MARIA VALTORTA THE POEM OF THE MAN-GOD

CENTRO EDITORIALE VALTORTIANO

THE PERSON AND WORKS OF MARIA VALTORTA Maria Valtorta was born on the 14th of March 1897. In the spring of 1916, during a tremendous period of desperation and desire, the Lord attracted her to Himself by means of a dream which was to remain vivid in Maria throughout her life. But her withdrawal from the word was still remote. In 1917 Maria entered the ranks of the Samaritan Nurses, and for eighteen months offered her service at the military hospital in Florence to serve those who suffered soldiers, not officers she felt as if she were sweetly obliged to draw ever closer God. In 1920 an act of thoughtless violence marked the beginning of her gradual immolation: she was struck in the back by a young delinquent with an iron bar stripped from a bed. Attracted by the exempla of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, Maria offered herself as victim to the merciful Love: from that moment she grew to extraordinary heights in her love of Jesus, even to feeling His presence in her own words and actions. In the meantime she maturing the decision to offer herself as victim of the divine Justice. From April 1934 she was no longer able to leave her bed It was in 1942 that she was visited by a pious missionary, Fr. Romuald Migliorini who was her spiritual director for four years; at his request in 1943, she agreed to write her Autobiography. Prodded by supernatural impulse on Good Friday, the 23rd of April of the same 1943, she began writing the dictations: her activity as write reached intensity from 1943 to 1947, diminishing progressively until 1953. Mostly the notebook written by Maria Valtorta concerns the life of Jesus: The Poem of the Man-God. In 1949 Maria offered to God the sacrifice of not seeing the ecclesiastic approval of the Work, and she added the precious gift of her own intelligence. She died in 1961 and in 1973 with civil and ecclesiastic permissions her mortal remains were transferred to the Capitular Chapel in the Grand Cloister of the Basilica of the Most Holy Annunciation in Florence, where the tomb of Maria Valtorta is still venerated. The Poem of the Man-God is a great life of Jesus, it is a gospel which neither substitutes nor changes the Gospel, but rather narrates it, integrating and illuminating it, with the declared purpose of reviving in mens hearts the love for Christ and His Mother.

It was revealed to Maria Valtorta, called Little John, to place her close to the Evangelist who was the favorite disciple. The Poem of the Man-God consists of seven parts: The Hidden Life The first year of the Public Life The second year of the Public Life The third years of the Public Life Preparation to the Passion The Passion The Glorification. Maria Valtorta THE POEM OF THE MAN-GOD PUBLISHER AND GENERAL DISTRIBUTOR Centro Editoriale Valtortiano 03036 Isola del Liri (FR) ITALY tel 0776 807032, fax 0776 809789 www.mariavaltorta.com e-mail: cev@mariavaltorta.com AUSTRALIA: Gatto & Co., Unit 4 / Wanneroo Road P.O. Box 248, Tuart Hill, WA 6060, Phone 09.3443032, Fax 09.3443035 CANADA: Liberairie Mdiaspaul, 250 nord boulevard St. Franois, Sherbrooke, Qubec J1E 2B9, Phone 819.5695535, Fax 819.5655474 ENGLAND: Veritas, Lower Avenue, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire CV 31 3 NP, Phone 0926.451730, Fax 0926.451733 HONG KONG: Catholic Truth Society, Catholic Centre, G.P.O. Box 2984, Hong Kong INDIA Examiner Bookshop, 35 Dalal Street, Fort, Mumbai 400 001 IRELAND: Faith & Family, Books & Media, P.O. Box 73, Callan-Co.Kilkenny, Phone and Fax 056.25784 Veritas Company Ltd. Veritas House, 7/8 Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1, Phone 788177, Fax 744913 MALAYSIA: Melaka-Johor Diocesan Secretariat, P.O. Box 319, 80730 Johor Bahru Johor, Fax 7.248501 PHILIPPINES: Legion of Little Souls, 518 Buendia Avenue Extension, Forbes Park North, 1200 Makati, Metro Manila, Phone 810-7697 & 810-7698 SINGAPORE: Magnificat Marian Centre Pte Ltd., 222 Queen Street N.01-07, Singapore 188550, Phone 65.3373277, fax 65.3363378 2 SOUTH AFRICA: Catholic Centre, Archidiocese of Pretoria, P.O. Box 27524, Sunnyside, Phone 012.3416705, Fax 012.3416504

SWITZERLAND: Editions du Parvis, CH-1648 Hauteville, Phone 29.51905, Fax 29.52793 U.S.A. Distributor in CANADA

Vol 1 -INDEX THE HIDDEN LIFE 1. Introduction. Page * on line * 7 8 11 16 20 33 37 42 48 51 58 61 66 73 77 79 82 90 94

2. Joachim and Anne Make a Vow to the Lord. 3. Anne, Praying in the Temple, Has Her Wish Fulfilled. 4. With a Canticle, Anne Announces that She Is a Mother. 5. Birth of the Virgin Mary. 6. The Purification of Anne and the Offering of Mary. 7. The Son Has Put His Wisdom on His Mother's Lips. 8. Mary Is Presented in the Temple. 9. Death of Joachim and Anne. 10. Mary's Canticle Imploring the Coming of the Christ. 11. Mary Will Confide Her Vow to the Spouse God Will Give Her. 12. Joseph Is Appointed Husband of the Virgin. 13. Wedding of the Virgin and Joseph. 14. Joseph and Mary arrive in Nazareth. 15. Conclusion to the Pre- Gospel. 16. The Annunciation. 17. The Disobedience of Eve and the Obedience of Mary. 18. The Annunciation of Elizabeth's Pregnancy to Joseph. 19. Mary and Joseph Set Out for Jerusalem.

20. From Jerusalem to Zacharias' House. 21. Arrival at Zacharias' House. 22. Mary and Elizabeth Speak of their Children. 23. The Birth of the Baptist. 24. The Circumcision of the Baptist. 25. The Presentation of the Baptist in the Temple. 26. Mary of Nazareth Clarifies the Matter with Joseph. 27. The Census Edict. 28. The Journey to Bethlehem. 29. The Birth of Our Lord Jesus. 3 30. The Adoration of the Shepherds. 31. Zacharias' Visit. 32. Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. 33. Lullaby of the Virgin. 34. The Adoration of the Wise Men. 35. The Flight into Egypt. 36. The Holy Family in Egypt. 37. The First Working Lesson Given to Jesus. 38. Mary the Teacher of Jesus, Judas and James. 39. Preparations for Jesus' Coming of Age and Departure from Nazareth. 40. Jesus Examined in the Temple When He Is of Age. * 41. The Dispute of Jesus with the Doctors in the Temple. 42. The Death of Saint Joseph. 43. Conclusion of the Private Life. 216 140 150 155 160 162 173 181 188 126 130 134 114 99

96

103 109

117 123

192 198 202 206

222

THE FIRST YEAR OF THE PUBLIC LIFE 44. Farewell to His Mother and Departure from Nazareth. 45. Jesus Is Baptised in the Jordan. 46. Jesus Is Tempted in the Desert by the Devil. 47. Jesus Meets John and James. 48. John and James Speak to Peter about the Messiah. 49. First Meeting of Peter and the Messiah. 50. Jesus at Bethsaida in Peter's House. He Meets Philip and Nathanael. 51. Judas Thaddeus at Bethsaida to Invite Jesus to the Wedding at Cana. 52. Jesus at the Wedding at Cana. 53. Jesus Drives the Merchants out of the Temple. 54. Jesus Meets Judas Iscariot and Thomas and Cures Simon the Zealot. 55. Thomas Becomes a Disciple. 284 289 242 246 250 258 266 269 274 279 225 231 237

56. Judas of Alphaeus, Thomas and Simon Are Accepted as Disciples at the Jordan. 57. Return to Nazareth after Passover with the Six Disciples. 58. Cure of a Blind Man at Capernaum. 59. The Demoniac of Capernaum cured in the Synagogue. 60. Cure of Simon Peter's Mother- in- law. * 61. Jesus Preaches and Works Miracles in Peter's House. 62. Jesus Prays at Night. 63. The Leper Cured near Korazim. 64. The Paralytic Cured in Peter's House. 65. The Miraculous Draught of Fishes. 66. The Iscariot Finds Jesus at Gethsemane and is Accepted as a Disciple. 330 332 319 295 298

303 308 314

321 325

67. Jesus Works the Miracle of the Broken Blades at the Fish Gate. 68. Jesus Preaches in the Temple. Judas Iscariot is with Him. 69. Jesus Teaches Judas Iscariot. 70. Jesus Meets John of Zebedee at Gethsemane. 71. Jesus with Judas Iscariot Meets Simon Zealot and John. 72. Jesus, John, Simon and Judas go to Bethlehem 73. Jesus at Bethlehem in the Peasant's House and in the Grotto. 74. Jesus Goes to the Hotel in Bethlehem and Preaches from the Ruins of Anne's House. 75. Jesus and the Shepherds Elias, Levi and Joseph. 76. Jesus at Juttah with the Shepherd Isaac. 4 77. Jesus at Hebron. Zacharias' House. Aglae. 78. Jesus at Kerioth. Death of Old Saul. 79. Jesus on His Way Rack Stops with the Shepherds near Hebron. 80. Jesus Returns to the Mountain Where He Fasted and to the Rock of Temptation. 81. At the Jordan Ford. Meeting with the Shepherds John, Matthias and Simeon. 422 82. Judas Iscariot Tells of how He Sold Aglae's Jewels to Diomedes. 83. Jesus Cries on account of Judas and Simon Zealot Comforts Him. 84. Jesus Meets Lazarus at Bethany. 85. Jesus Goes Back to Jerusalem, and Listens to Judas Iscariot in the Temple and then Goes to Gethsemane. 86. Jesus Speaks to the Soldier Alexander at the Fish Gate. 87. Jesus and Isaac near Doco. Departure towards Esdraelon. Jesus with the Shepherd Jonah in the Plain of Esdraelon. 89. Return to Nazareth after Leaving Jonah.

335 339 344 349 355 358 361 370 378 383

391 397 407 412

426 432 437 442 447 451 454 458

90. The Next Day in the House in Nazareth. 91. Jesus' Lesson to His Disciples in the Olive- Grove. 92. Jesus' Lesson to His Disciples near His Home. 93. The Lesson to the Disciples in the Presence of the Most Holy Virgin in the Garden in Nazareth. 94. Cure of the Beauty of Korazim. Sermon in the Synagogue at Capernaum. 95. James of Alphaeus Is Received among the Disciples. Jesus Preaches near Matthew's Customs Bench. 96. Jesus Preaches to the Crowd at Bethsaida. 97. The Call of Matthew. 98. Jesus on the Lake of Tiberias. Lesson to His Disciples near the Same Town. 99. Jesus Looks for Jonathan in the House of Chuza at Tiberias. 100. Jesus in the House of His Uncle Alphaeus and then at His Own Home. 101. Jesus Questions His Mother about His Disciples. 102. Cure of Johanna of Chuza near Cana. 103. Jesus on Lebanon with the Shepherds Benjamin and Daniel. 104. Jesus in the Sea-Town Receives Letters Concerning Jonah. 105. Jesus Makes Peace with His Cousin Simon in the House of Mary of Alphaeus. 106. Jesus Is Driven Out of Nazareth and He Comforts His Mother. Reflections on Four Contemplations. 107. Jesus in the House of Johanna of Chuza with His Mother. 108. Jesus at the Vintage in the House of Anne. Miracle of a Paralytic Child. 109. Jesus at Doras' House. Death of Jonah. 110. Jesus in the House of Jacob near Lake Merom. 111. Return to the Jordan Ford near Jericho. 112. Jesus in the House of Lazarus. Martha Speaks of the Magdalene. 561 573 578 545 549 526 487 493 498 469

464

472 476 481

504 512 517

527 534 538

554 556

582

113. In Lazarus' House Again after the Tabernacles. Invitation of Joseph of Arimathea. 114. Jesus Meets Gamaliel at the Banquet of Joseph of Arimathea. 115. Cure of the Little Dying Boy. The Soldier Alexander. Intimation to Jesus. 116. Jesus Speaks to Nicodemus, at Night, at Gethsemane. 117. Jesus at Lazarus' House Before Going to the Clear Water . 118. Jesus at the Clear Water . Preliminaries for Life in Common with the Disciples. 119. Jesus at the Clear Water : I am the Lord Your God . 120. Jesus at the Clear Water : You shall have no gods in My Presence . 121. Jesus at the Clear Water : You shall not take My Name in vain . 5 122. Jesus at the Clear Water : Honour Your Father and Your Mother . 123. Jesus at the Clear Water : You Shall Not Fornicate . 124. The Veiled Woman at the Clear Water . 125. Jesus at the Clear Water : Observe Holy Days . 126. Jesus at the Clear Water : You Shall Not Kill . Death of Doras. 127. Jesus at the Clear Water : Do Not Put the Lord Your God to the Test . The Three Disciples of the Baptist. 128. Jesus at the Clear Water : You Shall Not Covet Your Neighbour's Wife . 674 129. Jesus at the Clear Water . He Cures the Mad Roman and Speaks to the Romans. 130. Jesus at the Clear Water : You Shall Not Bear False Witness . 131. Jesus at the Clear Water : You Shall Not Covet What Belongs to Your Neighbour 132. Jesus at the Clear Water . Closure. 133. Jesus Leaves the Clear Water and Goes towards Bethany. 679 631 614 601 589

588

597

610

620 627

638 647 654 658 662 669

685 692 695 701

134. Cure of Jerusa, the Woman of Doco Afflicted with Cancer. 135. At Bethany in the House of Simon Zealot. 136. The Feast of Dedication in Lazarus' House with the Shepherds. 137. Return to the Clear Water . 138. A New Disciple. Departure for Galilee. 139. On the Mountains near Emmaus. 140. In the House of Cleopas, the Head of the Synagogue. 735 738 712

709

719 729

41. The Dispute of Jesus with the Doctors in the Temple. 28th January 1944. I see Jesus. He is an adolescent. He is dressed in a tunic which I think is made of white linen, and it reaches down to His feet. Over it, He is wearing a pale red rectangular piece of cloth. He is bare headed, His long hair reaches down to half His ears and it is somewhat darker in hue than when I saw Him as a child. He is a strong boy and very tall for His age, which is still relatively young, as is obvious from His countenance. He looks at me smiling and stretches His hands towards me. But His smile is already like the one I see in Him when He is a Man: mild but rather serious. He is by Himself. I do not see anything else for the time being. He is leaning against a low wall on a minor road which is all uphill and downhill, littered with stones and has a ditch in the middle which in bad weather must turn into a rivulet. But at present it is dry because the day is lovely. I also seem to be going near the low wall and I look around and down, as Jesus is doing. I see a group of houses irregular in formation. Some of the houses are tall, others are low, and they are scattered in all directions. They look like a handful of little white stones thrown down on dark soil: the comparison is a poor but good one. The streets and the lanes are like veins in all that whiteness. Here and there I see some plants protruding from the walls. Many are in bloom while others are already covered with new leaves. It must be springtime. On my left, there is the massive structure of the Temple, on three sets of terraces covered with buildings and towers and yards and porches. In the centre, the highest most solemn and rich building rises with its round domes, which shine in the sun as if they were covered with copper or gold. It is all enclosed by an embattled wall, the merlons of which are like those of a stronghold. A tower higher than the others, built over a rather narrow climbing road, commands a clear view of the huge building. It looks like a stern sentry. Jesus stares at the place. He then turns round, leans back once gain against the wall, as He had done before and looks at a hillock which is in front of the building, a hillock crowded with houses at its base, while the rest of it is bare. I see that a street ends over there in an arch, beyond which there is nothing but a road paved with square stones, which are loose and uneven. They are not too large, not like the stones of the Roman consular roads: they rather resemble the classic stones of the old pavements in Viareggio (I do not know whether there are any still left) but they are not joined together. A really rough road. Jesus' face becomes so serious that I look at the hillock endeavouring to find the cause of His sadness. But I do not see anything special. It is a bare hillock and nothing else. Instead I lose Jesus because when I turn round, He is no longer there. And I fall asleep with that vision. ...When I awake with its memory in my heart, after I have recovered some of my strength and my mind is at peace, because they are all asleep, I find myself in a place which I have never seen before. There are yards and fountains and porches and houses, or rather pavilions, because they look more like pavilions than houses There is a large crowd of people dressed in the ancient style of the Jews, and there is a lot of bawling. When I look round I realise I am inside the large building which Jesus was looking at, because I see

the embattled wall surrounding it, the tower watching over it and the imposing building that rises in the centre, and round which there are beautiful and large porches, where many people are intent on activities. I understand that I am in the enclosure of the Temple in Jerusalem. I see Pharisees in long flowing dresses, priests dressed in linen and wearing precious plates at the top of their chests and on their foreheads and with other sparkling points here and there on their varied robes, which are very wide and white, tied to their waists by precious belts. There are also others with fewer decorations, but they must still belong to the sacerdotal caste and are surrounded by younger disciples. I realise that they are the doctors of the Law. Among all these people I am lost, because I do not know why or what I am doing there. I go near a group of doctors where they have just started a theological dispute. Many people do the same. Amongst the doctors there is a group headed by one whose name is Gamaliel and by another old and almost blind man who is supporting Gamaliel in the dispute. This man, whose name I hear is Hillel (I am writing it with an 'h' because I hear an aspiration at the beginning of the name) seems to be a teacher or relative of Gamaliel, because the latter treats him with familiarity and respect at the same time. Gamaliel's group is more broad-minded, whereas another group, and it is more numerous, is led by one whose name is Shammai, and is noticeable for its conservative, resentful intolerance which the Gospel has clarified so well. Gamaliel, surrounded by a compact group of disciples, is speaking of the coming of the Messiah, and founding his observations on Daniel's prophecy, he states that the Messiah must have already been born, because the seventy prophesied weeks, from the time the decree of the reconstruction of the Temple was issued, expired some ten years before. Shammai opposes him stating that, if it is true that the Temple has been rebuilt, it is also true that the slavery of Israel has increased and the peace, which He Whom the prophets called Prince of Peace was to bring, is quite far from being in the world and in particular is far from Jerusalem. The town is in fact oppressed by an enemy who is so bold as to exert his domination inside the enclosure of the Temple, dominated by the Antonia Tower, full of Roman legionaries, ready to put down with their swords any riot which may break out for the independence of the country. The dispute, full of captious objections, is dragged on endlessly. All the doctors show off their learning, not so much to beat their opponents as to display themselves to the admiration of the listeners. Their aims are quite obvious. From the close group of the believers the clear voice of a boy is heard: Gamaliel is right. There is a stir in the crowd and in the group of doctors. They look for the interrupter. But it is not necessary to search for him because he does not hide. He makes his way through the crowd and goes near the group of the rabbis . I recognise my Jesus adolescent. He is sure of Himself and open-hearted, His eyes are sparkling with intelligence. Who are You? , they ask Him. I am a son of Israel, who has come to fulfil what the Law prescribes. His bold and frank reply is appreciated, and it gains Him smiles of approval and favour. They take an interest in the young Israelite.

 What is Your name? Jesus of Nazareth. The feeling of benevolence fades away in Shammai's group. But Gamaliel, more benignly, continues his conversation with Hillel. It is indeed Gamaliel who with respect suggests to the old man: Ask the boy something. On what do You base Your certainty? asks Hillel. (I will now put the names in front of the replies for the sake of brevity and clarity.) Jesus: On the prophecy which cannot be wrong about the time and the signs which took place at the time it came true. It is true that Caesar dominates us, but the world and Palestine were in such peace when the seventy weeks expired, that it was possible for Caesar to order the census in his dominions. Had there been wars in the Empire and riots in Palestine, he would not have been able to do so. As that time was completed, so the other period of sixty-two weeks plus one from the completion of the Temple is also being completed, so that the Messiah may be anointed and the remainder of the prophecy may come true for the people who did not want Him. Can you doubt that? Do you not remember the star that was seen by the Wise Men from the East and stopped over the sky in Bethlehem of Judah and that the prophecies and the visions, from Jacob onwards, indicate that place as the one destined as the birthplace of the Messiah, son of the son of Jacob's son, through David who was from Bethlehem? Do you not remember Balaam? "A Star will be born of Jacob". The Wise Men from the East, whose purity and faith opened their eyes and ears, saw the Star and understood its Name: "Messiah", and they came to worship the Light which had descended into the world. Shammai, glaring at Him: Do you mean that the Messiah was born in Bethlehem-Ephrathah at the time of the Star? Jesus: I do. Shammai: Then he no longer is. Don't you know, Child, that Herod had all the born of woman, from one day up to the age of two years, slaughtered in Bethlehem and surrondings? You, Who are so wise in the Scriptures, must know also this: "A voice is heard in Ramah... it is Rachel weeping for her children". The valleys and the hills in Bethlehem, which gathered the tears of the dying Rachel, were left full of tears, and the mothers have wept again on their slaughtered children. Amongst them, there certainly was the Mother of the Messiah. Jesus: You are wrong, old man. The weeping of Rachel turned into a hosanna, because there, where she gave birth to "the son of her sorrow", the new Rachel has given the world the Benjamin of the Heavenly Father, the Son of His right hand, Him Who is destined to gather the people of God under His sceptre and free it from the most dreadful slavery. Shammai: How can that be, if He was killed? Jesus: Have you not read about Elijah? He was carried off by the chariot of fire. And could the Lord God not have saved his Immanuel that He might be the Messiah of his people? He, Who parted the sea in front of Moses that Israel might walk on dry ground towards its land, could He not have sent His angels to save His Son, His Christ, from the ferocity of man? I solemnly tell you, the Christ is alive and is amongst you, and when His hour comes, He will show Himself in His power. Jesus, in saying these words, which I have underlined, has a sharp sound in His voice which fills the air. His eyes are

brighter than ever, and with the gesture of command and promise He stretches out His right arm and hand and lowers them as if He were swearing. He is a boy, but is as solemn as a man. .Hillel: Child, who taught you these words? Jesus: The Spirit of God. I have no human teacher. This is the Word of the Lord Who speaks to you through My lips. Hillel: Come near us that I may see You, Child, and my hope may be revived by Your faith and my soul enlightened by the brightness of Yours. And they make Jesus sit on a high stool between Gamaliel and Hillel and they give Him some rolls to read and explain. It is a proper examination. The people throng and listen. Jesus reads in His clear voice: Be consoled, my people. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call to her that her time of service is ended... A voice cries in the wilderness: "Prepare a way for the Lord... then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed..." Shammai: See that, Nazarene. It refers here to an ended slavery, but never before have we been slaves as we are now. And there is the mention of a precursor. Where is he? You are talking nonsense. Jesus: I tell you that the admonition of the Precursor should be addressed to you more than anyone else. To you and those like you. Otherwise you will not see the glory of the Lord, neither will you understand the word of God because meanness, pride and falsehood will prevent you from seeing and hearing. . Shammai: How dare You speak to a master like that? Jesus: I speak thus. And thus I shall speak even to My death, because above Me there are the interests of the Lord and the love for Truth of which I am the Son. And I add, rabbi, that the slavery of which the Prophet speaks, and of which I am speaking, is not the one you think, neither is the royalty the one you consider. On the contrary, by the merits of the Messiah man will be made free from the slavery of Evil, which separates him from God, and the sign of Christ will be on the spirits, freed from every yoke and made subjects of the eternal kingdom. All the nations will bend their heads, o household of David, before the Shoot born of you and which will grow into a tree that covers the whole world and rises up to Heaven. And in Heaven and on the earth every mouth will praise His Name and bend its knee before the Anointed of God, the Prince of Peace, the Leader, before Him Who by giving Himself will fill with joy and nourishment every disheartened and famishing soul, before the Holy One Who will establish an alliance between Heaven and earth. Not like the Covenant made with the Elders of Israel when God led them out of Egypt, treating them still as servants, but infusing a heavenly paternity into the souls of men with the Grace instilled once again by the merits of the Redeemer, through Whom all good people will know the Lord and the Sanctuary of God will no longer be demolished and destroyed. Shammai: Do not blaspheme, Child! Remember Daniel. He states that after the death of Christ, the Temple and the Town will be destroyed by a people and a leader who will come from afar. And You hold that the sanctuary of God will no longer be demolished! Respect the Prophets! Jesus: I solemnly tell you that there is Someone Who is above the Prophets, and you do not know Him and you will not know Him because you do not want to. And I tell you that what I said is true. The true Sanctuary will

not be subject to death. But like its Sanctifier it will rise to eternal life and at the end of the world it will live in Heaven. Hillel: Listen to me, Child. Haggai says: "...The One Expected by the nations will come... great then shall be the glory of this house, and of this last one more than of the previous one". Does he perhaps refer to the Sanctuary of which You are speaking? Jesus: Yes, master. That is what he means. Your honesty leads you towards the Light and I tell you: when the sacrifice of Christ is accomplished, you shall have peace because you are an Israelite without wickedness. Gamaliel: Tell me, Jesus. How can the peace of which the Prophets speak be hoped for, if destruction is going to come to this people by war? Speak and enlighten also me. Jesus: Do you not remember, master, what those said who were present on the night of Christ's birth? That the angels sang: "Peace to men of good will" but this people is not of good will and will not have peace. It will not acknowledge its King, the Just Man, the Saviour, because they expect Him to be a king with human power, whereas He is the King of the spirit. They will not love Him, because they will not like what Christ preaches. Christ will not defeat their enemies with their chariots and their horses, He will instead defeat the enemies of the soul, who endeavour to imprison in hell the heart of man which was created for the Lord. And this is not the victory which Israel is expecting from Him. Your King will come, Jerusalem, riding a "donkey and a colt", that is, the just people of Israel and the Gentiles. But I tell you, that the colt will be more faithful to Him and will follow Him preceding the donkey and will grow in the ways of Truth and Life. Because of its evil will, Israel will lose its peace and suffer for centuries and will cause its King to suffer and will make Him the King of sorrow of Whom Isaiah speaks. Shammai: Your mouth tastes of milk and blasphemy at the same time, Nazarene. Tell me: where is the Precursor? When did we have him? Jesus: He is. Does not Malachi say: "Here I am going to send My messenger to prepare the way before Me; and the Lord you are seeking will suddenly enter His Temple, and the angel of the Covenant Whom you are longing for"? Therefore the Precursor immediately precedes Christ. He already is, as Christ is. If years should elapse between him who prepares the ways for the Lord and Christ, all the ways would become obstructed and twisted again. God knows and arranges beforehand that the Precursor should precede the Master by one hour only. When you see this Precursor, you will be able to say: "The mission of Christ is beginning". And I say to you: Christ will open many eyes and many ears when He comes this way. But He will not open yours or those of people like you, because you will be putting to death Him Who is bringing you Life. But when the Redeemer sits on His throne and on His altar, higher up than this Temple, higher than the Tabernacle enclosed in the Holy of the Holies, higher up than the Glory supported by the Cherubim, maledictions for the deicides and life for the Gentiles will flow from His thousands and thousands of wounds, because He, o master who are unaware of it, is not, I repeat, is not the king of a human kingdom, but of a spiritual Kingdom and His subjects will be only those who for His sake will learn to regenerate in the spirit and, like Jonah, after being born, will learn to be born again, on other shores: "The shores of God", by means of a spiritual regeneration which will take place through Christ, Who will give humanity

true Life. Shammai and his followers: This Nazarene is Satan! Hillel and his followers: No. This child is a Prophet of God. Stay with me, Child. My old age will transfuse what I know into Your knowledge and You will be Master of the people of God. Jesus: I solemnly tell you that if there were many like you, salvation would come to Israel. But My hour has not come. Voices from Heaven speak to Me and in solitude I must gather them until My hour comes. Then with My lips and My blood I will speak to Jerusalem, and the destiny of Prophets stoned and killed by her, will also be My destiny. But above My life there is the Lord God, to Whom I submit Myself as a faithful servant, to make of Myself a stool for His glory, waiting that He will make the world a stool at the feet of Christ. Wait for Me in My hour. These stones shall hear My voice again and vibrate hearing My last word. Blessed are those who in that voice will have heard God and believed in Him because of it. To them Christ will give that kingdom which your selfishness imagines to be a human one, whereas it is a heavenly one and therefore I say: "Here is Your servant, Lord, Who has come do to Your will. Let it be consummated, because I am eager to fulfil it". And here, with the vision of Jesus with His face burning with spiritual ardour and raised to Heaven, His arms stretched out, standing upright in the midst of the astonished doctors, the vision ends. (and it is 3:30 on the 29th). -----------------------------29th January 1944. I have here two things to tell you and which will certainly be of interest to you. I had decided to write them as soon as I came out of my sopor. But as there is something more urgent, I will write them later. [...] What I wanted to tell you at the beginning is this. Today you were asking me how I had been able to find out the names of Hillel, Gamaliel and of Shammai. It is the voice that I call the second voice which tells me these things. A voice even less audible than Jesus' and the voices of other people who dictate. These are voices, I have told you and I repeat it, which my spiritual hearing perceives as being identical to human voices. I hear them as kind or angry voices, strong or weak, joyful or sad, as if one spoke very close to me. The second voice , instead, is like a light, an intuition that speaks in my spirit. In not to my spirit. It is an indication. So, while I was approaching the group of the disputant parties and I did not know who was the illustrious personage who was disputing so heatedly beside an old man, this internal "something" said to me: "Gamaliel - Hillel". Yes. First Gamaliel and then Hillel. I have no doubt about it. While I was wondering who they were, the internal monitor pointed out the third unpleasant individual to me, just as Gamaliel was calling him by name. And I was thus able to learn who was the man with the pharisaic appearance. Today this internal monitor makes me understand that I was seeing the universe after its death. The same happens many times in visions. It is this monitor who makes me understand certain details which I would not be able to grasp by myself and which are necessary for comprehension. I do not know whether I have made myself clear.

But I am stopping because Jesus is beginning to speak. [...] --------------------------------22nd February 1944. Jesus says: Little John, be patient. There is something else. And let us do it to please your spiritual Director and complete the work. I want, this work to be handed in tomorrow: Ash Wednesday. I want you to complete this task because... I want you to suffer with Me. Let us go back, far back. Let us go back to the Temple where I, a twelve year old boy, am disputing. Nay, let us go back to the roads which take one to Jerusalem and from Jerusalem to the Temple. See Mary's distress, when She realised, after the groups of men and women had gathered together, that I was not with Joseph. She does not reproach Her spouse bitterly. Every woman would, have done that. You do so for much less, forgetting that man is still the head of the family. But the pain that appears on Mary's face pierces Joseph's heart more than any bitter reproach. Mary does not give vent to dramatic outbursts. You do so for much less because you love to be noticed and pitied. But Her repressed sorrow is so obvious: She starts trembling, Her face turns pale, Her eyes are wide open and thus She arouses pity more than any outburst of tears and cries. She is no longer tired or hungry. And yet the journey was a long one and She has not taken any food for so many hours! But She leaves everything: the bed She was preparing and the food which was ready to be handed out. And She goes back. It is night, it is dark. It does not matter. Every step takes Her back to Jerusalem. She stops the caravans and pilgrims and questions them. Joseph follows Her and helps Her. A long day's walk back to Jerusalem and then the feverish search in town. Where, where can Her Jesus be? And by God's provision for many hours She will not know where to look for Me. To look for a child in the Temple does not make sense. What could a child be doing in the Temple? At most, if he had got lost in town and his little steps had brought him back there, he would have cried for his mother and thus would have attracted the attention of people and of the priests, who would have taken the necessary steps to find the parents by means of announcements left at the gates. But there was no announcement. No one in town knew anything of this Child. Beautiful? Blond? Strong? There are so many like that! It is too little to enable anyone to say: "I saw Him. He was there or there"! Then, after three days, the symbol of three other days of future anguish, Mary, exhausted, enters the Temple, walks along the yards and the halls. Nothing. She runs, the poor Mother, whenever She hears the voice of a child. Even the bleating of the lambs give Her the impression that She hears Her Creature weeping and looking for Her. But Jesus is not weeping. He is teaching. All of a sudden, from beyond the barrier of a large group of people, She hears His voice saying: "These stones will vibrate..." She endeavours to make Her way through the crowd, and succeeds after much effort. There is Her Son, standing in the midst of the doctors with His arms stretched out. Mary is the Prudent Virgin. But this time anxiety overcomes prudence. It is a hurricane that demolishes everything. She runs to Her Son, embraces

Him, lifting Him off the stool and putting Him down on the ground and She exclaims: "Oh! Why have You done this to us? For three days we have been looking for You. Your Mummy is dying with pain, Son. Your father is exhausted with fatigue. Why, Jesus?" You do not ask "why " of Him Who knows. "Why" He behaved in a certain way. You do not ask those with a vocation "why" they leave everything to follow the voice of God. I was Wisdom and I knew. I was "called" to a mission and I was fulfilling it. Above the earthly father and mother there is God, the Divine Father. His interests are above ours, His affections are superior to everything else. And I tell My Mother. I finish teaching the doctors with the lesson to Mary, the Queen of doctors. And She has never forgotten it. The sun began to shine again in Her heart now that She had Me, humble and obedient, beside Her, but My words are deeply rooted in Her mind. There will be much sunshine and many clouds will gather in the sky during the next twenty-one years I will still be on the earth. And great joys and many tears will alternate in Her heart during the next twenty-one years. But never again will She ask: "My Son, why have You done this to us?" Oh, insolent men, learn your lesson. I directed and enlightened the vision, because you, little John, are not able to do anything further. Now pay attention to what I say. I want this booklet to be made up as follows: First sorrow: Presentation in the Temple. Second sorrow: stay in Egypt. Third sorrow: Jesus lost in the Temple. Fourth sorrow: the death of St. Joseph. Fifth sorrow: My departure from Nazareth. Then the dictation dated 10th February 1944. Sixth sorrow: the description of the vision dated 13th February (4 points: the synagogue, the house in Nazareth, Jesus' sermon in the synagogue, the conversation with His Mother after escaping from Nazareth). Seventh sorrow: the vision dated l4th February. Then the dictation dated l5th February. Then the dictation dated 16th February. Eighth sorrow: the supper at Passover. Ninth sorrow: the Passion, taking the vision dated 11th February 1943 and connecting it with the one dated 18th February. Tenth sorrow: the burial of Jesus (19th February). Then the vision and dictation dated 21st February. Vision and dictation dated 22nd February as far as the point indicated. The other dictation on the finding of Jesus in the Temple is to be put in its place in the third sorrow. First the Father will make the usual booklet for himself and for you and you will correct it so that there is not even one error in it. Then he will make the copies he wants for other people. Of course each vision is to be accompanied by its dictation. The Father wanted everything for Easter. I wanted it as preparation for Easter and I am having it handed to you today, because it is already 4:30 p.m. of Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Set to work, children and may you be blessed. And may those be blessed who will accept the gift with simple hearts and faith. The fire which the Father wished today will light up in them. The world will not change in its cruelty. It is too corrupt. But they will be comforted and they will feel the thirst for God, the incentive to holiness, rise within themselves. Go in peace, little John. Your Jesus thanks you and blesses you.

42. The Death of Saint Joseph. 5th February 1944, 1:30 p.m. This vision appears to me imperiously, while I am busy correcting the copy-book, and precisely the dictation on pseudo-religions of present days. I will write it as I see it. I see the inside of a carpenter's workshop. It looks as if two of the walls are formed by rocks, as if the builders had taken advantage of natural grottos converting them into rooms of a house. Here the northern and western walls are indeed the rocky ones, whereas the other two walls, the southern and eastern ones, are plastered, just like ours. On the northern side, in the recess of the rock, they have built a rustic fireplace, on which there is a little pot with some paint or glue, I do not know exactly which. The wall there is so black that it seems to be covered with tar, because of the firewood which has been burnt there for many years. A hole in the wall, with a big large tile on top of it, takes the place of a chimney for letting out the smoke. But it must have performed its duty very badly, because the other walls have also been blackened by the smoke, and even now there is a smoky mist all over the room. Jesus is working at a large carpentry bench. He is planing some boards which He then rests against the wall behind Him. He then takes a kind of stool, clamped on two sides by a vice, He frees it from the vice, and He looks to see whether the job is perfect, He examines it from every angle, He then goes to the chimney, takes the little pot and stirs the contents with a little stick or brush, I am not sure; I can only see the part protruding from the pot and which is like a little stick. Jesus is wearing a rather short tunic, the colour of which is dark hazelnut: the sleeves are rolled up to His elbows, and He is wearing a kind of apron on which He wipes His fingers after touching the little pot. He is by Himself. He works diligently, but peacefully. No abrupt or impatient movement. He is precise and constant in His work. Nothing annoys Him: neither a knot in the wood which will not be planed, nor a screwdriver (I think it is a screwdriver) which falls twice from the bench, nor the smoke floating in the room which must irritate His eyes. Now and again He raises His head and looks towards the southern wall, where there is a closed door, and He listens. At a certain moment He opens a door which is on the eastern side and opens on to the road, and He looks out. I can see a small portion of the dusty little road. He seems to be waiting for

someone. He then goes back to His work. He is not sad, but very serious. He closes the door again and goes back to work. While He is busy making something, which I think is part of a wheel, His Mother comes in. She comes in by the southern door. She rushes towards Jesus. She is dressed in dark blue and is bareheaded. Her simple tunic is held tight at Her waist by a cord of the same colour. She is worried when She calls Her Son, and leans with both Her hands on His arm in an attitude of prayer and sorrow. Jesus caresses Her, passing His arm over Her shoulder and comforts Her. He leaves His work, takes His apron off and goes out with Her. I suppose you would like to know the exact words they said. Very few were spoken by Mary: Oh! Jesus! Come, come. He is very ill! They are uttered with trembling lips and tears shining in Her reddened and tired eyes. Jesus says only: Mother! , but that word means everything. They go into the adjoining room, full of bright sunshine coming from a door open onto the little kitchen garden, which is also full of light and green, and where doves are fluttering around near the clothes hanging out to dry and blowing in the wind. The room is poor but tidy. There is a low bed, covered with small mattresses, (I say mattresses because they are thick and soft things, but the bed is not like ours). On it leaning on many cushions, there is Joseph. He is dying. It is obvious from the livid paleness of his face, his lifeless eyes, his panting chest, and the total relaxation of all his body. Mary goes to his left-hand side, takes his wrinkled hand now livid near its nails, rubs it, caresses it, kisses it, She dries with a small piece of cloth the perspiration that forms shiny lines at his temples; She wipes a glassy tear in the corner of his eye; She moistens his lips with a piece of linen dipped into a liquid which I think is white wine. Jesus goes to his right-hand side. He lifts quickly and carefully the body which has sunk, He straightens him onto the cushions which He then adjusts together with Mary. He caresses the forehead of the dying man and endeavours to encourage him. Mary is weeping softly, without any noise, but She is weeping. Her large tears run down Her pale cheeks, right down to Her dark blue dress, and they look like bright sapphires. Joseph recovers somewhat, and stares at Jesus, he takes His hand as if he wanted to say something and also to receive strength, for the last trial, from the divine contact. Jesus bends over that hand and kisses it. Joseph smiles. He then turns round and with his eyes he looks for Mary and smiles also at Her. Mary kneels down near the bed endeavouring to smile. But She does not succeed and She bends Her head. Joseph lays his hand on Her head with a chaste caress that looks like a blessing. Only the fluttering and cooing of the doves, the rustling of the leaves, the warbling of the water can be heard outside, and the breathing of the dying man in the room. Jesus goes round the bed, takes a stool and makes Mary sit on it, once again calling Her simply: Mother . He then goes back to His place and takes Joseph's hand into His own once again. The scene is so real that I can't help crying because of Mary's pain. Then Jesus bending over the dying man, whispers a psalm. I know it is a psalm, but just now I cannot tell which one. It begins thus: "Look after me, o Lord, because I hoped in You...

In favour of his friends who live on his earth he has accomplished all my wishes in a wonderful way... I will bless the Lord Who is my advisor... The Lord is always before me. He is on my right-hand side that I may not fall. Therefore my heart exults and my tongue rejoices and also my body will rest in hope. Because You will not abandon my soul in the dwelling place of the dead, neither will You allow Your friend to see corruption. You will reveal the path of light to me and will fill me with joy showing me Your face". Joseph cheers up a little and with a more lively look he smiles at Jesus and presses His fingers. Jesus replies to the smile with a smile of His own and to the pressure on His fingers with a caress. And still bending over His putative father, He goes on softly: "How I love your Tabernacles, o Lord. My soul yearns and pines for the courts of the Lord. Also the sparrow has found a home and the little dove a nest for its young. I am longing for your Altars, Lord. Happy those who live in Your house... happy the man who finds his strength in You. He inspired into his heart the ascents from the valley of tears to the chosen place. O Lord hear my prayer... O God, turn Your eyes and look at the face of Your Anointed... Joseph sobbing, looks at Jesus and makes an effort to speak as if to bless Him. But he cannot. He obviously understands, but has an impediment in his speech. But he is happy and looks at his Jesus with liveliness and trust. "Oh! Lord'' goes on Jesus. "You have favoured Your own country, You brought back the captives of Jacob... Show us, o Lord, Your mercy and bring us back Your Saviour. I want to listen to what the Lord is saying to me. He will certainly speak of peace to His people for His friends and for those who convert their hearts to Him. Yes, His saving help is near... and the glory will live in our country. Love and loyalty have now met, righteousness and peace have now embraced. Loyalty reaches up from the earth and righteousness leans down from Heaven. Yes, the Lord Himself bestows happiness and our soil gives its harvest. Righteousness will always precede Him and will leave its footprints on the path". You have seen that hour, father and you have worked for it. You have co-operated in the formation of this hour and the Lord will reward you for it. I am telling you adds Jesus, wiping a tear of joy which slowly runs down Joseph's cheek. He then resumes: "O Lord, remember David and all his kindness. How he swore to the Lord: I will not enter my house, nor climb into the bed of my rest, nor allow my eyes to sleep, nor give rest to my eyelids, nor peace to my temples until I have found a place for the Lord, a home for the God of Jacob... Rise, o Lord and come to Your resting place, You and Your Ark of holiness (Mary understands, and She bursts into tears).

May Your priests vest in virtue and Your devote shout for joy. For the sake of Your servant David, do not deprive us of the face of Your Anointed. The Lord swore to David and will remain true to His word: 'I will put on your throne the fruit of your womb'. The Lord has chosen His home... I will make a horn sprout for David, I will trim a lamp for My Anointed". Thank you, My father on My behalf and on behalf of My Mother. You have been a Just father to Me and the Eternal Father chose you as the guardian of His Christ and of His Ark. You have been the lamp trimmed for Him and for the Fruit of the holy womb you have had a loving heart. Go in peace, father. Your Widow will not be helpless. God has arranged that She must not be alone. Go peacefully to your rest. I tell You. Mary is crying with Her face bent down on the blankets (they look like mantles) which are stretched on Joseph's body, which is now getting cold. Jesus hastens to comfort him because he is breathing with great difficulty and his eyes are growing dim once again. "Happy the man who fears the Lord and joyfully keeps His commandments... His righteousness will last for ever. For the upright He shines like a lamp in the dark, He is merciful, tender-hearted, virtuous... The just man will be remembered for ever. His justice is eternal and his power will rise and become a glory..." You, father, will have that glory. I will soon come to take you, with the Patriarchs who have preceded you, to the glory which is waiting for you. May your spirit rejoice in My word. "Who lives in the shelter of the Most High, lives under the protection of the God of Heaven". You live there, o father. "He rescued me from the snares of fowlers and from rough words. He will cover you with His wings and under His feathers you will find shelter. His truth will protect you like a shield and you need not fear the terrors of night... No evil will come near you because He ordered His angels to guard you wherever you go. They will support you on their hands so that you may not hurt your foot against stones. You will tread on lions and adders, you will trample on savage lions and dragons. Because you have hoped in the Lord, He says to you, o father, that He will free you and protect you. Because you have lifted your voice to Him, He will hear you, He will be with you in your last affliction, He will glorify you after this life, showing you even now His Salvation". And in future life, He will let you enter, because of the Saviour Who is now comforting you and Who very soon, oh! I repeat it, He will come very soon and hold you in His divine embrace and take you, at the head of all the Patriarchs, where the dwelling place has been prepared for the Just man of God who was My blessed father.

