Quando domina Birgitta in reuersione de Iherusalem transiuit per ciuitatem Neapolis, requisita per dominam reginam et archiepiscopum dicte ciuitatis orauit Deum pro habitatoribus eiusdem ciuitatis. Et Christus loquens ei redarguit habitatores predictos de pluribus peccatis, ostendens eis modum, quo se reconcilient cum eo peccatores, promittens eis misericordiam, si se reconciliauerint et emendauerint. Comminatur eciam eos cum seueritate iusticie, si se non correxerint et in peccato perseuerauerint. Quam reuelacionem ipsa domina Birgitta publicauit in presencia dicti domini Bernadi archiepiscopi et trium magistrorum in theologia et duorum doctorum in iure canonico et ciuili et aliquorum militum et ciuium dicte ciuitatis.
The Call to Discernment
Christ appears to Birgitta to deliver a message of grace to the people of Naples, prompted by the prayers of his friends.
As she kept watch in prayer and gave herself over to contemplation, Jesus Christ appeared to her while she was in a state of mental rapture and said: Listen, you who have been given the gift to hear and see spiritual things; pay close attention and be careful in your own heart that you don't speak the things you are about to hear—which you will announce to the nations on my behalf—for the sake of gaining honor or human praise for yourself. Don't keep these things quiet because of any fear of human reproach or contempt, because these things you're about to hear are being shown to you not just for your own sake, but also because of the prayers of my friends. For years, some of my chosen friends in Naples have asked me with all their hearts, through their prayers and efforts on behalf of my enemies living in that same city, to show them some grace so they might be drawn away from their sins and corrupt habits and be restored to health.1 Moved by their prayers, I'm giving you these words of mine now, so listen carefully to what I say.
The Malice of Sin
Christ contrasts his own sacrifice and commandments with the pride and rebellion of those who choose the devil's path.
I am the creator of all things and Lord over the devil just as much as over all the angels, and no one will escape my judgment. In short, the devil sinned against me in three ways: through pride, envy, and arrogance—that is, through the love of his own will. He was so filled with pride that he wanted to be lord over me and have me be subject to him. He also envied me so much that, if it had been possible, he would gladly have killed me so that he could be lord and sit on my throne. His own will was so dear to him that he didn't care about my will, as long as he could carry out his own. Because of this, he fell from heaven and was transformed from an angel into a devil in the depths of hell. After this, however, seeing his malice and the great envy he held against humanity, I revealed my will and gave my commandments to people, so that by doing them they might be able to please me and displease the devil. Then, because of the love I have for humanity, I came into the world and took on flesh from a virgin. I also taught them the true way of salvation personally, through both word and deed, and to show them perfect charity and love, I opened heaven to them with my own blood. But what are those people doing to me now—those who are my enemies? They truly despise my commandments; they cast me out of their hearts like some abominable virus, they spit me out of their mouths like something rotten, and they are so repulsed by the sight of me that they treat me like a leper reeking with filth. They embrace the devil and his works with their whole heart and every action. For they invite him into their hearts, delighting in doing his will and following his wicked suggestions. Therefore, by my just judgment, they will be rewarded in hell with the devil, eternally and without end. For because of the pride they practice, they will have confusion and eternal shame, to such a degree that angels and demons will say of them: 'They are filled with confusion to the very brim.' Because of their insatiable greed, every devil from hell will fill them with its deadly poison, until there isn't an empty space left in their souls that isn't filled with diabolical poison. Because of the lust that burns in them like mindless animals, they will never be allowed to see my face; instead, they will be separated from me and even deprived of their own disordered will.
Vanity and the Hardened Heart
Christ rebukes specific sins of vanity and warns against the spiritual abortion of grace in the hearts of the people.
