicam elemosinam et labiis honorant me ad hoc, ut mundana prosperitas eis succedat et maneant in honore et peccato suo. Unde occiditur bonus animus eorum a proficiendo in bono.
Si autem tu me diligere volueris toto corde et nichil desiderare nisi me, attraham te ad me per caritatem, sicut magnes, idest lapis calamite, attrahit sibi ferrum, et collocabo te in brachio meo, quod tam forte est, ut nullus possit extendere, tam rigidum, ut extensum nullus sufficit incuruare. Tam eciam dulce est, ut omnia aromata vincat et nullam comparacionem cum mundi delectacionibus habeat."
Iste fuit quidam sanctus vir, magister in theologia, qui vocabatur magister Mathias de Suecia, canonicus Lincopensis. Qui glosauit totam Bibliam excellenter. Et iste fuit temptatus a diabolo subtilissime de multis heresibus contra fidem catholicam, quas omnes deuicit cum Christi adiutorio, nec a demone potuit superari, ut in legenda vite domine Birgitte hoc clarius continetur.
Et iste magister Mathias composuit prologum istorum librorum, qui incipit "Stupor et mirabilia" etcetera. Fuit vir sanctus et potens spiritualiter opere et sermone.
Hic quando obiit in Suecia, sponsa Christi, tunc consistens Rome, orando audiuit in spiritu vocem sic dicentem: "O felix tu, magister Mathia, pro corona, que tibi in celis fabricata est. Veni igitur iam ad sapienciam, que numquam finietur!"
Revelationes (Heavenly Revelations) companion
Keep going — one revelation a day
The full 496-chapter Revelationes lives in the Chosen Portion app, served as free daily portions.
Birgitta's revelations arrived over three decades of daily attentiveness, and the Chosen Portion app lets readers receive them the same way — one portion per day.
- Finish the guided path in 8 weeks at roughly 15 minutes a day
- All 8 books, 496 chapters, in modern English — the complete transmitted text
- Daily delivery so a 30-year masterwork becomes a sustainable habit