Go before Me and tell the Patriarchs that the Saviour is in the world and the Kingdom of Heaven will soon be opened to them. Go, father. May My blessing accompany you. Jesus has raised His voice to reach the heart of Joseph, who is sinking into the mists of death. His end is impending. He is panting very painfully. Mary caresses him, Jesus sits on the edge of the little bed, embraces him and draws to Himself the dying man, who collapses, and passes away peacefully. The scene is full of a solemn peace. Jesus lays the Patriarch down again and embraces Mary, Who at the last moment, broken-hearted, had gone near Jesus. -------------------------Jesus says: I exhort all wives who are tortured by pain, to imitate Mary in Her widowhood: to be united to Jesus. Those who think that Mary's heart did not suffer any afflictions are mistaken. My Mother did suffer. Let that be known. She suffered in a holy way, because everything in Her was holy, but She suffered bitterly. Those who think that Mary did not love Joseph deeply, only because he was the spouse of Her soul and not of Her flesh, are also mistaken. Mary did love Joseph deeply, and She devoted thirty years of faithful life to him. Joseph was Her father, Her spouse, Her brother, Her friend, Her protector. Now She felt as lonely as the shoot of a vine when the tree to which it is tied is cut down. It was as if Her house had been struck by thunder. It was splitting. Before it was a unit in which the members supported one another. Now the main wall was missing and that was the first blow to the Family and a sign of the impending parting of Her beloved Jesus. The will of the Eternal Father Who had asked Her to be a spouse and a Mother, was now imposing upon Her widowhood and separation from Her Creature. But Mary utters, shedding tears, one of Her most sublime remarks: "Yes. Yes, Lord, let it be done to Me according to Your word". And to have enough strength for that hour, She drew close to Me. Mary was always united to God in the gravest hours of Her life: in the Temple, when She was asked to marry, at Nazareth when She was called to Maternity, again at Nazareth when shedding the tears of a widow, at Nazareth in the dreadful separation of Her Son, on Calvary in the torture of seeing Me dying. Learn, you who are crying. Learn, you who are dying. Learn, you who are living to die. Endeavour to deserve the words I said to Joseph. They will be your peace in the struggle of death. Learn, you who are dying, to deserve to have Jesus near you, comforting you. And if you have not deserved it, dare just the same, and call Me near you. I will come. With My hands full of graces and consolation, My Heart full of forgiveness and love, My lips full of words of absolution and encouragement. Death loses its bitterness if it takes place between My arms. Believe Me. I cannot abolish death, but I can make it sweet for those who die trusting in Me. Christ, on His Cross, said on behalf of you all: "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit". He said that in His agony, thinking of your agonies, your terrors, your errors, your fears, your desire for forgiveness. He said it with His Heart pierced by extreme torture, before being pierced by the lance, a torture that was more spiritual than physical, so that the agonies of those who die

thinking of Him might be relieved by the Lord and their spirits might pass from death to eternal Life, from sorrow to joy, for ever. This, My little John, is your lesson for today. Be good and do not be afraid. My peace will always flow into you, through My words and through contemplation. Come. Just think that you are Joseph who has Jesus' chest as a cushion, and Mary as a nurse. Rest between us, like a child in his cradle. . 43. Conclusion of the Private Life. 10th June 1944. Mary says: Before handing in these notebooks, I wish to add My blessing. Now, only if you wish so, with a little patience, you can have a complete collection of the private life of My Jesus. From the Annunciation to the moment that He leaves Nazareth to start His public life, you have not only the dictations, but also the illustration of the facts that accompanied the family life of Jesus. The infancy, childhood, adolescence and youth of my Son are only briefly mentioned in the vast picture of His life as described in the Gospels. There He is the Master. Here He is the Man. He is the God Who humiliates Himself for the sake of man. And He works miracles also in the humility of a common life. He works them in Me, because I feel that My soul reaches perfection by the contact with My Son Who is growing in My womb. He works them in the house of Zacharias by sanctifying the Baptist, by helping the labour of Elizabeth and by giving speech and faith back to Zacharias. He works them in Joseph opening his spirit to the light of such a sublime truth which he could not understand by himself, although he was just. And after Me, Joseph is the most blessed by this shower of divine gifts. Consider how much progress he makes, I mean spiritual progress, from the moment he comes into My house to the moment of the flight into Egypt. At the beginning he was but a just man of his times. Then by successive steps, he becomes the just man of Christian times. He acquires faith in Christ and he relies so securely on that faith that from the sentence he pronounced at the beginning of the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem: "What shall we do?", a sentence which reveals the whole man with his human fears and his human worries, he passes on to hope. In the grotto, before the birth, he says: "It will be better tomorrow". Jesus Who is approaching already fortifies him with this hope which is one of the most magnificent gifts of God. And from this hope, when he is sanctified by the contact with Jesus, he progresses on to daring. He always wanted to be guided by Me because of the venerable respect he felt for Me. Now he manages himself both spiritual and material matters, and as head of the Family, he decides when there is a decision to be taken. Not only, but in the painful hour of our flight, after that months of union with the Divine Son had filled him with holiness, it is he who comforts My affliction and says to Me: "Even if we should have nothing else, we shall always have everything, because we shall have Him". My Jesus works His miracles of grace in the shepherds. The Angel goes where the shepherd is, whom a fleeting meeting with Me predisposes to Grace and leads him to Grace that he may be saved by It for eternal life. He works them wherever He passes, both when in exile and when He came back to His little country in Nazareth. Because wherever He was,

holiness spread out like oil on a linen fabric and the perfume of flowers in the air, and whoever was affected, if he was not a demon, became eager for holiness. Wherever this eagerness is, there is the root of eternal life, because who wants to be good will reach goodness and goodness leads to the Kingdom of God. You have now the holy Humanity of My Son, seen through details which reflect different moments, from the beginning to the end. And if Father M. deems it useful, he can collect the various episodes into a unit in an orderly way, without any gap. We could have given you everything in one lot. But Providence decided that it was better so. For your sake, My dear soul. With every dictation we have given you the medicine for the wounds which were to be inflicted on you. We gave it to you in advance, in order to prepare you. During a hailstorm nothing seems capable of protecting you. But it is not so. Humanity, which is sleeping buried under spiritual waters, is made to surface by the storm, which brings to the surface also the gems of a supernatural doctrine. Those gems had fallen into your hearts and are just waiting for the storm so that they may appear on the surface again and say to you: "We are here as well. Do not forget us". Further, My dear soul, this procedure was not only the design of Providence, it was based also on kindness. In your present dejection, how could you have watched certain visions and listened to certain dictations? They would have wounded you to the extent of making you unable to carry out your mission of "mouthpiece". So we gave them first, avoiding to break your heart, because we are kind, and we used visions and words suitable to your sufferings, so that your grief would not grow into torture. Because we are not cruel, Mary. And we always act so that you may receive solace from us, not dismay and increased sorrow. All we need is that you trust us. It is enough if you say with Joseph: "If Jesus is left with me, I have everything" and we will come with heavenly gifts to comfort your spirits. I do not promise you human gifts or human comfort. I promise you the same consolations as Joseph had: supernatural ones. Because, everybody should know, the gifts of the Wise Men, in the dire necessities of poor refugees, vanished as fast as lightning when we purchased a home and the bare essential household implements necessary for life, and the food which is also essential for life and could be procured only out of that source of income, until such time as we found work. Jewish communities have always helped one another. But the community gathered in Egypt was formed almost exclusively of persecuted refugees, who therefore were almost as poor as we, who had come to join them. And a little share of that wealth, which we were anxious to keep for our Jesus when adult, and we had spared out of the expenses for settling in Egypt, was most useful for our return and just sufficient to reorganise our house and the workshop in Nazareth upon our return. Because times change, but human greed is always the same and it takes advantage of other people's necessities to suck its part in the most exorbitant way. No. The fact that we had Jesus with us did not procure us any material wealth. Many amongst you expect that, when they are hardly united to Jesus. They forget what He said: "Set your hearts on things of the spirit". All the rest is unnecessary. God provides also food. For men as well as for birds. Because

He knows that you need food while your flesh is the tabernacle of your soul. But first of all ask for His grace. First of all ask for things for your spirit. The rest will be given to you in addition. All Joseph had from his union with Jesus, from a human point of view, were worries, fatigue, persecutions, starvation. He had nothing else. But as he aimed only at Jesus, all this was turned into spiritual peace and supernatural joy. I would like to take you to the point where My Spouse was when he said: "Even if we should have nothing else, we shall always have everything, because we have Jesus". I know, your heart is broken. I know, your mind is becoming obscured. I know, your life is wasting away. But, Mary!... Do you belong to Jesus? Do you want to belong to Him? Where, how did Jesus die? My dear child, weep, but persevere bravely. Martyrdom does not consist of the form of torture, but in the constancy with which the martyr endures it. Thus death from a weapon is martyrdom and likewise moral grief is martyrdom, if it is suffered for the same purpose. You are suffering for My Son's sake. Whatever you do for your brothers is still love for Jesus Who wants them to be saved. Thus your suffering is martyrdom. Persevere in it. Do not wish to do anything by yourself. The pressure of pain is too severe and thus it is not possible for you to have sufficient strength to be your own guide and control your human nature preventing it from weeping: all you need do is to let grief torture you without rebelling against it. It is enough for you to say to Jesus: "Help me!" What you cannot do, He will do in you. Remain in Him, always in Him. Do not wish to come out of Him. If you do not want, you will not come out and even if your sorrow is so deep as to prevent you from seeing where you are, you will always be in Jesus. I bless you. Say with Me: "Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit". Let it always be your cry, until you will repeat it in Heaven. May the grace of the Lord always be with you.

THE FIRST YEAR OF PUBLIC LIFE 44. Farewell to His Mother and Departure from Nazareth. 9thFebruary 1944, 9:30 a.m. (begun during Holy Communion) I see the interior of the house in Nazareth: a room which looks like a dining lounge, where the members of the Family take their meals and rest during the day. It is a very small room with a plain rectangular table near a chest, which is set against one of the walls. The chest also serves as a seat. Near the other walls there is a loom and a stool, and there are two more stools with a kind of bookcase on top of which there are oil lamps and other objects. A door is open onto the kitchen garden. It must be almost evening, because only some faint sun-rays are visible in the upper foliage of a tall tree, which is beginning to grow verdant in its first leaves. Jesus is sitting at the table. He is eating, and Mary is serving Him, coming and going from a little door, which leads into the room where there is a fireplace, the light of which can be seen through the half-open door. Two or three times Jesus tells Mary to sit down... and to eat with Him. But She does not want to, She shakes Her head, smiling sadly. After serving some boiled vegetables as a first course, She brings in some roast fish and then some rather soft cheese, like fresh cheese, round shaped, like the stones which can be seen in the beds of torrents, and some small dark olives. Some small, flat round loaves of bread - about the size of a plate - are already on the table. The bread is rather dark brown as if the bran had not been removed from the flour. Before Jesus there is an amphora with water, and a goblet. He is eating in silence, looking at His Mother sadly, but lovingly. It is very obvious that Mary is sad at heart. She comes and goes, purely to occupy Herself. Although it is still daylight, She lights a lamp and puts it near Jesus, and while stretching out Her arm doing so, She subtly caresses Her Son's head. She then opens a nutbrown haversack, which I think is made of pure hand-woven wool, and therefore water-resistant, She searches inside it, goes out into the little kitchen garden, walks to the far end, where there is a kind of store-room. She comes out with some rather withered apples which have certainly been preserved from the previous summer, and She puts them into the haversack. She then takes a loaf of bread and a piece of cheese and puts them also into the haversack, although Jesus remarks that He does not want them, as there is already enough food in the satchel. Mary then comes once again near the table, at the shorter side, on Jesus' left hand, and looks at Him eating. She looks at Him with love and adoration. Her face is more pale than usual and seems aged by pain; Her eyes are ringed, and thus seem bigger, an indication of tears already shed. They also seem clearer than normal, as if they were washed by the tears welling up within, ready to stream down Her face: two sorrowful tired eyes. Jesus, Who is eating slowly, evidently against His will, only to please His Mother, and is more pensive than usual, lifts His head and looks at Her. Their eyes meet, and He notices that Hers are full of tears, and lowers His head to leave Her free to weep. He only takes Her slender hand which She is resting on the edge of the table. He takes it in His own left hand, lifts it to His cheek,

rests His cheek on it and then rubs it against His face to feel the caress of the poor trembling little hand, which He kisses on its back with so much love and respect. I see Mary taking Her free hand, Her left one, to Her mouth, as if to stifle a sob, and She then wipes with Her fingers a big tear, which has fallen from Her eye and is streaming down Her face. Jesus resumes eating and Mary goes out quickly into the kitchen garden, where it is now almost dark, and She disappears. Jesus leans His left elbow on the table, rests His forehead on His hand, absorbed in thought. He stops eating. He then listens and gets up. He also goes out into the kitchen garden, and after looking around, He moves towards the right-hand side of the house, and through an opening in the rocky wall, He goes into what I recognise as the carpenter's workshop. It is now very tidy, without any boards or shavings lying about, and also the fire is out. There is the large working bench, all the tools are laid aside, and there is nothing else. Mary is weeping, bent over the bench. She looks like a child. Her head is resting on Her folded left arm and She is crying silently, but very grievously. Jesus enters quietly and approaches Her so softly, that She realises He is there, only when He lays His hand on Her lowered head, calling Her Mother!: in His voice there is the sound of a gentle loving reproach. Mary lifts Her head and looks at Jesus through a veil of tears, and with both hands joined She leans on His right arm. Jesus wipes Her face with the hem of His large sleeve and then He embraces Her, clasping Her to His heart and kissing Her forehead. Jesus is majestic, He looks more manly than ever, whilst Mary looks more like a little girl, except for Her sorrow-stricken face. Come, Mother Jesus says to Her, and holding Her close to Himself with His right arm, He walks into the kitchen garden, where they sit down on a bench against the wall of the house. The kitchen garden is now silent and dark, apart from the moonlight and the light coming from the house. The night is serene. Jesus is speaking to Mary. At first I do not understand the words which are just whispered, and Mary nods Her head in assent. Then I hear: And get Your relatives to come. Don't stay here alone. I will be happier, Mother, and You know how I need peace of mind to fulfil My mission. You will not lack My love. I will come quite often and I will inform You in case I cannot come home when I am back in Galilee. Then You will come to Me, Mother. This hour was to come. It began when the Angel appeared to You; it is now striking, and we must live it, Mother, must we not? After we have overcome the trial, we shall have peace and joy. First, we must cross this desert as our Ancestors did, before entering the Promised Land. But the Lord God will help us as He helped them. And He will grant us His help as a spiritual manna to nourish our souls in the difficult moment of the trial. Let us say the Our Father together... Jesus and Mary stand up and they look up to Heaven: two living victims shining in the darkness. Jesus, slowly but with a clear voice, says the Lord's Prayer, stressing the words. He emphasizes the words: Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done spacing the two sentences from the others. He prays with His arms stretched out, not exactly crosswise, but as priests do when they say: The Lord be with you. Mary's hands are joined.

They then go back into the house, and Jesus, Whom I have never seen drink wine, from out of an amphora on the bookcase, pours some white wine into a goblet, and He puts it on the table. He then takes Mary by Her hand and makes Her sit beside Him and drink some of the wine, into which He dips a small slice of bread, which He gives Her to eat. His insistence is such that Mary yields. Jesus drinks the remaining wine. He then clasps His Mother to His side, and holds Her thus close to His heart. Neither Jesus nor Mary was lying down as was customary in rich banquets in those times, but they were sitting at the table as we do. They are both silent, waiting. Mary caresses Jesus' right hand and His knees, Jesus pats Mary's arm and Her head. Then Jesus rises, and so does Mary. They embrace and kiss each other very fondly and repeatedly. They always seem to be on the point of separating and parting, but each time Mary embraces Her Creature over and over again. She is Our Lady, but She is still a mother, a mother who must part from Her Son, and is fully aware of the final destination of His departure. Do not tell me that Mary did not suffer! Before I had some slight misgivings, now I do not believe it at all. Jesus takes His dark blue mantle, puts it on His shoulders, and pulls the hood on to His head. He arranges His haversack across His back, in order to be free when walking. Mary helps Him, and She delays endlessly in sorting His tunic, mantle and hood, caressing Him in the meantime. Jesus goes towards the door, after making a sign of blessing in the room. Mary follows Him and at the open door they kiss each other once again. The road is silent and solitary, white in the moonlight. Jesus starts walking away. He turns round twice to look at His Mother, Who is leaning against the doorpost, paler than the moon's rays, Her eyes sparkling with silent tears. Jesus moves farther and farther away along the narrow white road. Mary is still weeping against the doorpost. Then Jesus disappears round a bend of the road. His Evangelical journey, which will end on Golgotha, has just begun. Mary goes into the house shedding tears and closes the door. She also has started Her journey which will take Her to Golgotha. And for us... -----------------------Jesus says: This is the fourth sorrow of Mary, Mother of God. The first, was the presentation in the Temple; the second, the flight into Egypt; the third, the death of Joseph; the fourth, My separation from Her. As I knew the desire of your spiritual Father, yesterday evening I told you that I will hasten the description of "our" sorrows, so that they may be known. But, as you see, some of My Mother's had already been illustrated. I explained the flight before the Presentation, because it was necessary to do so on that day. I know. You understand and you will explain the reason to the Father verbally. I have planned to alternate your contemplations and My consequent clarifications, with true and proper dictations, to comfort you and your spirit, granting you the beatitude of seeing, and also because in this way the difference in style between your composing and Mine will be obvious. Further, with so many books dealing with Me and which, after so many revisions, changes and fineries have become unreal, I want to give those who believe in Me a vision brought back to the truth of My mortal days. I am not

diminished thereby, on the contrary I am made greater in My humility, which becomes substantial nourishment for you, to teach you to be humble and like Me, as I was a man like you and in My human life I bore the perfection of a God. I was to be your Model, and models must always be perfect. In the contemplations I will not keep a chronological order corresponding to that of the Gospels. I will select the points which I find more useful on that day for you or for other people, following My own line of teaching and goodness. The lesson of the contemplation of My separation is addressed especially to those parents and children, whom God's will calls to renounce one another for the sake of a greater love. It also applies to all those who have to face a painful renouncement. How many such sorrowful situations you find in your lives! They are thorns on the earth and they pierce your hearts, I know. But for those who accept them with resignation - mind, I am not saying: "for those who wish them and accept them with joy", which is already perfection; I am saying: "with resignation" - they become eternal roses. But only few people resign themselves to accepting them. Like restive little donkeys, you recalcitrate against the Father's will, and you jib, and you even try at times to hit good God with spiritual kicks and bites, that is, with rebellion and blasphemy. And do not say: "I had but this good thing and God took it away. I had but this affection, and God took it away!". Also Mary, a gentle woman, with perfect love, (because in the Virgin Full of Grace also affections and sensations were perfect), also Mary had but one good thing, and one love on the earth: Her Son. The only thing left to Her. Her parents had died a long time before. Joseph had died some years earlier. Only I was left to love Her and make Her feel She was not alone. Her relatives, because of Me, of Whose divine origin they were not aware, were somewhat hostile to Her, because they considered Her a mother incapable of imposing Herself on Her Son, Who did not behave according to good common sense, and turned down marriage proposals which could bring prestige to the family, as well as material help. Her relatives reasoned according to common sense, to human sense you call it good sense, but it is only human sense, that is selfishness - and they would have liked My life to comply with their usage. After all, they were always afraid that one day they might get into trouble because of Me, as I had already dared express certain ideas which they considered too idealistic and thought they might irritate the Synagogue. Hebrew history was full of teachings on the fate of Prophets. The Prophet's mission was not an easy one, and often brought about death for the prophet and trouble for his kinsfolk. And there was always the fear that one day they might have to take care of My Mother. They were therefore irritated by the fact that She did not oppose Me in anything, nay, She seemed to be in perpetual adoration in front of Her Son. This conflict was to increase in the three years of My public life, when it culminated with open reproaches every time they met Me in the midst of crowds and were ashamed of what they considered My mania for vexing the powerful classes. And they rebuked Me and My poor Mother! Mary was aware of the moods of Her relatives and was able to foresee their future tempers - they were not all like James, Judas and Simon or their mother Mary of Clopas - but although She knew what Her lot was going to be

during the three years of My public life, and was aware of Her destiny and Mine at the end of the three years, She did not recalcitrate, as you do. She cried. And which mother would not have cried because of the separation from a son who loved her as I loved Mine, or because of the prospect of long days devoid of My presence in a solitary house, or because of the dreary outlook of a Son doomed to butt against the malice of guilty people who took vengeance for their guilt by offending the Blameless One to the extent of killing Him? She cried because She was the Co-Redeemer, and because She was the Mother of mankind who were being born once again to God. And She had to cry for all the mothers who are not able to turn their motherly sorrows into a crown of eternal glory. How many mothers there are in the world, from whose arms death snatches their creatures! How many mothers there are, whose sons are torn away from their sides by a supernatural will! As the Mother of all Christians, Mary cried for all Her daughters, and in Her sorrow of a bereft Mother, She cried for all Her sisters. And She cried for all Her sons, who, born of woman, were to become apostles of God or martyrs for God's sake, because of their loyalty to God or because of man's cruelty. My Blood and My Mother's tears are the mixture that fortifies those destined to a heroic fate, obliterates their imperfections and the sins they committed because of their weakness and, in addition to martyrdom, in whatever way suffered, it grants them the peace of God and then the glory of Heaven, if they suffered for God. The missionary fathers find that mixture to be a flame that warms them in the regions covered by perpetual snow, and they find it to be a dew when the sun is scorching. Mary's tears originate from Her charity, and they gush out from Her heart of a lily. They therefore possess the fire of virginal Charity, the Spouse of Love, and the scented freshness of virginal Purity, like the drops of water which gather in the chalice of a lily on a dewy night. Our mixture is found by those consecrated in the desert of a well understood monastic life: it is a desert because it only lives in communion with God, whilst all other affections fade away and become pure supernatural charity: towards relatives, friends, superiors and inferiors. It is found by those consecrated to God in the world, in the world that neither understands nor loves them, a desert also for them, as they live in it as if they were alone, so much are they misunderstood and mocked for My sake. Our mixture is found by My dear "victims", because Mary is the first victim for Jesus' love, and with Her hands of a Mother and a Doctor, She gives Her followers Her tears which refreshen and urge to a greater sacrifice. Holy tears of My Mother! Mary prays. She does not object to praying because God had given Her sorrows. Remember that. She prays together with Jesus. She prays the Father: Ours and yours. The first "Our Father" was said in the kitchen garden in Nazareth to console Mary's pain, to offer "our" wills to the Eternal Father, when a period of greater and greater sacrifices was about to begin for us, culminating with the sacrifice of My life and My Mother's acceptance of the death of Her Son. And although we had nothing for which the Father should forgive us, just out of humility, we, the Faultless Ones, begged the Father's pardon that we might proceed worthily in our mission, after being forgiven and absolved

of even a sigh. Because we wanted to teach you that the more you are in the grace of God, the more your mission is blessed and fruitful. We also wanted to teach you to respect God and be humble. Before God the Father, although a perfect Man and a perfect Woman, we felt we were nothing and we begged forgiveness. Exactly as we asked for our "daily bread". Which was our bread? Oh! Not the bread made by the pure hands of Mary and baked in our little oven, for which I had so often prepared bundles of sticks and brushwood. Also that bread is necessary while man is on the earth. But "our" daily bread was to fulfil, day by day, our part of the mission: we begged God to grant us that every day, because to fulfil the mission that God gives us is the joy of "our" day, isn't it, My little John? You also say that a day is lost, as if it did not exist, if the Lord's bounty gives you a day without your mission of sorrow. Mary prays together with Jesus. It is Jesus Who justifies you, My children. It is I Who make your prayers fruitful and agreeable to the Father. I said: "Anything you ask for from the Father, He will grant in My name", and the Church enhances her prayers saying: "Through Jesus Christ Our Lord". When you pray, be always united to Me. I will pray for you in a loud voice, drowning your human voices with My voice of Man-God. I will take your prayers in My pierced hands and I will raise them to the Father. They will thus become victims of infinite value. My voice mingled with yours, will rise like a filial kiss to the Father and the purple of My wounds will make your prayers valuable ones. Be in Me if you want to have the Father in you, with you, for you. You ended the narration saying: "And for us..." and you intended to say: "for us who are so ungrateful to those Two Who have climbed Calvary for us". You were quite right in writing those words. Add them every time I show you one of our sorrows. Let them be like the church bell that rings and calls men to meditate and repent. It is enough now. Rest. May peace be with you.

45. Jesus Is Baptised in the Jordan. 3td February 1944, in the evening. I see a bare, flat country, without any villages or vegetation. There are no cultivated fields, but a few odd plants are growing here and there in clusters, like vegetable families, where the deep soil is less parched. Imagine that the arid waste land is on my right-hand side, with my back turned to the north, and the harsh area stretches southwards. On my left instead, I can see a river with very low banks, flowing slowly from north to south. The very slow flowing water makes me understand that there are no falls in the level of the riverbed and that it flows in such a flat country as to form a depression. The movement of the water is just sufficient to avoid the formation of marshes. The river is so shallow that the bottom can be seen: I would say the water is a metre deep, or a metre and a half, at most. It is as wide as the river Arno in the S. Miniato-Empoli area: about twenty metres. However, I am not good at estimating. And yet its colour is blue with

a light green hue near the banks, where on the humid soil, there is a strip of thick green vegetation, very pleasant to look at: the sight of the stony, sandy bleakness of the ground lying before it is, instead, a very monotonous one indeed. The internal voice, which I told you I hear and tells me what I must take note of and know, is now warning me that I am looking at the Jordan valley. I am calling it a valley, because that is the name used to indicate the place where a river flows, but here it is incorrect to call it so, because a valley presupposes the presence of mountains, but I do not see any mountains in the neighbourhood. In any case, I am near the Jordan, and the waste land on my right is the desert of Judah. If it is correct to call a desert a place where there are no houses or man's works, it is not so according to our idea of a desert. There are none of the undulating sands of the desert, as we understand it, but only bare ground strewn with stones and rubble, like alluvial grounds after a flood. There are hills in the distance. And yet, near the Jordan, there is a great peace, something special and unusual, as one often feels on the shores of lake Trasimeno. It is a place which seems to be full of memories of angels' flights and celestial voices. I cannot describe exactly what I feel. But I feel that I am in a place that communicates with my soul. While I am watching these things, I notice that the right bank of the Jordan (in respect to me) is becoming crowded with people. There are many men dressed in different fashions. Some seem ordinary people, some rich, and there are some who appear to be Pharisees, because their tunics are adorned with fringes and braids. In the midst of them, standing on a rock, there is a man whom I recognise at once to be the Baptist, although it is the first time I have seen him. He is speaking to the crowds, and I can assure you that his sermon is not a sweet one. Jesus called James and John the sons of thunder. Well then, what should we call this impetuous orator? John the Baptist deserves the names of thunderbolt, avalanche, earthquake, so impetuous and severe he is in his speech and gestures. He is announcing the Messiah and exhorting the people to prepare their hearts for His coming, eradicating all obstructions and rectifying their thoughts. But it is a violent and harsh speech. The Precursor does not possess the light hand Jesus used to cure the wounds of hearts. He is a doctor who lays the wound bare, scrutinises it and cuts it mercilessly. While I am listening - I am not repeating the words, because they are related by the Evangelists, but here they are amplified in Impetuosity - I see my Jesus proceeding along a path, which is at the edge of the grassy shady strip coasting the Jordan. This rustic road - it is more a path than a road seems to have been opened by the caravans and the people who throughout years and centuries, passed along it to reach a point where it is easy to wade, because the water is very shallow. The path continues on the other side of the river, and disappears from sight in the green strip of the other bank. Jesus is alone. He is walking slowly, coming forward, behind the Baptist. He approaches noiselessly and listens to the thundering voice of the Penitent of the desert, as if He also were one of the many who came to John to be baptised and purified for the coming of the Messiah. There is nothing to

distinguish Jesus from the others. His clothes are those of common people, but He has the bearing and handsomeness of a gentleman. There is no divine sign discriminating Him from the crowd. But it would appear that John perceives a special spirituality emanate from Him. He turns round, and at once identifies the source of the emanation. He descends impulsively from the rocky pulpit and moves quickly towards Jesus, Who has stopped a few yards away from the crowd and is leaning against the trunk of a tree. Jesus and John stare at each other for a moment: Jesus, with His very sweet blue eyes; John with his very severe black flashing ones. Seen from nearby, one is the antithesis of the other. They are both tall - their only resemblance - for all the rest, they differ immensely. Jesus is fair haired. His hair is long and tidy, His face is white ivory, His eyes blue, His garment simple, but majestic. John is hairy: his straight, black hair falls unevenly onto his shoulders, his sparse dark beard covers his face almost completely, but his cheeks, hollowed by fasting, are still noticeable, his feverish eyes are black, his complexion is dark, tanned by the sun and weather-beaten, his body is covered with hairs, he is half naked in his camel-hair garment, which is tied to his waist by a leather belt and covers his trunk, reaching down to his thin sides, whilst his right side is uncovered and bare, completely weather-beaten. They look like a savage and an angel, seen close together. John, after scrutinising Him with his piercing eyes, exclaims: Here is the Lamb of God. How is it that my Lord comes to me? Jesus replies calmly: To fulfil the penitential rite. Never, my Lord. I must come to You to be sanctified, and You are coming to me? And Jesus, laying His hand on the head of John, who had bowed down in front of Him, replies: Let it be done as I wish, that all justice may be fulfilled and your rite may become the beginning of a higher mystery and men may be informed that the Victim is in the world. John looks at Him with his eyes sweetened by tears and precedes Jesus towards the bank of the river. Jesus takes off His mantle and tunic, and is left with a kind of pair of short trousers. He then descends into the water, where there is John, who baptises Him, pouring on His head some water from the river by means of a cup, tied to his belt. It looks like a shell or a half pumpkin dried and emptied. Jesus is really the Lamb. A Lamb in the whiteness of His flesh, in the modesty of His gestures, in the meekness of His look. While Jesus climbs on to the bank and after putting on His clothes concentrates on praying, John points Him out to the crowd and testifies that he recognised Him by the sign that the Spirit of God had shown him as an infallible means to identify the Redeemer. But I am enraptured in watching Jesus pray, and I can only see His bright figure against the green of the river bank. -----------------------4th February 1944. Jesus says: John did not need any sign for himself. His soul, which had been

presanctified in his mother's womb, possessed that penetration of supernatural intelligence which all men would have had, if Adam had not sinned. If man had persevered in grace, innocence and loyalty to his Creator, he would have seen God through external appearance. In Genesis it is said that God used to speak to the innocent man in an informal way, and that man did not faint hearing His voice, neither was he deceived in discerning it. Such was the destiny of man: to see and understand God exactly as a son does his father. Then man sinned and he no longer dared look at God, he was no longer able to see and understand God. And now he is less and less able to do so. But John, My cousin John, had been purified from fault, when the Full of Grace lovingly embraced Elizabeth who, after being barren, had become pregnant. The little child had leapt out of joy in her womb, because he felt the scales of sin falling from his soul, as a scab falls off a wound when the latter is healed. The Holy Spirit, Who had made Mary the Mother of the Saviour, started His mission of salvation on that child about to be born, through Mary, the living Tabernacle of Incarnate Salvation: the child was destined to be united to Me not so much by his blood, as by the mission, by which we were like the lips that express a word. John was the lips, I the Word. He was the Precursor both in the Gospel and in martyrdom; I, by means of My divine perfection, made perfect both the Gospel which John had started, and martyrdom, suffered to defend the Law of God. John did not need any sign. But a sign was necessary for the darkness of spirit of other people. On what would John base his statement, but on an undeniable proof evident to the eyes and ears of backward and dull listeners? Neither did I need to be baptised. But the wisdom of the Lord had chosen that moment and way for our meeting. And leading John out of his cave in the desert and Me from My home, He united us in that hour to open the Heavens above Me and He descended Himself, a divine Dove, on Him Who was to baptise men with that Dove, and His announcement was heard descending from Heaven, more powerful than the angel's, because it came from My Father: "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased". So that man should have no excuse or doubt in following or not following Me. The manifestations of Christ have been numerous. The first, after His Birth, was the Magi's, the second was in the Temple, the third on the bank of the Jordan. Then there was an endless number of them, which I will let you know, because My miracles are manifestations of My divine nature, down to the last ones: My Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven. My fatherland was full of My manifestations. Like seed scattered to the four winds, they took place in every social condition and place in life: to shepherds, powerful people, scholars, sceptical men, sinners, priests, rulers, children, soldiers, Jews and Gentiles. And they take place even now. But, as in the past, the world does not accept them. It does not accept the present manifestations and forgets the past ones. Well, I will not give up. I will repeat Myself to save you and to persuade you to have faith in Me. Do you know, Mary, what you are doing? Or rather, what I am doing, in showing you the Gospel? Making a stronger attempt to bring men to Me. You yearned for it with your fervent prayers. will no longer confine Myself to words. They tire men and detach them. It is a fault, but it is so. I will have

recourse to visions, also of My Gospel, and I will explain them to make them more attractive and clear. I give you the comfort of seeing them. I give everybody the possibility of wishing to know Me. And if it is of no avail, and like cruel children they should throw away the gift without understanding its value, you will be left with My present, and they with My indignation. I shall be able once again to repeat the old reproach: "We played for you and you would not dance; we sang dirges and you would not weep". But it does not matter. Let them, the inconvertible ones, heap burning coals on their heads and let us turn to the little sheep seeking to become acquainted with their Shepherd. It is I, and you are the staff leading them to Me. -----------------------As you can see, I have hastened to add these details which, being trifling matters, had escaped my notice, and were wanted by you. Today, reading the booklet, I noticed a sentence which may be a guide for you. This morning you were saying that you cannot make my descriptions known because of their style and since I am terrified at the very thought of being known, 1 was very happy about it. But do you not think that that is against what the Master says in the last dictation in the booklet? The more careful and precise you are (in describing what I see) the greater the number of those who will come to Me. This implies that the description must be known otherwise how can there be a number of souls going to Jesus, thanks to them? I am drawing your attention to this point, the you can do what you think is best, because, as far as I am concerned, I am indifferent. Nay, humanly speaking. I share your opinion. But in this case it is not a human matter and also the human side of the mouthpiece must disappear. Also in today's dictation Jesus says: ...in showing you the Gospel I make a stronger attempt to bring men to Me. I will no longer confine Myself to words... I will have recourse to visions and I will explain them to make them more attractive and clear. So? In the meantime, as I am a poor nonentity and by myself I retire to myself, I tell you that your remark has upset me, and the Envious One avails himself of the situation: I was so upset that I thought I should no longer describe what I see, but I should write, the dictations only. He whispers in my ear: You can see it yourself! Your famous visions serve no purpose whatsoever, except to make you pass off as mad. Which you really are. What is it that you see? The shams of your agitated mind. It takes much more to deserve to see Heaven! He has tortured me all day today with his corrosive temptation. I can assure you that I have not suffered so much because of my bitter physical pain as I suffered and am suffering because of this. He wants to drive me mad. This Friday is a Friday of spiritual temptation for me. I am thinking of Jesus in the desert and of Jesus at Gethsemane... I will not give up as I do not want this cunning demon to laugh, and fighting against him and against my weaker spiritual part, I am writing to you to inform you of my present joy and to assure you that, as far as I am concerned, I should be quite happy if Jesus deprived me of this gift of seeing, which is my greatest joy, providing He continues to love me and have mercy on me.

46. Jesus Is Tempted in the Desert by the Devil. 24th February 1944. Thursday following Ash Wednesday. I see the solitary land which I already saw on my left-hand side in the vision of Jesus' baptism in the Jordan. But I must be some way inside the desert, because I neither see the beautiful, blue, slow flowing river, nor the green strips of vegetation which coast Its banks, and are nourished by its waters. There is nothing here but solitude, stones and such a parched earth that it has become a yellowish dust, raised now and again by the wind in small eddies, which are so hot and dry that they seem to be the breath of a feverish mouth. And they are very troublesome because of the dust penetrating nostrils and throats. There are a very few small thorny bushes, strangely surviving in so much desolation. They look like small forelocks of surviving hair on a bald head. Above, there is a merciless blue sky; below, arid land; around, stones and silence. That is what I see as far as nature is concerned. Leaning against a huge piece of overhanging rock which, because of its shape, forms a kind of a grotto, there is Jesus sitting on a stone that has been taken into the cave. That is how He protects Himself from the scorching sun. And my internal adviser informs me that the stone, on which He is now sitting, is also His kneeling-stool and pillow, when He takes a few hours rest, enveloped in His mantle, under a starry sky in the chill air of the night. Near Him, there is the haversack which I saw Him take before departing from Nazareth. It is all He has. And from the way it is folded, I realise it has been emptied of the little food Mary had put into it. Jesus is very thin and pale. He is sitting with His elbows resting on His knees, His forearms forward, His hands joined and His fingers interlaced. He is meditating. Now and again He looks up and around, then looks at the sun, almost perpendicular in the blue sky. Now and again, particularly after looking around and at the sun, He closes His eyes and leans on the rock sheltering Him, as if He were seized by dizziness. I see Satan's ugly face appear. He does not show himself in the features we imagine him: horns, tail etc. He looks like a bedouin enveloped in his robe and in a large mantle that resembles domino. He is wearing a turban on his head and its white flaps fall along his cheeks, down to his shoulders protecting them. Thus only a very small dark triangle of his face can be seen, with thin, sinuous lips, very black hollow eyes, full of magnetic flashes. Two eyes that penetrate and read into the bottom of your heart, but in which you can read nothing, or one word only: mystery. The very opposite of Jesus' eyes, also so magnetic and fascinating, which read in your heart, but in which you can also read that in His heart there is love and bounty for you. Jesus' eyes caress your soul. Satan's are like a double dagger that stabs and bums you. He approaches Jesus: Are you alone? Jesus looks at him, but does not reply. How did You happen to be here? Did You get lost? Jesus looks at him again, and is silent. If I had water in my flask, I would give You some. But I have none myself. My horse died, and I am now going on foot to the ford. I will get a

drink there, and I will find someone who will give me some bread. I know the road. Come with me. I'll take You there. Jesus does not even look at him. You are not answering? Do You know that if You stay here You will die? The wind is already beginning to blow. There will a storm. Come. Jesus clenches His hands in silent prayer. Ah! It is You, then? I have been looking for You for such a long time! And I have been watching You for so long. Since You were baptised. Are You calling the Eternal? He is far away. You now on the earth, in the midst of men. And I reign over men. And yet, I feel sorry for You, and I want to help You, because You are so good, and You have come to sacrifice Yourself for nothing. Men will hate You because of Your goodness. They understand nothing, but gold, food and pleasure. Sacrifice, sorrow, obedience are words more arid for them than the land around us here. They are more arid than this dust. Only snakes can hide here, waiting to bite, and jackals waiting to tear to pieces. Come with me. It is not worthwhile suffering for them. I know them better than You do. Satan has sat down in front of Jesus and he scrutinises Him with his dreadful eyes, and smiles at Him with his snakelike mouth. Jesus is always silent, and is praying mentally. You don't trust me. You are wrong. I am the wisdom of the earth. I can be Your teacher and show You how to triumph. See, the important thing is to triumph. Then, once we have imposed ourselves and we have enchanted the world, then we can take them wherever we want. But first, we must be as they wish us to be. Like them. We must allure them, making them believe that we admire them and follow their thoughts. You are young and handsome. Start with a woman. One must always start from her. I made a mistake inducing her to be disobedient. I should have advised her differently. I would have turned her into a better instrument, and I would have beaten God. I was in a hurry. But You! I will teach You, because one day I looked at You with angelical joy, and a fraction of that love is still left in me, but You must listen to me, and make use of my experience. Find yourself a woman. Where you do not succeed, she will. You are the new Adam: You must have Your Eve. In any case, how can You understand and heal the diseases of the senses, if You do not know what they are? Don't You know that that is where the seed is, from which the tree of greediness and arrogance sprouts? Why do men want to reign? Why do they want to be rich and powerful? To possess woman. She is like a lark. She will be attracted only by something sparkling. Gold and power are two sides of the mirror that draw woman, and are the causes of evil in the world. Look: in a thousand different crimes, there are at least nine hundred that take root in the lust of possessing a woman or in the passion of a woman, burning with a desire that man has not yet satisfied, or can no longer satisfy. Go to a woman if You want to know what life is. And only then, You will be able to cure and heal the diseases of mankind. Women, You know, are beautiful! There is nothing nicer in the world. Man has brains and strength. But woman! Her thought is a perfume, her touch is the caress of flowers, her grace is like wine, pleasant to drink, her weakness is like a hank of silk, or the curl of a child in a man's hand, her caress is a strength which is poured over our own strength, and inflames it. Sorrow,

fatigue, worries are forgotten when we lie near a woman, and she is in our arms like a bunch of flowers. But what a fool I am! You are hungry and I am talking to You of women. Your energy is exhausted. That is why that fragrance of the earth, that flower of creation, the fruit that gives and excites love, seems without any value to You. But look at these stones. How round and smooth they look, gilded by the setting sun! Don't they look like loaves? Since You are the Son of God, all You have to say is: "I want" and they will become sweet-smelling bread, just like the loaves housewives are now taking out of their ovens for the supper of their families. And these arid acacias, if You only wish so, will they not be filled with sweet fruit and dates as sweet as honey? Eat Your fill, Son of God. You are the Master of the earth. The earth is bowing down to put itself at Your feet and appease Your hunger. Don't You see that You are turning pale and unsteady at the mention of bread. Poor Jesus! Are You so weak that You cannot even work a miracle? Shall I work it for You? I am not Your equal, but I can do something. I will do without any strength for a whole year, I will gather it all together, but I want to serve You, because You are good, and I always remember that You are my God, even if now I have forfeited calling You so. Help me with Your prayers, that I may... Be quiet! "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God". The devil starts with anger. He grinds his teeth, and clenches his fists. But he controls himself, and turns his grinding into a smile. I understand. You are above the necessities of the earth and You are disgusted at making use of me. I deserved it. But come, then, and see what there is in the House of God. You will see how even priests do not refuse to come to a compromise between the spirit and the flesh. After all, they are men, and not angels. Work a spiritual miracle. I will take You up to the pinnacle of the Temple and You will undergo a transfiguration and become most handsome. You will then call the cohorts of angels and will tell them form a footrest for Your feet with their interlaced wings, and to let You down, thus, into the main yard. So that people may see You, and remember that God exists. One must show oneself now and again, because man's memory is so weak, particularly with regard to spiritual matters. You can imagine how happy the angels will be in forming a protection for Your feet and a ladder for You to descend! It is said: "You must not put the Lord your God to the test". You understand that Your apparition would not change anything and the Temple would continue to be a market full of corruption Your divine wisdom is aware that the hearts of the ministers of the Temple are nests. of vipers, that tear and are torn to pieces for the sake of prevailing. They are subdued only by human power. Well, then, come. Adore me. I will give You the earth. AI Alexander, Cyrus, Caesar, all the great rulers, past or present, will be like the leaders of miserable caravans as compared with You, as You shall have the kingdoms of the world under Your sceptre. And with the kingdoms, all the wealth, all the beautiful things on earth, women, horses, armies and temples. You will be able to raise Your Sign everywhere when You are the King of kings and the Lord of the world. You will then be obeyed and respected both by the people

and by the priesthood. All classes will honour and serve You, because You will be the Powerful One, the Only One, the Lord. Adore me for one moment only! Appease this thirst of mine for being worshipped! It ruined me, but it is still left in me, and 1 am parched by it. The flames of hell are like a fresh morning breeze as compared to this fierce ardour burning inside me. It is my hell, this thirst. One moment, one moment only, Christ. You are so good! One moment of joy for the eternally Tortured One! Let me feel what it is like to be god, and I will be a devoted, obedient servant for all Your life and all Your enterprises. One instant, one instant only, and I will no longer torture You! And Satan falls on his knees, imploring. Jesus, instead, stands up. He has lost weight because of the long days of fast, and He now looks taller. His face is terribly severe and potent. His eyes are two burning sapphires. His voice is like thunder: it reverberates in the cave of the huge stone, and spreads over the stony, desolate plain when He cries: Be off, Satan. It is written: "You must worship the Lord your God, and serve Him alone". Satan, with a cry of fearful torture and indescribable hatred, springs to his feet, a dreadful sight in his furious, smoky figure. And he disappears with a last cursing yell. Jesus is tired, and sits down, leaning back with His head resting on the stone. He looks exhausted. He is perspiring. But angels come to blow gently with their wings in the closeness of the cave, thus purifying and refreshing the air. Jesus opens His eyes, and smiles. I do not see Him eat. I would say that He is nourished by the aroma of Paradise, and is reinvigorated by it. The sun has set in the west. He takes His empty haversack and in the company of the angels who, flying above His head, emit a mild light while it is getting dark very rapidly, He starts walking eastwards, or rather north-eastwards. He has resumed His usual expression, His step is steady. The only remaining sign of His long fast is a more ascetic look on His pale, thin face and in His eyes, enraptured in a joy which does not belong to this world. ------------------------Jesus says: Yesterday you had no strength, which is My will, and you were, therefore, half-alive. I let your body rest and I made you fast the only way which is burdensome to you: depriving you of My word. Poor Mary! You kept Ash Wednesday. You tasted an ashen flavour in everything because you were without your Master. I did not let you perceive Me, but I was there. This morning, as our anxiety is reciprocal, when you were half asleep, I whispered to you: "Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem" and I made you repeat it many times and I repeated it to you many times. You thought that I was going to speak about that. No. First there is the subject which I showed you and upon which I will comment for you. Then this evening I will illustrate this other one. As you have seen, kindness is always Satan's disguise when he presents himself. He looks like an ordinary person. If soul are careful, and above all, if they are in spiritual contact with God, they perceive the warning that makes them cautious and prepares them to fight the devil's snares. But if souls are distracted, separated from God by an overwhelming sensuality, and are not assisted by prayer, which joins them to God and pours strength into the hearts of men, then they seldom perceive the snares hidden under the innocent

appearance and they fall into the trap. It is then very difficult for them to free themselves. The two most common means adopted by Satan to conquer souls are sensuality and gluttony. He always starts from material things. Once he has dismantled and subdued the material side, he attacks the spiritual part. First the morals: thoughts with their pride and greed; then the spirit, obliterating not only its love - which no longer exists when man replaces divine love with other human loves - but also the fear of God. Then man surrenders his body and soul to Satan, on for the sake of enjoying what he wants, and enjoying it more and more. You saw how I behaved. Silence and prayer. Silence. Because if Satan performs his work of a seducer and comes round us, we must put up with the situation without any foolish impatience or cowardly fears. We must react with resolution to his presence, and with prayer to his allurements. It is useless to debate with Satan. He would win, because he is strong in his dialectics. Only God can beat him. And so you must have recourse to God, that He may speak for you, through you. You must show Satan that Name and that Sign, not so much written on paper or engraved on wood, but written and engraved in your hearts. My Name, My Sign. You should answer back to Satan, using the word of God, only when he insinuates that he is like God. He cannot bear that. Then after the struggle, there comes victory and the angel serve and defend the winner from Satan's hatred. They restore him with celestial dews, with the Grace that they pour with full hands into the heart of the faithful son, with a blessing that caresses his soul. One must be determined to defeat Satan, and have faith in God, and in His help. Faith in the power of prayer, and in the Lord's bounty. Then Satan can do no harm. Go in peace. This evening I will gladden you with the remainder. 47. Jesus Meets John and James. 25th February 1944. I see Jesus walking along the green strip of vegetation that borders the Jordan. He has gone back to the same place where He was baptised. He is near the ford that apparently was well known and commonly used to cross to the other bank towards Perea. But the place, which was so crowded before, is now deserted. There are only a few travellers, going on foot, or riding donkeys or horses. Jesus does not seem to be aware of them. He proceeds along His way, northwards, absorbed in His thoughts. When He reaches the ford, He meets a group of men of different ages, who are discussing animatedly, and then they part, some southwards, some northwards. Amongst those going northwards, I see John and James. John is the first to see Jesus, and he points Him out to his brother and companions. They talk a little amongst themselves, and then John starts walking quickly to reach Jesus. James follows him, walking a little slower. The others do not show any interest. They walk slowly, while discussing, When John is near Jesus, about two or three metres behind Him, he

shouts: Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world! Jesus turns round, and looks at him. There are now only a few steps between them. They look at each other: Jesus with His serious, scrutinising look, John with his pure eyes smiling in his beautiful, youthful face, that looks like the face of a girl. He is about twenty years old, and on his rosy cheeks there is only the sign of a blond down, like a golden veil. Whom are you looking for? asks Jesus. For You, Master. How do you know I am a Master? The Baptist told me. Well then, why do you call Me Lamb? Because I heard him call You so one day, when You were passing by, just over a month ago. . What do you want from Me? I want You to tell us words of eternal life and to comfort us. But who are you? I am John of Zebedee, and this is James, my brother. We are from Galilee, and we are fishermen. But we are also disciples of John. He spoke words of life to us and we listened to him, because we want to follow God, and deserve His forgiveness doing penance and thus prepare our hearts for the coming of the Messiah. You are the Messiah. John said so, because he saw the sign of the Dove descending on You. He said to us: "Here is the Lamb of God". I say to you: Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world, give us peace, because we no longer have anyone who may guide us, and our souls are upset. Where is John? Herod has taken him. He is in prison, at Machaerus. The most faithful amongst his disciples have tried to free him. But it is not possible. We are coming from there. Let us come with You, Master. Show us where You live. Come. But do you know what you are asking for? Who follows Me will have to leave everything: his home, his relatives, his way of thinking, also his life. I will make you My disciples and My friends, if you wish so. But I have neither wealth nor protection. I am poor, and I shall be even poorer, to the extent of not having a place where I may rest My head and I will be persecuted by My enemies, even more than a lost sheep is pursued by wolves. My doctrine is even more rigid than John's, because it forbids also resentment. And My doctrine is concerned not so much with external matters, as it is with the soul. You must be re-born if you want to be My disciples. Are you willing to do that? Yes, Master. Only You have words that can give us light. They descend upon us, and where there was darkness and desolation because we had no guide, they shed light and sunshine. Come, then. Let us go. I will teach you on our way. --------------------------------Jesus says: The crowd that met Me was a large one. But only one recognised Me. He, whose soul, mind and flesh were pure and free from all lewdness. I insist on the value of purity. Chastity is always the source of clear ideas. Virginity refines and then preserves intellectual and emotional sensitiveness, elevating it to such a perfection that only a virgin can experience.