Furthermore, you should know that just as all mortal sins are most grave, a venial sin also becomes mortal if a person takes pleasure in it with the intention of continuing in it. Therefore, you should know that there are two sins being committed—which I am naming for you now—that drag other sins along with them; all of these appear to be merely venial, but because people take pleasure in them with the will to persist in them, they become mortal. And the people in the city of Naples are committing many other abominable sins that I don't wish to name to you. The first of the two sins is that people paint the faces of a rational human creature with the same colors used to decorate lifeless images and idols, so they might appear more beautiful to others than I made them. The second sin is that, through the indecent styles of clothing people wear, the bodies of men and women are deformed from their natural state; people do this out of pride, and so that they might appear more beautiful and provocative in their bodies than I, God, created them, and also so that those who see them might be more quickly provoked and inflamed toward carnal desire. Know this for certain: every time they paint their faces with makeup and foreign colors, they diminish the infusion of the Holy Spirit within them, and the devil draws closer to them. Whenever they dress in indecent and disordered clothing, deforming their bodies in the process, the beauty of their soul is diminished and the devil's power is increased. O my enemies, you who do such things and brazenly commit other sins contrary to my will, why have you neglected my Passion and failed to consider in your hearts how I stood naked, bound to the pillar, and cruelly scourged with harsh whips; how I stood naked and cried out on the cross, filled with wounds and clothed in blood? And when you paint and anoint your faces, why don't you look at my face, and how it was covered in blood? You also fail to notice my eyes, how they grew dim and were covered with blood and tears, and how my eyelids were bruised and discolored. Why do you still not look at my face, and why don't you consider my ears and my beard, and how they were pained and stained with blood? You don't look at the rest of my limbs, savagely wounded by various torments, or how I hung on the cross, bruised and dead for your sake. And there, mocked and rejected by everyone, I was despised for this reason: so that through such remembrance and attentive reflection, you might love Me, your God, and in this way escape the snares of the devil by which you are horribly bound. Yet you have forgotten and neglected all these things in your eyes and in your hearts. That is why you act like prostitutes, loving the pleasure and delight of the flesh, but not the fruit. For when they sense a living child in their womb, they immediately procure an abortion with herbs and other means, so they won't be deprived of the pleasure of the flesh and that continuous, wretched delight, so that they may always be free for lust and foul carnal union. That is how you act. For I am God, your Creator and Redeemer, and I visit everyone with my grace, knocking at your hearts, because I love you all. But when you feel a stirring of my grace—that is, the infusion of my Spirit in your heart—or some compunction, or when you hear my words and form a good intention, you immediately act as if you are spiritually procuring an abortion: you excuse your sins, take pleasure in them, and even willfully persist in them to your own damnation. That is why you do the devil’s will, by welcoming him into your hearts and casting me out with such contempt. Because of this, you are without me and I am not with you; you aren't in me, but in the devil, because you obey his will and his suggestions.
The Path to Reconciliation
Christ outlines the three steps of repentance, confession, and communion required for sinners to return to his grace.
Since I have already spoken of judgment, I will now speak of my mercy. My mercy is this: no one among my enemies is such a great sinner that my mercy is denied to him, if he asks for it with a humble and perfect heart. Therefore, my enemies must do three things if they want to be reconciled to my grace and friendship. The first thing is that they must repent and have compunction from the whole heart, because they have offended me, their Creator and Redeemer. Second, they must make a pure, frequent, and humble confession before their confessor. In this way, let them make amends for all their sins by doing penance and making satisfaction, following the counsel and discretion of that same confessor. For then I will draw near to them, and the devil will be driven far from them. Third, once they have finished these things with devotion and perfect love, they should receive and partake of my Body in Communion, fully intending never to fall back into their former sins, but to persevere in what is good until the end. If you amend your life in this way, I will meet you immediately like a loving father meeting a wayward child, and I will welcome you back into my grace more readily than you could ever ask or imagine.✦ Then I will be in him, and he will be in me; he'll live with me and rejoice forever.
The Certainty of Judgment
Christ warns that those who persist in their malice will face his justice, while the vision concludes with the departure of the revelation.
But for anyone who persists in their sins and malice, my justice will undoubtedly come upon them. For just as a fisherman does—seeing fish in the water, playing in their own delight and pleasure, and then casting his hook into the sea and pulling them out one by one, not all at once but little by little, and then putting them to death until he has finished them all—so, too, will I do to my enemies who persist in their sin. For I will gradually consume them from this worldly life of the present age, in which they take such temporary and carnal delight. And at the hour when they do not believe and are living in even greater pleasure, I will snatch them from this earthly life and send them into eternal death, where they will never again see my face, because they preferred to do and fulfill their own disordered and corrupt will rather than to carry out my commands and my will. After these things were seen and heard, the vision vanished.
Read the original Latin
Vni persone in oracione vigilanti et contemplacioni vacanti, dum staret in raptu eleuacionis mentalis, apparuit Ihesus Christus sic ei dicens:
"Audi tu, cui datum est audire et videre spiritualia, et attende diligenter et in mente tua caue, quod ea, que modo audies, que tu ex parte mea annunciabis gentibus, non loquaris ea pro acquirendo tibi honorem aut humanam laudem.
Nec eciam ea sileas propter aliquem timorem humani improperii et contemptus, quia non propter te tantum, sed eciam propter preces amicorum meorum hec tibi ostenduntur, que modo es auditura.