There are many ways of being a virgin. By compulsion, and this applies particularly to women, when no one ever proposed to them. The same should apply to men. But it does not. And that is bad, because only heads of families, with unhealthy minds and often diseased bodies, can be born of youth soiled with lust before time. There is wanted virginity, that is the virginity of those who consecrate themselves to the Lord with the ardour of their souls. A beautiful virginity! A sacrifice pleasing to God! But they do not all persist in their purity like lilies which stand upright on their stalks, looking towards Heaven, unaware of the mud on the ground, open to the kisses of God's sun and His dews. Many are faithful only in a material way. But they are unfaithful in their thoughts, which regret and wish for what they sacrificed. They are virgins only by half. If their flesh is intact, their hearts are not. Their hearts ferment, boil, exhale fumes of sensuality, the more refined and reproved, the more it is the invention of a mind that caresses, nourishes and continually enlarges the images of satisfactions, illicit even for those who are free, more than illicit for those consecrated to God. Then you have the hypocrisy of the vow. Its appearance is there, its essence is not. And I tell you that between those who come to Me with their lilies broken by the brutality of a tyrant, and those who come with their lilies materially intact, but covered with the slaver of a sensuality they have caressed and cultivated to fill their hours of solitude, I will call "virgins" the former, and "non virgins" the latter. I will give the former the crown of virgins and a double crown of martyrs, because of their flesh which has been wounded and of their hearts which have been ulcerated by a mutilation they did not want. The value of purity is such that, as you have seen, the first thing Satan was anxious about, was to deceive Me about impurity. He knows very well that sensual sins dismantle the soul and make it an easy prey to other sins. Satan's efforts aimed at this capital point, in order to defeat Me. Bread, hunger, are the material forms for the allegory of appetite, of the appetites that Satan takes advantage of for his own purpose. The food he offered Me to make Me fall intoxicated at his feet is quite a different thing! Greed would have followed, then avarice, power, idolatry, blasphemy and the abjuration of the divine Law. But that was the first step to catch Me. Exactly as he did to injure Adam. The world sneers at pure people. Those who are guilty of lewdness strike them. John the Baptist is the victim of the lust of an obscene couple. But if there is still some light in the world, this is due to the pure of the world. They are the servants of God, they understand God and repeat God's words. I said: "Happy the pure in heart, they shall see God". Also in this world: since the fumes of sensuality do not perturb their hearts, they "see" God, they hear Him, they follow Him and they show Him to other people. John of Zebedee is a pure soul. He is the Pure One amongst My disciples. A soul as beautiful as a flower in an angelical body! He calls Me with the words of his first master and asks Me to give him peace. But he already has peace in his heart because of his purity, and I loved him because of his purity, to which I entrusted My teachings, My secrets, and the most dear Creature I had. He was My first disciple, who loved Me from the very first instant he saw

Me. His soul had melted with Mine from the day he saw Me passing near the Jordan and he saw the Baptist pointing to Me. Even if he had not found Me later, when I came back from the desert, he would have looked for Me until he found Me, because who is pure, is humble and anxious to be taught in the science of God, and like the water that flows to the sea, he goes towards those he knows to be masters in the celestial doctrine. ------------------------Jesus says also: I did not want you to speak about the sensual temptation of your Jesus. Even if your internal voice had made you understand Satan's motive in attracting Me towards sensuality, I preferred to speak of it Myself. Think no more about it. It was necessary to mention it. Go on now. Leave Satan's flower on its sands. Follow Jesus as John did. You will be walking among thorns, but as roses you will find the drops of blood of Him Who shed them for you, to defeat the flesh also in you. I will forestall a remark as well. In his Gospel, John mentioning his meeting with Me says: "And the following day". It would therefore appear that the Baptist pointed Me out the day after My baptism and that John and James followed Me at once. But that conflicts with what the other Evangelists said about the forty days spent in the desert. But you should read as follows: "(John having already been arrested), one day, later, the two disciples of John the Baptist, the ones to whom he had pointed Me out saying: 'Here is the Lamb of God', on seeing Me again, called Me and followed Me". After I had come back from the desert. And we went back together to the shores of the lake of Galilee, where I had taken shelter to begin evangelising from there, and the two - after being with Me during the whole journey and then for one day in the hospitable house of a friend of My relatives spoke of Me to the other fishermen. But it was the initiative of John, whose will to do penance had made his soul, already so limpid owing to his purity, a masterpiece of pellucidity in which the Truth was clearly reflected, bestowing on him also the holy daring of the pure and generous, who are never afraid of stepping forward, wherever they see that there is God, and truth and doctrine and the way of God. How much I loved him for that simple, heroical feature of his! 48. John and James Speak to Peter about the Messiah. 12th October 1944. A most clear dawn over the Lake of Galilee. The sky and the water sparkle with rosy flashes, not very different from the mild ones shining on the walls of the little orchards of the lake-village, where fruit-trees, with their unkempt, luxuriant foliage, seem to rise from the orchards and peep at the little lanes, bending over them. The village is beginning to awaken: women start going to the fountain or to the washing place, while fishermen unload the baskets of fish, or haggle over prices, in very loud voices, with merchants who have come from other villages, while others carry the fish to their houses. I called it a village, but it is not a very small one. It is rather a modest place, at least what I see of it, but it is quite large and spreads generally along the lake.

John comes out of a little street and goes quickly towards the lake. James follows him, but much more calmly. John looks at the boats which are already on the shore, but cannot see the one he is looking for. He sees it while it is still about one hundred yards from the beach, manoeuvring to enter the harbour, and holding his hands at the sides of his mouth, he shouts at the top of his voice, a long Oh-!, which must be their usual call. When he sees that they have heard him, he gesticulates with both his arms, obviously meaning: Come, come. The men in the boat, not knowing what is the matter, lay on the oars, and the boat moves faster than it did with the sail, which they have struck, probably to gain time. When they are about ten metres from the shore, John does not wait any longer. He takes off his mantle and his long tunic, and throws them on the shore, takes off his sandals, lifts his undertunic and holds it with one hand almost against his groin, then goes into the water to meet the boat arriving. Why did you two not come? asks Andrew. Peter, sulkily, does not say one word. And why did you not come with me and James? John replies to Andrew. I went fishing. I have no time to waste. You disappeared with that man... I beckoned you to come. It is Him. You should hear His words!... We stayed with Him all day until late at night. We have now come to say to you: "Come". Is it really Him? Are you sure? We only saw Him then, when the Baptist pointed Him out to us. It is Him. He did not deny it. Anyone can say what suits him to impose himself on dupes. It is not the first time... mumbles Peter, dissatisfied. Oh, Simon! Don't say that! He is the Messiah! He knows everything! He hears you! John is grieved and dismayed at Simon Peter's words. Sure! The Messiah! And He showed Himself to you, James and Andrew! Three poor ignorant fishermen! The Messiah will need much more than that! And He hears me! Eh! My poor boy. The first sunshine of spring has damaged your brains! Come on, come and do some work. That's much better. And forget such fairy tales! I'm telling you. He is the Messiah! John said holy things, but He speaks of God. Who is not Christ cannot speak such words. Simon, I am not a boy. I am old enough and I am composed and thoughtful. You know that. I did not speak much, but I listened a lot during the hours we spent with the Lamb of God and I can tell you that really He can but be the Messiah! Why don't you believe? Why do you not want to believe? You may not believe, because you have not heard Him. But I believe Him. We are poor and ignorant? Well, He says that He has come to announce the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, of the Kingdom of peace, to the poor, humble and little ones before the great ones. He said: "The great ones already have their delights. They are not enviable delights when compared with the ones I have come to bring you. The great ones are already capable of understanding by means of their culture. But I have come to the 'little' ones of Israel and of the world, to those who weep and hope, to those who seek Light and are

hungry for the real Manna, to whom learned men do not give light and food, but only burdens, darkness, chains, contempt. And I call the 'little ones'. I have come to turn the world upside down. Because I will lower what is now held high, and I will raise what is now held in contempt. Let those who want the truth and peace, who want eternal life, come to Me. Those who love Light, let them come to Me. I am the Light of the world". Did He not say that, John? James has spoken in a calm, gentle voice. Yes, and He said: "The world will not love Me. The great world will not love Me, because it is corrupted by vices and idolatry. Nay, the world will not want Me, because as it is the offspring of Darkness, it does not love the Light. But the earth is not made only of the great world. There are on it also those who, mixed with the world, are not of the world. There are people who are of the world because they have been imprisoned in it, like fish in a net". He said exactly that, because we were speaking on the shore of the lake and He was pointing to some nets which were being dragged to the shore with fish in them. Nay, He said: "See. None of those fish wanted to be caught in the net. Also men, intentionally, would not like to fall prey to Mammon. Not even the most wicked who, blinded by pride, do not believe they have no right to do what they do. Their real sin is pride. All the other sins grow from it. Those who are not completely wicked, would like even less to fall prey to Mammon. But they fall because of their frivolity and because of a weight that drags them to the bottom, and which is Adam's sin. I have come to remove that sin, and while awaiting the hour of Redemption, to give those who believe in Me a strength such that will enable them to free themselves from the snares that trap them and will make them free to follow Me, the Light of the world". Well then, if He said that, we must go to Him at once. Peter, with his impulsiveness, which is so genuine and I like so much, has decided at once, and is already acting accordingly, hastening to unload the boat which has already reached the shore: the fishermen have almost beached it, unloading nets, ropes and sails. And you, silly Andrew, why did you not go with them?!... But... Simon! You reproached me because I did not persuade them to come with me... You have been grumbling all night, and now you rebuke me because I did not go?! You are right... But I did not see Him... you did... and you must have seen that He is not like us... He must have something compelling!... Oh! Yes. John says. His face! His eyes! What beautiful eyes, aren't they, James?! And His voice!... Oh! What a voice! When He speaks, you seem to be dreaming of Heaven. Quick, quick. Let's go and see Him. And you, (addressing the other fishermen) take everything to Zebedee and tell him to do as he thinks best. We will be back this evening in time to go fishing. They all get dressed and set out. But Peter, after a few yards stops and gets hold of John's arm and asks him. Did you say that He knows everything, and hears everything?... Yes, I did. Just think that when we saw the moon high up in the sky, I said: "I wonder what Simon will be doing now", and He said: "He is casting his net and he cannot set his mind at rest because he has to do it all by himself, since you did not go out with the twin boat in such a good evening for fishing... he does not know that before long he will be fishing with different

nets and catching different fish". Holy Mercy! It's true! Well, He will also have heard... also that I called Him little less than a liar... I can't go to Him! Oh! He is so good. He certainly knows what you thought. He already knew. Because when we left Him saying that we were coming to you, He said: "Go. But don't let the first words of contempt discourage you. Who wants to come with Me must be able to make headway against the sneering words of the world and the prohibitions of relatives. Because I am above blood and society, and I triumph over them. And who is with Me will also triumph for ever". And He also said: "Don't be afraid to speak. The man who hears will come, because he is a man of good will". Is that what He said? Well, I'll come. Speak, speak of Him, while we are going. Where is He? In a poor house; they must be His friends. Is He poor? A workman from Nazareth. So He said. And how does He live now, if He does not work any longer? We did not ask Him. Perhaps His relatives help Him. It would have been better if we had brought some fish, some bread and fruit..., something. We are going to consult a rabbi, because He is like... He is more than a rabbi, and we are going empty-handed! Our rabbis don't like that... But He does. We had but twenty pennies between us, James and I, and we offered Him them, as is customary with rabbis. He did not want them. But since we insisted so much, He said: "May God reward you with the blessings of the poor. Come with Me" and He gave them to some poor people: He knew where they lived. And when we asked Him: "Master, are You not keeping anything for Yourself?" He replied: "The joy of doing the will of God and serving His glory". We also said: "You are calling us, Master. But we are all poor. What shall we bring You?", He replied with a smile which made us enjoy the delights of Paradise: "I want a great treasure from you", and we said: "But we have nothing". And He answered: "A treasure with seven names, which even the poorest may have, while the rich may not possess it. You have it, and I want it. Listen to the names: charity, faith, good will, right intention, continence, sincerity, spirit of sacrifice. That is what I want from My followers, only that, and You have it. It is dormant, like a seed under a winter clod, but the spring sunshine will make it sprout into a sevenfold spike". That is what He said. Ah! Now I feel that He is the true Rabboni, the promised Messiah! He is not harsh with the poor, He does not ask for money... It is enough to call Him the Holy Man of God. We can go safely. And it all ends.

49. First Meeting of Peter and the Messiah. 13th October 1944. With my soul dejected by too many things, I am praying to receive

illumination. And I am led to chapter 12 of the Epistle to the Hebrews and the strength of my spirit is really reinvigorated and once again I have the energy to listen. In fact when I am oppressed by so many things, I feel like saying: I do not want to do anything any more. An ordinary life, an ordinary life at all costs. But I, know who it is Who speaks and I see Him look at me with loving beseeching eyes. And I can no longer say: I do not want. God is really a fire which devours also the inclinations of our human nature when the latter yields to Him. To Him Who speaks saying: I will not leave you, I will not abandon you, I want to repeat once again with full confidence: You are of much help to me, I do not fear man. O God, do not disappoint my hope. ------------------------------At 2 p.m. I see the following: Jesus is coming along a little road, a path between two fields. He is alone. John is moving towards Him along a different path in the fields and he meets Him at last, going through an opening in a hedge. John, both in yesterday's vision and to-day's is very young. His face is rosy and beardless, the fair complexion of a youth, who can hardly be called a man. There are no signs of moustache or beard, but only the smoothness of his rosy cheeks, his red lips, and his bright smile and pure look, not so much because of its deep turquoise hue, as because of the limpidity of his virginal soul shining through his eyes. His blond-brown long soft hair undulates at each step while he walks almost as fast as if he were running. When he is about to pass through the hedge, he shouts: Master! Jesus stops and turns round, smiling. Master, I have longed so much for You! The people in the house where You live told me that You had come towards the country. But they did not say where. I was afraid I might not meet you. While speaking, John has bent his head slightly, out of respect. And yet, he is full of truthful love, both in his attitude and in his eyes, which he raises towards Jesus, while his head is still gently inclined towards his shoulder. I saw you were looking for Me and I came towards you. You saw me? Where were You, Master? Over there and Jesus points to a group of trees far away, which, by the colour of their foliage, I would say were olive-trees. I was over there. I was praying, and thinking what to say this evening in the synagogue. But I came away as soon as I saw you. But how could You see me, if I can hardly see the place, hidden as it is behind that hedge? And yet, you see, here I am. I came to meet you because I saw you. What the eye does not do, love does. Yes, love does. You love me, therefore, Master? And do you love Me, John, son of Zebedee? So much, Master. I think I have always loved You. Before meeting You, long before, my soul was looking for You, and when I saw You, my soul said to me: "Here is the One you are seeking". I think I met You, because my soul perceived You. You said it, John, and what you say is right. I also came towards you because My soul perceived you. For how long will you love Me? For ever, Master. I no longer want to love anybody, but You.

You have a father and a mother, brothers and sisters, you have your life, and with your life, you have a woman and love. How will you be able to leave all that for My sake? Master... I do not know... but I think, if it is not pride to say so, that Your fondness will take the place of father and mother, of brothers and sisters, and also of a woman. I will be compensated for everything, if You love me. And if My love should cause you sorrows and persecutions? They will be nothing, if You love me. And the day I should die... No! You are young, Master... Why die? Because the Messiah has come to preach the Law in its truthfulness and to accomplish Redemption. And the world loathes the Law and does not want redemption. Therefore they persecute God's messengers. Oh! Let that never be! Do not mention that prediction of death to him who loves You!... But if You should die, I would still love You. Allow me to love You. John's look is an imploring one. He has bowed his head lower than ever, and he walks beside Jesus, and seems to be begging love. Jesus stops. He looks at him, scrutinises him with His deep, penetrating eyes, and then lays His hand on his bowed head. I want you to love Me. Oh! Master! John is happy. Although his eyes shine with tears, his well shaped young mouth smiles. He takes the divine hand, kisses it on its back, and presses it to his heart. They take to the road again. You said you were looking for Me... Yes, to tell You that my friends want to meet You... and because, oh! how I was longing to be with You again! I left You only a few hours ago... but I could no longer be without You. Have you therefore been a good announcer of the Word? Also James, Master, spoke of You in such a way as... to convince them. So that also he who had no confidence - and is not to be blamed because his reserve was due to prudence - is now convinced. Let us go and give him full assurance. He was somewhat afraid... No! Not afraid of Me! I have come for good people and even more for those who stand in error. I want to save people, not to condemn them. I will be full of mercy with honest people. And with sinners? Also. By dishonest people, I mean those who are spiritually dishonest and hypocritically they feign to be good, whereas they do ill deeds. And they do such things, and in such a way for their own profit and to secure an advantage over their neighbours. I will be severe with them. Oh! Simon, then, need not worry. He is as loyal as no one else. That is what I like, and I want you all to be so. Simon wants to tell You many things. I will listen to him after speaking in the synagogue. I asked them to inform the poor and sick people in addition to the rich and healthy ones. They are all in need of the Gospel. They are near the village. Some children are playing in the road and one of them runs into Jesus' legs and would have fallen if He were not quick in getting hold of him. The child cries just the same, as if he had been hurt and

Jesus, holding him in His arms, says: An Israelite who is crying? What should the thousands of children have done, who became men, crossing the desert with Moses? And yet, the Most High Lord sent the sweet manna for them, rather than for the others, because He loves innocent children and looks after these little angels of the earth, these wingless little birds, just as He sees to the sparrows of woods and towns. Do you like honey? Yes? Well, if you are good, you will eat a honey which is sweeter than the honey of your bees. Where? When? When, after a life of loyalty to God, you will go to Him. I know that I cannot go there unless the Messiah comes. My mother says that now, we in Israel, are like many Moses and we die seeing the Promised Land. She says that we are there, waiting to go in, and that only the Messiah will make us go in. What a clever little Israelite! Well, I tell you that when you die, you will go to Paradise at once, because the Messiah will already have opened the gates of Heaven. But you must be good. Mummy! Mummy! The child slides down from Jesus' arms and runs towards a young woman, who is entering her house holding a copper amphora. Mummy! The new Rabbi told me that I will go to Paradise at once when I die and I will eat so much honey... if I am good. I will be good! God grant it! I am sorry, Master, if he troubled You. He is so lively! Innocence does not trouble, woman. May God bless you, because you are a mother who is bringing her children up in the knowledge of the Law. The woman blushes at being praised and replies: May the blessing of the Lord be with You, too. And she disappears with her little one. Do You like children, Master? Yes, I do, because they are pure... sincere... and affectionate. Have you any nephews, Master? I have but My Mother... In Her there is purity, sincerity, the love of the most holy children, together with wisdom, justice and the fortitude of adults. I have everything in My Mother, John. And You left Her? God is above also the holiest mother. Will I meet Her? Yes, you will. And will She love me? She will love you because She loves whoever loves Her Jesus. Then You have no brothers? I have some cousins on My Mother's husband's side. But every man is My brother, and I have come for everybody. We are now at the synagogue. I am going in, and you will join Me with your friends. John goes away, and Jesus goes into a square room with the usual display of triangular lamps and lecterns with rolls of parchment. There is already a crowd waiting and praying. Jesus also prays. The people whisper and make their comments behind Him, as He bows to the head of the synagogue, greeting him, and He asks for a roll at random. Jesus begins His lesson. He says: The Spirit makes Me read the following things for you. At chapter seven of the book of Jeremiah, we read: "Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: 'Amend your behaviour and your actions and I will stay with

you here in this place. Put no trust in delusive words like these: This is the sanctuary of Yahweh, the sanctuary of Yahweh, the sanctuary of Yahweh! But if you do amend your behaviour and your actions, if you treat each other fairly, if you do not exploit the stranger, the orphan and the widow, if you do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow alien gods, to your own ruin, then here in this place I will stay with you, in the land that long ago I gave to your fathers for ever' ". Listen, Israel. Here I am to illuminate for you the words of light, which your dimmed souls can no longer see or understand. Listen. There is much weeping in the land of the People of God: old people cry remembering past glories, adults cry because they are bent under the yoke, children cry because they have no prospects of future glory. But the glory of the earth is nothing compared to a glory which no oppressor, except Mammon and ill will, can take away. Why are you crying? Because the Most High, Who was always good to His people, has now turned His face elsewhere and no longer allows His children to see His Countenance? Is He no longer the God Who parted the sea and made Israel cross it and led the people through the desert and nourished them, and defended them from their enemies, and that they might not lose the way to Heaven, He gave a Law for their souls, as He had sent them a cloud for their bodies? Is He no longer the God That sweetened the waters and sent manna to His worn out children? Is He not the God Who wanted you to settle in His land and made an alliance with you as Father with his children? Well, then, why has the foreigner struck you? Many amongst you mumble: "And yet the Temple is here!" It is not enough to have the Temple and to go and pray God in it. The first temple is in the heart of every man and that is where holy prayers should be said. But a prayer cannot be holy unless the heart first amends its way of living and with his heart man also amends his habits, affections, the rules of justice towards the poor, servants, relatives and God. Now look. I see rich hard-hearted men who make rich offerings to the Temple, but they never say to a poor man: "Brother, here is a piece of bread, and a penny. Take them. From man to man, and let not my help discourage you as my offering may not make me proud". I see people who, in their prayers, complain to God because He does not hear their prayers promptly; then when a poor wretch, very often a relative, says to them: "Listen to me", they reply heartlessly: "No". I see you crying because your money is squeezed out of your purses by your ruler. But then you squeeze blood out of those you hate and you are not filled with horror when you take the blood and life away from a body. O Israel! The time of Redemption has come. Prepare its ways in your hearts with good will. Be honest, good, love one another. The rich must not despise the poor; merchants must not defraud; the poor must not envy the rich. You are all of one blood, and you belong to one God. You are all called to one destiny. Do not shut with your sins the Heavens that the Messiah will open for you. Have you erred so far? Err no longer. Abandon all errors. The Law is simple, easy and good as it goes back to the original ten commandments, illuminated by the light of love. Come. I will show you which they are: love, love, love. God's love for you. Your love for God. Love for your neighbours. Always love, because God is love, and those are the Father's

children who know how to live love. I am here for everybody, and to give everybody the light of God. Here is the Word of the Father that becomes food for you. Come, taste, change the blood of your spirits with this food. Let every poison vanish, let every lust die. A new glory is offered to you: the eternal one, to which all those will come whose hearts will truly study the Law of God. Start from love. There is nothing greater. When you know how to love, you will already know everything, and God will love you, and God's love means help against all temptations. May the blessing of God be on those who turn to God with their hearts full of good will. Jesus is silent. The people whisper. The meeting breaks up after some hymns, many of which are sung like psalms. Jesus goes out onto the little square. On the doorstep there are John and James with Peter and Andrew. Peace to you says Jesus and He adds: Here is the man who in order to be just must not judge before knowing. But he is honest in admitting he is wrong. Simon, you wanted to see Me? Here I am. And you, Andrew, why did you not come before? The two brothers look at each other embarrassed. Andrew whispers: I did not dare. Peter blushes, but does not speak. But when he hears Jesus say to his brother: Were you doing any wrong in coming? One must not dare do only evil things he intervenes frankly: It was my fault. He wanted to bring me to You at once. But I... I said... Yes, I said "I don't believe it", and I did not want to come. Oh! I feel better now!... Jesus smiles, then He says: And because of your sincerity I tell you that I love you. But I... I am not good... I am not capable of doing what You said in the synagogue. I am quick-tempered and if anyone offends me... eh!... I am greedy and I like money... and in my fish business... eh!... not always... I have not always been honest. And I am ignorant. And I have little time to follow You to receive Your Light. What shall I do? I would like to become as You say... but... It is not difficult, Simon. Are you acquainted a little with the Scriptures? Are you? Well, think of the prophet Micah. God wants from you what Micah said. He does not ask you to tear your heart apart, neither does He ask you to sacrifice your most holy affections. He does not ask you for the time being. One day, without being requested by God, you will give God your own self. But He will wait while the sun and the dew turn you, a thin blade of grass as you are now, into a sturdy, glorious palm tree. For the time being, He asks you only this: to be just, to love mercy, to take the greatest care in following your God. Strive to do that and Simon's past will be cancelled and you will become a new man, the friend of God and of His Christ. No longer Simon, but Cephas, (1) the safe rock on which I lean. I like that! I understand that. The Law is so... is so... that is, I cannot comply with it any longer, as the rabbis have made it. But what You say, yes... I think I will be able to do it. And You will help me. Are You staying in this house? I know the owner. I am staying here. But I am going to Jerusalem and after I will preach throughout Palestine. I came for that. But I will often be here.

I will come to hear You again. I want to be Your disciple. A little of the light will enter my head. Your heart, above all, Simon. Your heart. And you, Andrew, have you nothing to say? I am listening, Master. My brother is shy. He will become a lion. It is getting dark. May God bless you, and grant you a good haul. Go now. Peace be with You. They go away. As soon as they are out Peter says: I wonder what He meant before, when He said that I will be fishing with other nets and catching different fish. Why did you not ask Him? You wanted to say so many things, but you hardly spoke. I... was bashful. He is so different from all the other rabbis! Now He is going to Jerusalem... says John, with so much longing and nostalgia. I wanted to ask Him if He would let me go with Him... But I did not dare... Go and ask Him now, my boy. says Peter. We left Him so... without a word of affection. Let Him at least know that we admire Him. I will tell your father. Shall I go, James? Go. John runs away... and he runs back, overjoyed. I said to Him: "Do You want me to come to Jerusalem with You?" He replied: "Come, My friend". Friend, He said! Tomorrow, I will be here at this time. Ah! To Jerusalem with Him!... ... the vision ends. -----------------------------

(1) Cephas means Rock, see John 1,42. With regard to the previous vision, this morning the l4th of October Jesus says to me: I want you and everybody to consider John's behaviour: particularly one point that always escapes everybody's notice. You admire him because he was pure, loving, faithful. But you do not notice that he was great also in humility. He, the first one responsible for Peter's coming to Me, was modestly silent about that detail. The apostle of Peter, and consequently the first of My apostles, was John. First in recognising Me, first in speaking to Me, in following Me, in preaching Me. And yet, see what he says? "Andrew, Simon's brother, was one of the two who had heard John's (2) words and had followed Jesus. The first person he met was his brother Simon, to whom he said: 'We have found the Messiah' and he took him to Jesus". Besides being good, he is just, and since he knows that Andrew is distressed because of his shy and reserved disposition, and that he would like to do so much, but does not succeed in doing it, he wants the acknowledgement of Andrew's good will to be handed down to posterity. He

wants Andrew to appear as Christ's first apostle with Peter, notwithstanding that Andrew's shyness and uneasiness with his brother have been the cause of the failure of his apostolate. Amongst those who do something for Me, who can imitate John, instead of proclaiming himself an unexcelled apostle, without considering that his success depends on a multitude of things, which are not only holiness, but also human daring, luck and the occasional chance of being with other people less daring and less lucky, but perhaps holier? When you succeed in doing some good, do not boast about it, as if the merit were entirely yours. Praise God, the Lord of the apostolic workers, and have a clear eye and a sincere heart to see and give each the praise they deserve. A clear eye to descry the apostles who sacrificed themselves and are the first real incentive for the work of the others. Only God sees them: they are timid and seem to be doing nothing, whereas they draw from Heaven the fire that urges daring workers. A sincere heart in saying: "I work. But this fellow loves more than I do, he prays better than I do, I am not able to sacrifice myself as he does and as Jesus said: '... in your private room with the door closed pray secretly.' Since I am aware of his humble holy virtue, I want to make it known and say: 'I am an active instrument; he is a power that inspires me, because, joined as he is to God, he is a channel of celestial energy for me' ". And the Blessing of the Father, that descends to reward the humble man, who secretly sacrifices himself to give strength to the apostles, will descend also on the apostle who sincerely acknowledges both the supernatural and silent help of the humble one, and his merits which superficial men do not notice. (2) That is: John the Baptist. It is a lesson for everybody. Is he My favourite? Yes, he is. Does he not resemble Me also in this? Pure, loving, obedient, but also humble. I looked at Myself in him as in a mirror and I could see My virtues in him. I therefore loved him like another Self. I could see in him the glance of My Father, Who considered him a little Christ. And My Mother would say to Me: "I feel as if he were My second son. I seem to be seeing You, reproduced in a man". Oh! How well the One Full of Wisdom knows you, My beloved! The two blues of your pure hearts mingled into one veil only to form a protection of love for Me, and they became one love only, even before I gave My Mother to John and John to My Mother. They loved each other because they realised they were alike: children and brothers of the Father and of the Son.

50. Jesus at Bethsaida in Peter's House. He Meets Philip and Nathanael. l5th October 1944. [ ... ] Later on (at 9:30) 1 had to describe this. John knocks at the door of the house where Jesus is a guest. A woman comes to the door and when she sees who it is, she calls Jesus. They greet each other with a salutation of peace. Then Jesus says: You have come early, John.

I have come to tell You that Peter asks You to pass by Bethsaida. He has spoken to many people about You... We did not go out fishing last night. We prayed as well as we could, and we gave up profit... because the Sabbath was not yet over. And this morning, we went through the streets speaking about You. There are many people who would like to hear You... Will You come, Master? I will, although I must go to Nazareth before going to Jerusalem. Peter will take You from Bethsaida to Tiberias in his boat. It will be even quicker for You. Let us go, then. Jesus takes His mantle and haversack. But John relieves Him of the latter. And they set out, after saying goodbye to the landlady. The vision shows them coming out of the village and starting their journey to Bethsaida. But I do not hear what they are saying, in fact the vision is interrupted and it is resumed only when they are entering Bethsaida. I realise that it is that town because I see Peter, Andrew and James, with their wives, awaiting Jesus at the entrance to the village. Peace be with you. Here I am. We thank You, Master, also on behalf of those who are waiting for You. It is not the Sabbath today, but will You speak Your words to those waiting to hear You? Yes, Peter, I will. In your house. Peter is overjoyed: Come, then. This is my wife and this is John's mother and these are their friends. But there are other people waiting for You: relations and friends of ours. Tell them that I will speak to them this evening, before I leave. I forgot to mention that they left Capernaum at sunset and arrived at Bethsaida the following morning. Master... please: stay one night at my house. The road to Jerusalem is a long one, even if I will shorten it for You, taking You to Tiberias by boat. My house is poor, but honest and friendly. Stay with us tonight. Jesus looks at Peter and at all the rest who are waiting. He looks at them inquisitively. He then smiles and says: Yes, I will stay. It is a greater joy for Peter. People look out from their doors and exchange knowing glances with one another. A man calls James by his name and speaks to him in a low voice, pointing to Jesus. James nods in assent and the man goes and speaks to other people standing at a crossroads. They go into Peter's house. There is a large smoky kitchen. In a corner, there are nets, ropes, fishing baskets. In the middle there is a long, low fireplace, but there is no fire. Through two opposite doors, one can see the street on one side, and the kitchen garden with a fig-tree and vines on the other side. Beyond the street the rippling on the sky-blue lake can be seen, and beyond the kitchen garden there is the dark, low wall of another house. I offer You what I have, Master, and as best as I know how to... You could not offer any more or any better, because you are making your offering with love. They give Jesus some water to refresh Himself and then some bread and olives. Jesus takes a few mouthfuls only to please them, then He thanks them, and eats no more.

Some children look in inquisitively from the kitchen garden and the street. I do not know whether they are Peter's children. I only know that he frowns at the intruders to keep them out. Jesus smiles and says: Leave them alone. Master, do You want to rest? My room is here and Andrew's is over there. Take Your choice. We will not make any noise while You are resting. Have you got a terrace? Yes, and the vine, although it is still almost bare, gives a little shade. Then take Me up there. I prefer to rest there. I will think and pray. As You wish. Come. A little staircase rises from the kitchen garden up to the roof, which is a terrace surrounded by a low wall. Also there, there are nets and ropes. But how much bright light, and what a beautiful view of the blue lake! Jesus sits on a stool, leaning His back against the little wall. Peter bustles with a sail, which he spreads over and on the side of the vine to make a shield against the sun. There is a breeze and silence. Jesus is visibly happy. I am going, Master. Go. Go with John and tell people that I will be speaking here at sunset. Jesus remains alone and prays for a long time. With the exception of two pairs of doves that come and go from their nests, and the twittering of sparrows, there is no noise or living being near Jesus praying. The hours pass peacefully and quietly. Then Jesus stands up, He walks round the terrace, looks at the lake, smiles at some children playing in the street and they smile back at Him, He looks along the street, towards the little square about one hundred yards away from Peter's house. He goes downstairs. He looks into the kitchen: Woman, I am going for a walk on the shore. He goes out and walks to the beach, near the children. He asks them: What are you doing? We wanted to play at war. But he does not want to, and we are playing at fishing. The boy who does not want to play at war, is a frail little fellow with a most bright face. Perhaps he is aware that, as frail as he is, he would get a beating in making war and so he pleads for peace. But Jesus takes the opportunity to speak to the children: He is right. War is a punishment of God to chastise men, and it is a sign that man is no longer a true son of God. When the Most High created the world, He made all things: the sun, the sea, the stars, the rivers, the plants, the animals, but He did not make arms. He created man and gave him eyes that he might cast loving glances, and a mouth to utter loving words, and ears to listen to such words, and hands to give help and to caress, and feet to run fast to assist our neighbours in need, and a heart capable of loving. He gave man intelligence, speech, affections and taste. But He did not give man hatred. Why? Because man, a creature of God, was to be love as God is Love. If man had remained a creature of God, he would have persevered in love, and the human family would have not known either war or death. But he does not want to make war, because he always loses. (I had guessed right.) Jesus smiles and says: We must not reprove what is harmful to us simply because it is harmful to us. We must reprove a thing when it is harmful

to everybody. If a person says: "I do not want that because I would lose", that person is selfish. Instead, the good child of God says: "Brothers, I know I would win, but I say to you: don't let us do that because you would suffer a loss". Oh! That fellow has understood the main precept! Who can tell Me which is the main precept? The eleven mouths say all together: "You shall love your God with all your strength, and your neighbour as yourself". Oh! You are clever children. Do you all go to school? Yes, we do. Who is the most clever? Him. It is the frail little fellow who does not want war. What is your name? Joel. A great name! He says: "...let the weakling say: 'I am strong' ". But strong in what? In the Law of the true God, to be amongst those whom in the Valley of Decision He will judge to be His saints. But the judgement is already near. Not in the Valley of Decision, but on the mountain of Redemption. There, the sun and the moon will grow dark with horror, the stars will tremble and shed tears of mercy, and the children of Light will be judged and separated from the children of Darkness. And the whole of Israel will know that its God has come. Happy those who will have recognised Him. Honey, milk and fresh water will descend into their hearts and thorns will become eternal roses. Which of you wants to be amongst those who will be judged saints of God? I! I! I! Will you love the Messiah, then? Yes! Yes! You! You! It's You we love. We know who You are! Simon and James have told us, and our mothers have told us. Take us with You! Yes. I will take you if you are good. No more bad words, no more arrogance, quarrels, no answering back to your parents. Prayer, study, work, obedience. And I will love you and come with you. The children are all round Jesus. They look like a gaily-coloured corolla around a long, deep-blue pistil. An elderly man goes near the group, inquisitively. Jesus turns round to caress a child who is pulling His mantle and sees him. He stares at him, intensely. The man blushes and greets Him, but does not say anything else. Come! Follow Me! Yes, Master. Jesus blesses the children and walking beside Philip, (He calls him by his name) He goes back home. They sit in the little kitchen garden. Do you want to be My disciple? Yes, I do... but I dare not hope for so much. I have called you. Then I am Your disciple. Here I am. Did you know about Me? Andrew spoke to me about You. He said to me: "The One you were pining after has come". Because Andrew knew that I yearned for the Messiah. Your expectation has not been disappointed. He is in front of you. My Master and my God!

You are a well-intentioned Israelite. That is why I am manifesting Myself to you. Another friend of yours is waiting, he is a sincere Israelite, too. Go and say to him: "We have found Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph of the House of David, Him of Whom Moses and the Prophets have spoken". Go. Jesus remains alone until Philip comes back with Nathanael-Bartholomew. Here is a true Israelite in whom there is no deceit. Peace be with you, Nathanael. How do You know me? Before Philip came to call you, I saw you under the fig-tree. Master, You are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel! Because I said I saw you, while you were meditating under the fig-tree, you believe? You will see greater things than that. I solemnly tell you that Heaven is open and because of your faith you will see angels descending and ascending above the Son of man: that is above Me, Who am speaking to you. Master! I am not worthy of such a favour! Believe in Me and you will be worthy of Heaven. Will you believe? I will, Master. The vision is interrupted... it starts again on the terrace full of people; other people are in Peter's kitchen garden. Jesus starts speaking. Peace to men of good will. Peace and blessings to their homes, their women, their children. May the grace and the light of God reign in your homes and in the hearts dwelling in them. You have wished to hear Me. The Word is speaking. It speaks with joy to the honest, with sorrow to the dishonest, with delight to the holy and the pure, with mercy to sinners. It does not deny Itself. It has come to spread out like a river that flows to irrigate lands needing water, refreshing them and fertilising them at the same time with humus. You want to know what is required to become disciples of the Word of God, of the Messiah, Word of the Father, Who has come to gather Israel together, that it may hear once again the words of the holy and immutable Decalogue and may be sanctified by them and thus be purified for the hour of Redemption and of the Kingdom, as far as man can be purified by himself. Now, I say to the deaf, the blind, the dumb, the lepers, the paralytic, the dead: "Rise, you are healed, rise, walk, may the rivers of light, of words, of sounds be opened for you, that you may see and hear Me and speak of Me". But rather than to your bodies, I am speaking to your souls. Men of good will, come to Me without any fear. If your souls are injured, I will cure them; if they are ill, I will heal them; if they are dead, I will raise them. All I want is your good will. Is what I ask for difficult? No. It is not. I do not impose on you the hundreds of precepts of the rabbis. I say to you: follow the Decalogue. The Law is one and immutable. Many centuries have gone by since it was given, beautiful, pure, fresh, like a new-born creature, like a rose just opened on its stem. Simple, neat, easy to follow. Throughout centuries faults and trends have complicated it with many minor laws, with burdens and restrictions, with too many painful clauses. I am bringing once again the Law to you as the Most High gave it. But, in your own interest, I ask you to accept it with sincere hearts, like the true Israelites of bygone times. You grumble, more in your hearts than with your lips, that it is the fault

of people in the upper classes, rather than of humble people. I know. Deuteronomy states what is to be done, nothing else was necessary. But do not judge those who acted for other people, not for themselves. Do what God commands. And above all, strive and be perfect in the two main precepts. If you love God with all your souls, you will not sin, because sin gives pain to God. Who loves, does not want to give pain. If you love your neighbours, as you love yourselves, you will be respectful children to your parents, faithful husbands to your wives, honest merchants in your trade, without any violence against your enemies, truthful in bearing witness, without envy of wealthy people, without any incentive of lewdness for another man's wife. And as you do not want to do to other people what you do not wish should be done to you, you will not steal, or kill, or slander, or enter someone else's nest like cuckoos. Nay, I say to you: "Carry to perfection your obedience to the two precepts of love: love also your enemies". How much the Most High will love you, since He loves man so much. Although man became His enemy because of the original sin, and because of his personal sins, He sent man the Redeemer, the Lamb Who is His Son, that is I, Who am speaking to you, the Messiah promised to redeem you from all your sins, if you will learn to love as He does. Love. May your love become a ladder by which, like angels, you will ascend to Heaven, as Jacob saw them, when you hear the Father say to each and everybody: "I will be your protector wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this place; to Heaven, the Eternal Kingdom". Peace be with you. The crowd utter words of emotional approval and slowly go away. Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip and Bartholomew stay. Are You leaving tomorrow, Master? Tomorrow, at dawn, if you do not mind. I am sorry that You are going away. But I do not mind the hour. On the contrary, it suits me. Are you going fishing? Yes, tonight, when the moon rises. You did well, Simon, not fishing last night. The Sabbath was not yet finished. Nehemiah in his reformation wants the Sabbath to be respected in Judah. Even nowadays too many people work on the Sabbath day at presses, carry wood, wine and fruit and buy and sell fish and lambs. You have six days for that. The Sabbath is of the Lord. Only one thing you may do on the Sabbath: you may do good to your neighbour. But all profit must be excluded from such help. Who infringes the Sabbath to make a profit will be punished by God. He makes a profit? He will lose it during the other six days. He makes no profit? He has fatigued his body to no purpose, because he did not grant it the rest that Intelligence prescribed for it, and thus he irritated his soul having worked in vain, and goes to the extent of cursing. The day of the Lord, instead, is to be spent with your hearts united to God in sweet prayer of love. You must be faithful in everything. But... scribes and doctors, who are so severe with us... do not work on Sabbath days, they do not even give a piece of bread to their neighbours, to avoid the fatigue of handing it over, but they practise usury also on a Sabbath. As it is not a material work, is it legal to practise usury on a Sabbath?

No. Never. Neither on a Sabbath nor any other day. Who practises usury is dishonest and cruel. The scribes and the Pharisees, then... Simon: don't judge. Do not do it. But I have eyes to see... Is there only evil to be seen, Simon? No, Master. Well, then, why look at evil deeds? You are right, Master. Well, tomorrow morning at dawn, I will leave with John. Master... Yes, Simon, what is it? Master... are You going to Jerusalem? You know I am. Also I am going at Passover... and also Andrew and James. Well?... Do you mean that you would like to come with Me? And your fishing? And your profit? You told Me that you like to have money, and I will be away for many days. I am going to My Mother's first. And I will go there also on My way back. I will stop there to preach. How will you manage?... Peter is perplexed, undecided... then he makes up his mind: I think... I will come. I prefer You to money! I am coming, too. And so am I. We are going too, aren't we, Philip? Come, then, you will help Me. Oh!... Peter is more than excited at the idea of helping Jesus. How shall we do that? I will tell you. To do good, all you need do, is do what I tell you. Who obeys always does good. We will now pray and then each of us will go and perform his duties. What will You do, Master? I will continue to pray. I am the Light of the world, but I am also the Son of man. I must, therefore, draw from the Light, to become the Man Who redeems man. Let us pray. Jesus says a psalm. The one beginning: Who rests in the help of the Most High, will live in the protection of the God of Heaven. He will say to the Lord: "You are my protector and my shelter. He is my God, I will hope in Him. He rescued me from the snares of fowlers and from harsh words" etc. I find it in the fourth book. It is the second psalm in book four, I think it is number 90, (if I read the Roman number correctly). The vision ends thus.

51. Judas Thaddeus at Bethsaida to Invite Jesus to the Wedding at Cana 17th October 1944. I see the kitchen in Peter's house. In addition to Jesus, there are Peter and his wife, James and John. I think they have just finished eating their supper. They are talking, and Jesus takes an interest in fishing. Andrew enters and says: Master, there is the man here in whose house You are living, together with another man who says he is Your cousin. Jesus gets up and goes towards the door saying: Let them come in. And when He sees Judas Thaddeus in the light of the oil lamp and of the fireplace, He exclaims: You, Judas?! Yes, Jesus. They kiss each other. Judas Thaddeus is a handsome man, in the fullness of his virile manhood. He is tall, although not quite so tall as Jesus, well built and strong, of a dark brown-olive complexion, like saint Joseph when young, but not sallow: his eyes have something in common with those of Jesus, because they are blue, verging on periwinkle. His brown beard is squarely cut, his hair wavy, but not so curly as Jesus', and is the same hue as his beard. I have come from Capernaum, I went there by boat and I have come here in the same boat to gain time. Your Mother sends me; She says: "Susanna is getting married tomorrow; please come to the wedding". Mary will be there, and also my mother and brothers. All the relatives have been invited. You would be the only one absent, and they ask You to come and make the young couple happy. Jesus bows lightly stretching out His arms and says: A wish of My Mother is a law for Me. But I will come also for Susanna's and our relatives' sake. Only... I am sorry for you... and He looks at Peter and the others. They are My friends He explains to His cousin. And then He mentions their names, beginning with Peter's. He then adds: And this is John with a special expression that causes Judas Thaddeus to look at him more carefully while the beloved disciple blushes. He ends the introductions stating: My friends, this is Judas, son of Alphaeus, My cousin according to the custom of the world, because he is the son of the brother of My Mother's spouse. A very good friend of Mine, and a companion both in life and in work. My house is open to you as it is to the Master. Sit down and then addressing Jesus, Peter says: So? Are we no longer going to Jerusalem with You? Of course you will come. I will go after the wedding feast. The only difference is that I will not stop at Nazareth any longer. Quite right, Jesus, because Your Mother is my guest for a few days. That is what we intend to do. She also will come there after the wedding. It is the man from Capernaum who speaks thus. This is what we will do. I will now go in Judas' boat to Tiberias and from there to Cana. With the same boat I will come back to Capernaum with My Mother, and with you. You will come the day after the next Sabbath, Simon, if you still wish to come, and we will go to Jerusalem for Passover. Of course I want to come! Nay, I will come on the Sabbath to hear You in the synagogue. Are You already teaching, Jesus? asks Thaddeus. Yes, My cousin.

And you should hear His words! Ah!, no one else speaks like Him! exclaims Peter. Judas sighs. With his head resting on his hand, his elbow on his knee, he looks at Jesus and sighs. He seems anxious to speak but does not dare. Jesus encourages him: What is the matter, Judas? Why do you look at Me and sigh? Nothing. No. It must be something. Am I no longer the Jesus of Whom you were fond? From Whom you had no secrets? Of course You are! And how I miss You, You the Master of Your older cousin... Well, then! Speak. I wanted to tell You... Jesus... be careful... You have a Mother... She has but You... You want to be a "rabbi" different from the others and You know, better than I do, that... that the powerful classes do not allow anything which may differ from the customary laws they have laid down. I know Your way of thinking... it is a holy one... But the world is not holy... and it oppresses saints, Jesus... You know the fate of Your cousin the Baptist... He is in jail, and if he is not yet dead, it is because that evil Tetrarch is afraid of the crowds and of the wrath of God. As evil and superstitious as cruel and lustful... You... what are You going to do? To what fate are You going to expose Yourself? Judas, you are so familiar with My way of thinking, and that is what you ask Me? Are you speaking on your own initiative? No, don't lie! You have been sent, certainly not by My Mother, to tell Me such things... Judas lowers his head and becomes silent. Speak, cousin. My father... and Joseph and Simon with him... You know, for Your sake, because they are fond of You and Mary... do not look favourably on what You intend doing... and... and they would like You to think of Your Mother... And what do you think? I... I... You are drawn in opposite directions by the voices coming from High Above and those coming from the world. I am not saying from below. I say from the world. The same applies to James, even more so. But I tell you that above the world there is Heaven, and above the interest of the world there is the cause of God. You must change your ways of thinking. When you learn to do that, you will be perfect. But... and Your Mother? Judas, She is the only one who, according to the way of thinking of the world, should be entitled to recall Me to My duty as a son: that is to My duty to work for Her, and provide for Her material needs, to My duty to assist and comfort Her with My presence. But She does not ask for any of these things. Since She had Me, She knew She would lose Me, to find Me once again in a much wider manner than the small family circle... And since then She has prepared Herself for that. Her unreserved voluntary donation of Herself to God is nothing new. Her mother offered Her in the Temple before She even smiled at life. And - as She told Me the innumerable times She spoke to Me of Her holy childhood, holding Me close to Her heart in the long winter evenings or in the clear starry summer nights - She gave Herself to God since the dawn of Her life in this

world. And She gave Herself even more when She had Me, that She might be where I am, fulfilling the Mission given to Me by God. Everybody will abandon Me at a certain moment, perhaps only for a few minutes, but everyone will be overcome by cowardice, and you will think that it would have been better, for your own safety, if you had never known Me. But She, Who understood and knows, She will always be with Me. And you will become Mine, once again, through Her. With the power of Her unshaken, loving faith, She will draw you to Herself and will thus bring you to Me, because I am in My Mother, and She is in Me, and We are in God. I would like you all to understand that, both you who are My relatives according to the world, and you, friends and children in a supernatural way. Neither you, nor anyone else know Who My Mother is. But if you knew, you would not criticise Her in your hearts stating She is not capable of keeping Me subject to Her, but you would venerate Her as the closest friend of God, the Mighty Woman Who can obtain all graces from the heart of the Eternal Father and from Her beloved Son. I will certainly come to Cana. I want to make Her happy. You will understand better after the wedding. Jesus is majestic and persuasive. Judas gazes at Him. He is thinking. He then says: And I will certainly come with You, with these friends, if You want me... because I feel that what You say is right. Forgive my blindness and my brothers'. You are so much holier than we are!... I bear no grudge against those who do not know Me. I am also without ill-feeling towards those who hate Me. But I feel sorry for them, because of the harm they do themselves. What have you got in that satchel? The tunic Your Mother sent You. It is a big feast tomorrow. She thinks that Her Jesus will need it, so that He may not look out of place amongst all the guests. She worked from early morning till late night every day, to have it ready for You. But She did not finish the mantle. Its fringes are not yet ready and She is very sorry about it. It does not matter. I will wear this one, and I will keep that one for Jerusalem. The Temple is much more important than a wedding feast. She will be so happy. If you want to be on the way to Cana at dawn, you ought to leave at once. The moon is rising and it will be a pleasant crossing says Peter. Let us go, then. Come, John. I am taking you with Me. Goodbye, Simon Peter, James, Andrew. I will see you on the Sabbath evening at Capernaum. Goodbye, woman. Peace be with you and your house. Jesus goes out with Judas and John. Peter follows them as far as the lake and helps them cast off. And the vision ends. -------------------------------Jesus says: When it is time to arrange the work in order, insert the vision of the wedding at Cana here. Put in the date (16th January 1944).

52. Jesus at the Wedding at Cana. The evening of 16th January 1944. The wedding at Cana.

I see a house. A typical middle east house: a long, low, white house, with few windows and doors, with a terraced roof, surrounded by a little wall, about one metre high, with a shady vine pergola, which reaches up to the sunny terrace and stretches its branches over more than half of its surface. An outside staircase climbs up along the front, reaching up to a door which is situated half way up the faade. At ground level there are a few low doors, not more than two on each side of the house, and they open into low dark rooms. The house is built in the middle of what looks like a kind of threshing-floor, but is actually more a grassy open space than a threshing-floor, with a well in its centre. There are some fig and apple-trees. The house faces the road, but-it is not set right on the roadside. It is a little way off the road and a path along the grass links it to the road, which looks like a main road. It seems to be on the outskirts of Cana: a house owned by farmers who live in the middle of their holding. The country stretches calm and green far beyond the house. The sun is shining in a completely blue sky. At first I do not see anything else. There is no one near the house. Then I see two women, with long dresses and mantles that also cover their heads like veils, walking along the road and then on the path. One is older than the other: about fifty years old, with a dark dress, the grey-brown hue of raw wool. The other woman is wearing lighter garments: a pale yellow dress and a blue mantle. She looks about thirty-five years old. She is really beautiful, slender, and Her carriage is most dignified, although She is most kind and humble. When She is nearer, I notice Her pale face, Her blue eyes and Her blond hair visible on Her forehead. I recognise Our Most Holy Lady. I do not know who the other older woman is. They are speaking to each other and Our Lady smiles. When they are near the house, someone, who is obviously watching the arrival of the guests, informs the others in the house, and two men and two women, all in their best clothes, go to meet them. They give the two women and particularly Our Lady a most warm welcome. It is early morning, I would say about nine o'clock, perhaps earlier, because the country has the fresh look of the early morning hours, when the dew makes the grass look greener and the air is still free from dust. It appears to be springtime because the grass in the meadows is not parched by the summer sun and the corn in the fields is still young and green and earless. The leaves of the fig-tree and apple-tree are green and tender and those of the vines are the same. But I see no flowers on the apple-tree and there is no fruit on the apple and fig-tree or on the vines: which means that the apple-tree blossomed only recently and the little fruits cannot be seen as yet. Mary, Who is most warmly welcomed and is escorted by an elderly man who appears to be the landlord, climbs up the outside staircase and enters a large hall which seems to fill the whole of the house upstairs, or most of it. If I am correct, the rooms on the ground floor are the ones where they actually live, where they have their store-room, wine cellar, whereas the hall upstairs is used on special occasions such as feast days, or for tasks which require a lot of space, such as drying and pressing foodstuffs. For special celebrations the hall is cleared of every object and then decorated, as it is today, with green branches, mats and tables prepared with rich dishes. In the centre there is a richly laid table with amphorae and plates full of fruit. Along

the right-hand side wall, in respect to me, there is another table already prepared, but not so sumptuously. On the left-hand side, there is a kind of long dresser with plates of cheese and other foodstuffs, which look like cakes covered with honey and sweetmeats. On the floor, near the same wall, there are more amphorae and six large vases, shaped more or less like copper pitchers. I would call them jars. Mary listens benignly to what they are telling Her, then She takes off Her mantle and kindly helps to finish laying the tables. I see Her going to and fro sorting out the bed-seats, straightening up the wreaths of flowers, improving the appearance of the fruit dishes, making sure that the lamps are filled with oil. She smiles, speaks very little and in a very low voice. Instead She listens a lot and with so much patience. A loud sound of musical instruments (not very harmonious) is heard coming from the road. They all rush out, with the exception of Mary. I see the bride come in, smartly dressed and happy, surrounded by relatives and friends. The bridegroom, who was the first to rush out and meet her, is now beside her. At this point there is a change in the vision. Instead of the house I see a village. I do not know whether it is Cana or a nearby village. And I see Jesus with John and another man, who I think is Judas Thaddeus, but I may be wrong. I am sure about John. Jesus is wearing a white tunic and a dark blue mantle. When he hears the sound of the instruments, Jesus' companion questions a man about something and then tells Jesus. Then Jesus, smiling, says: Let us go and make My Mother happy. And He starts walking across the fields towards the house, with His two companions. I forgot to mention that it is my impression that Mary is either a relation or a close friend of the bridegroom's relatives, because She is on familiar terms with them. When Jesus arrives, the same watchman as before, informs the others. The landlord, with his son, the bridegroom, and Mary goes down to meet Him, and greets Him respectfully. He then greets the other two and so does the bridegroom. But what I like is the loving and respectful way in which Jesus and Mary exchange their greetings. There are no effusions, but the words Peace be with You are pronounced with a look and a smile worth one hundred embraces and one hundred kisses. A kiss trembles on Mary's lips, but it is not given. She only lays Her little white hand on Jesus' shoulder and lightly touches a curl of His long hair. The caress of a chaste lover. Jesus climbs the staircase beside His Mother, followed by His disciples, the landlord and the groom, and enters the banquet hall, where the women start bustling about, adding seats and plates for the three guests, who, apparently, were not expected. I would say that Jesus' coming was uncertain and the arrival of His companions was completely unforeseen. I can distinctly hear the Master's full, virile, most sweet voice say on entering the hall: May peace be in this house and the blessing of God on you all. A greeting of majesty addressed to all the people present. Jesus dominates everybody with His bearing and His height. He is a guest, and a casual one, but He seems to be the king of the banquet, more than the groom, more than the landlord. No matter how humble and obliging, He is the one who dominates. Jesus sits at the central table with the bride and the bridegroom, their

relatives and the most influential friends. The two disciples are also invited to sit at the same table, out of respect for Jesus. Jesus' back is turned to the wall where the large jars and the dresser are. He therefore cannot see them, neither can He see the steward bustling about the dishes of roast meat, which are brought in through a little door near the dresser. I notice one thing. With the exception of the mothers of the young couple and of Mary, no woman is sitting at that table. All the women, who are making a din worthy of one hundred people, are sitting at the other table near the wall, and are served after the young couple and the guests of importance. Jesus is sitting near the landlord, in front of Mary, Whose place is near the bride. The banquet starts. And I can assure you that they lack neither appetite nor thirst. The ones who eat and drink little are Jesus and His Mother, Who speaks also very little. Jesus talks a little more. But although very moderate, He is neither sullen nor disdainful in the little He says. He is kind, but not talkative. He answers when He is questioned, when they speak to Him, He takes an interest in the subject, he states His opinion, but then He concentrates on His thoughts, like one accustomed to meditation. He smiles, He never laughs. If He hears any inconsiderate joke, He pretends He has not heard. Mary is nourished by the contemplation of Her Jesus, and so is John, who is at the end of the table and hangs on His Master's lips. Mary notices that the servants are talking in low voices to the steward, who looks very embarrassed and She understands what the cause of the unpleasant situation is. Son, She whispers in a low voice, thus drawing Jesus' attention. Son, they have no more wine. Woman, what is there still between Me and You? Jesus, when saying these words, smiles even more gently, and Mary smiles too, like two people aware of some truth which is their joyful secret and is ignored by everyone else. ------------------------Jesus explains the meaning of the sentence to me. That "still", which is omitted by many translators, is the keyword of the sentence and explains its true meaning. I was the Son, submissive to My Mother, up to the moment when the will of My Father told Me that the hour had come when I was to be the Master. From the moment My mission started, I was no longer the Son submissive to My Mother, but I was the Servant of God. My moral ties with My Mother were broken. They had turned into higher bonds, all of a spiritual nature. I always called Mary, My Holy "Mother". Our love suffered no interruptions, neither did it even cool down, nay, it was never so perfect as when I was separated from Her as by a second birth and She gave Me to the world and for the world, as the Messiah and Evangeliser. Her third sublime mystical maternity took place when She bore Me to the cross in the torture of Golgotha, and made Me the Redeemer of the world. "What is there still between Me and You?" Before I was Yours, only Yours. You gave Me orders, and I obeyed You. I was "subject" to You. Now I belong to My mission. Did I not say: "He, who lays his hand on the plough and looks back to bid farewell to those who are staying, is not fit for the Kingdom of God"? I had

laid My hand on the plough not to cut the ground with the ploughshare, but to open the hearts of men and sow there the word of God. I was to take My hand away from the plough only when they would tear it away to nail it to the Cross and to open with My torturing nail My Father's heart, out of which forgiveness for mankind was to flow. That "still", forgotten by most, meant this: "You were everything for Me, Mother, as long as I was only Jesus of Mary of Nazareth, and You are everything in My spirit; but since I became the expected Messiah, I belong to My Father. Wait for a little while and once My mission is over, I will be, once again, entirely Yours; You will hold Me once again in Your arms, as when I was a little child, and no one will ever again contend with You for Your Son, considered as the disgrace of mankind, who will throw His mortal remains at You, to bring on You the shame of being the mother of a criminal. And afterwards You will have Me once again, triumphant, and finally You will have Me for ever when You are triumphant in Heaven. But now I belong to all these men. And I belong to the Father, Who sent Me to them". That is the sense of that short but so full of meaning "still". Mary says to the servants: Do what He will tell you. In the smiling eyes of Her Son, Mary has read His consent, veiled by the great teaching to all those who are called. And Jesus says to the servants: Fill the jars with water. I see the servants filling the jars with water brought from the well (I hear the pulley screeching as the dripping pail is pulled up and lowered down). I see the steward pour out some of the liquid with astonished eyes, then taste it with gestures of even greater astonishment, relish it and speak to the landlord and the groom (they were near each other). Mary looks at Her Son once again, and smiles; then having received a smile from Him, She bows Her head, blushing slightly. She is happy. A murmur spreads throughout the hall, they all turn their heads towards Jesus and Mary, some stand up to get a better view, some go near the jars. Then a moment's silence, which is immediately broken by an outburst of praises for Jesus. He stands up and simply says: Thank Mary and withdraws from the banquet. His disciples follow Him. On the threshold He repeats: May peace be in this house and God's blessing on you and He adds: Goodbye, Mother. The vision ends. ------------------------------Jesus teaches me as follows: When I said to the disciples: "Let us go and make My Mother happy", I had given the sentence a deeper meaning than it seemed. I did not mean the happiness of seeing Me, but the joy of being the initiatress of My miraculous activity and the first benefactress of mankind. Always remember that. My first miracle happened because of Mary. The very first one. It is a symbol that Mary is the key to miracles. I never refuse My Mother anything and because of Her prayer I bring forward also the time of grace. I know My Mother, the second in goodness after God. I know that to grant you a grace is to make Her happy, because She is All Love. That is why I said, knowing Her: "Let us go and make Her happy". Besides, I wanted to make Her power known to the world, together with Mine. Since She was destined to be joined to Me in the flesh, it was fair She

should be joined to Me in the power that is shown to the world. Because we were one flesh: I in Her, She around Me, like the petals of a lily round its scented lively pistil; and She was united to Me in sorrow: because we were both on the cross, I with My body, She with Her soul, as a lily is scented because of its corolla and because of the essence extracted from it. I say to you what I said to the guests: "Thank Mary. It is through Her that you had with you the Master of the miracle and you have My graces, particularly those of forgiveness". Rest in peace. We are with you.

53. Jesus Drives the Merchants out of the Temple. 24th October 1944. I see Jesus entering the enclosure of the Temple with Peter, Andrew, John, James, Philip and Bartholomew. There is a very large crowd both inside and outside the enclosure. Pilgrims are arriving in flocks from every part of the town. From the top of the hill on which the Temple is built, one can see the narrow twisted streets of the town, swarming with people. One gets the impression that a self-moving, many-coloured ribbon has been laid between the white houses. The town looks like a rare toy indeed, a toy made of gaily-coloured ribbons between two white threads, all converging on the point where the domes of the House of the Lord are shining. Inside it is... a real market. The concentration of a holy place has been destroyed. Some run, some call, some contract for lambs, shouting and cursing because of the extortionate prices, some drive the poor bleating animals into their enclosures (rough partitions made of ropes and pegs, at the entrance of which stand the merchants or owners, awaiting buyers). Blows with cudgels, bleatings, curses, shouts, insults to the boys who are not prompt in gathering together or selecting the animals, abuses to the purchasers who haggle over prices or who go away, graver insults to those who wisely brought their own lambs. Near the benches of the money-changers, there is more bawling. It is obvious that either always, or at Passover time, the Temple functioned as a... stock exchange or black market. There was no fixed rate of exchange. There must have been a legal rate, but the money-changers imposed a different one, making whatever profit they fancied, for exchanging the money. And I can assure you they were not joking in their usury transactions!... The poorer the people were and the farther they came from, the more they were fleeced: old people more than young people, those coming from beyond Palestine more than the old folk. Some poor old men looked over and over again at the money they had saved in a whole year, I wonder with how much hard work, they took it out and put it back into their purses dozens and dozens of times, going from one money-changer to another and at times ending up by going back to the first one, who avenged himself for their original desertion by increasing the premium for the exchange. And the big coins passed from the hands of the sighing owners into the clutches of the usurers and were changed into smaller

coins. Then a further tragedy would take place with vendors over the choice and payment of their lambs, and the poor old men, particularly if they were half blind, were fobbed off with the most wretched little lambs. I see an old couple, man and wife, come back pushing a poor little lamb which must have been found faulty by the sacrificers. They cried and begged the vendor, who, far from being moved, replied with nasty words and rude manners. Considering what you want to spend, Galileans, the lamb I gave you is even too good. Go away! Or if you want a better one, you must pay five more coins. In the name of God! We are poor and old! Are you going to prevent us from celebrating this Passover which may be our last one? Are you not satisfied with what you wanted for a poor little lamb? Go away, you filthy lot. Joseph the Elder is now coming here. I enjoy his favour. God be with you, Joseph! Come and make your choice! The man whose name is Joseph the Elder, that is Joseph of Arimathea, enters the enclosure and picks a magnificent lamb. He passes by, stately and proud, magnificently dressed, without even looking at the poor old people weeping at the gate, that is the enclosure entrance. He almost bumps into them when he goes out with the fat, bleating lamb. But Jesus also is now nearby. He also has made His purchase, and Peter, who probably bargained for Him, is pulling a fairly good lamb. Peter would like to go at once where they offer the sacrifices. But Jesus turns to the right, towards the dismayed, weeping, undecided old couple, who are knocked about by the crowds and insulted by the vendor. Jesus, Who is so tall that the heads of the poor old souls reach only up to His heart, lays one hand on the shoulder of the woman and asks her: Why are you crying, woman? The little old woman turns round and she sees the young, tall, stately man, wearing a beautiful new white tunic and a snow-white mantle. She must think He is a doctor because of His garments and His aspect and is greatly surprised, because doctors and priests pay no attention to the poor, neither do they protect them from the stinginess of merchants. She explains to Jesus the reason for their tears. Jesus addresses the lamb vendor: Change this lamb for these believers. It is not worthy of the altar, neither is it fair that you should take advantage of two poor old people, only because they are weak and unprotected. And who are You? A just man. By Your way of speaking and Your companions', I know You are a Galilean. Can there be a just man in Galilee? Do what I told you, and be a just man yourself. Listen! Listen to the Galilean Who is defending His equals! And He wants to teach us of the Temple! The man laughs and jeers, imitating the Galilean accent, which is more musical and softer than the Judaean, at least I think so. Many people go near them and other merchants and moneychangers take their companion's part against Jesus. Amongst the people present there are two or three ironical rabbis. One of them asks: Are You a doctor?, in such a way that even Job would lose his

temper. Yes, I am. What do You teach? This I teach: to make the House of God a house of prayer and not a usury or a market place. That is what I teach. Jesus is formidable. He looks like the archangel posted on the threshold of Eden. He has no flashing sword in His hand but the beams from His eyes strike the impious mockers like lightning. Jesus has nothing in His hands. All He has is His wrath. And full of wrath, He walks fast and solemn between the benches, He scatters the coins which had been sorted out so meticulously according to their values, He turns over the benches and tables, and everything falls on the ground with great noise, in the bustle of rebounding metals and beaten wood, angry cries, shrieks of terror and shouts of approval. He then snatches from the hands of the stable-boys some ropes with which they were holding oxen, sheep and lambs, and He makes a very hard lash, in which the slip-knots are real scourges: He lifts it, swings it and strikes mercilessly with it. Yes, I can assure you: mercilessly. The unforeseen storm hits heads and backs. The believers move to one side admiring the scene; the guilty ones, chased as far as the external wall, take to their heels, leaving their money on the ground and abandoning in a great confusion of legs, horns and wings, their animals, some of which run and fly away. The bellows, bleatings, and fluttering of turtle doves and pigeons, added to the burst of laughter and shouting of the believers at the escaping usurers, overcome even the plaintive chorus of lambs, slaughtered in another yard. Priests, rabbis and Pharisees rush to the spot. Jesus is still in the middle of the yard, on His way back from the chase. The lash is still in His hands. Who are You? How dare You do that, upsetting the prescribed ceremonies? From which school are You? We do not know You, neither do we know where You come from. I am He Who is Mighty. I can do anything. Destroy this true Temple and I will raise it to give praise to God. I am not upsetting the holiness of the House of God or of the ceremonies, but you are perturbing it, allowing His House to become the centre of usurers and merchants. My school is the school of God. The same school as the whole of Israel had when the Eternal God spoke to Moses. You do not know Me? You will know Me. You do not know where I come from? You will learn. And turning towards the people, without noticing the priests any longer, tall in His white tunic, with His mantle open and blowing behind His back, His arms stretched out like an orator at the most important part of his speech, He says: Listen, Israel! In Deuteronomy it is said: "You are to appoint judges and scribes at all the gates... and they must administer an impartial judgement to the people. You must be impartial; you must take no bribes, for a bribe blinds wise men's eyes and jeopardises the cause of the just. Strict justice must be your ideal, so that you may live in rightful possession of the land that Yahweh your God is giving you". Listen, Israel. In Deuteronomy it is said: "The priests and scribes and the whole of the tribe of Levi shall have no share or inheritance with Israel, because they must live on the foods offered to Yahweh and on His dues; they shall have no inheritance among their brothers, because Yahweh will be their

inheritance". Listen, Israel. In Deuteronomy it is said: "You must not lend on interest to your brother, whether the lack be of money or food or anything else. You may demand interest on a loan of a foreigner; you will lend without interest to your brother whatever he needs". The Lord said that. But now you see that in Israel judgements are administered without justice for the poor. They are not inclined to justice, but they are partial with the rich, and to be poor, to be of the common people means to be oppressed. How can the people say: "Our judges are just" when they see that only the mighty ones are respected and satisfied, whereas the poor have no one who will listen to them? How can the people respect the Lord, when they see that the Lord is not respected by those who should respect Him more than everyone else? Does he who infringes the Lord's commandment respect Him? Why then do the priests in Israel possess property and accept bribes from tax-collectors and sinners, who make them offerings to obtain their favours, while they accept gifts to fill their coffers? God is the inheritance of His priests. He, the Father of Israel, is more than a Father to them and provides them with food, as it is just. But not more than what is just. He did not promise money and possessions to His servants of the sanctuary. In eternal life, they will possess Heaven for their justice, as Moses, Elijah, Jacob and Abraham will, but in this world they must have but a linen garment and a diadem of incorruptible gold: purity and charity, and their bodies must be subject to their souls, which are to be subject to the true God, and their bodies are not to be masters over their souls and against God. I have been asked on what authority I do this. And on what authority do they violate God's command and allow in the shade of the sacred walls usury on their brothers of Israel, who have come to obey the divine command? I have been asked from what school I come and I replied: "From God's school" Yes, Israel, I have come from and I will take you back to that holy and immutable school. Who wants to know the Light, the Truth, the Way, who wants to hear once again the voice of God speaking to his people, let him come to Me. You followed Moses through the deserts, Israel. Follow Me, because I shall lead you through a far worse desert, to the true blessed Land. At God's command, I will draw you to it, across an open sea. I will cure you of all evils lifting up My Sign. The time of Grace has come. The Prophets expected it and died waiting for it. The Prophets prophesied it and died in that hope. The just have dreamt of it and died comforted by that dream. It is now here. Come. "The Lord is about to judge His people and have mercy on His servants", as He promised through Moses. The people crowding round Jesus stand open-mouthed listening to Him. Then they comment on the new Rabbi's words and ask His companions questions. Jesus goes to another yard, separated from this one only by a porch. His friends follow Him, and the vision ends.

54. Jesus Meets Judas Iscariot and Thomas and Cures Simon the Zealot. 26th October 1944. Jesus is together with His six disciples. Neither the other day nor today have I seen Judas Thaddeus, who said he wanted to come to Jerusalem with Jesus. It must still be Passover time, because there is always a lot of people in town. It is evening and many people are hurrying home. Jesus also goes towards the house where He is a guest. It is not the house of the last Supper, which is in town, although not far from its walls. This house, instead, is a real country house, amongst thick olive-trees. From the rustic open space in front of the house, one can see the olive-trees down the terraces of the hill, right down to a little torrent, with very little water, which flows away along the valley formed by two hills: on the top of one there is the Temple, on the other hill there are only olive-trees. Jesus is at the first slopes of the latter hill, which rises smoothly, completely covered with peaceful trees. John, there are two men awaiting your friends says an elderly man, who must be the farmer or the owner of the olive-grove. I would say that John knows him. Where are they? Who are they? I don't know. One is certainly a Judaean. The other... I don't know. I didn't ask him. Where are they? In the kitchen, waiting, and... and... yes... there is another man who is all covered with sores. I made him stay over there, because I am afraid he may be a leper. He says he wants to see the Prophet Who spoke in the Temple. Jesus, Who up to this moment has been silent, says: Let us go to him first. Tell the others to come if they so wish. I will speak to them there, in the olive-grove. And He makes for the place indicated by the man. And what about us? What shall we do? asks Peter. Come, if you want. A man, muffled up, is leaning against the rustic wall supporting a terrace, the nearest to the boundary of the property. He must have climbed up there along a path coasting the torrent. When he sees Jesus approaching him, he shouts: Go back. Back! Have mercy on me! And he uncovers his trunk dropping his tunic to the ground. If his face is covered with scabs his trunk is one big sore. Some of the sores have already become deep wounds, some are like burns, some are whitish and glossy, as if there was a thin white pane of glass on them. Are you a leper? What do you want of Me? Don't curse me! Don't stone me. I have been told that the other evening You revealed Yourself as the Voice of God and the Bearer of Grace. I was also told that You gave assurance that by raising Your Sign, You will cure all diseases. Please raise it on me. I have come from the sepulchres... over there... I crept like a snake amongst the bushes near the torrent to arrive here without being seen. I waited until evening before leaving because at dusk it is more difficult to see who I am. I dared... I found this man, the man of the house, he is good. He did not kill me. He only said: "Wait over there, near the little wall". Have mercy on me and as Jesus is going near him, all by Himself,

because the six disciples and the landlord, as well as the two strangers, are far away and are evidently disgusted, he adds: Don't come nearer. Don't! I am infected! But Jesus proceeds. He looks at him so mercifully, that the man starts crying and kneels down almost touching the ground with his face, moaning: Your Sign! Your Sign! It will be raised when it is time. But now I say to you: Stand up. Be healed. I want it. And be the sign in this town that must recognise Me. Rise, I say. And do not sin, out of gratitude to God! The man rises slowly. He seems to emerge from the long flowery grass as from a shroud... and is healed. He looks at himself in the last dim light of the day. He is healed. He shouts: I am clean! Oh! What shall I do for You now? You must comply with the Law. Go to the priest. Be good in future. Go. The man is on the point of throwing himself at Jesus' feet, but he remembers he is still impure, according to the Law, and he restrains himself. But he kisses his own hand, and throws a kiss to Jesus and weeps. He weeps out of joy. The others are dumbfounded. Jesus turns away from the healed man and rouses them smiling. My friends, it was only a leprosy of the flesh. But you will see leprosy fall from hearts. Is it you that wanted Me? He asks the two strangers. Here I am. Who are you? We heard You the other evening... in the Temple. We looked for You in town. A man, who said he is a relative of Yours, told us You stay here. Why are you looking for Me? To follow You, if You will allow us, because You have words of truth. Follow Me? But do you know where I am going? No, Master, but certainly to glory. Yes. But not to a glory of this world. I am going to a glory which is in Heaven and is conquered by virtue and sacrifice. Why do you want to follow Me? He asks them again. To take part in Your glory... According to Heaven? Yes, according to Heaven. Not everybody is able to arrive there. Because Mammon lays more snares for those yearning for Heaven than for the others. And only he who has strong will power can resist. Why follow Me, if to follow Me implies a continuous struggle against the enemy, which is in us, against the hostile world, and against the Enemy who is Satan? Because that is the desire of our souls, which have been conquered by You. You are holy and powerful. We want to be Your friends. Friends!!! Jesus is silent and sighs. Then He stares at the one who has spoken all the time and who has now removed the mantle-hood from his head, and is bareheaded. He is Judas of Kerioth. Who are you? You speak better than a man of the people. I am Judas, the son of Simon. I come from Kerioth. But I am of the Temple. I am waiting for and dreaming of the King of the Jews. I heard You speak like a king. I saw Your kingly gestures. Take me with You. Take you? Now? At once? No. Why not, Master? Because it is better to examine ourselves carefully before venturing on very steep roads.

Do You not believe I am sincere? You have said it. I believe in your impulsiveness. But I do not believe in your perseverance. Think about it, Judas. I am going away now and I will be back for Pentecost. If you are in the Temple, you will see Me. Examine yourself. And who are you?. I am another one who saw You. I would like to be with You. But now I am frightened. No. Presumption ruins people. Fear may be an impediment, but it is a help when it originates from humility. Do not be afraid. Think about it, too, and when I come back... Master, You are so holy! I am afraid of not being worthy. Nothing else. Because I do not doubt my love... What is your name? Thomas, of Didymus. I will remember your name. Go in peace. Jesus dismisses them and He goes into the hospitable house for supper. The six disciples who are with Him want to know many things. Why, Master, why did You treat them differently? Because there was a difference. Both of them had the same impulsiveness... asks John. My friend, also the same impulsiveness may have a different taste and bring about a different effect. They both certainly had the same impulsiveness. But they were not the same in their purposes. And the one who appears less perfect is, in fact, more perfect, because he has no incentive to human glory. He loves Me because he loves Me. And so do I. And I, too. And I. And I. And I. And I. I know. I know you for what you are. Are we therefore perfect? Oh! No! But, like Thomas, you will become perfect if you persevere in your desire to love. Perfect?! Oh! My friends! And who is perfect but God? You are! I solemnly tell you that I am not perfect by Myself, if you think I am prophet. No man is perfect. But I am perfect because He Who is speaking to you is the Word of the Father: part of God. His thought that becomes Word. I have Perfection in Myself. And you must believe Me to be such if you believe that I am the Word of the Father. And yet, see, My friends, I want to be called the Son of man because I lower Myself taking upon Myself all the miseries of man, to bear them as My first scaffold, and cancel them, after bearing them, without suffering from them Myself. What a burden, My friends! But I bear it with joy. It is a joy for Me to bear it, because, since I am the Son of mankind, I will make mankind once again the child of God. As it was on the first day. Jesus is speaking very gently, sitting at the poor table, gesticulating calmly with His hands on the table, His head slightly inclined to one side, His face lit up from below by a small oil lamp on the table. He smiles gently, He Who formerly was so majestic a Master in His bearing, is now so friendly in His gestures. His disciples are listening to Him carefully.

Master... why did Your cousin not come, although he knows where You live? My Peter!... You will be one of My stones, the first one. But not all the stones can be easily used. Have you seen the marble blocks in the Praetorium building? With hard labour they have been torn away from the bosom of the mountain side, and are now part of the Praetorium. Look instead at those stones down there shining in the moonlight, in the water of the Kidron. They arrived in the riverbed by themselves, and if anyone wants to take them, they do not put up any resistance. My cousin is like the first stones I am speaking of... The bosom of the mountain side: his family, they contend for him with Me. But I want to be exactly like the stones in the torrent. I am quite prepared to leave everything for You: home, wife, fishing, brothers. Everything, Rabboni, for You. I know, Peter. That is why I love you. Also Judas will come. Who? Judas of Kerioth? I don't care for him. He is a dandy young man, but... I prefer... I prefer myself... They all laugh at Peter's witty remark. There is nothing to laugh at. I mean that I prefer a sincere Galilean, a rough fisherman, but without any fraud to... to townsfolk who... I don't know... here: the Master knows what I mean. Yes, I know. But do not judge. We need one another in this world, the good are mixed with the wicked, just like flowers in a field. Hemlock grows beside the salutary mallow. I would like to ask one thing... What, Andrew? John told me about the miracle You worked at Cana... We were hoping so much that You would work one at Capernaum... and You said that You would not work any miracles before fulfilling the Law. Why Cana then? And why here and not in Your own fatherland? To obey the Law is to be united to God and that increases our capabilities. A miracle is the proof of the union with God, as well as of God's benevolent and assenting presence. That is why I wanted to Perform My duty as an Israelite, before starting the series of miracles. But You were not bound to fulfil the Law. Why? As the Son of God, I was not. But as a son of the Law, yes, I was. For the time being, Israel knows Me only as such... and, even later, almost everyone in Israel will know Me as such, nay, even less. But I do not want to scandalise Israel and therefore I obey the Law. You are holy. Holiness does not bar obedience. Nay it makes obedience perfect. Besides everything else, there is a good example to be given. What would you say of a father, of an elder brother, of a teacher, of a priest who did not give good examples? And what about Cana? Cana was to make My Mother happy. Cana is the advance due to My Mother. She anticipates Grace. Here I honour the Holy City, making her, in public, the starting point of My power as Messiah. But there, at Cana, I paid honour to the Holy Mother of God, Full of Grace. The world received Me through Her. It is only fair that My first miracle in the world should be for Her.

There is a knocking at the door. It is Thomas once again. He goes in and throws himself at Jesus' feet. Master... I cannot wait until You come back. Let me come with You. I am full of faults, but I have my love, my only real great treasure. It is Yours, it's for You. Let me come, Master... Jesus lays His hand on Thomas' head. You may stay, Didymus. Follow Me. Blessed are those who are sincere and persistent in their will. You are all blessed. You are more than relatives to Me, because you are My children and My brothers, not according to the blood, that dies, but according to the will of God and to your spiritual wishes. Now I tell you that I have no closer relative than those who do the will of My Father, and you do it, because you want what is good. The vision ends thus. It is 4 o'clock p.m. and the shadows of torpor are already falling upon me: a torpidity which I perceive will be violent, a logical consequence of yesterday's painful hour... But I was very ill also on October the 24th. So much so, that when the vision was over - I wrote it suffering from a headache quite as bad as meningitis- I did not have enough strength to add that at last I saw Jesus dressed as He appears to me when the vision is entirely for me: wearing a soft tunic of white wool just verging to ivory and a mantle of the same hue. The garments He was wearing the first time He revealed Himself as Messiah in Jerusalem.