Nam aliqui electi amici mei ciuitatis Neapolitane multis annis rogauerunt me ex toto corde suo precibus et laboribus suis pro inimicis meis in eadem ciuitate habitantibus, vt ego graciam aliquam ostenderem eis, per quam ipsi a peccatis et abusionibus suis possent retrahi et salubriter reuocari.
Quorum precibus inclinatus do tibi nunc hec verba mea et ideo tu diligenter audi, que loquor.
Ego sum creator omnium et dominus tam super dyabolos quam super omnes angelos, et nullus effugiet iudicium meum. Dyabolus denique tripliciter peccauit contra me, superbia scilicet, inuidia et arrogancia, idest amore proprie voluntatis.
Tantum quippe superbiuit ipse, quod voluit esse super me dominus et vt ego essem subiectus sibi. Inuidebat quoque michi in tantum, quod, si possibile foret, libenter occidisset me, vt ipse esset dominus et sederet in throno meo.
Tantum eciam cara fuit ei propria voluntas sua, quod nichil curabat de voluntate mea, dum tamen ipse posset perficere voluntatem suam. Propter quod ipse cecidit de celo et de angelo factus est dyabolus in profundo inferni.
Post hec autem ego videns maliciam eius et magnam inuidiam, quam ipse habebat contra hominem, ostendi voluntatem mean et dedi mandata mea hominibus, vt ipsi faciendo ea possent placere michi et displicere dyabolo.
Deinde propter caritatem, quam habeo ad homines, veni in mundum et assumpsi carnem de virgine. Docui eciam eos personaliter veram viam salutis opere et sermone, et vt perfectam caritatem et amorem eis ostenderem, aperui eis celum meo proprio sanguine.
Sed quid faciunt michi nunc illi homines, qui sunt inimici mei? Vere ipsi contempnunt precepta mea, eiciunt me de cordibus suis tamquam virus abhominabile, expuunt eciam me de ore ipsorum velut rem putridam, et abhorrent me videre quasi leprosum pessime fetentem.
Dyabolum vero et eius opera amplectuntur toto suo affectu et opere. Hunc enim introducunt in cordibus suis, faciendo delectabiliter et gratanter eius voluntatem et sequendo eius immissiones malignas.
Ideo iusto iudicio meo remunerabuntur in inferno cum dyabolo eternaliter sine fine. Nam pro superbia, quam exercent, habebunt confusionem et eternum pudorem in tantum, quod angeli et demones de eis dicent: 'Impleti sunt confusione vsque ad summum.'
Pro cupiditate vero ipsorum insaciabili quilibet dyabolus inferni replebit eos suo veneno mortifero in tantum, quod in animabus ipsorum nullus vacuus locus remanebit, qui non sit dyabolico veneno repletus.
Pro luxuria vero, qua ardent sicut animalia insensata, numquam admittentur ad videndum faciem meam, sed separabuntur a me et priuabuntur eciam sua voluntate inordinata.
Ceterum scias, quod, sicut omnia peccata mortalia grauissima sunt, ita eciam peccatum veniale, si homo delectatur in eo cum voluntate perseuerandi, efficitur mortale.
Propterea noueris, quod duo peccata exercentur, que ego nomino tibi modo, que trahunt secum alia peccata, que omnia videntur quasi venialia, sed quia gentes delectantur in eis cum voluntate perseuerandi, ideo efficiuntur mortalia. Et multa alia peccata abhominabilia committunt gentes in ciuitate Neapolis, que nolo tibi nominare.
Primum de duobus peccatis est, quod facies humane racionabilis creature depinguntur diuersis coloribus, quibus colorantur ymagines insensibiles et statue ydolorum, vt videantur ab aliis pulchriores quam ego feci eas.
Secundum peccatum est, quod per inhonestas formas vestimentorum, quibus gentes vtuntur, corpora hominum et mulierum deformantur a statu suo, et hoc gentes propter superbiam faciunt et vt videantur pulchriores et lasciuiores in corporibus suis quam ego Deus creaui eos, et eciam vt sic videntes cicius prouocentur et inflammentur ad carnalem concupiscenciam.
Ideo certissime scias, quod, quociens deliniunt facies suas colore stibio et extraneo, tociens diminuitur eis infusio aliqua Spiritus Sancti et dyabolus magis appropinquat eis.
Quociens vero ornant se vestibus indecentibus et inordinatis et taliter deformant sua corpora, tociens ornatus anime diminuitur et dyaboli potestas augmentatur.
O inimici mei, qui talia facitis et alia peccata mee voluntati contraria effronte committitis, quare neglexistis passionem meam et non attenditis in cordibus vestris, quomodo ego nudus steti ad columpnam ligatus, duris flagellis crudeliter verberatus, quomodo nudus stabam et clamabam in cruce, repletus vulneribus et vestitus sanguine?