55. Thomas Becomes a Disciple. 27th October 1944. This morning, as I recovered my senses after a very heavy torpor which had lasted many hours, while I was praying awaiting daylight, I saw the resumption of the vision. I say resumption because we are still in the same place: the low, wide kitchen, with its dark, smoky walls, dimly lit up by the small flame of an oil lamp on the rustic table. It is a long narrow table at which eight people are sitting: Jesus and His six disciples, and the landlord, four each side. Jesus, sitting on a stool - the only seats here are three-legged stools, real country furniture - is still turned round speaking to Thomas. Jesus' hand has fallen from Thomas' head on to his shoulder. Jesus says: Stand up, My friend. Have you had any supper yet? No, Master. I walked a few yards with the other fellow who was with me, then I left him and I came back saying that I wanted to speak to the healed leper... I said that because I thought he would disdain approaching an impure man. I guessed right. But I wanted to see You, not the leper... I wanted to say to You: "Please take me"... I wandered up and down the olive-grove until a young man asked me what I was doing. He must have thought I was ill-disposed. He was near a pillar, at the boundary of the olive-grove. The landlord smiles. It's my son he explains and adds: He is on guard at the oil-mill. In the caves under the mill, we still have almost all the crop of the year. It was a very good one and we made a lot of oil. And when there are large crowds about, robbers always get together to plunder unguarded places. Eight years ago, just at Parasceve, they robbed us of everything. Since then we

keep a good watch one night each. His mother has gone to take him his supper. Well, he asked me: "What do you want?", and he spoke in such a tone that to save my back from his stick, I answered at once: "I am looking for the Master Who lives here". He then replied: "If what you say is true, come to the house". And he brought me here. It was he who knocked at the door and he did not go away until he heard my first words. Do you live far away? I live on the other side of the town, near the Eastern Gate. Are you alone? I was with some relatives. But they have gone to stay with other relatives on the road to Bethlehem, I remained here to look for You day and night, until I found You. Jesus smiles and says: So no one is waiting for you? No, Master. It is a long way, it is a dark night, the Roman patrols are about the town. I say: stay with us, if you wish. Oh! Master! Thomas is happy. Make room for him. And each of us will give something to our brother. Jesus gives him the portion of cheese He had in front of Him. He explains to Thomas: We are poor and our supper is almost over. But there is so much heart in who offers. And He says to John who is sitting beside Him: Give your seat to our friend. John gets up at once and sits down at the end of the table near the landlord. Sit down, Thomas, and eat. And then He says to them all: You will always behave like that, My friends, according to the law of charity. A pilgrim is already protected by the law of God. But now, in My name, you must love him even more. When anyone asks you for some bread, a drop of water or a shelter in the name of God, you must give it in the same name. And you will receive your reward from God. You must behave so with everybody. Even with your enemies. And that is the new Law. Up till now you were told: "Love those who love you and hate your enemies". I say: "Love also those who hate you". Oh! if you only knew how much you will be loved by God, if you love as I am telling you! And when anyone says: "I want to be your companion in serving the true Lord God and following His Lamb", then he must be dearer to you than a brother by blood, because you will be joined by an eternal bond: the bond of Christ. But if someone comes who is not sincere? It is easy to say: "I want to do this or that". But words do not always correspond to the truth says Peter, rather irritated. I do not know why, but he is not in his usual jovial mood. Peter, listen. What you say is sensible and fair. But, see: it is better to exceed in bounty and trust rather than exceed in distrust and hardness. If you help an undeserving person, what harm will befall you? None. Nay, God's reward will always be active for you, whereas the person will be guilty of betraying your trust. No harm? Eh! Very often a worthless person is not satisfied with ingratitude, but goes much further, even to the extreme of ruining one's reputation, wealth and one's very life. True. But would that diminish your merit? No, it would not. Even if the

whole world should believe slander, even if you became poorer than Job, even if the cruel person should take your life, what would change in the eyes of God? Nothing. Nay, something would change. But to your advantage. God, to the merits of your bounty, would add the merits of your intellectual, financial, physical martyrdom. All right! Perhaps it is so. Peter does not speak any more. He sulkily rests his head on his hand. Jesus addresses Thomas: My friend, before, in the olive-grove I said to you: "When I come back here, if you are still willing, you will be one of My disciples". Now I say to you: "Are you willing to do Jesus a favour?" Most certainly. And if this favour should cost you some sacrifice? There is no sacrifice in serving You. What is it You want? I wanted to say... but you may have some business, some affections... None, none! I have You! Tell me. Listen. Tomorrow at daybreak the leper will leave the sepulchres to find someone who will inform the priest. You will be the first to go to the sepulchres. It is charity. And you will shout: "Come out, you, the one who was cleansed yesterday. I have been sent by Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah of Israel, He who cleansed you". Let the world of the "living dead" know My name, let them throb with hope, and let those come to Me, who will have faith in addition to hope, that I may heal them. It is the first form of purity that I am bringing, the first form of the resurrection, of which I am the lord. One day I will grant a greater purity... One day the sealed tombs will violently expel those who are really dead, and they will appear and laugh with their empty eye sockets, with their bare jaws, because of the rejoicing of the souls freed from Limbo, a remote rejoicing and yet perceived even by skeletons. They will appear to laugh because of this liberation and to throb knowing it is due to... Go! He will come to you. You will do what he asks you to do. You will assist him in everything, as if he were your brother. And you will also say to him: "When you are completely purified, we will go together along the road of the river, beyond Doco and Ephraim. Jesus, the Master, will be waiting for us to tell us in what we have to serve him". I will do that. And what about the other one? Who? The Iscariot? Yes, Master. The advice I gave him still stands. Let him decide by himself and let him take a long time. Nay, avoid seeing him. I will be with the leper. Only lepers wander about in the valley of the sepulchres and those who pitifully are in touch with them. Peter mumbles something. Jesus hears him. What is the matter with you, Peter? You either grumble or are silent. You seem to be discontented. Why? I am discontented. We were the first and You did not work a miracle for us. We were the first and You let a stranger sit beside You. We were the first and You entrust him, not us, with a task. We were the first and... yet, yes, we seem to be the last ones. Why are You going to wait for them on the road near the river? Certainly to entrust them with some mission. Why them, and not us? Jesus looks at him. He is not angry. On the contrary He smiles as one

smiles at a child. He gets up, goes slowly over to Peter and, smiling, says to him: Peter! Peter! You are a big, old baby! And He says to Andrew, who is sitting beside his brother: Go and take My seat and He sits beside Peter, clasping his shoulders with His arm, and He speaks to him, holding him thus against His own shoulder: Peter, you think I am being unfair, but I am not. On the contrary it is a proof that I know what you are worth. Look. Who needs proofs? He who is not yet certain. I knew you were so certain about Me, that I did not feel any need to give you evidence of My power. Proofs are required here in Jerusalem, where vices, irreligiousness, politics and many worldly things dim souls to such an extent that they can no longer see the Light passing by. But up there, on our beautiful lake, so clear under a clear sky, amongst honest and good willing people, no proof is required. You will have miracles. I will pour torrents of graces upon you. But consider how I valued you, I took you without exacting any proof and without finding it necessary to give you any, because I know who you are. You are dear to Me, so dear, and so faithful. Peter cheers up: Forgive me, Jesus. Yes, I forgive you because your sulkiness is a sign of love. But do not be envious any more, Simon of Jonas. Do you know what the heart of your Jesus is? Have you ever seen the sea, the real sea? You have? Well, My heart is bigger than the immense sea! And there is room for everybody. For the whole of mankind. And the smallest person has a place exactly as the greatest. And a sinner finds love just like an innocent. I am entrusting these with a mission. Certainly. Do you want to forbid Me? I chose you. You did not choose yourselves. I am therefore free to decide how I want to employ you. And if I leave them here with a mission - which might well be a test, as the lapse of time granted to the Iscariot may be due to mercy - can you reproach Me? How do you know that I am not keeping a greater mission for you? And is not the nicest mission to be told: "You will come with me"? It is true. I am a blockhead! Forgive me... Yes. I forgive everything. Oh! Peter!... But I beg you all never to discuss merits and positions. I could have been born a king. I was born poor, in a stable. I could have been rich. I lived with My work and now I live out of charity. And yet, believe Me, My friends, there is no one greater than I in the eyes of God. Greater than I am, Who am here: the servant of man. You a servant? Never! Why not, Peter? Because I will serve You. Even if You served Me as a mother serves her child, I have come to serve man. I will be a Saviour for him. What service is there like that? Oh! Master! You explain everything. And what seemed dark becomes clear at once! Are you happy now, Peter? Now let Me finish talking to Thomas. Are you sure you will recognise the leper? He is the only one healed; but he may already have left by starlight, to find an early wayfarer. And someone, anxious to enter the town and see his relatives, might perhaps take his place. Listen to his description. I was near him and I saw him well in the twilight. He is tall and thin. Of a dark complexion, like a cross-breed, very deep and dark eyes with snow-white eyebrows, hair as white as linen and somewhat curly, and a long snubbed nose like the Lybians', two thick protruding lips particularly the

lower one. He is so olive-coloured that his lips verge on violet. He has an old scar on his forehead and it will be the only stain, now that he has been cleaned from scabs and dirt. He must be old, if he is all white. No, Philip, he looks old, but he is not. Leprosy made him white. What is he? A cross-breed? Perhaps, Peter. He resembles African people. Will he be an Israelite, then? We will find out. But suppose he is not? Eh! If he were not, he would go away. He is already lucky that he deserved to be healed. No, Peter. Even if he is an idolater, I will not send him away. Jesus has come for everybody. And I solemnly tell you that people living in darkness will overcome the children of the people of Light... Jesus sighs. He then stands up. He thanks the Father with a hymn and blesses everyone. The vision ends thus. I point out incidentally that my internal adviser said to me, since yesterday evening when I saw the leper: It is Simon, the apostle. You will see him and Thaddeus coming to the Master. This morning, after Holy Communion (today is Friday) I opened my missal and I saw that this is the eve of the feast of Saints Simon and Judas, and tomorrow's Gospel deals with charity, almost repeating the very words I heard before the vision. However, I have not seen Judas Thaddeus so far. 56. Judas of Alphaeus, Thomas and Simon Are Accepted as Disciples at the Jordan. 28th October 1944. You are beautiful, o banks of the Jordan, as beautiful as you were in the times of Jesus! I admire you and am enraptured by your solemn green-blue peace, resounding with flowing waters and leafy branches, as sweet as a melody. I am on a road which is quite wide and also well maintained. It must be a highway, or more likely a military road, built by the Romans to link the various regions with the capital. It runs near the river, but not precisely along it. It is in fact separated from it by woodland, the function of which I think is to consolidate the river banks and contain the water in times of flood. The woodland continues on the other side of the road, so that the road looks like a natural tunnel over which the trees interlace their leafy branches, a beneficial protection for wayfarers in the hot climate of this country. At the point where I am, the river, and consequently also the road, form a wide bend, so that the leafy embankment appears to me like a huge green barrier built to enclose a basin of calm waters. It almost looks like a lake in a luxury park. But the water is not as still as the water of a lake. It flows, although slowly. This is evident from its rustling against the first reed thickets, the more daring ones that have grown down there, in the gravel bed, and also from the undulation of the long ribbon-like leaves of the canes, reaching down to the water by which they are sweetly lulled. Also a group of willows, with

flexible falling branches, have entrusted the ends of their green foliage to the river, that combs the thin branches with a graceful caress, stretching them softly on the water surface. There is peace and silence in the early morning. One can sense only the warbling of birds, the rustling of water and leaves, the glittering of dew drops on the tall green grass between the trees, a grass not yet hardened or parched by the summer sunshine, but tender and fresh, since it came up after the springtime showers, which nourished the earth, in its very depth, with moisture and rich juices. Three wayfarers are standing on the road, in the middle of the bend. They look up and down, to the south, where Jerusalem is and to the north, where Samaria lies. They look anxiously between the trees to see whether anyone is arriving as expected. They are Thomas, Judas Thaddeus and the healed leper. They are speaking. Can you see anything? No, I can't. Neither can I. And yet this is the place. Are you sure? I'm sure, Simon. One of the six said to me, when the Master was going away amid the acclamations of the crowd, after the miraculous healing of a crippled beggar, who was healed at the Fish Gate: "We are now going out of Jerusalem. Wait for us five miles between Jericho and Doco, at the bend of the river, along the road in the woodland". This one. He also said: "We will be there in three days' time at dawn". This is the third day, and we have been here before dawn. Will He come? Perhaps we should have followed Him from Jerusalem. You were not yet allowed to mix with the crowds, Simon. If my cousin told you to come here, He will certainly come here. He always keeps His promise. All we can do is wait. Have you always been with Him? Yes, always. Since He came back to Nazareth He was my good companion. We were always together. We are about the same age, I am a little older. And I was the favourite of His father, who was my father's brother. Also His Mother was very fond of me. I grew up more with Her than with my own mother. She was fond... Is She no longer as fond of you, now? Oh! Yes, She is. But we have parted a little since He became a prophet. My relatives are not happy about it. Which relatives? My father and the two older brothers. The other one is undecided... My father is very old and I did not have the courage to hurt him. But now... Now, no longer so. Now I am going where my heart and my mind tell me. I am going to Jesus. I don't think I am offending the Law by doing so. In any case... if what I want to do was not right, Jesus would tell me. I will do what He says. Is it right for a father to prevent a son from doing good? If I feel that my salvation is there, why prevent me from reaching it? Why, at times, are our fathers our enemies? Simon sighs, as if he were overwhelmed by sad memories, he lowers his head, but does not speak.

Thomas instead replies: I have already overcome the obstacle. My father listened to me and he understood me. He blessed me saying: "Go. May this Passover be for you the liberation from the slavery of waiting. You are fortunate because you can believe. I will wait. But if it is really 'Him', and you will find out following Him, then come and say to your old father: 'Come, Israel has the Expected One' ". You are luckier than I am. And we always lived beside Him!... And we, in the family, do not believe!... We say, that is: they say: "He has gone mad"! There, there is a group of people shouts Simon. It's Him, it's Him! I recognise His fair head! Oh! Come! Let us run! They start walking fast southwards. When they reach the centre of the bend, the trees cover the remainder of the road, so that the two groups face each other unexpectedly. Jesus seems to be coming up from the river, because He is among the trees on the bank. Master! Jesus! My Lord! The three cries of the disciple, the cousin and the cured leper are full of joy and veneration. Peace to you! There is the beautiful, unmistakable, full, resonant, calm, expressive, clear, virile, sweet, incisive voice! You too, Judas, My cousin, are here? They embrace each other. Judas is weeping. Why are you weeping? Oh! Jesus! I want to stay with You! I have been waiting for you all the time. Why did you not come? Judas lowers his head and is silent. They did not let you! And now? Jesus, I... I cannot obey them. I want to obey only You. But I did not give you an order. No, You did not. But it is Your mission that gives it! It is He, Who sent You, Who is speaking here, in my heart, and says to me: "Go to Him". It is She, Who bore You, my sweet teacher, Who with Her gentle look, as mild as a dove's, says to me without uttering a word: "Be of Jesus!". Can I ignore that heavenly voice that pierces my heart? Can I ignore the prayers of such a Holy Woman, Who implores me for my own good? Only because I am Your cousin on Joseph's side, am I not to acknowledge You for what You are, whereas the Baptist recognised You, although he had never seen You, here, on the banks of this river and he greeted You as the "Lamb of God"? And I, should I not be capable of anything, although I was brought up with You, and I was good because I followed You, and I became a son of the Law through Your Mother, from Whom I learned not the six hundred and thirteen precepts of the rabbis, besides the Scriptures and the prayers, but the essence of them all? And your father? My father? He does not lack bread and assistance, and then... You give me the example. You have thought of the welfare of the people, rather than the little advantage of Mary. And She is alone. Tell me, Master, is it not right for a son to say to his father, without lacking respect: "Father, I love you. But God is above you and I will follow Him"? Judas, My cousin and My friend, I tell you: you have made good progress

on the way to Light. Come. It is lawful to speak thus to a father, when it is God Who calls. There is nothing above God. Also the laws of relationship cease, that is they are raised to a dignity, because with our tears, we give our fathers and mothers a greater help and for something everlasting, not for a short time in this world. We draw them with us to Heaven, and by sacrificing our affections, to God. So, Judas, stay here. I have been waiting for you and I am happy to have you, the friend of My life at Nazareth. Judas is touched. Jesus addresses Thomas: You obeyed faithfully. That is the first virtue of a disciple. I came because I want to be faithful to You. And you will be. I tell you. And you, who are hiding shyly in the shade, come here. Do not be afraid. My Lord! The ex-leper is at Jesus' feet. Stand up. Your name? Simon. Your family? My Lord... it was powerful... I was powerful too... But bitter sectarian hatred... and errors of youth damaged its power. My father... Oh! I must speak against him, who caused me to shed so many earthly tears! You see, You saw the gift he gave me. Was he a leper? He was not. Neither was I. But he suffered from another disease which we in Israel associate with various forms of leprosy. He... his caste was then triumphant, he lived and died as a powerful man, at home. I... if You had not saved me, I would have died in the valley of sepulchres. Are you alone? Yes, I am. I have a faithful servant who looks after what property is left. I sent word to him. And your mother? She is dead. The man seems embarrassed. Jesus looks at him attentively. Simon, you asked me: "What shall I do for You?" Now I say to you: "Follow Me". I will, at once, my Lord... But... But I... let me tell You one thing. I am, I was called "Zealot" because of the caste, and "Cananean", because of my mother. See. I am of a dark complexion. In my veins there is the blood of a slave woman. My father had no children from his wife, and he had me from a slave. His wife was a good woman and she brought me up as her own son, she took care of me in my endless illnesses until she died... There are no slaves or freemen in the eyes of God. There is only one slavery in His eyes: sin. And I have come to abolish it. I am calling everybody, because the Kingdom is of all men. Are you a learned man? Yes, I am. I also had my position amongst the important people, as long as my disease was hidden under my clothes. But when it spread to my face... My enemies then could not believe they were at last able to confine me amongst the "dead", although a Roman doctor of Caesarea, when I consulted him, told me that mine was not real leprosy, but hereditary serpigo, which I would spread only by procreation. Is it possible for me not to curse my father? You must not curse him. He has caused you all sorts of trouble...

Yes, he did! He was a squanderer, a vicious, cruel, heartless man without any love. He deprived me of my health, he denied me love and peace, he branded me with a shameful name and with a disease which is a mark of infamy... He wanted everything for himself, even his son's future. He deprived me of everything, also of the joy of being a father. That is why I say to you: "Follow Me". As My follower you will find father and children. Look up, Simon. There, the True Father is smiling at you. Look at the wide world, at the continents, at the countries: there are children and children everywhere; children of the souls for the childless. They are waiting for you, and many like you are also waiting. There are no foundlings under My Sign. There is no solitude, no difference in My Sign. It is a sign of love, and it gives love. Come, My childless Simon. Come, Judas, who are losing your father for My sake. I join you in the same destiny. They are both beside Him. He is holding His hands on their shoulders as if He were taking possession of them and imposing a common yoke on them. He then says: And I unite you together. But now I will separate you. Simon, you will stay here with Thomas. You will prepare with him the way for My return: I will be back soon, and I want the people to be waiting for Me. Tell the sick people that He Who can cure their illnesses, is about to come here: you can certainly tell them that. Tell those who are waiting, that the Messiah is among His people. Tell the sinners that He Who forgives has come to give them strength to rise... Will we be able to do that? Yes, you will. All you have to say is: "He has come. He calls you. He is waiting for you. He has come to grant you graces. Come here to see Him", and to these words, add a report of what you know. And you, Judas, My cousin, come with Me and these. But you will stay at Nazareth. Why, Jesus? Because you must prepare My way in My fatherland. Do you think it is a small mission? I can tell you that there is not a harder one... Jesus sighs. And will I succeed? You will and you will not. But it will be sufficient to be justified. Justified of what? And with whom? With God. With your fatherland. With your family. They will not be able to reproach us, because we offered good things: and if the fatherland and the family will disdain our offer, we shall not be blamed for their loss. And what about us? You, Peter? You will go back to your fishing nets. Why? Because I will teach you slowly and I will take you with Me, when I find that you are ready. But will we see You, then? Certainly. I will often come to see you, or I will send for you when I am at Capernaum. Now, let us say goodbye, My friends and let us go. I bless you, who are staying here. May My peace be with you. And the vision ends.

57. Return to Nazareth after Passover with the Six Disciples. 31st October 1944. Jesus is near Nazareth with His cousin and the six disciples. From the top of the hill where they are, the white village can be seen amongst the green of the trees, with its houses scattered up and down the sweetly undulating slopes, gently declining in some cases, more steep in others. Here we are, My friends. That is My house. My Mother is at home because there is smoke rising from the house. Perhaps She is baking. I will not ask you to stay with Me, because I imagine you will be anxious to go to your homes. But if you wish to share My bread with Me and meet My Mother, Whom John has already met, then I say to You: "Come". The six disciples, who were already sad because of the impending separation, are all happy again and they accept the invitation wholeheartedly. Let us go, then. They go down the hillock quickly and take to the main road. It is evening. It is still warm, but the shades of evening are falling over the country, where the crops are beginning to ripen. They go into the village. Women are coming and going from the fountain, men standing on the threshold of their little workshops or working in the kitchen gardens wave to Jesus and Judas. The children press round Jesus. Have You come back? Are You staying here, now? The wheel of my little barrow is broken again. Do You know, Jesus. I have a new baby sister, and they have called her Mary. The schoolmaster told me that I have learned everything and that I am a true son of the Law. Sarah is not here, because her mother is very ill. She cries, because she is afraid. My brother Isaac got married. We had a lovely feast. Jesus listens, caresses, praises, promises His help. And they reach the house thus. Mary is already at the door, as a thoughtful boy informed Her. Son! Mother! They are in each other's arms. Mary, Who is much smaller than Jesus, is leaning with Her head on Her Son's chest, clasped in His arms. He kisses Her blond hair. They enter the house. The disciples, including Judas, remain outside, to leave Jesus and Mary free in their first effusions. Jesus! My Son! Mary's voice trembles, as if it were choked with sobs. Why, Mother, why are You so upset? Oh! Son. They told Me... In the Temple, that day, there were some Galileans and some Nazarenes... They came back... and they told Me... Oh!

Son! But You can see, Mother, that I am well. I suffered no harm. God was glorified in His House. Yes, I know, Son of My heart. I know it was like the blare awaking the sleepers. And I am happy for the glory given to God... I am happy that this people of Mine wakes to God... I am not reproaching You... I will not be a hindrance to You... I understand You and... and I am happy, but I begot You, Son!... Mary is still clasped by Jesus' arms and She has spoken holding Her little open hands pressed against Her Son's chest, Her head turned up towards Him, Her eyes shining with tears ready to run down Her cheeks. She is now silent, leaning Her head on His chest. She looks like a grey turtle-dove, in Her greyish dress, sheltered by two strong white wings, because Jesus still wears His white tunic and mantle. Mother! Poor Mother! Dear Mother!... Jesus kisses Her again. He then says: Well, see? I am here, but I am not alone. I have My first disciples with Me, and the other ones are in Judaea. Also My cousin Judas is with Me and follows Me... Judas? Yes, Judas. I know why You are surprised. Among those who told You what happened, there certainly was Alphaeus with his sons, and I am not mistaken if I tell You that they criticised Me. But do not be afraid. Today is so, tomorrow will be different. A man is to be cultivated like the soil, and where there are thorns, there will be roses. Judas, of whom You are so fond, is already with Me. Where is he now? Outside with the others. Have You got enough bread for everybody? Yes Son. Mary of Alphaeus is taking it out of the oven just now. Mary is very good to Me, particularly now. God will give her glory. He goes to the door and calls: Judas! Your mother is here! Come in, My friends! They go in and greet Jesus' Mother. Judas kisses Her and then runs looking for his mother. Jesus introduces the five disciples mentioning their names: Peter, Andrew, James, Nathanael, Philip; because John, who has already met Mary, spoke to Her immediately after Judas, bowing down to Her and receiving Her blessing. Mary greets them and asks them to sit down. She is the landlady and although adoring Her Jesus with Her glances - Her soul seems to be speaking to Her Son through Her eyes - She takes care of Her guests. She would like to bring some water to refresh them. But Peter objects: No, Woman. I cannot allow that. Please sit near Your Son, Holy Mother. I will go, we will all go into the kitchen garden to refresh ourselves. Mary of Alphaeus rushes in, flushed and covered with flour, she greets Jesus Who blesses her, she then leads the six men into the kitchen garden, to the fountain, and comes back happy. Oh! Mary! she says to the Virgin. Judas told me. How happy I am! For Judas and for You, my dear sister-in-law. I know that the others will scold me. But it does not matter. I will be happy the day I know that they are all for Jesus. We are mothers and we know... we feel what is good for our children. And I feel that You, Jesus, are the wealth of my children. Jesus caresses her head and smiles at her.

The disciples come back in and Mary of Alphaeus serves them sweet-smelling bread, olives and cheese. She then brings a small amphora of red wine, which Jesus pours out to his friends. It is always Jesus Who offers and then hands things out. At first the disciples are somewhat embarrassed, then they become more sure of themselves and they speak about their houses, of the journey to Jerusalem, of the miracles worked by Jesus. They are full of zeal and affection and Peter endeavours to form an alliance with Mary to be taken by Jesus at once, without having to wait at Bethsaida. Do what He tells you urges Mary, with a gentle smile. The wait will be more useful to you than an immediate union. Whatever My Jesus does is always well done. Peter's hope vanishes. But he submits with good grace. He only asks: Will it be a long wait? Jesus smiles at him, but does not say anything. Mary interprets Jesus' smile as a favourable sign and She explains: Simon of Jonas, He is smiling... I therefore say to you: as fast as a swallow's flight over the lake will be the time of your obedient waiting. Thank You, Woman. Have you nothing to say, Judas? And you, John? I am looking at You, Mary. And I. I am also looking at you... and do you know? This reminds Me of bygone days. Also then I had three pairs of eyes staring at Me lovingly. Do you remember, Mary, My three pupils? Oh! I do remember! You are quite right! And even now, three of almost the same age, are looking at You with all their love. And I think that John is like Jesus, as Jesus was then, so fair and rosy, the youngest of them all. The others are anxious to know more... and memories and stories of the past are awakened and related. It is growing dark. My friends, I have no bedrooms. But the workshop where I used to work is over there. If you wish to take shelter there... But there is nothing but benches in it. A comfortable bed for fishermen, wont to sleep on narrow boards. Thank You, Master. It is an honour and a blessing to sleep under Your roof. They withdraw after bidding good night. Judas also goes home with his mother. Jesus and Mary are left in the room, sitting on the chest, in the light of the little oil lamp, each with one arm round the other's shoulder, and Jesus tells Mary of His recent journey. And Mary listens blissful, anxious, happy. The vision ends thus.

58. Cure of a Blind Man at Capernaum. 7th October 1944. Jesus says, and I become calm at once and the joy of such bright peace makes my heart cheerful: See. He is so fond of episodes of blind people. Let us

give him another one. And I see. I see a beautiful summer sunset. The sun has inflamed the whole of the western sky and the Lake of Gennesaret looks like a huge disc aflame, under a sky ablaze. The streets in Capernaum are just beginning to become crowded; women go to the fountain, fishermen prepare their nets and boats to go afishing at night, children run playing in the streets, little donkeys carrying hampers go towards the country, probably to get vegetables. Jesus appears at a door which opens on to a little yard completely shaded by a vine and a fig-tree. Beyond it there is a stoney lane, that runs along the lake. It must be Peter's house, because he is on the shore with Andrew, arranging the fish baskets and nets in the boat, and sorting the seats and coils of rope. He is preparing everything to go fishing, and Andrew is helping him, coming and going from the house to the boat. Jesus asks His apostle: Will you have a good haul? The weather is right. The water is calm, it will be clear moonlight. The fish will come to the surface from the bottom and my net will drag them. Are we going by ourselves? Oh! Master! How could we manage by ourselves with this type of net. I have never gone fishing and I expect to be taught by you. Jesus goes down very slowly towards the lake and He stops near the boat, on the coarse, pebbly sands. See, Master: this is what we do. I go out beside the boat of James of Zebedee, and we go thus to the right point, both boats together. Then we lower the net. We hold one end. You said You wanted to hold it. Yes, if you tell Me what I have to do. Oh! You only have to watch it going down. It must be lowered slowly without making any knots. Very slowly, because we will be in a fishing area, and any harsh movement may drive the fish away. Without knots, otherwise the net would close up, whereas it must open like a bag, or if You prefer so, like a veil blown by the wind. Then, when the net is fully lowered, we will row gently, or we may set sail, according to circumstances, forming a semicircle on the lake. And when we understand by the vibration of the safety peg that the haul is good, we head for the shore. When we are almost on the shore - not before to avoid running the risk of losing all the fish; not after, to avoid damaging both the fish and net on the stones - we will haul in the net. At this point we must be very careful, because the boats must be so close as to allow one boat to catch the end of the net from the other one, but they must not collide, to avoid crushing the netful of fish. Please, Master, be careful, it is our daily bread. Keep an eye on the net, that jolts may not turn it over. The fish fight for their freedom with strong strokes of their tails, and if there is a lot of them... You will understand... They are small things, but if ten, one hundred, a thousand get together, they become as strong as Leviathan. The same happens with sins, Peter. After all, one fault is not irretrievable. But if one is not careful in controlling oneself, and one adds fault to fault, at the end a little fault, perhaps a single omission, or a simple weakness, becomes bigger and bigger, it becomes a habit, it becomes a capital vice. At times one starts with a lustful glance and ends up by committing adultery. At times, while simply lacking charity when speaking to a relative, one ends up by doing violence to one's neighbour. Never, never allow faults to increase in gravity and

in numbers, if you wish to avoid trouble! They become dangerous and overbearing like the infernal Snake himself, and they will drag you down into Gehenna. What You say is right, Master... But we are so weak! Care and prayer are necessary to become strong and obtain help, together with a strong will not to sin. And you must have full trust in the loving justice of the Father. Do You think He will not be too severe with poor Simon? He might have been severe with the old Simon. But with My Peter, with the new man, the man of His Christ... no, Peter, He will not. He loves you and will love you. And what about me? You, too, Andrew; and John, James, Philip and Nathanael as well. You are the first chosen by Me. Will there be any more? There is Your cousin, and in Judaea... Oh! There will be many more. My Kingdom is open to all mankind and I solemnly tell you that My haul, in the nights of centuries, will be more plentiful than your richest one... Because every century is one night in which not the pure light of Orion or of the sailing moon will be the guide and light of mankind, but the word of Christ and the Grace He will bestow; a night that will become the dawn of a day with no sunset and of a light in which all the faithful will live and will be the dawn of a sunshine that will make all the chosen resplendent, beautiful, happy for ever even like gods. Minor gods, children of God the Father and like Me... It is not possible for you to understand now. But I solemnly tell you that your Christian life will cause you to resemble your Master, and you will shine in Heaven with His signs. So, notwithstanding the envious malice of Satan and the weak will of men, My haul will be more plentiful than yours. But shall we be Your only apostles? Are you jealous, Peter? No, don't be! Others will come and in My heart there will be love for everybody. Don't be avaricious, Peter. You do not yet know Who loves you. Have you ever counted the stars? Or the stones in the depth of the lake? No, you could not. And even less you would be able to count the loving throbs of which My heart is capable. Have you ever been able to count how many times this lake kisses the shore with its waves in the course of twelve moons? No, you would never be able to do so. And even less you would be able to count the loving waves that My heart pours out to kiss men. Be sure of My love, Peter. Peter takes Jesus' hand and kisses it. He is deeply moved. Andrew looks, but does not dare take Jesus' hand. But Jesus caressing his hair with His hand says: I love you very much, too. In the hour of your dawn, without having to lift your eyes, you will see your Jesus reflected in the vault of heaven, and He will be smiling at you to say to you: "I love you. Come", and your passing away at dawn will be sweeter than entering a nuptial room... Simon! Simon! Andrew! Here I am... I am coming... John is rushing towards them, panting. Oh! Master! Have I kept You waiting? John looks at Jesus with the eyes of a lover. Peter answers: To tell you the truth, I was beginning to think you were no longer coming. Get your boat ready quickly. And James?... Well... we are late because of a blind man. He thought Jesus was in our

house and he came there. We said to him: "He is not here. Perhaps He will cure you tomorrow. Just wait". But he did not want to wait. James said to him: "You have been waiting so long to see the light, what does it matter if you have to wait another night?" But he will not listen to reason... John, if you were blind, would you be anxious to see your mother? Eh!... most certainly! Well then? Where is the blind man? He is coming with James. He got hold of his mantle and will not let it go. But he is coming very slowly because the shore is covered with stones, and he stumbles against them... Master, will You forgive me for being hard? Yes, I will, but to make amends, go and help the blind man and bring him to Me. John runs away. Peter shakes his head, but does not say anything. He looks at the sky which is becoming blue after being a deep copper hue, he looks at the lake and the other boats which are already out fishing and he sighs. Simon? Master? Don't be afraid. You will have a good haul, even if you are the last one to go out. Also this time? Every time you are charitable, God will grant you the grace of abundance. Here is the blind man. The poor man is coming forward between James and John. He is holding a walking stick in his hand, but is not using it at present. He walks better, supported by the two men. Here, man, the Master is in front of you. The blind man kneels down: My Lord! Have mercy on me. Do you want to see? Stand up. How long have you been blind? The four apostles gather round the other two. Seven years, Lord. Before, I could see well, and I worked. I was a blacksmith at Caesarea on Sea. I was doing well. The harbour, the good trading, they always needed me for one job or another. But while striking a piece of iron to make an anchor, and You can imagine how red hot it was to be pliable, a splinter came off it, and burnt my eye. My eyes were already sore because of the heat of the forge. I lost the wounded eye, and also the other one became blind after three months. I have finished all my savings, and now I live on charity... Are you alone? I am married with three little children... ; I have not even seen the face of one of them... and I have an old mother. And yet she and my wife earn a little bread, and with what they earn and the alms I take home, we manage not to starve. If I were cured!... I would go back to work. All I ask for is to be able to work like a good Israelite and thus feed those I love. And you came to Me? Who told you? A leper who was cured by You at the foot of Mount Tabor, when You were coming back to the lake after that beautiful speech of Yours. What did he tell you? That You can do everything. That You are the health of bodies and of

souls. That You are a light for souls and bodies, because You are the Light of God. He, although a leper, had dared to mingle with the crowd, at the risk of being stoned, all enveloped in his mantle, because he had seen You passing by on the way to the mountain, and Your face had kindled hope in his heart. He said to me: "I saw something in that face that whispered to me: 'There is health there. Go!' And I went". Then he repeated Your speech to me and he told me that You cured him, touching him with Your hand, without any disgust. He was coming back from the priest after his purification. I knew him. I had done some work for him when he had a store at Caesarea. I came, asking for You in every town and village. Now I have found You... Have mercy on me! Come. The light is still too bright for one coming out of darkness! Are you going to cure me, then? Jesus takes him to Peter's house, in the dim light of the kitchen garden, he places him in front of Himself, in such a position that his cured eyes may not see, as first sight, the lake still sparkling with light. The man looks like a very docile child, he obeys without asking questions. Father Your Light to this son of Yours! Jesus has stretched His hands over the head of the kneeling man. He remains in that attitude for a moment. He then moistens the tips of His fingers with saliva and with His right hand He touches lightly the open, but lifeless eyes. A moment. Then the man blinks, rubs his eyelids as if he were awakening from sleep, and his eyes were dimmed. What do you see? Oh!... oh!... oh!... Eternal God! I think... I think... oh! that I can see... I see Your mantle... it's red, isn't it? And a white hand... and a woollen belt... oh! Good Jesus... I can see better and better, the more I get used to seeing... There is the grass of the earth... and that is certainly a well... and there is a vine... Stand up, My friend. The man who is crying and laughing, stands up, and after a moment's hesitation between respect and desire, he lifts his face and meets Jesus' eyes: Jesus smiling full of merciful love. It must be beautiful to recover your sight and see that face as the first thing! The man gives a scream and stretches his arms. It is an instinctive action. But he controls himself. But Jesus opens His arms and draws to Himself the man who is much lower than He. Go home, now, and be happy and just. Go with My peace. Master, Master! Lord! Jesus! Holy! Blessed! The light... I see... I see everything... There is the blue lake, the clear sky, the setting sun, and then the horns of the waxing moon... But it is in Your eyes that I see the most beautiful and clear blue, and in You I see the beauty of the most real sun, and the chaste light of the blessed moon. You are the Star of those who suffer, the Light of the blind, the living active Mercy! I am the Light of souls. Be a son of the Light. Yes, Jesus, always. Every time I close my re-born eyes, I will renew my oath. May You and the Most High be blessed. Blessed be the Most High Father! Go! And the man goes away, happy, sure of himself, while Jesus and the dumbfounded apostles get into two boats and begin their navigation manoeuvres. And the vision ends.

59. The Demoniac of Capernaum Cured in the Synagogue. 2nd November 1944. I see the synagogue of Capernaum. It is already crowded with people waiting. People near the door cast glances at the square, which is still sunny, though it is almost evening. At last there is a shout: The Rabbi is coming. They all turn towards the door, the smaller people stand on their toes or endeavour to push their way to the front. Some start discussing and shoving, notwithstanding the reproaches of those employed in the synagogue and of the elders of the town. May peace be with all those seeking the Truth. Jesus is at the entrance and He greets them, blessing with His arms stretched forward. His tall figure stands out against the very bright light in the sunny square. He has taken off His white mantle and is wearing the usual deep blue one. He makes His way through the crowd, which opens out and then throngs around Him, like the waves round a ship. I am ill, cure me! moans a young man who appears to be consumptive, and pulls Jesus by His mantle. Jesus lays His hands on his head and says: Have faith. God will listen to you. Let Me speak to the people now, then I will come to your. The young man lets Him go and calms down. What did He say to you? asks a woman holding a child in her arms. He said that after He has spoken to the people, He will come to me. Is He going to cure you then? I don't know. He said to me: "Have faith". I can only hope. What did He say? What did He say? The people want to know. Jesus' answer is repeated through the crowd. In that case, I am going to get my child. And I am bringing my old father here. Oh! If Aggaeus would only come! I'll try... but he will not come. Jesus has reached His place. He greets the head of the synagogue who reciprocates the greeting. He is a small, stout, rather elderly man. When speaking to him, Jesus bends down. It is like a palm bending over a shrub which is wider than it is taller. What shall I give You? asks the little man. Whatever you wish, or anything at random. The Spirit will be our guide. But... will You be prepared? I am. Give me a roll at random. I tell you: the Spirit of the Lord will guide the choice for the sake of this people. The head of the synagogue stretches his hand out to the pile of rolls, he picks one and unrolls it, he stops at a certain point. Here he says. Jesus takes the roll and starts reading at the shown point: Joshua: "Rise and sanctify the people and say to them: 'Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, because the Lord of Israel declares: the ban is now among you, Israel; you can

never stand up to your enemies until you take from among you him who is contaminated by such crime' ". He stops, He rolls the parchment and hands it back. The crowd is most heedful. Only one whispers: We shall hear some very nice words against our enemies!. It is the King of Israel, the Promised One, Who gathers His people together! Jesus stretches out His arms in His usual oratorial attitude. Silence is now perfect. Who came to sanctify you, has risen. He has come out from the secrecy of His house, where He prepared Himself for this mission. He purified Himself to give you an example of purification. He established His position with the mighty ones in the Temple and with the people of God, and is now amongst you. It is I. Not as some of you think and hope, with clouded minds and unrest in their hearts. The Kingdom of which I am the future King and to which I call you, is more notable and greater. I am calling you, Israel, before any other people, because in the fathers of your fathers you received the promise of this hour and of the alliance with the Most High Lord. But His Kingdom will not be established with armed multitudes or wild blood shedding and neither the violent, nor the overbearing, the proud, the wrathful, the envious, the lustful, the avaricious will enter it but only the good, the meek, the continent, the merciful, the humble, the patient and those who love God and their neighbours will be admitted. Israel! You are not asked to fight against external enemies, but against internal ones. Against those who are in all your hearts. In the hearts of thousands and thousands of your children. Remove the barrier of sin from all your hearts, if you want God to gather you together tomorrow and say to you: "My people, yours is the Kingdom that will never be defeated, or invaded, or undermined by enemies". Tomorrow. Which tomorrow? In a year's or a month's time? Oh! Do not be inquisitive! Do not allow an unhealthy thirst to inquire into the future by means which taste of guilty witchcraft. Leave the Python spirit to the heathens. Leave to Eternal God the secrecy of time. As from tomorrow, the morrow that will rise after this evening, and the morrow that will come after tonight and will rise at cock-crow, come and be purified by sincere penance. Repent of your sins to be forgiven and to be ready for the Kingdom. Remove from yourselves the barrier of sin. Each of you has his own. Each has the one against the ten commandments of eternal salvation. Examine your consciences with sincerity and you will find your errors. Repent with sincere humility. You must repent. Not just with your mouths. You cannot laugh at or deceive God. But repent with a firm will, that will make you change your ways of living and return to the Law of the Lord. The Kingdom of Heaven is waiting for you. Tomorrow. Tomorrow? you may ask. Oh! the hour of God is always an early morrow, even when it comes at the end of a life as long as the Patriarchs'. Eternity does not use as a measure of time the slow flowing of a sand glass. And the measures of time which you call days, months, years, centuries are but heartbeats of the Eternal Spirit that keeps you alive. But your souls are eternal and you must adopt for your souls the same measure of time as your Creator does. You must, therefore, say: "Tomorrow will be the day of my death". No, not death for the faithful. But rest of expectation waiting for the Messiah to

open the gates of Heaven. And I solemnly tell you that only twenty-seven of you here present will die and have to wait. The rest will be judged before their death, and their death will be a transition to God or Mammon without any delay because the Messiah has come, He is amongst you and calls you to give you the Gospel, to teach you the Truth and save you in Heaven. Do penance! The "morrow" of the Kingdom of Heaven is impending. May it find you pure so that you may possess the eternal day. Peace be with you. A bearded sumptuously dressed Israelite stands up to contradict Him. He says: Master, what You have stated appears to be in contrast with what is said in the sacred book of Maccabees, glory of Israel. It is said there: "Indeed when evil-doers are not left for long to their own devices but incur swift retribution, it is a sign of great benevolence. In the case of the other nations, the Lord waits patiently for them to obtain the full measure of their sins before He punishes them". According to what You said, instead the Most High would appear to be very slow in punishing us waiting, as for the other nations, the time of Judgement, when the measure of sins is full. Events, indeed, give You the lie. Israel is punished as stated by the historian of the Maccabees. But if what You say is correct, is there no conflict between Your doctrine and the sentence I have quoted? I do not know who you are, but I will give you My answer whoever you are. There is no conflict in the doctrine, but only in the interpretation of the words. You interpret them in a human sense, I, instead, in a spiritual one. You see everything as referred to the present time and transient things, and you represent the majority of people who think likewise. I represent God and I explain and apply everything to eternal and supernatural matters. It is true, Yahweh did strike you at present because of your pride and because you considered yourselves a "nation" according to the world. But how much He loved you and how patient He is with you, more than with anyone else, granting you the Saviour, His Messiah, that you may listen to Him and be saved before the hour of the wrath of God! He does not want you to be sinners any longer. But if He struck you in the fleeting worldly things, seeing that the injury does not cure your souls, nay it makes them duller and duller, He does not inflict a further punishment, but He grants you salvation. He sends you Him Who cures and saves you! I, Who am speaking to you. Do You not consider Yourself bold in avowing Yourself a representative of God? None of the Prophets dared so much and You... Who are You, Who are speaking? And by whose order do You speak? The Prophets could not say of themselves what I state of Myself. Who am I? The Expected One, The Promised One, the Saviour. You have already heard His Precursor say: "Prepare the way for the Lord... Here the Lord God is coming... Like a shepherd He will feed His flock, although He is the Lamb of the true Passover". Many amongst you heard these words from the Precursor and they saw the heavens brighten with a light that descended in the shape of a dove and they heard a voice speak and say who I am. By whose order do I speak? By the order of Him Who is and Who sends Me. You say that, but You may be a liar or a dreamer. Your words are holy, but Satan sometimes uses deceitful words painted with holiness, to deceive people. We do not know You.

I am Jesus of Joseph of the House of David, I was born at Bethlehem Ephrathah, as was promised, named Nazarene, because I live at Nazareth. And that according to the world. According to God I am His Messenger. My disciples know. Oh! They! They can say what they like or what You tell them to say. Another will speak, who does not love Me, and will say Who I am. Wait till I call one of the people present here. Jesus looks at the crowd, who are astonished and annoyed at the dispute, and divided between the two opposite doctrines. He looks for someone with His sapphire eyes, and then in a loud voice He calls: Aggaeus Come here. It is an order. There is great excitement in the crowd. They open out to let a man pass, who is violently shaking all over his body and is supported by a woman. Do you know this man? Yes, he is Aggaeus, of Malachi, of Capernaum. He is possessed by an evil spirit which tortures him with sudden fury-fits. Does everybody know him? The crowd shout: Yes, we do. Can any of you say that he has spoken to Me, even for a few minutes? The crowd shout: No, no, he is half-witted, he never leaves his house, and nobody has seen You in it. Woman, bring him here in front of Me. The woman pushes and drags him, while the poor man trembles more than ever. The head of the synagogue warns Jesus: Be careful! The devil is about to torture him... and then he rushes at people, scratches and bites them. The crowd moves away thronging against the walls. Jesus and the man are now facing each other. There is a moment's struggle. The man, usually mute, seems to have difficulty in speaking, he moans, then his voice turns into words: What is there between us and You, Jesus of Nazareth? Why have You come to torture us? Why do You want to destroy us, You, the Lord of Heaven and Earth? I know who You are: the Holy of God. No one, in human flesh, was ever greater than You, because in Your flesh of man is enclosed the Spirit of the Eternal Winner. You have already beaten me in... Be quiet! I order you to come out of this man. The man has a fit of strange convulsions. He is tossed about by jerks and thrusts, as if someone pulled and pushed him, violently ill-treating him, he shouts in a wild voice, foams at his mouth, and is then thrown down onto the ground. He gets up, astonished and cured. Have you heard? What do you say now? Jesus asks His opponent. The bearded sumptuous man shrugs his shoulders and, obviously beaten, goes out without replying. The crowd scoff at him and applaud Jesus. Silence! This place is sacred! says Jesus and He orders: Bring Me the man to whom I promised help from God. The sick man comes forward. Jesus caresses him: You believed Me! Be cured. Go in peace and be just. The young man lets out a yell. I wonder what he feels. He kneels down before Jesus, kisses His feet thanking Him: Thanks from me and from my mother! Other sick people come: a little boy with paralysed legs. Jesus takes him in

His arms, caresses him and puts him down... and leaves him. The child does not fall, but runs to his mother, who clasps him to her heart, weeping, and in a loud voice blesses the Holy One of Israel. A little old blind man comes, led by his daughter. He also is cured with a caress on his diseased eyes. There is a roar of blessing from the crowd. Jesus makes His way through the crowd smiling, and although He is tall, He would not succeed in pushing through, if Peter, James, Andrew and John did not work generously with their elbows, to make their way and reach Jesus, and then escort Him to the exit onto the square, which is now dark. The vision ends thus.

60. Cure of Simon Peter's Mother-in-law. 3rd November 1944. Peter is speaking to Jesus. He says: Master, I would like to ask You to come to my house. I did not dare to ask You last Sabbath. But... I would like You to come. To Bethsaida? No, here... to my wife's house. I mean her home. Why do you want that, Peter? Well, for many reasons... also because today I was told that my mother-in-law is ill. If You would cure her, perhaps she... Tell Me, Simon. What I wanted to say is... if You go to her, she would stop... yes, well, You know, it is not the same thing to hear people speak of someone and to see and listen to someone, and if the person in question cures... well... You mean also the ill-feeling would come to an end? No, not exactly ill-feeling. But, You know... there are many opinions in the village, and she... does not know whom she should listen to. Come, Jesus. I will come. Let us go. You will tell those who are waiting for Me that I will speak to them from your house. They go as far as a low house, even lower than Peter's house at Bethsaida, and it is also closer to the lake. It is separated from the lake by the pebbly shore and I think that when there is a storm, the waves break against the walls of the house, which, while being low, are very wide, as if several people lived in it. In the kitchen garden in front of the house, facing the lake, there is only an old gnarled vine, supported by a rustic pergola, and an old fig-tree which the winds, blowing from the lake, have bent towards the house. The ruffled foliage of the tree brushes the walls of the house and beats against the shutters of the little windows, which are now closed as a protection against the bright sunshine. There is nothing but the vine and the fig-tree and a greenish little wall of a low well. Come in, Master. There are some women in the kitchen, some are busy mending the nets, some are preparing the food. They greet Peter and they bow embarrassed to Jesus, peering up at Him curiously.

Peace be to this house. How is the patient? Tell Him, you who are the oldest daughter-in-law three of the women say to another one, who is drying her hands on the edge of her dress. Her temperature is very high. The doctor has seen her and he said she is too old to get better and that when the disease goes from the bones to the heart, and gives a temperature, one dies, particularly at an old age. She will not eat any more... I try and prepare something good, even now, see, Simon, I was preparing the soup she used to like so much. I chose the best fish that I got from my brothers-in-law. But I do not think she will be able to eat it. And... she is so restless! She complains, and shouts, and cries, and curses... Be patient, as if she were your mother and God will grant you merit for it. Take Me to her. Rabbi... Rabbi... I don't know if she will be pleased to see You. She does not want to see anybody. I dare not say to her: "I am now bringing the Rabbi in to see you". Jesus smiles calmly. He addresses Peter: It is your turn, Simon. You are a man and the oldest son-in-law, you told Me. Go. Peter makes a significant grimace and obeys. He walks across the kitchen, and goes into another room and through the door which he closes, I can hear him talking to a woman. He looks out and says: Come, Master, quick. And he whispers in a very low, just audible voice: Before she changes her mind. Jesus walks across the kitchen and opens the door wide. Standing on the threshold, He pronounces His sweet, solemn greeting: Peace be with you. He goes in, although He gets no reply. He goes near a low bed on which there is lying a little old woman, grey-haired, thin, panting because of the high temperature which causes her wasted face to flush. Jesus bends over the little bed, smiles at the old woman: Are you in pain? I am dying! No. You will not die. Do you believe that I can cure you? Why would You want to do that? You do not know me. For Simon, who asked Me... and for you, to give your soul time to see and love the Light. Simon? It would be better if he... How come Simon thought of me? Because he is better than you think. I know him and I am sure. I know him, and I am happy to satisfy him. Would You cure me, then? I will not die, then? No, woman. You will not die as yet. Can you believe in Me? I believe, I believe. It is enough for me not to die! Jesus smiles once again. He takes her hand. Her hand, wrinkled and with swollen veins, disappears in the younger hand of Jesus, Who stands straight up, and takes the attitude He normally assumes when working a miracle. He shouts: Be cured! I want it! Get up! and He lets her hand go. And her hand falls down without any complaint, whereas before, notwithstanding Jesus had taken it very gently, she groaned when it was moved. There is silence for a few moments. Then the old woman cries out: Oh! God of our fathers! But there is nothing wrong with me! I am cured! Come! Come! Her daughters-in-law rush in. Look! says the old woman: I can move and I feel no pain! And I am no longer feverish! Feel how cool I am. And my heart no longer feels like the blacksmith's hammer. Ah! I am not dying any longer! Not one word for the Lord!

But Jesus does not mind. He says to the oldest daughter-in-law: Dress her that she may get up. She is fit to be up. And He makes for the door. Simon, mortified, says to his mother-in-law: The Master has cured you. Have you nothing to say to Him? Certainly. I wasn't thinking of that. Thank You. What can I do to thank You? Be good, very good. Because the Eternal Father has been good to you. And if it is not too much trouble for you, allow Me to rest in your home today. I have been to all the nearby villages the past week, and I arrived here at dawn this morning. I am tired. Certainly Certainly! You may stay if You wish. But there is not much enthusiasm in her words. Jesus, Peter, Andrew, James and John go and sit down in the kitchen garden. Master!... Yes, Peter? I feel humiliated. Jesus makes a gesture, which meant: Never mind. He then goes on: She is not the first, and will not be the last who do not feel immediate gratitude. But I do not seek gratitude. All I want is to give souls the chance to save themselves. I do My duty. Let them do theirs. Ah! There have been other cases like this one? Where? Curious Simon! But I will please you, although I do not like useless curiosity. At Nazareth. Do you remember Sarah's mother? She was very ill when we arrived in Nazareth and we were told that the little girl cried. Since she is good and gentle, and I did not want her to become an orphan and a stepdaughter in future, I went to see the woman... I wanted to cure her... But I had not yet set foot in the house, when her husband and a brother drove Me away, saying: "Away! Go away! We do not want to get into trouble with the synagogue". For them, for too many, I am already a rebel... I cured her just the same... for the sake of her children. And I said to Sarah in the kitchen garden, caressing her: "I will cure your mother. Go home. Do not cry any more". And the woman was cured the same moment and the little girl told her, and she told also her father and her uncle... and she was punished for speaking to Me. I know, because the child ran after Me when I was leaving the village... But it does not matter. I would have made her become ill again. Peter! Jesus is severe. Is that what I teach you and the others? What have you heard Me say from the very first time you heard Me? Of what have I always spoken as being the first condition to be My true disciples? It is true, Master. I am a real beast. Forgive me. But... I cannot bear the fact that they do not love You! Oh! Peter! You will see much greater indifference! You will have many surprises, Peter! People that the so called "holy" world scorns as being money-changers, who instead will set an example in the world, an example which will not be followed by those who despise them. Heathens who will be My most faithful ones. Prostitutes who will become pure by strong will power and penance. Sinners who amend their way of living... Listen: that a sinner amends his way... it may well be. But a prostitute and a money-changer!...

us.

You do not believe it? I do not. You are mistaken, Simon. But here is your mother-in-law coming towards

Master, I beg You to come and sit at my table. Thank you, woman. May God reward you. They go into the kitchen and sit at the table. The old woman serves them with plenty fish, both as soup and roasted. I have nothing else but this she apologises. And, to keep up the habit, she says to Peter: Your brothers-in-law are doing even too much, all alone as they are, since you went to Bethsaida! If it had only helped to make my daughter richer... But I hear that you are very often absent and you do not go fishing. I follow the Master. I have been to Jerusalem with Him and I am with Him on Sabbaths. I do not spend my time in revelries. But you don't earn any money. Since you want to be the Prophet's servant, you had better come back here again. At least that poor daughter of mine will be fed by her relatives while you are acting the saint. But are you not ashamed of speaking like that in front of Him Who cured you? I am not criticising Him. He is doing His job. I am criticising you, you are a sluggard. In any case, you will never be a prophet or a priest. You are an ignorant sinner, a good for nothing. You are lucky that He is here, otherwise... Simon, your mother-in-law gave you very good advice. You can go fishing even here. I am told that you used to go fishing also at Capernaum. You can come back again. And live here again? But Master, You do not... Be good, Peter. If you are here, you will be either on the lake or with Me. So what difference is it for you if you are or you are not in this house? Jesus has laid His hand on Peter's shoulder and His calmness seems to pass into the fiery apostle. You are right. You are always right. I will do that. But... what about these? and he points to his partners John and James. Can they not come, too? Oh! Our father and above all our mother will be happier if they know we are with You, rather than with them. They will not object. Perhaps Zebedee will come, too says Peter. Quite likely. And others with him. We will come, Master. We will certainly come. Is Jesus of Nazareth here? asks a little boy appearing at the door. He is here, come in. A boy comes in, whom I recognise as one of the boys I saw in the first visions of Capernaum, and exactly the one who tumbled down near Jesus' feet, and promised he would be good, so he would get the honey of Paradise. My little friend, come here says Jesus. The little fellow, somewhat embarrassed because so many are looking at him, takes heart and runs to Jesus, Who embraces him and sits him on His knees, and gives him a bit of His fish on a slice of bread. Here, Jesus. This is for You. Also today that person said: It is the Sabbath. Take this to the Rabbi of Nazareth and tell your friend to pray for me. He

knows that You are my friend!... The child smiles happily, and eats his bread and fish. Well done, little James! You will tell that person that My prayers rise to the Father for him. Is it for the poor? asks Peter. Yes, it is. Is it always the same offering? Let us look. Jesus hands over the purse. Peter empties it and counts the coins. Still the same large sum! But who is this person? Say, boy, who is it? I have not to say, and I will not say! You little rascal! Be good, and I will give you some fruit. I will not speak, whether you insult me or caress me. What a tongue he has! Just listen! Little James is right, Peter. He is keeping his word: leave him alone. Master, do You know who the person is? Jesus does not reply. He is busy with the child, to whom He gives another bit of roasted fish, after removing all the bones. But Peter insists, and Jesus is obliged to answer. I know everything, Simon. And we are not to know? And will you never be cured of your fault? Jesus reproaches him, but smiles at the same time. And He adds: You will soon know. Because if evil wants to be hidden, and cannot always be such, good, even if it wants to be hidden, to be meritorious, will be made known one day, for the glory of God, Whose nature shines in one of His sons. The nature of God: love. And this person understands all that, because he loves his neighbours. Go, James. Take My blessing to that person. The vision ends thus.

51. Judas Thaddeus at Bethsaida to Invite Jesus to the Wedding at Cana 17th October 1944. I see the kitchen in Peter's house. In addition to Jesus, there are Peter and his wife, James and John. I think they have just finished eating their supper. They are talking, and Jesus takes an interest in fishing. Andrew enters and says: Master, there is the man here in whose house You are living, together with another man who says he is Your cousin. Jesus gets up and goes towards the door saying: Let them come in. And when He sees Judas Thaddeus in the light of the oil lamp and of the fireplace, He exclaims: You, Judas?! Yes, Jesus. They kiss each other. Judas Thaddeus is a handsome man, in the fullness of his virile manhood. He is tall, although not quite so tall as Jesus, well built and strong, of a dark brown-olive complexion, like saint Joseph when young, but not sallow: his eyes have something in common with those of Jesus, because they are blue, verging on periwinkle. His brown beard is squarely cut, his hair wavy, but not so curly as Jesus', and is the same hue as his beard. I have come from Capernaum, I went there by boat and I have come here in the same boat to gain time. Your Mother sends me; She says: "Susanna is getting married tomorrow; please come to the wedding". Mary will be there, and also my mother and brothers. All the relatives have been invited. You would be the only one absent, and they ask You to come and make the young couple happy. Jesus bows lightly stretching out His arms and says: A wish of My Mother is a law for Me. But I will come also for Susanna's and our relatives' sake. Only... I am sorry for you... and He looks at Peter and the others. They are My friends He explains to His cousin. And then He mentions their names, beginning with Peter's. He then adds: And this is John with a special expression that causes Judas Thaddeus to look at him more carefully while the beloved disciple blushes. He ends the introductions stating: My friends, this is Judas, son of Alphaeus, My cousin according to the custom of the world, because he is the son of the brother of My Mother's spouse. A very good friend of Mine, and a companion both in life and in work. My house is open to you as it is to the Master. Sit down and then addressing Jesus, Peter says: So? Are we no longer going to Jerusalem with You? Of course you will come. I will go after the wedding feast. The only difference is that I will not stop at Nazareth any longer. Quite right, Jesus, because Your Mother is my guest for a few days. That is what we intend to do. She also will come there after the wedding. It is the man from Capernaum who speaks thus. This is what we will do. I will now go in Judas' boat to Tiberias and from there to Cana. With the same boat I will come back to Capernaum with My Mother, and with you. You will come the day after the next Sabbath, Simon, if you still wish to come, and we will go to Jerusalem for Passover. Of course I want to come! Nay, I will come on the Sabbath to hear You in the synagogue. Are You already teaching, Jesus? asks Thaddeus. Yes, My cousin.

And you should hear His words! Ah!, no one else speaks like Him! exclaims Peter. Judas sighs. With his head resting on his hand, his elbow on his knee, he looks at Jesus and sighs. He seems anxious to speak but does not dare. Jesus encourages him: What is the matter, Judas? Why do you look at Me and sigh? Nothing. No. It must be something. Am I no longer the Jesus of Whom you were fond? From Whom you had no secrets? Of course You are! And how I miss You, You the Master of Your older cousin... Well, then! Speak. I wanted to tell You... Jesus... be careful... You have a Mother... She has but You... You want to be a "rabbi" different from the others and You know, better than I do, that... that the powerful classes do not allow anything which may differ from the customary laws they have laid down. I know Your way of thinking... it is a holy one... But the world is not holy... and it oppresses saints, Jesus... You know the fate of Your cousin the Baptist... He is in jail, and if he is not yet dead, it is because that evil Tetrarch is afraid of the crowds and of the wrath of God. As evil and superstitious as cruel and lustful... You... what are You going to do? To what fate are You going to expose Yourself? Judas, you are so familiar with My way of thinking, and that is what you ask Me? Are you speaking on your own initiative? No, don't lie! You have been sent, certainly not by My Mother, to tell Me such things... Judas lowers his head and becomes silent. Speak, cousin. My father... and Joseph and Simon with him... You know, for Your sake, because they are fond of You and Mary... do not look favourably on what You intend doing... and... and they would like You to think of Your Mother... And what do you think? I... I... You are drawn in opposite directions by the voices coming from High Above and those coming from the world. I am not saying from below. I say from the world. The same applies to James, even more so. But I tell you that above the world there is Heaven, and above the interest of the world there is the cause of God. You must change your ways of thinking. When you learn to do that, you will be perfect. But... and Your Mother? Judas, She is the only one who, according to the way of thinking of the world, should be entitled to recall Me to My duty as a son: that is to My duty to work for Her, and provide for Her material needs, to My duty to assist and comfort Her with My presence. But She does not ask for any of these things. Since She had Me, She knew She would lose Me, to find Me once again in a much wider manner than the small family circle... And since then She has prepared Herself for that. Her unreserved voluntary donation of Herself to God is nothing new. Her mother offered Her in the Temple before She even smiled at life. And - as She told Me the innumerable times She spoke to Me of Her holy childhood, holding Me close to Her heart in the long winter evenings or in the clear starry summer nights - She gave Herself to God since the dawn of Her life in this

world. And She gave Herself even more when She had Me, that She might be where I am, fulfilling the Mission given to Me by God. Everybody will abandon Me at a certain moment, perhaps only for a few minutes, but everyone will be overcome by cowardice, and you will think that it would have been better, for your own safety, if you had never known Me. But She, Who understood and knows, She will always be with Me. And you will become Mine, once again, through Her. With the power of Her unshaken, loving faith, She will draw you to Herself and will thus bring you to Me, because I am in My Mother, and She is in Me, and We are in God. I would like you all to understand that, both you who are My relatives according to the world, and you, friends and children in a supernatural way. Neither you, nor anyone else know Who My Mother is. But if you knew, you would not criticise Her in your hearts stating She is not capable of keeping Me subject to Her, but you would venerate Her as the closest friend of God, the Mighty Woman Who can obtain all graces from the heart of the Eternal Father and from Her beloved Son. I will certainly come to Cana. I want to make Her happy. You will understand better after the wedding. Jesus is majestic and persuasive. Judas gazes at Him. He is thinking. He then says: And I will certainly come with You, with these friends, if You want me... because I feel that what You say is right. Forgive my blindness and my brothers'. You are so much holier than we are!... I bear no grudge against those who do not know Me. I am also without ill-feeling towards those who hate Me. But I feel sorry for them, because of the harm they do themselves. What have you got in that satchel? The tunic Your Mother sent You. It is a big feast tomorrow. She thinks that Her Jesus will need it, so that He may not look out of place amongst all the guests. She worked from early morning till late night every day, to have it ready for You. But She did not finish the mantle. Its fringes are not yet ready and She is very sorry about it. It does not matter. I will wear this one, and I will keep that one for Jerusalem. The Temple is much more important than a wedding feast. She will be so happy. If you want to be on the way to Cana at dawn, you ought to leave at once. The moon is rising and it will be a pleasant crossing says Peter. Let us go, then. Come, John. I am taking you with Me. Goodbye, Simon Peter, James, Andrew. I will see you on the Sabbath evening at Capernaum. Goodbye, woman. Peace be with you and your house. Jesus goes out with Judas and John. Peter follows them as far as the lake and helps them cast off. And the vision ends. -------------------------------Jesus says: When it is time to arrange the work in order, insert the vision of the wedding at Cana here. Put in the date (16th January 1944).

52. Jesus at the Wedding at Cana. The evening of 16th January 1944. The wedding at Cana.

I see a house. A typical middle east house: a long, low, white house, with few windows and doors, with a terraced roof, surrounded by a little wall, about one metre high, with a shady vine pergola, which reaches up to the sunny terrace and stretches its branches over more than half of its surface. An outside staircase climbs up along the front, reaching up to a door which is situated half way up the faade. At ground level there are a few low doors, not more than two on each side of the house, and they open into low dark rooms. The house is built in the middle of what looks like a kind of threshing-floor, but is actually more a grassy open space than a threshing-floor, with a well in its centre. There are some fig and apple-trees. The house faces the road, but-it is not set right on the roadside. It is a little way off the road and a path along the grass links it to the road, which looks like a main road. It seems to be on the outskirts of Cana: a house owned by farmers who live in the middle of their holding. The country stretches calm and green far beyond the house. The sun is shining in a completely blue sky. At first I do not see anything else. There is no one near the house. Then I see two women, with long dresses and mantles that also cover their heads like veils, walking along the road and then on the path. One is older than the other: about fifty years old, with a dark dress, the grey-brown hue of raw wool. The other woman is wearing lighter garments: a pale yellow dress and a blue mantle. She looks about thirty-five years old. She is really beautiful, slender, and Her carriage is most dignified, although She is most kind and humble. When She is nearer, I notice Her pale face, Her blue eyes and Her blond hair visible on Her forehead. I recognise Our Most Holy Lady. I do not know who the other older woman is. They are speaking to each other and Our Lady smiles. When they are near the house, someone, who is obviously watching the arrival of the guests, informs the others in the house, and two men and two women, all in their best clothes, go to meet them. They give the two women and particularly Our Lady a most warm welcome. It is early morning, I would say about nine o'clock, perhaps earlier, because the country has the fresh look of the early morning hours, when the dew makes the grass look greener and the air is still free from dust. It appears to be springtime because the grass in the meadows is not parched by the summer sun and the corn in the fields is still young and green and earless. The leaves of the fig-tree and apple-tree are green and tender and those of the vines are the same. But I see no flowers on the apple-tree and there is no fruit on the apple and fig-tree or on the vines: which means that the apple-tree blossomed only recently and the little fruits cannot be seen as yet. Mary, Who is most warmly welcomed and is escorted by an elderly man who appears to be the landlord, climbs up the outside staircase and enters a large hall which seems to fill the whole of the house upstairs, or most of it. If I am correct, the rooms on the ground floor are the ones where they actually live, where they have their store-room, wine cellar, whereas the hall upstairs is used on special occasions such as feast days, or for tasks which require a lot of space, such as drying and pressing foodstuffs. For special celebrations the hall is cleared of every object and then decorated, as it is today, with green branches, mats and tables prepared with rich dishes. In the centre there is a richly laid table with amphorae and plates full of fruit. Along

the right-hand side wall, in respect to me, there is another table already prepared, but not so sumptuously. On the left-hand side, there is a kind of long dresser with plates of cheese and other foodstuffs, which look like cakes covered with honey and sweetmeats. On the floor, near the same wall, there are more amphorae and six large vases, shaped more or less like copper pitchers. I would call them jars. Mary listens benignly to what they are telling Her, then She takes off Her mantle and kindly helps to finish laying the tables. I see Her going to and fro sorting out the bed-seats, straightening up the wreaths of flowers, improving the appearance of the fruit dishes, making sure that the lamps are filled with oil. She smiles, speaks very little and in a very low voice. Instead She listens a lot and with so much patience. A loud sound of musical instruments (not very harmonious) is heard coming from the road. They all rush out, with the exception of Mary. I see the bride come in, smartly dressed and happy, surrounded by relatives and friends. The bridegroom, who was the first to rush out and meet her, is now beside her. At this point there is a change in the vision. Instead of the house I see a village. I do not know whether it is Cana or a nearby village. And I see Jesus with John and another man, who I think is Judas Thaddeus, but I may be wrong. I am sure about John. Jesus is wearing a white tunic and a dark blue mantle. When he hears the sound of the instruments, Jesus' companion questions a man about something and then tells Jesus. Then Jesus, smiling, says: Let us go and make My Mother happy. And He starts walking across the fields towards the house, with His two companions. I forgot to mention that it is my impression that Mary is either a relation or a close friend of the bridegroom's relatives, because She is on familiar terms with them. When Jesus arrives, the same watchman as before, informs the others. The landlord, with his son, the bridegroom, and Mary goes down to meet Him, and greets Him respectfully. He then greets the other two and so does the bridegroom. But what I like is the loving and respectful way in which Jesus and Mary exchange their greetings. There are no effusions, but the words Peace be with You are pronounced with a look and a smile worth one hundred embraces and one hundred kisses. A kiss trembles on Mary's lips, but it is not given. She only lays Her little white hand on Jesus' shoulder and lightly touches a curl of His long hair. The caress of a chaste lover. Jesus climbs the staircase beside His Mother, followed by His disciples, the landlord and the groom, and enters the banquet hall, where the women start bustling about, adding seats and plates for the three guests, who, apparently, were not expected. I would say that Jesus' coming was uncertain and the arrival of His companions was completely unforeseen. I can distinctly hear the Master's full, virile, most sweet voice say on entering the hall: May peace be in this house and the blessing of God on you all. A greeting of majesty addressed to all the people present. Jesus dominates everybody with His bearing and His height. He is a guest, and a casual one, but He seems to be the king of the banquet, more than the groom, more than the landlord. No matter how humble and obliging, He is the one who dominates. Jesus sits at the central table with the bride and the bridegroom, their

relatives and the most influential friends. The two disciples are also invited to sit at the same table, out of respect for Jesus. Jesus' back is turned to the wall where the large jars and the dresser are. He therefore cannot see them, neither can He see the steward bustling about the dishes of roast meat, which are brought in through a little door near the dresser. I notice one thing. With the exception of the mothers of the young couple and of Mary, no woman is sitting at that table. All the women, who are making a din worthy of one hundred people, are sitting at the other table near the wall, and are served after the young couple and the guests of importance. Jesus is sitting near the landlord, in front of Mary, Whose place is near the bride. The banquet starts. And I can assure you that they lack neither appetite nor thirst. The ones who eat and drink little are Jesus and His Mother, Who speaks also very little. Jesus talks a little more. But although very moderate, He is neither sullen nor disdainful in the little He says. He is kind, but not talkative. He answers when He is questioned, when they speak to Him, He takes an interest in the subject, he states His opinion, but then He concentrates on His thoughts, like one accustomed to meditation. He smiles, He never laughs. If He hears any inconsiderate joke, He pretends He has not heard. Mary is nourished by the contemplation of Her Jesus, and so is John, who is at the end of the table and hangs on His Master's lips. Mary notices that the servants are talking in low voices to the steward, who looks very embarrassed and She understands what the cause of the unpleasant situation is. Son, She whispers in a low voice, thus drawing Jesus' attention. Son, they have no more wine. Woman, what is there still between Me and You? Jesus, when saying these words, smiles even more gently, and Mary smiles too, like two people aware of some truth which is their joyful secret and is ignored by everyone else. ------------------------Jesus explains the meaning of the sentence to me. That "still", which is omitted by many translators, is the keyword of the sentence and explains its true meaning. I was the Son, submissive to My Mother, up to the moment when the will of My Father told Me that the hour had come when I was to be the Master. From the moment My mission started, I was no longer the Son submissive to My Mother, but I was the Servant of God. My moral ties with My Mother were broken. They had turned into higher bonds, all of a spiritual nature. I always called Mary, My Holy "Mother". Our love suffered no interruptions, neither did it even cool down, nay, it was never so perfect as when I was separated from Her as by a second birth and She gave Me to the world and for the world, as the Messiah and Evangeliser. Her third sublime mystical maternity took place when She bore Me to the cross in the torture of Golgotha, and made Me the Redeemer of the world. "What is there still between Me and You?" Before I was Yours, only Yours. You gave Me orders, and I obeyed You. I was "subject" to You. Now I belong to My mission. Did I not say: "He, who lays his hand on the plough and looks back to bid farewell to those who are staying, is not fit for the Kingdom of God"? I had

laid My hand on the plough not to cut the ground with the ploughshare, but to open the hearts of men and sow there the word of God. I was to take My hand away from the plough only when they would tear it away to nail it to the Cross and to open with My torturing nail My Father's heart, out of which forgiveness for mankind was to flow. That "still", forgotten by most, meant this: "You were everything for Me, Mother, as long as I was only Jesus of Mary of Nazareth, and You are everything in My spirit; but since I became the expected Messiah, I belong to My Father. Wait for a little while and once My mission is over, I will be, once again, entirely Yours; You will hold Me once again in Your arms, as when I was a little child, and no one will ever again contend with You for Your Son, considered as the disgrace of mankind, who will throw His mortal remains at You, to bring on You the shame of being the mother of a criminal. And afterwards You will have Me once again, triumphant, and finally You will have Me for ever when You are triumphant in Heaven. But now I belong to all these men. And I belong to the Father, Who sent Me to them". That is the sense of that short but so full of meaning "still". Mary says to the servants: Do what He will tell you. In the smiling eyes of Her Son, Mary has read His consent, veiled by the great teaching to all those who are called. And Jesus says to the servants: Fill the jars with water. I see the servants filling the jars with water brought from the well (I hear the pulley screeching as the dripping pail is pulled up and lowered down). I see the steward pour out some of the liquid with astonished eyes, then taste it with gestures of even greater astonishment, relish it and speak to the landlord and the groom (they were near each other). Mary looks at Her Son once again, and smiles; then having received a smile from Him, She bows Her head, blushing slightly. She is happy. A murmur spreads throughout the hall, they all turn their heads towards Jesus and Mary, some stand up to get a better view, some go near the jars. Then a moment's silence, which is immediately broken by an outburst of praises for Jesus. He stands up and simply says: Thank Mary and withdraws from the banquet. His disciples follow Him. On the threshold He repeats: May peace be in this house and God's blessing on you and He adds: Goodbye, Mother. The vision ends. ------------------------------Jesus teaches me as follows: When I said to the disciples: "Let us go and make My Mother happy", I had given the sentence a deeper meaning than it seemed. I did not mean the happiness of seeing Me, but the joy of being the initiatress of My miraculous activity and the first benefactress of mankind. Always remember that. My first miracle happened because of Mary. The very first one. It is a symbol that Mary is the key to miracles. I never refuse My Mother anything and because of Her prayer I bring forward also the time of grace. I know My Mother, the second in goodness after God. I know that to grant you a grace is to make Her happy, because She is All Love. That is why I said, knowing Her: "Let us go and make Her happy". Besides, I wanted to make Her power known to the world, together with Mine. Since She was destined to be joined to Me in the flesh, it was fair She

should be joined to Me in the power that is shown to the world. Because we were one flesh: I in Her, She around Me, like the petals of a lily round its scented lively pistil; and She was united to Me in sorrow: because we were both on the cross, I with My body, She with Her soul, as a lily is scented because of its corolla and because of the essence extracted from it. I say to you what I said to the guests: "Thank Mary. It is through Her that you had with you the Master of the miracle and you have My graces, particularly those of forgiveness". Rest in peace. We are with you.

53. Jesus Drives the Merchants out of the Temple. 24th October 1944. I see Jesus entering the enclosure of the Temple with Peter, Andrew, John, James, Philip and Bartholomew. There is a very large crowd both inside and outside the enclosure. Pilgrims are arriving in flocks from every part of the town. From the top of the hill on which the Temple is built, one can see the narrow twisted streets of the town, swarming with people. One gets the impression that a self-moving, many-coloured ribbon has been laid between the white houses. The town looks like a rare toy indeed, a toy made of gaily-coloured ribbons between two white threads, all converging on the point where the domes of the House of the Lord are shining. Inside it is... a real market. The concentration of a holy place has been destroyed. Some run, some call, some contract for lambs, shouting and cursing because of the extortionate prices, some drive the poor bleating animals into their enclosures (rough partitions made of ropes and pegs, at the entrance of which stand the merchants or owners, awaiting buyers). Blows with cudgels, bleatings, curses, shouts, insults to the boys who are not prompt in gathering together or selecting the animals, abuses to the purchasers who haggle over prices or who go away, graver insults to those who wisely brought their own lambs. Near the benches of the money-changers, there is more bawling. It is obvious that either always, or at Passover time, the Temple functioned as a... stock exchange or black market. There was no fixed rate of exchange. There must have been a legal rate, but the money-changers imposed a different one, making whatever profit they fancied, for exchanging the money. And I can assure you they were not joking in their usury transactions!... The poorer the people were and the farther they came from, the more they were fleeced: old people more than young people, those coming from beyond Palestine more than the old folk. Some poor old men looked over and over again at the money they had saved in a whole year, I wonder with how much hard work, they took it out and put it back into their purses dozens and dozens of times, going from one money-changer to another and at times ending up by going back to the first one, who avenged himself for their original desertion by increasing the premium for the exchange. And the big coins passed from the hands of the sighing owners into the clutches of the usurers and were changed into smaller

coins. Then a further tragedy would take place with vendors over the choice and payment of their lambs, and the poor old men, particularly if they were half blind, were fobbed off with the most wretched little lambs. I see an old couple, man and wife, come back pushing a poor little lamb which must have been found faulty by the sacrificers. They cried and begged the vendor, who, far from being moved, replied with nasty words and rude manners. Considering what you want to spend, Galileans, the lamb I gave you is even too good. Go away! Or if you want a better one, you must pay five more coins. In the name of God! We are poor and old! Are you going to prevent us from celebrating this Passover which may be our last one? Are you not satisfied with what you wanted for a poor little lamb? Go away, you filthy lot. Joseph the Elder is now coming here. I enjoy his favour. God be with you, Joseph! Come and make your choice! The man whose name is Joseph the Elder, that is Joseph of Arimathea, enters the enclosure and picks a magnificent lamb. He passes by, stately and proud, magnificently dressed, without even looking at the poor old people weeping at the gate, that is the enclosure entrance. He almost bumps into them when he goes out with the fat, bleating lamb. But Jesus also is now nearby. He also has made His purchase, and Peter, who probably bargained for Him, is pulling a fairly good lamb. Peter would like to go at once where they offer the sacrifices. But Jesus turns to the right, towards the dismayed, weeping, undecided old couple, who are knocked about by the crowds and insulted by the vendor. Jesus, Who is so tall that the heads of the poor old souls reach only up to His heart, lays one hand on the shoulder of the woman and asks her: Why are you crying, woman? The little old woman turns round and she sees the young, tall, stately man, wearing a beautiful new white tunic and a snow-white mantle. She must think He is a doctor because of His garments and His aspect and is greatly surprised, because doctors and priests pay no attention to the poor, neither do they protect them from the stinginess of merchants. She explains to Jesus the reason for their tears. Jesus addresses the lamb vendor: Change this lamb for these believers. It is not worthy of the altar, neither is it fair that you should take advantage of two poor old people, only because they are weak and unprotected. And who are You? A just man. By Your way of speaking and Your companions', I know You are a Galilean. Can there be a just man in Galilee? Do what I told you, and be a just man yourself. Listen! Listen to the Galilean Who is defending His equals! And He wants to teach us of the Temple! The man laughs and jeers, imitating the Galilean accent, which is more musical and softer than the Judaean, at least I think so. Many people go near them and other merchants and moneychangers take their companion's part against Jesus. Amongst the people present there are two or three ironical rabbis. One of them asks: Are You a doctor?, in such a way that even Job would lose his

temper. Yes, I am. What do You teach? This I teach: to make the House of God a house of prayer and not a usury or a market place. That is what I teach. Jesus is formidable. He looks like the archangel posted on the threshold of Eden. He has no flashing sword in His hand but the beams from His eyes strike the impious mockers like lightning. Jesus has nothing in His hands. All He has is His wrath. And full of wrath, He walks fast and solemn between the benches, He scatters the coins which had been sorted out so meticulously according to their values, He turns over the benches and tables, and everything falls on the ground with great noise, in the bustle of rebounding metals and beaten wood, angry cries, shrieks of terror and shouts of approval. He then snatches from the hands of the stable-boys some ropes with which they were holding oxen, sheep and lambs, and He makes a very hard lash, in which the slip-knots are real scourges: He lifts it, swings it and strikes mercilessly with it. Yes, I can assure you: mercilessly. The unforeseen storm hits heads and backs. The believers move to one side admiring the scene; the guilty ones, chased as far as the external wall, take to their heels, leaving their money on the ground and abandoning in a great confusion of legs, horns and wings, their animals, some of which run and fly away. The bellows, bleatings, and fluttering of turtle doves and pigeons, added to the burst of laughter and shouting of the believers at the escaping usurers, overcome even the plaintive chorus of lambs, slaughtered in another yard. Priests, rabbis and Pharisees rush to the spot. Jesus is still in the middle of the yard, on His way back from the chase. The lash is still in His hands. Who are You? How dare You do that, upsetting the prescribed ceremonies? From which school are You? We do not know You, neither do we know where You come from. I am He Who is Mighty. I can do anything. Destroy this true Temple and I will raise it to give praise to God. I am not upsetting the holiness of the House of God or of the ceremonies, but you are perturbing it, allowing His House to become the centre of usurers and merchants. My school is the school of God. The same school as the whole of Israel had when the Eternal God spoke to Moses. You do not know Me? You will know Me. You do not know where I come from? You will learn. And turning towards the people, without noticing the priests any longer, tall in His white tunic, with His mantle open and blowing behind His back, His arms stretched out like an orator at the most important part of his speech, He says: Listen, Israel! In Deuteronomy it is said: "You are to appoint judges and scribes at all the gates... and they must administer an impartial judgement to the people. You must be impartial; you must take no bribes, for a bribe blinds wise men's eyes and jeopardises the cause of the just. Strict justice must be your ideal, so that you may live in rightful possession of the land that Yahweh your God is giving you". Listen, Israel. In Deuteronomy it is said: "The priests and scribes and the whole of the tribe of Levi shall have no share or inheritance with Israel, because they must live on the foods offered to Yahweh and on His dues; they shall have no inheritance among their brothers, because Yahweh will be their

inheritance". Listen, Israel. In Deuteronomy it is said: "You must not lend on interest to your brother, whether the lack be of money or food or anything else. You may demand interest on a loan of a foreigner; you will lend without interest to your brother whatever he needs". The Lord said that. But now you see that in Israel judgements are administered without justice for the poor. They are not inclined to justice, but they are partial with the rich, and to be poor, to be of the common people means to be oppressed. How can the people say: "Our judges are just" when they see that only the mighty ones are respected and satisfied, whereas the poor have no one who will listen to them? How can the people respect the Lord, when they see that the Lord is not respected by those who should respect Him more than everyone else? Does he who infringes the Lord's commandment respect Him? Why then do the priests in Israel possess property and accept bribes from tax-collectors and sinners, who make them offerings to obtain their favours, while they accept gifts to fill their coffers? God is the inheritance of His priests. He, the Father of Israel, is more than a Father to them and provides them with food, as it is just. But not more than what is just. He did not promise money and possessions to His servants of the sanctuary. In eternal life, they will possess Heaven for their justice, as Moses, Elijah, Jacob and Abraham will, but in this world they must have but a linen garment and a diadem of incorruptible gold: purity and charity, and their bodies must be subject to their souls, which are to be subject to the true God, and their bodies are not to be masters over their souls and against God. I have been asked on what authority I do this. And on what authority do they violate God's command and allow in the shade of the sacred walls usury on their brothers of Israel, who have come to obey the divine command? I have been asked from what school I come and I replied: "From God's school" Yes, Israel, I have come from and I will take you back to that holy and immutable school. Who wants to know the Light, the Truth, the Way, who wants to hear once again the voice of God speaking to his people, let him come to Me. You followed Moses through the deserts, Israel. Follow Me, because I shall lead you through a far worse desert, to the true blessed Land. At God's command, I will draw you to it, across an open sea. I will cure you of all evils lifting up My Sign. The time of Grace has come. The Prophets expected it and died waiting for it. The Prophets prophesied it and died in that hope. The just have dreamt of it and died comforted by that dream. It is now here. Come. "The Lord is about to judge His people and have mercy on His servants", as He promised through Moses. The people crowding round Jesus stand open-mouthed listening to Him. Then they comment on the new Rabbi's words and ask His companions questions. Jesus goes to another yard, separated from this one only by a porch. His friends follow Him, and the vision ends.

54. Jesus Meets Judas Iscariot and Thomas and Cures Simon the Zealot. 26th October 1944. Jesus is together with His six disciples. Neither the other day nor today have I seen Judas Thaddeus, who said he wanted to come to Jerusalem with Jesus. It must still be Passover time, because there is always a lot of people in town. It is evening and many people are hurrying home. Jesus also goes towards the house where He is a guest. It is not the house of the last Supper, which is in town, although not far from its walls. This house, instead, is a real country house, amongst thick olive-trees. From the rustic open space in front of the house, one can see the olive-trees down the terraces of the hill, right down to a little torrent, with very little water, which flows away along the valley formed by two hills: on the top of one there is the Temple, on the other hill there are only olive-trees. Jesus is at the first slopes of the latter hill, which rises smoothly, completely covered with peaceful trees. John, there are two men awaiting your friends says an elderly man, who must be the farmer or the owner of the olive-grove. I would say that John knows him. Where are they? Who are they? I don't know. One is certainly a Judaean. The other... I don't know. I didn't ask him. Where are they? In the kitchen, waiting, and... and... yes... there is another man who is all covered with sores. I made him stay over there, because I am afraid he may be a leper. He says he wants to see the Prophet Who spoke in the Temple. Jesus, Who up to this moment has been silent, says: Let us go to him first. Tell the others to come if they so wish. I will speak to them there, in the olive-grove. And He makes for the place indicated by the man. And what about us? What shall we do? asks Peter. Come, if you want. A man, muffled up, is leaning against the rustic wall supporting a terrace, the nearest to the boundary of the property. He must have climbed up there along a path coasting the torrent. When he sees Jesus approaching him, he shouts: Go back. Back! Have mercy on me! And he uncovers his trunk dropping his tunic to the ground. If his face is covered with scabs his trunk is one big sore. Some of the sores have already become deep wounds, some are like burns, some are whitish and glossy, as if there was a thin white pane of glass on them. Are you a leper? What do you want of Me? Don't curse me! Don't stone me. I have been told that the other evening You revealed Yourself as the Voice of God and the Bearer of Grace. I was also told that You gave assurance that by raising Your Sign, You will cure all diseases. Please raise it on me. I have come from the sepulchres... over there... I crept like a snake amongst the bushes near the torrent to arrive here without being seen. I waited until evening before leaving because at dusk it is more difficult to see who I am. I dared... I found this man, the man of the house, he is good. He did not kill me. He only said: "Wait over there, near the little wall". Have mercy on me and as Jesus is going near him, all by Himself,

because the six disciples and the landlord, as well as the two strangers, are far away and are evidently disgusted, he adds: Don't come nearer. Don't! I am infected! But Jesus proceeds. He looks at him so mercifully, that the man starts crying and kneels down almost touching the ground with his face, moaning: Your Sign! Your Sign! It will be raised when it is time. But now I say to you: Stand up. Be healed. I want it. And be the sign in this town that must recognise Me. Rise, I say. And do not sin, out of gratitude to God! The man rises slowly. He seems to emerge from the long flowery grass as from a shroud... and is healed. He looks at himself in the last dim light of the day. He is healed. He shouts: I am clean! Oh! What shall I do for You now? You must comply with the Law. Go to the priest. Be good in future. Go. The man is on the point of throwing himself at Jesus' feet, but he remembers he is still impure, according to the Law, and he restrains himself. But he kisses his own hand, and throws a kiss to Jesus and weeps. He weeps out of joy. The others are dumbfounded. Jesus turns away from the healed man and rouses them smiling. My friends, it was only a leprosy of the flesh. But you will see leprosy fall from hearts. Is it you that wanted Me? He asks the two strangers. Here I am. Who are you? We heard You the other evening... in the Temple. We looked for You in town. A man, who said he is a relative of Yours, told us You stay here. Why are you looking for Me? To follow You, if You will allow us, because You have words of truth. Follow Me? But do you know where I am going? No, Master, but certainly to glory. Yes. But not to a glory of this world. I am going to a glory which is in Heaven and is conquered by virtue and sacrifice. Why do you want to follow Me? He asks them again. To take part in Your glory... According to Heaven? Yes, according to Heaven. Not everybody is able to arrive there. Because Mammon lays more snares for those yearning for Heaven than for the others. And only he who has strong will power can resist. Why follow Me, if to follow Me implies a continuous struggle against the enemy, which is in us, against the hostile world, and against the Enemy who is Satan? Because that is the desire of our souls, which have been conquered by You. You are holy and powerful. We want to be Your friends. Friends!!! Jesus is silent and sighs. Then He stares at the one who has spoken all the time and who has now removed the mantle-hood from his head, and is bareheaded. He is Judas of Kerioth. Who are you? You speak better than a man of the people. I am Judas, the son of Simon. I come from Kerioth. But I am of the Temple. I am waiting for and dreaming of the King of the Jews. I heard You speak like a king. I saw Your kingly gestures. Take me with You. Take you? Now? At once? No. Why not, Master? Because it is better to examine ourselves carefully before venturing on very steep roads.

Do You not believe I am sincere? You have said it. I believe in your impulsiveness. But I do not believe in your perseverance. Think about it, Judas. I am going away now and I will be back for Pentecost. If you are in the Temple, you will see Me. Examine yourself. And who are you?. I am another one who saw You. I would like to be with You. But now I am frightened. No. Presumption ruins people. Fear may be an impediment, but it is a help when it originates from humility. Do not be afraid. Think about it, too, and when I come back... Master, You are so holy! I am afraid of not being worthy. Nothing else. Because I do not doubt my love... What is your name? Thomas, of Didymus. I will remember your name. Go in peace. Jesus dismisses them and He goes into the hospitable house for supper. The six disciples who are with Him want to know many things. Why, Master, why did You treat them differently? Because there was a difference. Both of them had the same impulsiveness... asks John. My friend, also the same impulsiveness may have a different taste and bring about a different effect. They both certainly had the same impulsiveness. But they were not the same in their purposes. And the one who appears less perfect is, in fact, more perfect, because he has no incentive to human glory. He loves Me because he loves Me. And so do I. And I, too. And I. And I. And I. And I. I know. I know you for what you are. Are we therefore perfect? Oh! No! But, like Thomas, you will become perfect if you persevere in your desire to love. Perfect?! Oh! My friends! And who is perfect but God? You are! I solemnly tell you that I am not perfect by Myself, if you think I am prophet. No man is perfect. But I am perfect because He Who is speaking to you is the Word of the Father: part of God. His thought that becomes Word. I have Perfection in Myself. And you must believe Me to be such if you believe that I am the Word of the Father. And yet, see, My friends, I want to be called the Son of man because I lower Myself taking upon Myself all the miseries of man, to bear them as My first scaffold, and cancel them, after bearing them, without suffering from them Myself. What a burden, My friends! But I bear it with joy. It is a joy for Me to bear it, because, since I am the Son of mankind, I will make mankind once again the child of God. As it was on the first day. Jesus is speaking very gently, sitting at the poor table, gesticulating calmly with His hands on the table, His head slightly inclined to one side, His face lit up from below by a small oil lamp on the table. He smiles gently, He Who formerly was so majestic a Master in His bearing, is now so friendly in His gestures. His disciples are listening to Him carefully.

Master... why did Your cousin not come, although he knows where You live? My Peter!... You will be one of My stones, the first one. But not all the stones can be easily used. Have you seen the marble blocks in the Praetorium building? With hard labour they have been torn away from the bosom of the mountain side, and are now part of the Praetorium. Look instead at those stones down there shining in the moonlight, in the water of the Kidron. They arrived in the riverbed by themselves, and if anyone wants to take them, they do not put up any resistance. My cousin is like the first stones I am speaking of... The bosom of the mountain side: his family, they contend for him with Me. But I want to be exactly like the stones in the torrent. I am quite prepared to leave everything for You: home, wife, fishing, brothers. Everything, Rabboni, for You. I know, Peter. That is why I love you. Also Judas will come. Who? Judas of Kerioth? I don't care for him. He is a dandy young man, but... I prefer... I prefer myself... They all laugh at Peter's witty remark. There is nothing to laugh at. I mean that I prefer a sincere Galilean, a rough fisherman, but without any fraud to... to townsfolk who... I don't know... here: the Master knows what I mean. Yes, I know. But do not judge. We need one another in this world, the good are mixed with the wicked, just like flowers in a field. Hemlock grows beside the salutary mallow. I would like to ask one thing... What, Andrew? John told me about the miracle You worked at Cana... We were hoping so much that You would work one at Capernaum... and You said that You would not work any miracles before fulfilling the Law. Why Cana then? And why here and not in Your own fatherland? To obey the Law is to be united to God and that increases our capabilities. A miracle is the proof of the union with God, as well as of God's benevolent and assenting presence. That is why I wanted to Perform My duty as an Israelite, before starting the series of miracles. But You were not bound to fulfil the Law. Why? As the Son of God, I was not. But as a son of the Law, yes, I was. For the time being, Israel knows Me only as such... and, even later, almost everyone in Israel will know Me as such, nay, even less. But I do not want to scandalise Israel and therefore I obey the Law. You are holy. Holiness does not bar obedience. Nay it makes obedience perfect. Besides everything else, there is a good example to be given. What would you say of a father, of an elder brother, of a teacher, of a priest who did not give good examples? And what about Cana? Cana was to make My Mother happy. Cana is the advance due to My Mother. She anticipates Grace. Here I honour the Holy City, making her, in public, the starting point of My power as Messiah. But there, at Cana, I paid honour to the Holy Mother of God, Full of Grace. The world received Me through Her. It is only fair that My first miracle in the world should be for Her.

There is a knocking at the door. It is Thomas once again. He goes in and throws himself at Jesus' feet. Master... I cannot wait until You come back. Let me come with You. I am full of faults, but I have my love, my only real great treasure. It is Yours, it's for You. Let me come, Master... Jesus lays His hand on Thomas' head. You may stay, Didymus. Follow Me. Blessed are those who are sincere and persistent in their will. You are all blessed. You are more than relatives to Me, because you are My children and My brothers, not according to the blood, that dies, but according to the will of God and to your spiritual wishes. Now I tell you that I have no closer relative than those who do the will of My Father, and you do it, because you want what is good. The vision ends thus. It is 4 o'clock p.m. and the shadows of torpor are already falling upon me: a torpidity which I perceive will be violent, a logical consequence of yesterday's painful hour... But I was very ill also on October the 24th. So much so, that when the vision was over - I wrote it suffering from a headache quite as bad as meningitis- I did not have enough strength to add that at last I saw Jesus dressed as He appears to me when the vision is entirely for me: wearing a soft tunic of white wool just verging to ivory and a mantle of the same hue. The garments He was wearing the first time He revealed Himself as Messiah in Jerusalem.