Et quando vos depingitis et vngitis facies vestras, cur non aspicitis ad faciem meam, qualiter sanguine repleta fuit? Non eciam attenditis ad oculos meos, quomodo caligauerunt et operiebantur sanguine et lacrimis et palpebre mee colore liuido.
Quare adhuc non aspicitis ad os meum, aures quoque et barbam non intuemini, qualiter erant dolorata et intincta sanguine? Non respicitis reliqua membra mea, diuersis penis immaniter sauciata, et qualiter liuidus et mortuus in cruce pependi propter vos.
Et ibi ab omnibus derisus et abiectus despiciebar ad hoc, vt ex tali recordacione et attenta memoria me, Deum vestrum, diligeretis et sic dyaboli laqueos effugeretis, quibus estis horribiliter colligati.
Verumptamen hec omnia in oculis et cordibus vestris oblita et neglecta sunt. Ideo facitis sicut meretrices, diligentes voluptatem et delectacionem carnis, non autem prolem.
Cum enim senciunt infantem viuum in vtero suo, statim procurant abortiuum herbis et aliis rebus, ne careant carnis voluptate et continua delectacione pessima, vt sic semper vacent luxurie et fetide commixtioni carnali.
Sic facitis. Nam ego Deus, creator et redemptor vester, omnes visito gracia mea, pulsando scilicet ad corda vestra, quia omnes diligo.
Sed cum vos aliquam pulsacionem infusionis, scilicet Spiritus mei, in corde vestro seu compunccionem sentitis vel, audiendo verba mea, aliquam bonam voluntatem concipitis, statim quasi abortiuum spiritualiter procuratis, excusando videlicet peccata vestra et delectando vos in eis ac eciam volendo dampnabiliter in ipsis perseuerare.
Idcirco dyaboli facitis voluntatem, et includendo ipsum in cordibus vestris et me sic contemptibiliter expellendo. Propter quod vos sine me estis et ego non sum vobiscum, et in me non estis sed in dyabolo, quia eius voluntati et suggestionibus obeditis.
Igitur quia iam dixi iudicium, dicam et nunc misericordiam meam. Misericordia autem mea hec est, videlicet quod nullus ipsorum inimicorum meorum est tantus et tam magnus peccator, quod ei negetur misericordia mea, si eam pecierit humili et perfecto corde.
Propterea tria debent facere inimici mei, si ad graciam et amiciciam meam se reconciliare voluerint.
Primum est, quod peniteant et habeant contricionem de toto corde eo, quod me, creatorem et redemptorem suum, offenderunt. Secundum est confessio pura, frequens et humilis, quam debent facere ante confessorem suum.
Et sic emendent omnia peccata sua, faciendo penitenciam et satisfaccionem secundum eiusdem confessoris consilium et discrecionem. Tunc enim appropinquabo me eis et dyabolus ab ipsis elongabitur.
Tercium est, quod, postquam hec sic perfecerint cum deuocione et perfecta caritate, communicando accipiant et sumant corpus meum, habendo voluntatem numquam recidiuandi in priora peccata sed perseuerandi in bono vsque in finem.
Quicumque igitur isto modo se emendauerit, statim ego occurram ei sicut pius pater erranti filio, et libencius eum suscipiam ad graciam meam quam ipse rogare et cogitare poterit.
Et tunc ego in eo ero et ipse in me, et mecum viuet et gaudebit in eternum. Qui vero perseuerauerit in peccatis et malicia sua, veniet super eum indubitanter iusticia mea.
Nam sicut facit piscator, qui videns pisces in aqua ludentes in delectacione et iocunditate sua, et tunc ipse mittit hamum in mari et extrahit capiendo pisces vicissim, non omnes coniunctim sed paulatim per vices, et tunc mittit eos in mortem, donec omnes consumpserit, sic eciam ego faciam inimicis meis in peccato perseuerantibus.
Nam paulatim consumabo eos de hac vita mundana huius seculi, in qua ipsi temporaliter et carnaliter delectantur.
Et qua hora ipsi non crediderint et in maiori delectacione vixerint, tunc rapiam eos de vita terrena et mittam eos in mortem eternam, vbi numquam amplius videbunt faciem meam ex eo, quod ipsi pocius dilexerunt facere et adimplere inordinatam et corruptam voluntatem suam quam perficere mandata et voluntatem meam."
Hiis autem sic visis et auditis hec visio disparuit.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Luke.15.20;Eph.3.20 — And he got up and went to his own father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. Eph.3.20 — Now to the one who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that is at work within us—
Notes
- 1 ↩The term 'abusionibus' refers to ingrained, perverse habits or corrupt practices.
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