55. Thomas Becomes a Disciple. 27th October 1944. This morning, as I recovered my senses after a very heavy torpor which had lasted many hours, while I was praying awaiting daylight, I saw the resumption of the vision. I say resumption because we are still in the same place: the low, wide kitchen, with its dark, smoky walls, dimly lit up by the small flame of an oil lamp on the rustic table. It is a long narrow table at which eight people are sitting: Jesus and His six disciples, and the landlord, four each side. Jesus, sitting on a stool - the only seats here are three-legged stools, real country furniture - is still turned round speaking to Thomas. Jesus' hand has fallen from Thomas' head on to his shoulder. Jesus says: Stand up, My friend. Have you had any supper yet? No, Master. I walked a few yards with the other fellow who was with me, then I left him and I came back saying that I wanted to speak to the healed leper... I said that because I thought he would disdain approaching an impure man. I guessed right. But I wanted to see You, not the leper... I wanted to say to You: "Please take me"... I wandered up and down the olive-grove until a young man asked me what I was doing. He must have thought I was ill-disposed. He was near a pillar, at the boundary of the olive-grove. The landlord smiles. It's my son he explains and adds: He is on guard at the oil-mill. In the caves under the mill, we still have almost all the crop of the year. It was a very good one and we made a lot of oil. And when there are large crowds about, robbers always get together to plunder unguarded places. Eight years ago, just at Parasceve, they robbed us of everything. Since then we

keep a good watch one night each. His mother has gone to take him his supper. Well, he asked me: "What do you want?", and he spoke in such a tone that to save my back from his stick, I answered at once: "I am looking for the Master Who lives here". He then replied: "If what you say is true, come to the house". And he brought me here. It was he who knocked at the door and he did not go away until he heard my first words. Do you live far away? I live on the other side of the town, near the Eastern Gate. Are you alone? I was with some relatives. But they have gone to stay with other relatives on the road to Bethlehem, I remained here to look for You day and night, until I found You. Jesus smiles and says: So no one is waiting for you? No, Master. It is a long way, it is a dark night, the Roman patrols are about the town. I say: stay with us, if you wish. Oh! Master! Thomas is happy. Make room for him. And each of us will give something to our brother. Jesus gives him the portion of cheese He had in front of Him. He explains to Thomas: We are poor and our supper is almost over. But there is so much heart in who offers. And He says to John who is sitting beside Him: Give your seat to our friend. John gets up at once and sits down at the end of the table near the landlord. Sit down, Thomas, and eat. And then He says to them all: You will always behave like that, My friends, according to the law of charity. A pilgrim is already protected by the law of God. But now, in My name, you must love him even more. When anyone asks you for some bread, a drop of water or a shelter in the name of God, you must give it in the same name. And you will receive your reward from God. You must behave so with everybody. Even with your enemies. And that is the new Law. Up till now you were told: "Love those who love you and hate your enemies". I say: "Love also those who hate you". Oh! if you only knew how much you will be loved by God, if you love as I am telling you! And when anyone says: "I want to be your companion in serving the true Lord God and following His Lamb", then he must be dearer to you than a brother by blood, because you will be joined by an eternal bond: the bond of Christ. But if someone comes who is not sincere? It is easy to say: "I want to do this or that". But words do not always correspond to the truth says Peter, rather irritated. I do not know why, but he is not in his usual jovial mood. Peter, listen. What you say is sensible and fair. But, see: it is better to exceed in bounty and trust rather than exceed in distrust and hardness. If you help an undeserving person, what harm will befall you? None. Nay, God's reward will always be active for you, whereas the person will be guilty of betraying your trust. No harm? Eh! Very often a worthless person is not satisfied with ingratitude, but goes much further, even to the extreme of ruining one's reputation, wealth and one's very life. True. But would that diminish your merit? No, it would not. Even if the

whole world should believe slander, even if you became poorer than Job, even if the cruel person should take your life, what would change in the eyes of God? Nothing. Nay, something would change. But to your advantage. God, to the merits of your bounty, would add the merits of your intellectual, financial, physical martyrdom. All right! Perhaps it is so. Peter does not speak any more. He sulkily rests his head on his hand. Jesus addresses Thomas: My friend, before, in the olive-grove I said to you: "When I come back here, if you are still willing, you will be one of My disciples". Now I say to you: "Are you willing to do Jesus a favour?" Most certainly. And if this favour should cost you some sacrifice? There is no sacrifice in serving You. What is it You want? I wanted to say... but you may have some business, some affections... None, none! I have You! Tell me. Listen. Tomorrow at daybreak the leper will leave the sepulchres to find someone who will inform the priest. You will be the first to go to the sepulchres. It is charity. And you will shout: "Come out, you, the one who was cleansed yesterday. I have been sent by Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah of Israel, He who cleansed you". Let the world of the "living dead" know My name, let them throb with hope, and let those come to Me, who will have faith in addition to hope, that I may heal them. It is the first form of purity that I am bringing, the first form of the resurrection, of which I am the lord. One day I will grant a greater purity... One day the sealed tombs will violently expel those who are really dead, and they will appear and laugh with their empty eye sockets, with their bare jaws, because of the rejoicing of the souls freed from Limbo, a remote rejoicing and yet perceived even by skeletons. They will appear to laugh because of this liberation and to throb knowing it is due to... Go! He will come to you. You will do what he asks you to do. You will assist him in everything, as if he were your brother. And you will also say to him: "When you are completely purified, we will go together along the road of the river, beyond Doco and Ephraim. Jesus, the Master, will be waiting for us to tell us in what we have to serve him". I will do that. And what about the other one? Who? The Iscariot? Yes, Master. The advice I gave him still stands. Let him decide by himself and let him take a long time. Nay, avoid seeing him. I will be with the leper. Only lepers wander about in the valley of the sepulchres and those who pitifully are in touch with them. Peter mumbles something. Jesus hears him. What is the matter with you, Peter? You either grumble or are silent. You seem to be discontented. Why? I am discontented. We were the first and You did not work a miracle for us. We were the first and You let a stranger sit beside You. We were the first and You entrust him, not us, with a task. We were the first and... yet, yes, we seem to be the last ones. Why are You going to wait for them on the road near the river? Certainly to entrust them with some mission. Why them, and not us? Jesus looks at him. He is not angry. On the contrary He smiles as one

smiles at a child. He gets up, goes slowly over to Peter and, smiling, says to him: Peter! Peter! You are a big, old baby! And He says to Andrew, who is sitting beside his brother: Go and take My seat and He sits beside Peter, clasping his shoulders with His arm, and He speaks to him, holding him thus against His own shoulder: Peter, you think I am being unfair, but I am not. On the contrary it is a proof that I know what you are worth. Look. Who needs proofs? He who is not yet certain. I knew you were so certain about Me, that I did not feel any need to give you evidence of My power. Proofs are required here in Jerusalem, where vices, irreligiousness, politics and many worldly things dim souls to such an extent that they can no longer see the Light passing by. But up there, on our beautiful lake, so clear under a clear sky, amongst honest and good willing people, no proof is required. You will have miracles. I will pour torrents of graces upon you. But consider how I valued you, I took you without exacting any proof and without finding it necessary to give you any, because I know who you are. You are dear to Me, so dear, and so faithful. Peter cheers up: Forgive me, Jesus. Yes, I forgive you because your sulkiness is a sign of love. But do not be envious any more, Simon of Jonas. Do you know what the heart of your Jesus is? Have you ever seen the sea, the real sea? You have? Well, My heart is bigger than the immense sea! And there is room for everybody. For the whole of mankind. And the smallest person has a place exactly as the greatest. And a sinner finds love just like an innocent. I am entrusting these with a mission. Certainly. Do you want to forbid Me? I chose you. You did not choose yourselves. I am therefore free to decide how I want to employ you. And if I leave them here with a mission - which might well be a test, as the lapse of time granted to the Iscariot may be due to mercy - can you reproach Me? How do you know that I am not keeping a greater mission for you? And is not the nicest mission to be told: "You will come with me"? It is true. I am a blockhead! Forgive me... Yes. I forgive everything. Oh! Peter!... But I beg you all never to discuss merits and positions. I could have been born a king. I was born poor, in a stable. I could have been rich. I lived with My work and now I live out of charity. And yet, believe Me, My friends, there is no one greater than I in the eyes of God. Greater than I am, Who am here: the servant of man. You a servant? Never! Why not, Peter? Because I will serve You. Even if You served Me as a mother serves her child, I have come to serve man. I will be a Saviour for him. What service is there like that? Oh! Master! You explain everything. And what seemed dark becomes clear at once! Are you happy now, Peter? Now let Me finish talking to Thomas. Are you sure you will recognise the leper? He is the only one healed; but he may already have left by starlight, to find an early wayfarer. And someone, anxious to enter the town and see his relatives, might perhaps take his place. Listen to his description. I was near him and I saw him well in the twilight. He is tall and thin. Of a dark complexion, like a cross-breed, very deep and dark eyes with snow-white eyebrows, hair as white as linen and somewhat curly, and a long snubbed nose like the Lybians', two thick protruding lips particularly the

lower one. He is so olive-coloured that his lips verge on violet. He has an old scar on his forehead and it will be the only stain, now that he has been cleaned from scabs and dirt. He must be old, if he is all white. No, Philip, he looks old, but he is not. Leprosy made him white. What is he? A cross-breed? Perhaps, Peter. He resembles African people. Will he be an Israelite, then? We will find out. But suppose he is not? Eh! If he were not, he would go away. He is already lucky that he deserved to be healed. No, Peter. Even if he is an idolater, I will not send him away. Jesus has come for everybody. And I solemnly tell you that people living in darkness will overcome the children of the people of Light... Jesus sighs. He then stands up. He thanks the Father with a hymn and blesses everyone. The vision ends thus. I point out incidentally that my internal adviser said to me, since yesterday evening when I saw the leper: It is Simon, the apostle. You will see him and Thaddeus coming to the Master. This morning, after Holy Communion (today is Friday) I opened my missal and I saw that this is the eve of the feast of Saints Simon and Judas, and tomorrow's Gospel deals with charity, almost repeating the very words I heard before the vision. However, I have not seen Judas Thaddeus so far. 56. Judas of Alphaeus, Thomas and Simon Are Accepted as Disciples at the Jordan. 28th October 1944. You are beautiful, o banks of the Jordan, as beautiful as you were in the times of Jesus! I admire you and am enraptured by your solemn green-blue peace, resounding with flowing waters and leafy branches, as sweet as a melody. I am on a road which is quite wide and also well maintained. It must be a highway, or more likely a military road, built by the Romans to link the various regions with the capital. It runs near the river, but not precisely along it. It is in fact separated from it by woodland, the function of which I think is to consolidate the river banks and contain the water in times of flood. The woodland continues on the other side of the road, so that the road looks like a natural tunnel over which the trees interlace their leafy branches, a beneficial protection for wayfarers in the hot climate of this country. At the point where I am, the river, and consequently also the road, form a wide bend, so that the leafy embankment appears to me like a huge green barrier built to enclose a basin of calm waters. It almost looks like a lake in a luxury park. But the water is not as still as the water of a lake. It flows, although slowly. This is evident from its rustling against the first reed thickets, the more daring ones that have grown down there, in the gravel bed, and also from the undulation of the long ribbon-like leaves of the canes, reaching down to the water by which they are sweetly lulled. Also a group of willows, with

flexible falling branches, have entrusted the ends of their green foliage to the river, that combs the thin branches with a graceful caress, stretching them softly on the water surface. There is peace and silence in the early morning. One can sense only the warbling of birds, the rustling of water and leaves, the glittering of dew drops on the tall green grass between the trees, a grass not yet hardened or parched by the summer sunshine, but tender and fresh, since it came up after the springtime showers, which nourished the earth, in its very depth, with moisture and rich juices. Three wayfarers are standing on the road, in the middle of the bend. They look up and down, to the south, where Jerusalem is and to the north, where Samaria lies. They look anxiously between the trees to see whether anyone is arriving as expected. They are Thomas, Judas Thaddeus and the healed leper. They are speaking. Can you see anything? No, I can't. Neither can I. And yet this is the place. Are you sure? I'm sure, Simon. One of the six said to me, when the Master was going away amid the acclamations of the crowd, after the miraculous healing of a crippled beggar, who was healed at the Fish Gate: "We are now going out of Jerusalem. Wait for us five miles between Jericho and Doco, at the bend of the river, along the road in the woodland". This one. He also said: "We will be there in three days' time at dawn". This is the third day, and we have been here before dawn. Will He come? Perhaps we should have followed Him from Jerusalem. You were not yet allowed to mix with the crowds, Simon. If my cousin told you to come here, He will certainly come here. He always keeps His promise. All we can do is wait. Have you always been with Him? Yes, always. Since He came back to Nazareth He was my good companion. We were always together. We are about the same age, I am a little older. And I was the favourite of His father, who was my father's brother. Also His Mother was very fond of me. I grew up more with Her than with my own mother. She was fond... Is She no longer as fond of you, now? Oh! Yes, She is. But we have parted a little since He became a prophet. My relatives are not happy about it. Which relatives? My father and the two older brothers. The other one is undecided... My father is very old and I did not have the courage to hurt him. But now... Now, no longer so. Now I am going where my heart and my mind tell me. I am going to Jesus. I don't think I am offending the Law by doing so. In any case... if what I want to do was not right, Jesus would tell me. I will do what He says. Is it right for a father to prevent a son from doing good? If I feel that my salvation is there, why prevent me from reaching it? Why, at times, are our fathers our enemies? Simon sighs, as if he were overwhelmed by sad memories, he lowers his head, but does not speak.

Thomas instead replies: I have already overcome the obstacle. My father listened to me and he understood me. He blessed me saying: "Go. May this Passover be for you the liberation from the slavery of waiting. You are fortunate because you can believe. I will wait. But if it is really 'Him', and you will find out following Him, then come and say to your old father: 'Come, Israel has the Expected One' ". You are luckier than I am. And we always lived beside Him!... And we, in the family, do not believe!... We say, that is: they say: "He has gone mad"! There, there is a group of people shouts Simon. It's Him, it's Him! I recognise His fair head! Oh! Come! Let us run! They start walking fast southwards. When they reach the centre of the bend, the trees cover the remainder of the road, so that the two groups face each other unexpectedly. Jesus seems to be coming up from the river, because He is among the trees on the bank. Master! Jesus! My Lord! The three cries of the disciple, the cousin and the cured leper are full of joy and veneration. Peace to you! There is the beautiful, unmistakable, full, resonant, calm, expressive, clear, virile, sweet, incisive voice! You too, Judas, My cousin, are here? They embrace each other. Judas is weeping. Why are you weeping? Oh! Jesus! I want to stay with You! I have been waiting for you all the time. Why did you not come? Judas lowers his head and is silent. They did not let you! And now? Jesus, I... I cannot obey them. I want to obey only You. But I did not give you an order. No, You did not. But it is Your mission that gives it! It is He, Who sent You, Who is speaking here, in my heart, and says to me: "Go to Him". It is She, Who bore You, my sweet teacher, Who with Her gentle look, as mild as a dove's, says to me without uttering a word: "Be of Jesus!". Can I ignore that heavenly voice that pierces my heart? Can I ignore the prayers of such a Holy Woman, Who implores me for my own good? Only because I am Your cousin on Joseph's side, am I not to acknowledge You for what You are, whereas the Baptist recognised You, although he had never seen You, here, on the banks of this river and he greeted You as the "Lamb of God"? And I, should I not be capable of anything, although I was brought up with You, and I was good because I followed You, and I became a son of the Law through Your Mother, from Whom I learned not the six hundred and thirteen precepts of the rabbis, besides the Scriptures and the prayers, but the essence of them all? And your father? My father? He does not lack bread and assistance, and then... You give me the example. You have thought of the welfare of the people, rather than the little advantage of Mary. And She is alone. Tell me, Master, is it not right for a son to say to his father, without lacking respect: "Father, I love you. But God is above you and I will follow Him"? Judas, My cousin and My friend, I tell you: you have made good progress

on the way to Light. Come. It is lawful to speak thus to a father, when it is God Who calls. There is nothing above God. Also the laws of relationship cease, that is they are raised to a dignity, because with our tears, we give our fathers and mothers a greater help and for something everlasting, not for a short time in this world. We draw them with us to Heaven, and by sacrificing our affections, to God. So, Judas, stay here. I have been waiting for you and I am happy to have you, the friend of My life at Nazareth. Judas is touched. Jesus addresses Thomas: You obeyed faithfully. That is the first virtue of a disciple. I came because I want to be faithful to You. And you will be. I tell you. And you, who are hiding shyly in the shade, come here. Do not be afraid. My Lord! The ex-leper is at Jesus' feet. Stand up. Your name? Simon. Your family? My Lord... it was powerful... I was powerful too... But bitter sectarian hatred... and errors of youth damaged its power. My father... Oh! I must speak against him, who caused me to shed so many earthly tears! You see, You saw the gift he gave me. Was he a leper? He was not. Neither was I. But he suffered from another disease which we in Israel associate with various forms of leprosy. He... his caste was then triumphant, he lived and died as a powerful man, at home. I... if You had not saved me, I would have died in the valley of sepulchres. Are you alone? Yes, I am. I have a faithful servant who looks after what property is left. I sent word to him. And your mother? She is dead. The man seems embarrassed. Jesus looks at him attentively. Simon, you asked me: "What shall I do for You?" Now I say to you: "Follow Me". I will, at once, my Lord... But... But I... let me tell You one thing. I am, I was called "Zealot" because of the caste, and "Cananean", because of my mother. See. I am of a dark complexion. In my veins there is the blood of a slave woman. My father had no children from his wife, and he had me from a slave. His wife was a good woman and she brought me up as her own son, she took care of me in my endless illnesses until she died... There are no slaves or freemen in the eyes of God. There is only one slavery in His eyes: sin. And I have come to abolish it. I am calling everybody, because the Kingdom is of all men. Are you a learned man? Yes, I am. I also had my position amongst the important people, as long as my disease was hidden under my clothes. But when it spread to my face... My enemies then could not believe they were at last able to confine me amongst the "dead", although a Roman doctor of Caesarea, when I consulted him, told me that mine was not real leprosy, but hereditary serpigo, which I would spread only by procreation. Is it possible for me not to curse my father? You must not curse him. He has caused you all sorts of trouble...

Yes, he did! He was a squanderer, a vicious, cruel, heartless man without any love. He deprived me of my health, he denied me love and peace, he branded me with a shameful name and with a disease which is a mark of infamy... He wanted everything for himself, even his son's future. He deprived me of everything, also of the joy of being a father. That is why I say to you: "Follow Me". As My follower you will find father and children. Look up, Simon. There, the True Father is smiling at you. Look at the wide world, at the continents, at the countries: there are children and children everywhere; children of the souls for the childless. They are waiting for you, and many like you are also waiting. There are no foundlings under My Sign. There is no solitude, no difference in My Sign. It is a sign of love, and it gives love. Come, My childless Simon. Come, Judas, who are losing your father for My sake. I join you in the same destiny. They are both beside Him. He is holding His hands on their shoulders as if He were taking possession of them and imposing a common yoke on them. He then says: And I unite you together. But now I will separate you. Simon, you will stay here with Thomas. You will prepare with him the way for My return: I will be back soon, and I want the people to be waiting for Me. Tell the sick people that He Who can cure their illnesses, is about to come here: you can certainly tell them that. Tell those who are waiting, that the Messiah is among His people. Tell the sinners that He Who forgives has come to give them strength to rise... Will we be able to do that? Yes, you will. All you have to say is: "He has come. He calls you. He is waiting for you. He has come to grant you graces. Come here to see Him", and to these words, add a report of what you know. And you, Judas, My cousin, come with Me and these. But you will stay at Nazareth. Why, Jesus? Because you must prepare My way in My fatherland. Do you think it is a small mission? I can tell you that there is not a harder one... Jesus sighs. And will I succeed? You will and you will not. But it will be sufficient to be justified. Justified of what? And with whom? With God. With your fatherland. With your family. They will not be able to reproach us, because we offered good things: and if the fatherland and the family will disdain our offer, we shall not be blamed for their loss. And what about us? You, Peter? You will go back to your fishing nets. Why? Because I will teach you slowly and I will take you with Me, when I find that you are ready. But will we see You, then? Certainly. I will often come to see you, or I will send for you when I am at Capernaum. Now, let us say goodbye, My friends and let us go. I bless you, who are staying here. May My peace be with you. And the vision ends.

57. Return to Nazareth after Passover with the Six Disciples. 31st October 1944. Jesus is near Nazareth with His cousin and the six disciples. From the top of the hill where they are, the white village can be seen amongst the green of the trees, with its houses scattered up and down the sweetly undulating slopes, gently declining in some cases, more steep in others. Here we are, My friends. That is My house. My Mother is at home because there is smoke rising from the house. Perhaps She is baking. I will not ask you to stay with Me, because I imagine you will be anxious to go to your homes. But if you wish to share My bread with Me and meet My Mother, Whom John has already met, then I say to You: "Come". The six disciples, who were already sad because of the impending separation, are all happy again and they accept the invitation wholeheartedly. Let us go, then. They go down the hillock quickly and take to the main road. It is evening. It is still warm, but the shades of evening are falling over the country, where the crops are beginning to ripen. They go into the village. Women are coming and going from the fountain, men standing on the threshold of their little workshops or working in the kitchen gardens wave to Jesus and Judas. The children press round Jesus. Have You come back? Are You staying here, now? The wheel of my little barrow is broken again. Do You know, Jesus. I have a new baby sister, and they have called her Mary. The schoolmaster told me that I have learned everything and that I am a true son of the Law. Sarah is not here, because her mother is very ill. She cries, because she is afraid. My brother Isaac got married. We had a lovely feast. Jesus listens, caresses, praises, promises His help. And they reach the house thus. Mary is already at the door, as a thoughtful boy informed Her. Son! Mother! They are in each other's arms. Mary, Who is much smaller than Jesus, is leaning with Her head on Her Son's chest, clasped in His arms. He kisses Her blond hair. They enter the house. The disciples, including Judas, remain outside, to leave Jesus and Mary free in their first effusions. Jesus! My Son! Mary's voice trembles, as if it were choked with sobs. Why, Mother, why are You so upset? Oh! Son. They told Me... In the Temple, that day, there were some Galileans and some Nazarenes... They came back... and they told Me... Oh!

Son! But You can see, Mother, that I am well. I suffered no harm. God was glorified in His House. Yes, I know, Son of My heart. I know it was like the blare awaking the sleepers. And I am happy for the glory given to God... I am happy that this people of Mine wakes to God... I am not reproaching You... I will not be a hindrance to You... I understand You and... and I am happy, but I begot You, Son!... Mary is still clasped by Jesus' arms and She has spoken holding Her little open hands pressed against Her Son's chest, Her head turned up towards Him, Her eyes shining with tears ready to run down Her cheeks. She is now silent, leaning Her head on His chest. She looks like a grey turtle-dove, in Her greyish dress, sheltered by two strong white wings, because Jesus still wears His white tunic and mantle. Mother! Poor Mother! Dear Mother!... Jesus kisses Her again. He then says: Well, see? I am here, but I am not alone. I have My first disciples with Me, and the other ones are in Judaea. Also My cousin Judas is with Me and follows Me... Judas? Yes, Judas. I know why You are surprised. Among those who told You what happened, there certainly was Alphaeus with his sons, and I am not mistaken if I tell You that they criticised Me. But do not be afraid. Today is so, tomorrow will be different. A man is to be cultivated like the soil, and where there are thorns, there will be roses. Judas, of whom You are so fond, is already with Me. Where is he now? Outside with the others. Have You got enough bread for everybody? Yes Son. Mary of Alphaeus is taking it out of the oven just now. Mary is very good to Me, particularly now. God will give her glory. He goes to the door and calls: Judas! Your mother is here! Come in, My friends! They go in and greet Jesus' Mother. Judas kisses Her and then runs looking for his mother. Jesus introduces the five disciples mentioning their names: Peter, Andrew, James, Nathanael, Philip; because John, who has already met Mary, spoke to Her immediately after Judas, bowing down to Her and receiving Her blessing. Mary greets them and asks them to sit down. She is the landlady and although adoring Her Jesus with Her glances - Her soul seems to be speaking to Her Son through Her eyes - She takes care of Her guests. She would like to bring some water to refresh them. But Peter objects: No, Woman. I cannot allow that. Please sit near Your Son, Holy Mother. I will go, we will all go into the kitchen garden to refresh ourselves. Mary of Alphaeus rushes in, flushed and covered with flour, she greets Jesus Who blesses her, she then leads the six men into the kitchen garden, to the fountain, and comes back happy. Oh! Mary! she says to the Virgin. Judas told me. How happy I am! For Judas and for You, my dear sister-in-law. I know that the others will scold me. But it does not matter. I will be happy the day I know that they are all for Jesus. We are mothers and we know... we feel what is good for our children. And I feel that You, Jesus, are the wealth of my children. Jesus caresses her head and smiles at her.

The disciples come back in and Mary of Alphaeus serves them sweet-smelling bread, olives and cheese. She then brings a small amphora of red wine, which Jesus pours out to his friends. It is always Jesus Who offers and then hands things out. At first the disciples are somewhat embarrassed, then they become more sure of themselves and they speak about their houses, of the journey to Jerusalem, of the miracles worked by Jesus. They are full of zeal and affection and Peter endeavours to form an alliance with Mary to be taken by Jesus at once, without having to wait at Bethsaida. Do what He tells you urges Mary, with a gentle smile. The wait will be more useful to you than an immediate union. Whatever My Jesus does is always well done. Peter's hope vanishes. But he submits with good grace. He only asks: Will it be a long wait? Jesus smiles at him, but does not say anything. Mary interprets Jesus' smile as a favourable sign and She explains: Simon of Jonas, He is smiling... I therefore say to you: as fast as a swallow's flight over the lake will be the time of your obedient waiting. Thank You, Woman. Have you nothing to say, Judas? And you, John? I am looking at You, Mary. And I. I am also looking at you... and do you know? This reminds Me of bygone days. Also then I had three pairs of eyes staring at Me lovingly. Do you remember, Mary, My three pupils? Oh! I do remember! You are quite right! And even now, three of almost the same age, are looking at You with all their love. And I think that John is like Jesus, as Jesus was then, so fair and rosy, the youngest of them all. The others are anxious to know more... and memories and stories of the past are awakened and related. It is growing dark. My friends, I have no bedrooms. But the workshop where I used to work is over there. If you wish to take shelter there... But there is nothing but benches in it. A comfortable bed for fishermen, wont to sleep on narrow boards. Thank You, Master. It is an honour and a blessing to sleep under Your roof. They withdraw after bidding good night. Judas also goes home with his mother. Jesus and Mary are left in the room, sitting on the chest, in the light of the little oil lamp, each with one arm round the other's shoulder, and Jesus tells Mary of His recent journey. And Mary listens blissful, anxious, happy. The vision ends thus.

58. Cure of a Blind Man at Capernaum. 7th October 1944. Jesus says, and I become calm at once and the joy of such bright peace makes my heart cheerful: See. He is so fond of episodes of blind people. Let us

give him another one. And I see. I see a beautiful summer sunset. The sun has inflamed the whole of the western sky and the Lake of Gennesaret looks like a huge disc aflame, under a sky ablaze. The streets in Capernaum are just beginning to become crowded; women go to the fountain, fishermen prepare their nets and boats to go afishing at night, children run playing in the streets, little donkeys carrying hampers go towards the country, probably to get vegetables. Jesus appears at a door which opens on to a little yard completely shaded by a vine and a fig-tree. Beyond it there is a stoney lane, that runs along the lake. It must be Peter's house, because he is on the shore with Andrew, arranging the fish baskets and nets in the boat, and sorting the seats and coils of rope. He is preparing everything to go fishing, and Andrew is helping him, coming and going from the house to the boat. Jesus asks His apostle: Will you have a good haul? The weather is right. The water is calm, it will be clear moonlight. The fish will come to the surface from the bottom and my net will drag them. Are we going by ourselves? Oh! Master! How could we manage by ourselves with this type of net. I have never gone fishing and I expect to be taught by you. Jesus goes down very slowly towards the lake and He stops near the boat, on the coarse, pebbly sands. See, Master: this is what we do. I go out beside the boat of James of Zebedee, and we go thus to the right point, both boats together. Then we lower the net. We hold one end. You said You wanted to hold it. Yes, if you tell Me what I have to do. Oh! You only have to watch it going down. It must be lowered slowly without making any knots. Very slowly, because we will be in a fishing area, and any harsh movement may drive the fish away. Without knots, otherwise the net would close up, whereas it must open like a bag, or if You prefer so, like a veil blown by the wind. Then, when the net is fully lowered, we will row gently, or we may set sail, according to circumstances, forming a semicircle on the lake. And when we understand by the vibration of the safety peg that the haul is good, we head for the shore. When we are almost on the shore - not before to avoid running the risk of losing all the fish; not after, to avoid damaging both the fish and net on the stones - we will haul in the net. At this point we must be very careful, because the boats must be so close as to allow one boat to catch the end of the net from the other one, but they must not collide, to avoid crushing the netful of fish. Please, Master, be careful, it is our daily bread. Keep an eye on the net, that jolts may not turn it over. The fish fight for their freedom with strong strokes of their tails, and if there is a lot of them... You will understand... They are small things, but if ten, one hundred, a thousand get together, they become as strong as Leviathan. The same happens with sins, Peter. After all, one fault is not irretrievable. But if one is not careful in controlling oneself, and one adds fault to fault, at the end a little fault, perhaps a single omission, or a simple weakness, becomes bigger and bigger, it becomes a habit, it becomes a capital vice. At times one starts with a lustful glance and ends up by committing adultery. At times, while simply lacking charity when speaking to a relative, one ends up by doing violence to one's neighbour. Never, never allow faults to increase in gravity and

in numbers, if you wish to avoid trouble! They become dangerous and overbearing like the infernal Snake himself, and they will drag you down into Gehenna. What You say is right, Master... But we are so weak! Care and prayer are necessary to become strong and obtain help, together with a strong will not to sin. And you must have full trust in the loving justice of the Father. Do You think He will not be too severe with poor Simon? He might have been severe with the old Simon. But with My Peter, with the new man, the man of His Christ... no, Peter, He will not. He loves you and will love you. And what about me? You, too, Andrew; and John, James, Philip and Nathanael as well. You are the first chosen by Me. Will there be any more? There is Your cousin, and in Judaea... Oh! There will be many more. My Kingdom is open to all mankind and I solemnly tell you that My haul, in the nights of centuries, will be more plentiful than your richest one... Because every century is one night in which not the pure light of Orion or of the sailing moon will be the guide and light of mankind, but the word of Christ and the Grace He will bestow; a night that will become the dawn of a day with no sunset and of a light in which all the faithful will live and will be the dawn of a sunshine that will make all the chosen resplendent, beautiful, happy for ever even like gods. Minor gods, children of God the Father and like Me... It is not possible for you to understand now. But I solemnly tell you that your Christian life will cause you to resemble your Master, and you will shine in Heaven with His signs. So, notwithstanding the envious malice of Satan and the weak will of men, My haul will be more plentiful than yours. But shall we be Your only apostles? Are you jealous, Peter? No, don't be! Others will come and in My heart there will be love for everybody. Don't be avaricious, Peter. You do not yet know Who loves you. Have you ever counted the stars? Or the stones in the depth of the lake? No, you could not. And even less you would be able to count the loving throbs of which My heart is capable. Have you ever been able to count how many times this lake kisses the shore with its waves in the course of twelve moons? No, you would never be able to do so. And even less you would be able to count the loving waves that My heart pours out to kiss men. Be sure of My love, Peter. Peter takes Jesus' hand and kisses it. He is deeply moved. Andrew looks, but does not dare take Jesus' hand. But Jesus caressing his hair with His hand says: I love you very much, too. In the hour of your dawn, without having to lift your eyes, you will see your Jesus reflected in the vault of heaven, and He will be smiling at you to say to you: "I love you. Come", and your passing away at dawn will be sweeter than entering a nuptial room... Simon! Simon! Andrew! Here I am... I am coming... John is rushing towards them, panting. Oh! Master! Have I kept You waiting? John looks at Jesus with the eyes of a lover. Peter answers: To tell you the truth, I was beginning to think you were no longer coming. Get your boat ready quickly. And James?... Well... we are late because of a blind man. He thought Jesus was in our

house and he came there. We said to him: "He is not here. Perhaps He will cure you tomorrow. Just wait". But he did not want to wait. James said to him: "You have been waiting so long to see the light, what does it matter if you have to wait another night?" But he will not listen to reason... John, if you were blind, would you be anxious to see your mother? Eh!... most certainly! Well then? Where is the blind man? He is coming with James. He got hold of his mantle and will not let it go. But he is coming very slowly because the shore is covered with stones, and he stumbles against them... Master, will You forgive me for being hard? Yes, I will, but to make amends, go and help the blind man and bring him to Me. John runs away. Peter shakes his head, but does not say anything. He looks at the sky which is becoming blue after being a deep copper hue, he looks at the lake and the other boats which are already out fishing and he sighs. Simon? Master? Don't be afraid. You will have a good haul, even if you are the last one to go out. Also this time? Every time you are charitable, God will grant you the grace of abundance. Here is the blind man. The poor man is coming forward between James and John. He is holding a walking stick in his hand, but is not using it at present. He walks better, supported by the two men. Here, man, the Master is in front of you. The blind man kneels down: My Lord! Have mercy on me. Do you want to see? Stand up. How long have you been blind? The four apostles gather round the other two. Seven years, Lord. Before, I could see well, and I worked. I was a blacksmith at Caesarea on Sea. I was doing well. The harbour, the good trading, they always needed me for one job or another. But while striking a piece of iron to make an anchor, and You can imagine how red hot it was to be pliable, a splinter came off it, and burnt my eye. My eyes were already sore because of the heat of the forge. I lost the wounded eye, and also the other one became blind after three months. I have finished all my savings, and now I live on charity... Are you alone? I am married with three little children... ; I have not even seen the face of one of them... and I have an old mother. And yet she and my wife earn a little bread, and with what they earn and the alms I take home, we manage not to starve. If I were cured!... I would go back to work. All I ask for is to be able to work like a good Israelite and thus feed those I love. And you came to Me? Who told you? A leper who was cured by You at the foot of Mount Tabor, when You were coming back to the lake after that beautiful speech of Yours. What did he tell you? That You can do everything. That You are the health of bodies and of

souls. That You are a light for souls and bodies, because You are the Light of God. He, although a leper, had dared to mingle with the crowd, at the risk of being stoned, all enveloped in his mantle, because he had seen You passing by on the way to the mountain, and Your face had kindled hope in his heart. He said to me: "I saw something in that face that whispered to me: 'There is health there. Go!' And I went". Then he repeated Your speech to me and he told me that You cured him, touching him with Your hand, without any disgust. He was coming back from the priest after his purification. I knew him. I had done some work for him when he had a store at Caesarea. I came, asking for You in every town and village. Now I have found You... Have mercy on me! Come. The light is still too bright for one coming out of darkness! Are you going to cure me, then? Jesus takes him to Peter's house, in the dim light of the kitchen garden, he places him in front of Himself, in such a position that his cured eyes may not see, as first sight, the lake still sparkling with light. The man looks like a very docile child, he obeys without asking questions. Father Your Light to this son of Yours! Jesus has stretched His hands over the head of the kneeling man. He remains in that attitude for a moment. He then moistens the tips of His fingers with saliva and with His right hand He touches lightly the open, but lifeless eyes. A moment. Then the man blinks, rubs his eyelids as if he were awakening from sleep, and his eyes were dimmed. What do you see? Oh!... oh!... oh!... Eternal God! I think... I think... oh! that I can see... I see Your mantle... it's red, isn't it? And a white hand... and a woollen belt... oh! Good Jesus... I can see better and better, the more I get used to seeing... There is the grass of the earth... and that is certainly a well... and there is a vine... Stand up, My friend. The man who is crying and laughing, stands up, and after a moment's hesitation between respect and desire, he lifts his face and meets Jesus' eyes: Jesus smiling full of merciful love. It must be beautiful to recover your sight and see that face as the first thing! The man gives a scream and stretches his arms. It is an instinctive action. But he controls himself. But Jesus opens His arms and draws to Himself the man who is much lower than He. Go home, now, and be happy and just. Go with My peace. Master, Master! Lord! Jesus! Holy! Blessed! The light... I see... I see everything... There is the blue lake, the clear sky, the setting sun, and then the horns of the waxing moon... But it is in Your eyes that I see the most beautiful and clear blue, and in You I see the beauty of the most real sun, and the chaste light of the blessed moon. You are the Star of those who suffer, the Light of the blind, the living active Mercy! I am the Light of souls. Be a son of the Light. Yes, Jesus, always. Every time I close my re-born eyes, I will renew my oath. May You and the Most High be blessed. Blessed be the Most High Father! Go! And the man goes away, happy, sure of himself, while Jesus and the dumbfounded apostles get into two boats and begin their navigation manoeuvres. And the vision ends.

59. The Demoniac of Capernaum Cured in the Synagogue. 2nd November 1944. I see the synagogue of Capernaum. It is already crowded with people waiting. People near the door cast glances at the square, which is still sunny, though it is almost evening. At last there is a shout: The Rabbi is coming. They all turn towards the door, the smaller people stand on their toes or endeavour to push their way to the front. Some start discussing and shoving, notwithstanding the reproaches of those employed in the synagogue and of the elders of the town. May peace be with all those seeking the Truth. Jesus is at the entrance and He greets them, blessing with His arms stretched forward. His tall figure stands out against the very bright light in the sunny square. He has taken off His white mantle and is wearing the usual deep blue one. He makes His way through the crowd, which opens out and then throngs around Him, like the waves round a ship. I am ill, cure me! moans a young man who appears to be consumptive, and pulls Jesus by His mantle. Jesus lays His hands on his head and says: Have faith. God will listen to you. Let Me speak to the people now, then I will come to your. The young man lets Him go and calms down. What did He say to you? asks a woman holding a child in her arms. He said that after He has spoken to the people, He will come to me. Is He going to cure you then? I don't know. He said to me: "Have faith". I can only hope. What did He say? What did He say? The people want to know. Jesus' answer is repeated through the crowd. In that case, I am going to get my child. And I am bringing my old father here. Oh! If Aggaeus would only come! I'll try... but he will not come. Jesus has reached His place. He greets the head of the synagogue who reciprocates the greeting. He is a small, stout, rather elderly man. When speaking to him, Jesus bends down. It is like a palm bending over a shrub which is wider than it is taller. What shall I give You? asks the little man. Whatever you wish, or anything at random. The Spirit will be our guide. But... will You be prepared? I am. Give me a roll at random. I tell you: the Spirit of the Lord will guide the choice for the sake of this people. The head of the synagogue stretches his hand out to the pile of rolls, he picks one and unrolls it, he stops at a certain point. Here he says. Jesus takes the roll and starts reading at the shown point: Joshua: "Rise and sanctify the people and say to them: 'Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, because the Lord of Israel declares: the ban is now among you, Israel; you can

never stand up to your enemies until you take from among you him who is contaminated by such crime' ". He stops, He rolls the parchment and hands it back. The crowd is most heedful. Only one whispers: We shall hear some very nice words against our enemies!. It is the King of Israel, the Promised One, Who gathers His people together! Jesus stretches out His arms in His usual oratorial attitude. Silence is now perfect. Who came to sanctify you, has risen. He has come out from the secrecy of His house, where He prepared Himself for this mission. He purified Himself to give you an example of purification. He established His position with the mighty ones in the Temple and with the people of God, and is now amongst you. It is I. Not as some of you think and hope, with clouded minds and unrest in their hearts. The Kingdom of which I am the future King and to which I call you, is more notable and greater. I am calling you, Israel, before any other people, because in the fathers of your fathers you received the promise of this hour and of the alliance with the Most High Lord. But His Kingdom will not be established with armed multitudes or wild blood shedding and neither the violent, nor the overbearing, the proud, the wrathful, the envious, the lustful, the avaricious will enter it but only the good, the meek, the continent, the merciful, the humble, the patient and those who love God and their neighbours will be admitted. Israel! You are not asked to fight against external enemies, but against internal ones. Against those who are in all your hearts. In the hearts of thousands and thousands of your children. Remove the barrier of sin from all your hearts, if you want God to gather you together tomorrow and say to you: "My people, yours is the Kingdom that will never be defeated, or invaded, or undermined by enemies". Tomorrow. Which tomorrow? In a year's or a month's time? Oh! Do not be inquisitive! Do not allow an unhealthy thirst to inquire into the future by means which taste of guilty witchcraft. Leave the Python spirit to the heathens. Leave to Eternal God the secrecy of time. As from tomorrow, the morrow that will rise after this evening, and the morrow that will come after tonight and will rise at cock-crow, come and be purified by sincere penance. Repent of your sins to be forgiven and to be ready for the Kingdom. Remove from yourselves the barrier of sin. Each of you has his own. Each has the one against the ten commandments of eternal salvation. Examine your consciences with sincerity and you will find your errors. Repent with sincere humility. You must repent. Not just with your mouths. You cannot laugh at or deceive God. But repent with a firm will, that will make you change your ways of living and return to the Law of the Lord. The Kingdom of Heaven is waiting for you. Tomorrow. Tomorrow? you may ask. Oh! the hour of God is always an early morrow, even when it comes at the end of a life as long as the Patriarchs'. Eternity does not use as a measure of time the slow flowing of a sand glass. And the measures of time which you call days, months, years, centuries are but heartbeats of the Eternal Spirit that keeps you alive. But your souls are eternal and you must adopt for your souls the same measure of time as your Creator does. You must, therefore, say: "Tomorrow will be the day of my death". No, not death for the faithful. But rest of expectation waiting for the Messiah to

open the gates of Heaven. And I solemnly tell you that only twenty-seven of you here present will die and have to wait. The rest will be judged before their death, and their death will be a transition to God or Mammon without any delay because the Messiah has come, He is amongst you and calls you to give you the Gospel, to teach you the Truth and save you in Heaven. Do penance! The "morrow" of the Kingdom of Heaven is impending. May it find you pure so that you may possess the eternal day. Peace be with you. A bearded sumptuously dressed Israelite stands up to contradict Him. He says: Master, what You have stated appears to be in contrast with what is said in the sacred book of Maccabees, glory of Israel. It is said there: "Indeed when evil-doers are not left for long to their own devices but incur swift retribution, it is a sign of great benevolence. In the case of the other nations, the Lord waits patiently for them to obtain the full measure of their sins before He punishes them". According to what You said, instead the Most High would appear to be very slow in punishing us waiting, as for the other nations, the time of Judgement, when the measure of sins is full. Events, indeed, give You the lie. Israel is punished as stated by the historian of the Maccabees. But if what You say is correct, is there no conflict between Your doctrine and the sentence I have quoted? I do not know who you are, but I will give you My answer whoever you are. There is no conflict in the doctrine, but only in the interpretation of the words. You interpret them in a human sense, I, instead, in a spiritual one. You see everything as referred to the present time and transient things, and you represent the majority of people who think likewise. I represent God and I explain and apply everything to eternal and supernatural matters. It is true, Yahweh did strike you at present because of your pride and because you considered yourselves a "nation" according to the world. But how much He loved you and how patient He is with you, more than with anyone else, granting you the Saviour, His Messiah, that you may listen to Him and be saved before the hour of the wrath of God! He does not want you to be sinners any longer. But if He struck you in the fleeting worldly things, seeing that the injury does not cure your souls, nay it makes them duller and duller, He does not inflict a further punishment, but He grants you salvation. He sends you Him Who cures and saves you! I, Who am speaking to you. Do You not consider Yourself bold in avowing Yourself a representative of God? None of the Prophets dared so much and You... Who are You, Who are speaking? And by whose order do You speak? The Prophets could not say of themselves what I state of Myself. Who am I? The Expected One, The Promised One, the Saviour. You have already heard His Precursor say: "Prepare the way for the Lord... Here the Lord God is coming... Like a shepherd He will feed His flock, although He is the Lamb of the true Passover". Many amongst you heard these words from the Precursor and they saw the heavens brighten with a light that descended in the shape of a dove and they heard a voice speak and say who I am. By whose order do I speak? By the order of Him Who is and Who sends Me. You say that, but You may be a liar or a dreamer. Your words are holy, but Satan sometimes uses deceitful words painted with holiness, to deceive people. We do not know You.

I am Jesus of Joseph of the House of David, I was born at Bethlehem Ephrathah, as was promised, named Nazarene, because I live at Nazareth. And that according to the world. According to God I am His Messenger. My disciples know. Oh! They! They can say what they like or what You tell them to say. Another will speak, who does not love Me, and will say Who I am. Wait till I call one of the people present here. Jesus looks at the crowd, who are astonished and annoyed at the dispute, and divided between the two opposite doctrines. He looks for someone with His sapphire eyes, and then in a loud voice He calls: Aggaeus Come here. It is an order. There is great excitement in the crowd. They open out to let a man pass, who is violently shaking all over his body and is supported by a woman. Do you know this man? Yes, he is Aggaeus, of Malachi, of Capernaum. He is possessed by an evil spirit which tortures him with sudden fury-fits. Does everybody know him? The crowd shout: Yes, we do. Can any of you say that he has spoken to Me, even for a few minutes? The crowd shout: No, no, he is half-witted, he never leaves his house, and nobody has seen You in it. Woman, bring him here in front of Me. The woman pushes and drags him, while the poor man trembles more than ever. The head of the synagogue warns Jesus: Be careful! The devil is about to torture him... and then he rushes at people, scratches and bites them. The crowd moves away thronging against the walls. Jesus and the man are now facing each other. There is a moment's struggle. The man, usually mute, seems to have difficulty in speaking, he moans, then his voice turns into words: What is there between us and You, Jesus of Nazareth? Why have You come to torture us? Why do You want to destroy us, You, the Lord of Heaven and Earth? I know who You are: the Holy of God. No one, in human flesh, was ever greater than You, because in Your flesh of man is enclosed the Spirit of the Eternal Winner. You have already beaten me in... Be quiet! I order you to come out of this man. The man has a fit of strange convulsions. He is tossed about by jerks and thrusts, as if someone pulled and pushed him, violently ill-treating him, he shouts in a wild voice, foams at his mouth, and is then thrown down onto the ground. He gets up, astonished and cured. Have you heard? What do you say now? Jesus asks His opponent. The bearded sumptuous man shrugs his shoulders and, obviously beaten, goes out without replying. The crowd scoff at him and applaud Jesus. Silence! This place is sacred! says Jesus and He orders: Bring Me the man to whom I promised help from God. The sick man comes forward. Jesus caresses him: You believed Me! Be cured. Go in peace and be just. The young man lets out a yell. I wonder what he feels. He kneels down before Jesus, kisses His feet thanking Him: Thanks from me and from my mother! Other sick people come: a little boy with paralysed legs. Jesus takes him in

His arms, caresses him and puts him down... and leaves him. The child does not fall, but runs to his mother, who clasps him to her heart, weeping, and in a loud voice blesses the Holy One of Israel. A little old blind man comes, led by his daughter. He also is cured with a caress on his diseased eyes. There is a roar of blessing from the crowd. Jesus makes His way through the crowd smiling, and although He is tall, He would not succeed in pushing through, if Peter, James, Andrew and John did not work generously with their elbows, to make their way and reach Jesus, and then escort Him to the exit onto the square, which is now dark. The vision ends thus.

60. Cure of Simon Peter's Mother-in-law. 3rd November 1944. Peter is speaking to Jesus. He says: Master, I would like to ask You to come to my house. I did not dare to ask You last Sabbath. But... I would like You to come. To Bethsaida? No, here... to my wife's house. I mean her home. Why do you want that, Peter? Well, for many reasons... also because today I was told that my mother-in-law is ill. If You would cure her, perhaps she... Tell Me, Simon. What I wanted to say is... if You go to her, she would stop... yes, well, You know, it is not the same thing to hear people speak of someone and to see and listen to someone, and if the person in question cures... well... You mean also the ill-feeling would come to an end? No, not exactly ill-feeling. But, You know... there are many opinions in the village, and she... does not know whom she should listen to. Come, Jesus. I will come. Let us go. You will tell those who are waiting for Me that I will speak to them from your house. They go as far as a low house, even lower than Peter's house at Bethsaida, and it is also closer to the lake. It is separated from the lake by the pebbly shore and I think that when there is a storm, the waves break against the walls of the house, which, while being low, are very wide, as if several people lived in it. In the kitchen garden in front of the house, facing the lake, there is only an old gnarled vine, supported by a rustic pergola, and an old fig-tree which the winds, blowing from the lake, have bent towards the house. The ruffled foliage of the tree brushes the walls of the house and beats against the shutters of the little windows, which are now closed as a protection against the bright sunshine. There is nothing but the vine and the fig-tree and a greenish little wall of a low well. Come in, Master. There are some women in the kitchen, some are busy mending the nets, some are preparing the food. They greet Peter and they bow embarrassed to Jesus, peering up at Him curiously.

Peace be to this house. How is the patient? Tell Him, you who are the oldest daughter-in-law three of the women say to another one, who is drying her hands on the edge of her dress. Her temperature is very high. The doctor has seen her and he said she is too old to get better and that when the disease goes from the bones to the heart, and gives a temperature, one dies, particularly at an old age. She will not eat any more... I try and prepare something good, even now, see, Simon, I was preparing the soup she used to like so much. I chose the best fish that I got from my brothers-in-law. But I do not think she will be able to eat it. And... she is so restless! She complains, and shouts, and cries, and curses... Be patient, as if she were your mother and God will grant you merit for it. Take Me to her. Rabbi... Rabbi... I don't know if she will be pleased to see You. She does not want to see anybody. I dare not say to her: "I am now bringing the Rabbi in to see you". Jesus smiles calmly. He addresses Peter: It is your turn, Simon. You are a man and the oldest son-in-law, you told Me. Go. Peter makes a significant grimace and obeys. He walks across the kitchen, and goes into another room and through the door which he closes, I can hear him talking to a woman. He looks out and says: Come, Master, quick. And he whispers in a very low, just audible voice: Before she changes her mind. Jesus walks across the kitchen and opens the door wide. Standing on the threshold, He pronounces His sweet, solemn greeting: Peace be with you. He goes in, although He gets no reply. He goes near a low bed on which there is lying a little old woman, grey-haired, thin, panting because of the high temperature which causes her wasted face to flush. Jesus bends over the little bed, smiles at the old woman: Are you in pain? I am dying! No. You will not die. Do you believe that I can cure you? Why would You want to do that? You do not know me. For Simon, who asked Me... and for you, to give your soul time to see and love the Light. Simon? It would be better if he... How come Simon thought of me? Because he is better than you think. I know him and I am sure. I know him, and I am happy to satisfy him. Would You cure me, then? I will not die, then? No, woman. You will not die as yet. Can you believe in Me? I believe, I believe. It is enough for me not to die! Jesus smiles once again. He takes her hand. Her hand, wrinkled and with swollen veins, disappears in the younger hand of Jesus, Who stands straight up, and takes the attitude He normally assumes when working a miracle. He shouts: Be cured! I want it! Get up! and He lets her hand go. And her hand falls down without any complaint, whereas before, notwithstanding Jesus had taken it very gently, she groaned when it was moved. There is silence for a few moments. Then the old woman cries out: Oh! God of our fathers! But there is nothing wrong with me! I am cured! Come! Come! Her daughters-in-law rush in. Look! says the old woman: I can move and I feel no pain! And I am no longer feverish! Feel how cool I am. And my heart no longer feels like the blacksmith's hammer. Ah! I am not dying any longer! Not one word for the Lord!

But Jesus does not mind. He says to the oldest daughter-in-law: Dress her that she may get up. She is fit to be up. And He makes for the door. Simon, mortified, says to his mother-in-law: The Master has cured you. Have you nothing to say to Him? Certainly. I wasn't thinking of that. Thank You. What can I do to thank You? Be good, very good. Because the Eternal Father has been good to you. And if it is not too much trouble for you, allow Me to rest in your home today. I have been to all the nearby villages the past week, and I arrived here at dawn this morning. I am tired. Certainly Certainly! You may stay if You wish. But there is not much enthusiasm in her words. Jesus, Peter, Andrew, James and John go and sit down in the kitchen garden. Master!... Yes, Peter? I feel humiliated. Jesus makes a gesture, which meant: Never mind. He then goes on: She is not the first, and will not be the last who do not feel immediate gratitude. But I do not seek gratitude. All I want is to give souls the chance to save themselves. I do My duty. Let them do theirs. Ah! There have been other cases like this one? Where? Curious Simon! But I will please you, although I do not like useless curiosity. At Nazareth. Do you remember Sarah's mother? She was very ill when we arrived in Nazareth and we were told that the little girl cried. Since she is good and gentle, and I did not want her to become an orphan and a stepdaughter in future, I went to see the woman... I wanted to cure her... But I had not yet set foot in the house, when her husband and a brother drove Me away, saying: "Away! Go away! We do not want to get into trouble with the synagogue". For them, for too many, I am already a rebel... I cured her just the same... for the sake of her children. And I said to Sarah in the kitchen garden, caressing her: "I will cure your mother. Go home. Do not cry any more". And the woman was cured the same moment and the little girl told her, and she told also her father and her uncle... and she was punished for speaking to Me. I know, because the child ran after Me when I was leaving the village... But it does not matter. I would have made her become ill again. Peter! Jesus is severe. Is that what I teach you and the others? What have you heard Me say from the very first time you heard Me? Of what have I always spoken as being the first condition to be My true disciples? It is true, Master. I am a real beast. Forgive me. But... I cannot bear the fact that they do not love You! Oh! Peter! You will see much greater indifference! You will have many surprises, Peter! People that the so called "holy" world scorns as being money-changers, who instead will set an example in the world, an example which will not be followed by those who despise them. Heathens who will be My most faithful ones. Prostitutes who will become pure by strong will power and penance. Sinners who amend their way of living... Listen: that a sinner amends his way... it may well be. But a prostitute and a money-changer!...

us.

You do not believe it? I do not. You are mistaken, Simon. But here is your mother-in-law coming towards

Master, I beg You to come and sit at my table. Thank you, woman. May God reward you. They go into the kitchen and sit at the table. The old woman serves them with plenty fish, both as soup and roasted. I have nothing else but this she apologises. And, to keep up the habit, she says to Peter: Your brothers-in-law are doing even too much, all alone as they are, since you went to Bethsaida! If it had only helped to make my daughter richer... But I hear that you are very often absent and you do not go fishing. I follow the Master. I have been to Jerusalem with Him and I am with Him on Sabbaths. I do not spend my time in revelries. But you don't earn any money. Since you want to be the Prophet's servant, you had better come back here again. At least that poor daughter of mine will be fed by her relatives while you are acting the saint. But are you not ashamed of speaking like that in front of Him Who cured you? I am not criticising Him. He is doing His job. I am criticising you, you are a sluggard. In any case, you will never be a prophet or a priest. You are an ignorant sinner, a good for nothing. You are lucky that He is here, otherwise... Simon, your mother-in-law gave you very good advice. You can go fishing even here. I am told that you used to go fishing also at Capernaum. You can come back again. And live here again? But Master, You do not... Be good, Peter. If you are here, you will be either on the lake or with Me. So what difference is it for you if you are or you are not in this house? Jesus has laid His hand on Peter's shoulder and His calmness seems to pass into the fiery apostle. You are right. You are always right. I will do that. But... what about these? and he points to his partners John and James. Can they not come, too? Oh! Our father and above all our mother will be happier if they know we are with You, rather than with them. They will not object. Perhaps Zebedee will come, too says Peter. Quite likely. And others with him. We will come, Master. We will certainly come. Is Jesus of Nazareth here? asks a little boy appearing at the door. He is here, come in. A boy comes in, whom I recognise as one of the boys I saw in the first visions of Capernaum, and exactly the one who tumbled down near Jesus' feet, and promised he would be good, so he would get the honey of Paradise. My little friend, come here says Jesus. The little fellow, somewhat embarrassed because so many are looking at him, takes heart and runs to Jesus, Who embraces him and sits him on His knees, and gives him a bit of His fish on a slice of bread. Here, Jesus. This is for You. Also today that person said: It is the Sabbath. Take this to the Rabbi of Nazareth and tell your friend to pray for me. He

knows that You are my friend!... The child smiles happily, and eats his bread and fish. Well done, little James! You will tell that person that My prayers rise to the Father for him. Is it for the poor? asks Peter. Yes, it is. Is it always the same offering? Let us look. Jesus hands over the purse. Peter empties it and counts the coins. Still the same large sum! But who is this person? Say, boy, who is it? I have not to say, and I will not say! You little rascal! Be good, and I will give you some fruit. I will not speak, whether you insult me or caress me. What a tongue he has! Just listen! Little James is right, Peter. He is keeping his word: leave him alone. Master, do You know who the person is? Jesus does not reply. He is busy with the child, to whom He gives another bit of roasted fish, after removing all the bones. But Peter insists, and Jesus is obliged to answer. I know everything, Simon. And we are not to know? And will you never be cured of your fault? Jesus reproaches him, but smiles at the same time. And He adds: You will soon know. Because if evil wants to be hidden, and cannot always be such, good, even if it wants to be hidden, to be meritorious, will be made known one day, for the glory of God, Whose nature shines in one of His sons. The nature of God: love. And this person understands all that, because he loves his neighbours. Go, James. Take My blessing to that person. The vision ends thus.

Vol II INDEX THE SECOND YEAR OF THE PUBLIC LIFE * on line *

141. Instruction to the Disciples while Going towards Arimathea. 142. Instruction to the Apostles Going towards Samaria. 143. Photinai, the Samaritan Woman. 144. With the People of Sychar. 145. Evangelization at Sychar. 146. Goodbye to the People of Sychar. 147. Instruction to the Apostles and the Miracle of the Woman of Sychar. 148. Jesus Visits the Baptist near Ennon. 149. Jesus Teaches the Apostles.

150. Jesus at Nazareth. Son, I Will Come with You . 151. In Susanna's House in Cana. The Royal Officer. 152. In Zebedee's House. Salome Is Accepted as a Disciple. 153. Jesus Speaks to His Disciples of Women's Apostolate. 154. Jesus at Caesarea on Sea Speaks to the Galley-Slaves. 155. Cure of the Little Roman Girl at Caesarea. 156. Annaleah Devotes Herself to God as a Virgin. 157. Instruction to the Women Disciples at Nazareth. 158. Jesus Speaks to Johanna of Chuza on the Lake. 159. Jesus at Gherghesa. John's Disciples. 160. From Naphtali to Giscala. Meeting with Rabbi Gamaliel. 161. The Grandson of Eli, a Pharisee of Capernaum, Is Cured. 162. Jesus in the House in Capernaum after the Miracle on Elisha. 163. Dinner in the House of Eli, the Pharisee of Capernaum. 164. Towards the Retreat on the Mountain before the Election of the Apostles. 165. The Election of the Twelve Apostles. 166. The First Sermon of Simon Zealot and John. 167. In the House of Johanna of Chuza. Jesus and the Roman Ladies. 168. Aglae in Mary's House at Nazareth. 169. The Sermon of the Mount: You Are the Salt of the Earth . 170. The Sermon of the Mount. The Beatitudes (Part One). 171. The Sermon of the Mount. The Beatitudes (Part Two). 172. The Sermon of the Mount. The Beatitudes (Part Three). 82 173. The Sermon of the Mount. The Beatitudes (Part Four). 174. The Sermon of the Mount. The Beatitudes (Part Five). Encounter with the Magdalene. 175. The Leper Cured at the Foot of the Mountain. 176. The Sabbath after the Sermon. At the Foot of the Mountain. 177. The Servant of the Centurion Is Cured. 178. Jesus Meets Three Men who Want to Follow Him. 179. The Parable of the Sower. 180. Lesson to the Apostles in Peter's Kitchen and Announcement of the Baptist's Capture. 181. Parable of the Darnel. 182. On His Way to Magdala Jesus Speaks to Some Shepherds. 183. Jesus at Magdala. He Meets. with Mary Magdalene the Second Time. 184. At Magdala in the House of Benjamin's Mother. 185. The Calming of the Storm. 186. The Dernoniacs of Gadara. 187. Towards Jerusalem for the Second Passover. From Tarichea to Mount Tabor. 188. From Tabor to Endor in the Cave of the Necromancer. Encounter with Felix Who Becomes John. 189. The Son of the Widow of Nain. 190. From Nain to Esdraelon. Jesus Stays at Micah's. 191. The Sabbath at Esdraelon. Little Jabez. The Parable of Rich Dives.

192. From Esdraelon to Engannim. Stopping at Megiddo. 193. From Engannim to Shechem in Two Days. 194. From Shechem to Beeroth. 195. From Beeroth to Jerusalem. 196. The Sabbath at Gethsemane. 197. In the Temple at the Hour of the Offering. 198. Jesus Meets His Mother at Bethany. 199. Jesus Goes to the Lepers of Siloam and Ben Hinnom. The Power of Mary's Word. 200. Aglae Meets the Master. 201. Marjiam's Examination. 202. At the Temple on the Eve of Passover. 203. The Our Father . 204. Jesus to the Gentiles: Faith Is Built as Your Temples, 205. The Parable of the Prodigal Son. 206. The Parable of Ten Virgins and the Parable of the Royal Wedding. 207. From Bethany to the Grotto of Bethlehem. 208. Going to Eliza's at Bethzur. 209. Jesus in Eliza's House Speaks of Sorrow that Bears Fruit. 210. Towards Hebron. The Worlds Reasons and God's. 211. Welcome Reception at Hebron. 212. At Juttah, Jesus Speaks in Isaac's House. 213. At Kerioth, Jesus Speaks in the Synagogue. 214. In Judas' House at Kerioth. 215. The Lunatic Girl of Bethginna. 216. In the Plain towards Ashkelon. 217. Jesus Is Master also of the Sabbath. 218. Arrival at Ashkelon. 219. Teaching at Ashkelon. 83 220. Jesus at Magdalgad Incinerates a Pagan Idol. 221. Lesson to the Apostles Going to Jabneel. 222. Towards Modin. 223. Jesus Speaks to Highwaymen. 224. Arrival at Bether. 225. The Paralytic at the Pool of Bethzatha. 226. Mary Has Sent for Martha at Magdala. 227. Marjiam Is Entrusted to Porphirea. 228. Jesus Speaks at Bethsaida. 229. The Woman with a Haemorrhage and Jairus' Daughter. 230. Jesus and Martha at Capernaum. 231. Two Blind Men and a Dumb Demoniac Cured. 232. The Parable of the Lost Sheep. 233. Comment on Three Episodes Connected with the Conversion of Mary of Magdala. 234. Martha Has Her Victory within Her Grasp. 235. Mary Magdalene in the House of Simon, the Pharisee. 236. The Harvest Is Rich but the Labourers Are Few. The Parable of the Treasure Hidden in the Field. 237. The Magdalene Is Accompanied by Mary among the Disciples.

238. The Parable of the Fishermen. 239. Marjiam Teaches Mary Magdalene the Our Father . 240. Jesus Is the Powerful Lover. The Parable of the Lost Drachma. 241. Knowledge Is not Corruption if it Is Religion. 242. In the House at Cana. 243. John Repeats the Speech Made by Jesus on Mount Tabor. 244. Jesus at Nazareth. 245. In the Synagogue at Nazareth on the Sabbath. 246. Our Lady Teaches the Magdalene. 247. At Bethlehem in Galilee. 248. Going towards Sicaminon. 249. Jesus Meets the Disciples at Sicaminon. 250. At Tyre, Jesus Speaks of Perseverance. 251. Return to Sicaminon. Jesus Speaks of Faith. 252. Departure from Sicaminon. The Blessed Virgin Mary and Spiritualised Maternity. 253. Syntyche, the Greek Slave. 254. Goodbye to Mary of Magdala, to Martha and to Syntyche. 255. Jesus Speaks of Hope. 256. Jesus Goes up Mount Carmel with His Cousin James. 257. Jesus Reveals to James. of Alphaeus His Future Apostolic Mission. 258. Jesus and His Cousin James on Their Way Back from Mount Carmel. 259. Peter Speaks to Doras' Peasants about the Love Which Is Salvation. 260. Jesus to Johanan's Peasants: Love Is Obedience . 261. In the House of Dora and Philip. 262. The Man with the Withered Hand. 263. A Day of Judas Iscariot at Nazareth. 264. Instructions to the Apostles at the Beginning of Their Apostolate. 265. John the Baptist Sends His Disciples to Ask Jesus whether He Is the Messiah. 266. Jesus Works as a Carpenter at Korazim. 267. Jesus Speaks of Love. 268. The Dispute with the Pharisees and the Arrival of Jesus' Mother and Brothers. 269. The News of the Murder of John the Baptist. 270. Departure in the Direction of Taricheas. 271. Speaking to a Scribe on the Banks of the Jordan. 84 272. First Miracle of the Loaves. 273. Jesus Walks on the Water. 274. The Deeds of Corporal and Spiritual Mercy.

171. The Sermon of the Mount. The Beatitudes (Part Two). 25th May 1945. The Sermon of the Mount continues. It is the same place and the same time. The crowd is larger. In a corner, near a path, there is a Roman, who seems anxious to hear but does not want to upset the crowd. I recognise him from his short tunic and the different style of his mantle. Stephen and Hermas are still there. Jesus walks slowly to His place and resumes speaking. What I told you yesterday must not cause you to think that I have come to abolish the Law. No. But since I am the Man, and I understand the weakness of man, I wanted to encourage you to comply with it, turning your spiritual eyes not to the dark abyss, but to the bright Sublimity. Because if the fear of punishment can hold you back three times out of ten, the certainty of a reward will urge you seven times out of ten. Trust is therefore more efficacious than fear. And I want you to be fully and firmly confident, so that you accomplish not seven parts of good out of ten, but ten out of ten and thus gain the most holy prize of Heaven. I will not change one iota of the Law. And Who gave it amongst the peals of thunder on Sinai? The Most High. Who is the Most High? God One and Trine. Where did He take it from? From His Thought. How did He give it? By His Word. Why did He give it? Out of His Love. You can thus see that the Trinity was present. And the Word, obedient as ever to the Thought and Love, spoke on behalf of the Thought and Love. Could I give Myself the lie? No, I could not. But since I can do everything, I can complete the Law, make it divinely complete, not what men did throughout centuries, as they did not make it complete, but incomprehensible and impossible to be fulfilled. In fact they superimposed precepts and laws taken from their own thoughts, according to their own gain, and they thus lapidated and suffocated, sterilised and buried the most holy Law given by God. Can a tree survive if it is continuously struck by avalanches, rubble and floods? No, it will die. The Law dies in many hearts, suffocated by the avalanches of too many superstructures. I have come to remove them all, and after unearthing and reviving the Law, I will make it no longer a law, but a queen. Queens promulgate laws. The laws are the work of queens, but they are not above queens. I instead make the Law a queen: I complete it, I crown it, putting on its top the wreath of the evangelic counsels. Before it was order. Now it is more than order. Before it was the necessary thing. Now it is more than the necessary thing: now it is perfection. Who weds it, as I present you with it, becomes immediately a king, because he has reached "perfection", because he has been not only obedient, but also heroic, that is, holy, as holiness is the sum of virtues carried to the greatest height attainable by a creature, heroically loved and practised through a complete detachment from every human desire and consideration. I could say that he is a saint, whom love and desire prevent from seeing everything but God. As his attention is not distracted by inferior sights, his eyes and heart are fixed on the Most Holy Brightness, which is God and in which, since everything is in God, he can see his distressed brothers stretching out their hands suppliantly. And without taking his eyes away from God, the saint devotes himself to his suppliant brothers. Against the flesh, against wealth, against comforts, he pursues his ideal: to serve. Is a saint poor or disabled? No,

he is not. He has succeeded in achieving true wisdom and wealth. He therefore possesses everything. And he never tires because while it is true that he is always active, it is also true that he is continuously nourished. And while he understands the sorrows of the world, he feeds on the delights of Heaven. He is nourished by God and delights in God. He is a creature who has understood the meaning of life. As you can see I neither change nor mutilate the Law, neither do I corrupt it by superimposing human fomenting theories. I complete it. The Law is what it is and shall be such until the last day: not one word will be changed, not one precept will be abolished. It is crowned with perfection. To reach salvation it is sufficient to accept it as it was given. To obtain immediate union with God it is necessary to live it according to My advice. But since heroes are an exception, I will speak to common souls, to the mass of souls, so that no one may say that I have made what is necessary unknown, in order to reach perfection. But of everything I tell you, remember this: he who takes the liberty of infringing one of the least of these commandments, will be considered one of the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. And he who will induce others to infringe them, will be considered one of the least both with regard to himself and to those whom he led to the infringement. He, instead, who through his life and deeds, rather than by words, has convinced others to abide by the Law, will be great in the Kingdom of Heaven and his greatness will be increased by each of those whom he has led to obey and thus sanctify themselves. I know that what I am about to say will taste bitter to many tongues. But I cannot tell lies, even if the truth I am about to speak will procure Me many enemies. I solemnly tell you that unless you create anew your justice, detaching it completely from the poor and unfairly defined justice which the Pharisees and Scribes have taught you; unless you are really more just than the Pharisees and Scribes, who think they are just because they increase the number of formulae without any substantial change of their spirits, you shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Beware of false prophets and erring doctors. They come to you clad as lambs, and they are rapacious wolves; they come clad with holiness and they deride God; they say they love the truth and they feed on falsehood. Study them before following them. Man has a tongue and speaks with it, he has eyes and sees with them, he has hands and makes signs with them. But he has something else which is a more truthful witness of his real being: his deeds! And what are two hands joined in prayer, if a man is a thief and fornicator? And what are two eyes, which pretending to be inspired, roll in all directions, if after the farce, they greedily stare at a woman or an enemy, out of lust or for murder? And what is a tongue expert in whistling a false song of praise and in seducing by means of honeyed words, if behind your back it calumniates you and is capable of swearing falsely if only it could pass you off as a mean fellow? What is a tongue that says long hypocritical prayers and is then quick in killing the reputation of a neighbour or seducing his good faith? It is disgusting! And disgusting are untruthful hands and eyes. But the deeds of men, the true deeds, that is, his behaviour at home, in business, towards his neighbour and servants, are the things that testify: 'This man is a servant of the Lord". Because holy deeds are the fruit of true religion.

A good tree does not bear bad fruit and a bad tree does not bear good fruit. Will these thorny bushes ever be able to give you tasty grapes? And those even more stinging thistles, will they ever be able to mature sweet figs for you? No, they will not. In actual fact you will be able to pick only a few sour blackberries from the former and uneatable fruits will come from the latter, which although flowers, are still thorny. The man who is not just will be able to command respect by his appearance, and only by it. Also the downy thistle looks like a tuft of thin silvery threads adorned with diamonds by the dew. But if inadvertently you touch it, you find out that it is not a tuft, but a bundle of thorns, painful to man, harmful to sheep, so that shepherds uproot them from their pastures and burn them on the fire they light at night so that not even the seed may be spread. A just and provident step. I do not say to you: "Kill the false prophets and hypocritical believers". Nay, I say to you: "Leave the task to God". But I say to you: "Be careful, keep away from them that you may not be poisoned by their juices". I told you yesterday how God is to be loved. I will insist on how our neighbour is to be loved. Once it was said: "You shall love your friend and hate your enemy". No, not so. That was all right for the times when man did not have the comfort of God's smile. But now new times have come, when God has loved man so much as to send His Word to redeem him. Now the Word is speaking. And it is already an effusion of Grace. Later the Word will consummate the sacrifice of peace and redemption and there will be not only an effusion of Grace, but Grace will be given to every soul believing in Christ. It is therefore necessary to elevate the love for our neighbour to a perfection that unifies friend and enemy. Have you been slandered? Love and forgive. Have you been struck? Love and offer the other cheek to him who smacked you, considering that it is better that he gives vent to his wrath on you who can put up with it, rather than on somebody else who would take vengeance for the insult. Have you been robbed? Do not think: "This neighbour of mine is greedy", but charitably say: "This poor brother of mine is needy" and give him also your tunic if he has stolen your mantle. You will make it impossible for him to steal twice, because he will have no need to rob another person of his tunic. You may say: "It may be a vice and not a need". Well, give just the same. God will reward you for it and the wicked man will pay for it. But many times, and this should remind you of what I told you yesterday on lowliness, when he sees how he has been dealt with, his vice will drop from his heart and the sinner will redeem himself making amends for the theft by handing back what he had stolen. Be generous towards those, who, being more honest, ask you for what they need, instead of robbing you. If the rich were really poor in spirit, as I explained yesterday, there would be no painful social inequalities, the cause of so many human and superhuman calamities. Always consider: "If I were in need, how would I feel if I were denied help?" and act according to the reply of your ego. Do to others what you would like done to yourself and do not do to others what you would not like done to yourself. The old saying: "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth", which is not one of the ten commandments, but was added because man, devoid of Grace, is such a beast that he only understands vengeance, the old saying has been cancelled. It has indeed been cancelled by the new word: "Love him who hates you, pray for him

who persecutes you, justify him who slanders you, bless him who curses you, help the one who harms you, be pacific with quarrelsome people, be compliant with bothersome persons, willingly help those who have recourse to you without practising usury, do not criticise, do not judge". You do not know the particular reason for men's actions. Be generous and merciful in all kinds of assistance. The more you give the more you will be given and a full pressed down measure will be poured by God on to the lap of him who has been generous. God will not give you only according to what you have given, but He will give you much more. Endeavour to love and be loved. Quarrels are more costly than friendly settlements and a good grace is like honey, the flavour of which lasts for a long time on one's tongue. Love, love. Love friends and enemies, to be like your Father, Who allows the rain to fall on the good and the wicked and lets the sun shine on the just and unjust and will grant eternal sunshine and dew, and hellish fire and hail, when the good will be chosen, like selected ears of corn, amongst the sheaves of the harvest. It is not enough to love those who love you and from whom you expect reciprocation. That is no merit: it is a joy and also naturally honest men can do it. Also the publicans and the gentiles do it. But you must love according to God and out of respect for God, Who is the Creator also of those who are your enemies or are not very fond of you. I want the perfection of love in you and I therefore say: "Be perfect as your Father, Who is in Heaven, is perfect". So great is the precept of love for your neighbour, the perfecting of the precept of love for your neighbour, that I no longer say, as it was said: "Do not kill" because he who kills will be condemned by men. But I say to you: "Do not get angry" because a higher judgement is above you and takes into account immaterial actions. Who insults his brother will be condemned by the Sanhedrin. But who treats him as a madman, and consequently has harmed him, will be condemned by God. It is useless to make offers at the altar, unless you, for the sake of God, first sacrifice your ill-feelings in your hearts and you fulfil the most holy rite of forgiveness. Therefore, when you are about to make an offering to God and you remember that you have wronged your brother and you bear him a grudge because of a fault of his, leave your offer before the altar, make first the sacrifice of your self-esteem, by becoming reconciled to your brother, then come to the altar and only then your sacrifice will be holy. Full agreement is always the best business. The judgement of man is precarious and who stubbornly challenges it, may lose the cause and have to pay the opponent down to the last coin or languish in jail. In everything turn your eyes to God. Ask yourselves: "Am I entitled to do what God does not do to me?". Because God is not so stubborn and implacable as you are. Woe to you if He were! No one would be saved. Let that consideration induce you to mild, humble, pitiful feeling. And then you will certainly receive a reward from God, both here and in the next world. Here, in front of Me, there is also one who hates Me and dare not say to Me: "Cure me" because he knows that I am aware of his thoughts. But I say: "Let is be done as you wish. And as the scales fall from your eyes, so may ill-feelings and darkness fall from your heart". You may all go with My peace. I will speak to you again tomorrow. The crowds disperse slowly, waiting perhaps for the cry of a miracle, which, however, is not heard. Also the apostles and the first disciples, who remain on the mountain, ask:

 Who was it? Has he not been cured? and they insist with the Master, Who is standing, with folded arms, watching the crowd descending the mountain. Jesus at first does not reply; He then says: His eyes are cured, but his soul is not. It cannot be cured because it is full of hatred. But who is it? That Roman, perhaps? No. A poor wretch. Why did You cure him, then? asks Peter. Should I strike by lightning all the people like him? Lord... I know that You do not want me to say: "yes", and so I will not say it... but that is what I think... and it is the same... It is the same, Simon of Jonah. You should know then... Oh! How many hearts covered with scales of hatred there are around Me! Come. Let us go up there, to the top, to look from the height at our beautiful sea of Galilee. Only you and I.

172. The Sermon of the Mount. The Beatitudes (Part Three). 26th May 1945. The Sermon of the Mount continues. The same place and the same time. The people, with the exception of the Roman, are the same. Perhaps the crowd is larger because many people are standing at the beginning of the paths leading to the little valley. Jesus is speaking: One of the errors easily made by man is to have lack of honesty towards himself. And since man is rarely sincere and honest, he has made some provision for himself in order to be compelled to go along the way he wants. This curb, which, after all, as he is a fiery horse, he soon slackens or gives a pull, as he wishes, and thus changes his gait; or he removes it completely and does as he likes, without considering what reproach he may receive from God, from men and from his own conscience. That bit is the oath. But no oath is necessary amongst honest people and God never taught you it. On the contrary He commanded you: "You shall not bear false witness", without any further addition. Because man ought to be frank without the need of anything except the loyalty of his word. When in Deuteronomy mention is made of vows, also of the vows that are something which originated from a heart considered to be united to God, either through a feeling of need or a sentiment of gratitude, it is written: "Whatever passes your lips, you must keep to, and the vow that you have freely made with your own mouth to the Lord your God must be fulfilled". Mention is always made of the word given, without anything else but the word. Who feels the need of taking an oath is neither sure of himself nor of the opinion his neighbour has of him. And who makes other people take an oath testifies thereby that he distrusts the frankness and honesty of the swearer. As you can see, the habit of taking an oath is one of the consequences of man's moral dishonesty. And it is a shame for man. It is a double shame because man is not even faithful to the shameful thing which an oath is and by deriding God as easily as he derides his neighbour, he swears falsely with the greatest ease and calmness. Can there be a more contemptible man than a perjurer? A perjurer in fact

convinces his neighbour to believe him, often by using a sacred formula, thus calling God to be his accomplice and to stand surety for him, or by invoking his dearest affections: his father, mother, wife, children, his dead relatives, his very life and most essential organs, to support his false statements. He thus deceives his neighbour. He is an impious person, a thief, a traitor, a murderer. Of whom? Of God, of course, because he contaminates the Truth with his disgraceful lies and jeers at Him, daring Him: "Strike me, give me the lie, if You can. You are there, I am here and I laugh at it". Of course, you may laugh, liars and gibers! But the moment will come when you will not laugh and that will happen when He, to Whom all power is entrusted, will appear to you, dreadful in His majesty, and simply by His aspect will make you stand to attention and will strike you with the lightning of His eyes, before His voice hurls you to your eternal destiny branding you with His curse. He is a thief because he takes possession of a reputation which he does not deserve. His neighbour, impressed by his oath, grants it to him, and the serpent adorns himself with it, pretending to be what he is not. He is a traitor because by his oath he promises something which he does not want to keep. He is a murderer: he kills either the honour of his fellow man depriving him of his reputation through false witness or he kills his own soul because a perjurer is a vile sinner in the eyes of God, Who sees the truth, also when no one else sees it. God cannot be deceived, neither by means of false words, nor by means of hypocritical deeds. He sees. He does not lose sight of each man for a moment. And there is no fortified stronghold or deep cellar which His eyes cannot penetrate. Also within you, God penetrates the stronghold which every man has round his heart. And He judges you not according to what you swear, but to what you do. I will therefore substitute another order for the one given to you, when the oath enjoyed great favour to put a restraint on lies and on the easiness of failure to keep a promise. I do not say as the ancients said: "Do not swear falsely, but keep your oath", but I say to you: "Never swear". Neither by Heaven which is the throne of God, nor by the earth which is the stool of His feet, nor for Jerusalem and her Temple which are the City of the Great King and the House of the Lord our God. Do not swear either by the graves of the deceased or by their souls. Graves are full of the dross of the inferior part of man, which is common also to animals, and with regard to their souls, leave them in their dwellings. Do not cause them to suffer or to be struck with horror, if they are the souls of just people already in the foreknowledge of God. And although they are in such foreknowledge, which is partial knowledge, because they will not possess God in the fulness of His brightness until the moment of Redemption, they can but suffer seeing you sinners. And if they are not just, do not increase their torture by reminding them of their sin through yours. Leave the holy deceased in their peace, and the unholy ones in their pains. Do not deprive the former of anything, do not add anything to the latter. Why appeal to the dead? They cannot speak. The saints because charity prevents them from speaking: they would have to give you the lie too many times. The damned because hell does not open its gates and the damned only open their mouths to curse, and their voices are suffocated by the hatred of Satan and of the demons, because the damned are like demons. Do not swear by the head of your father or of your mother, or by the head

of your wife or of your innocent children. You have no right to do so. Are they perhaps money or merchandise? Are they a signature on a document? They are more and they are less than such things. They are blood and flesh of your own blood, man, but they are also free creatures and you cannot use them as slaves to guarantee your false statements. And they are less than your own signature, because you are intelligent, free and grown up, you are not interdicted, neither are you a child who does not know what he is doing and must be represented by his parents. You are a man gifted with reason and consequently responsible for your actions and you must act by yourself, employing, as a guarantee for your own deeds and words, your own honesty and your own frankness, the reputation that you enjoy with your neighbour, not the honesty, the frankness of your relatives and the reputation they enjoy. Are fathers responsible for their children? Yes, they are, but only as long as they are under age. After, everybody is responsible for himself. Not always just children are born of just parents, nor is it so that a holy woman is married to a holy man. Why then use the justice of a relative as a guarantee? Likewise, holy children may be born of a sinner, and as long as they are innocent, they are holy. Why then appeal to a pure soul for an impure act of yours, such as an oath which you wish to swear falsely? Do not swear by your own head, your eyes, your tongue, your hands. You have no right to. Everything you have belongs to God. You are only the temporary guardians, the bankers of the moral or material treasures which God granted you. Why then make use of what does not belong to you? Can you add one hair to your head or change its colour? And if you cannot do that, why do you use your sight, your word, the freedom of your limbs to corroborate your oath? Do not challenge God. He could take you at your word and dry up your eyes as He can dry up your orchards, or take your children away from you, or crush your houses to remind you that He is the Lord and you His subjects, and that who idolizes himself and thinks he is above God, challenging Him with his falsehood, is cursed. Let your speech be simply: yes, it is; no, it is not. Nothing else. Any addition is suggested by the Evil one, who later will laugh at you, because you cannot remember everything and you will contradict yourself and you will be jeered at and recognised as a liar. Be sincere, My children, both in your words and in your prayers. Do not behave like the hypocrites, who, when praying, love to stand in synagogues or in the corners of squares where they may be seen by people and praised as just and pious men, whereas, within their families, they are guilty towards God and towards their neighbour. Do you not consider that that is like a form of perjury? Why do you want to maintain as true what is not true in order to win a reputation which you do not deserve? An hypocritical prayer aims at saying: "I am truly a saint. I swear it in the presence of those who see me and cannot deny they saw me praying". Like a veil laid on existing wickedness, a prayer said for such purposes becomes blasphemy. Let God proclaim you saints and live in such a way that your whole life may shout on your behalf: "Here is a servant of God". But you must be silent for your own sake. Do not allow your tongue to be urged by pride and thus become an object of scandal in the angels' eyes. It would be better for you to become mute at once if you do not have the power to control pride and tongue, and you proclaim yourselves just and pleasing to God. Leave that poor glory to proud and false people. Leave that fleeting reward to haughty and deceitful people! A

poor reward! But that is what they want and they will not have any other, because you cannot have more than one. Either the true reward, the Heavenly one, which is eternal and just, or the sham one, the earthly one, which lasts as long as the life of man, and even less, and which is paid for, after this life, with a truly mortifying punishment, because it is an unjust reward. Listen how you must pray with your lips and with your work and with your whole selves, urged by your hearts which do love God and feel He is your Father, but they always remember who the Creator is and what the creature is, and in the presence of God they are always full of reverential love, whether you are praying or are busy, whether you are walking or resting, earning or helping. I said urged by your hearts. It is the first and essential feature. Because everything comes from your hearts and your minds: your words, your eyes, your deeds are like your hearts. A just man draws good from his just heart and the more he draws the more he finds, because the good done creates more good, like blood that is renewed circulating in the veins and flows back to the heart enriched with new elements taken from the oxygen, which it had absorbed or from the food juices, which it had assimilated. Whereas a wicked man can draw but fraud and poison from his gloomy heart full of fraud and poison, which grow more and more because they are corroborated by accumulating sins, while the blessings of God accumulate in a good man. You may be sure that it is the exhuberance of the heart that overflows from lips and reveals itself in deeds. Make your hearts humble, pure, loving, trustful and sincere and love God with the chaste love of a virgin for her bridegroom. I solemnly tell you that each soul is a virgin married to the Eternal Lover, to God Our Lord; this world is the time of engagement during which the guardian angel of every man is the spiritual paranymph, and all the hours and contingencies of life are as many maids preparing the nuptial trousseau. The hour of death is the hour for the accomplished wedding when the introduction, embrace and union take place and the soul can raise the veil of the bridal dress and throw itself into the arms of God and the Spouse will not cause scandal by loving so. But for the time being, o souls still victimised in the bonds of the engagement to God, when you wish to speak to the Spouse, withdraw to the peace of your abode, above all to the peace of your inner abodes and, angels of flesh helped by your guardian angels, speak to the King of angels. Speak to your Father in the secrecy of your hearts and of your inner rooms. Leave outside everything that belongs to the world: eagerness to be noted and to edify, and the scruples of long prayers full of words, of monotonous, tepid words lacking love. For God's sake, get rid of standards in your prayers. There are really some people who waste many hours reciting a monologue only with their lips and which is a real soliloquy because not even the guardian angels listen to it; it is such a vain noise that they become absorbed in fervent prayer for the silly men guarded by them, in an effort to find a remedy. There are in fact some men who would not spend those hours in a different way, not even if God appeared to them saying: "The salvation of the world depends on your leaving such soulless manner of speech and going, shall we say, just to draw water from a well and pour it on to the ground for My sake and the sake of your fellow men". There are indeed many who believe that their monologue is more important than the kindness in receiving a visitor or the charity in helping a person in

need. They are souls which have fallen into the idolatry of prayer. Prayer is an act of love. And one can love praying or baking bread, meditating or assisting a sick person, making a pilgrimage to the Temple or looking after the family, sacrificing a lamb or sacrificing one's desires, even the honest desire to concentrate on the Lord. It is sufficient for you to have your whole selves and all your actions impregnated with love. Be not afraid! The Father sees, understands, listens, grants. How many graces are granted for one single, true perfect sigh of love! How much wealth for an intimate sacrifice made with love. Do not be like the Gentiles. God does not need to be told what He has to do for your needs. The pagans may tell their idols, which cannot understand. But you cannot tell God, the True Spiritual God, Who is not only God and King, but also your Father and knows what you need, even before you ask Him. Ask and it will be given to you, look and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. Because whoever asks, will receive, whoever looks, will find and it will be opened to whomsoever knocks. When your child stretches his little hand towards you saying: "Father, I am hungry" do you perhaps give him a stone? Will you give him a snake if he asks for a fish? No, you will give him bread and fish, and caresses and blessings over and above, because it is pleasant for a father to nourish his son and see his happy smiles. If therefore you, whose hearts are imperfect, are capable of giving gifts to your children, out of a natural love that is common also to animals for their offspring, how much more will your Father, Who is in Heaven, grant to those who ask Him for the good and necessary things for their welfare. Do not be afraid to ask and do not be afraid not to receive! However, I wish to warn you against an easy error: do not behave like those who are weak in their faith and in their love. Also amongst believers there are pagans whose poor religion is a mixture of superstition and faith, a building tampered with, into which all kinds of parasitic herbs have penetrated, so much so that it falls to pieces, and they, weak and pagans as they are, feel their faith is dying if they are not heard. You ask. And you think it is fair to ask. And for that particular moment a certain grace may be right. But life does not end at that moment. And what is good today, may not be good tomorrow. You do not know that, because you know only the present, and that is a grace of God, too. But God knows also the future. And God to save you a greater pain does not hear your prayer. During My year of public life more than once I heard hearts moaning: "How much I suffered then, when God did not hear me. But now I say: 'It was better thus, because that grace would have prevented me from reaching this hour of God' ". I heard others say to Me: "Why, Lord, do You not hear me? You grant it to everybody but not to me?" And yet, although I was sorry to see them suffer, I had to say: "I cannot", because to hear them would have meant hindering their flight to a perfect life. Also the Father some times says: "I cannot". Not because He cannot satisfy the request immediately, but because He does not want to satisfy it in view of future consequences. Listen. A child is suffering from intestinal trouble. His mother calls a doctor and the doctor says: "He must fast to be cured". The child cries, yells, implores, seems to be languishing. The mother, always pitiful, joins her moaning to her son's. She thinks that the doctor's order is severe and hard. She feels that such fasting and crying may be detrimental to her son. But the

doctor is inflexible. At last he says: "Woman, I know, you don't. Do you want to lose your son or do you want me to save him?". The mother shouts: "I want him to live". "In that case" says the doctor "I cannot let him have any food. It would kill him". Also the Father some times says so. You, pitiful mothers of your own ego, do not want to hear it weep because some grace has been denied. But God says: "I cannot. It would do you harm". The day will come, or eternity will come, when you will say: "Thank You, my God, for not listening to my foolishness!" What I said with regard to prayers, I say with regard to fasting. When you fast, do not look sad, as hypocrites do, who on purpose disfigure their faces that the world may know and believe that they are fasting, even if it is not true. They also have received their reward with the praise of the world, and will not receive another one. Instead, when you fast, look happy, wash your faces thoroughly so that they may look fresh and smooth, put oil on your heads and scents on your hair and smile like one who has been well fed. Oh! Truly there is no food that nourishes as much as love does! And who fasts with a loving spirit, feeds on love! I solemnly tell you that even if the world calls you "vain" and "publicans", the Father will see your heroic secret and will give you a double reward. One for your fasting and the other for the sacrifice of not being praised for it. And now go and feed your bodies, since your souls have been nourished. Those two poor people may stay here with us. They will be blessed guests who will give flavour to our bread. Peace be with you. And the two poor people stay. One is a very lean woman, the other a very old man. They are not together. Chance had joined them, as they were standing dejected in a corner, stretching out in vain their hands towards those who passed in front of them. Jesus goes straight towards them since they dare not come forward and takes them by the hand leading them to the middle of the group of the apostles, under a kind of tent that Peter has put up in a corner and under which they perhaps take shelter at night and they gather during the hot hours of the day. It is a shed formed by branches and... mantles. But it serves its purpose, although it is so low that Jesus and the Iscariot, the tallest of the lot, have to bend to enter. Here a father and a sister. Bring what we have. While taking our food we will hear their story. And Jesus personally serves the two shy old souls and listens to their sorrowful stories. The old man is alone, after his daughter went far away with her husband and forgot her father. The woman is also alone, after a fever killed her husband and, in addition, she is ill. The world despises us because we are poor says the old man. I wander about begging for alms to scrape together some money to celebrate Passover. I am eighty years old. I have always kept Passover and this may be the last time. But I do not want to go to Abraham's bosom with any regret. As I forgive my daughter, so I hope to be forgiven. And I want to keep my Passover. It is a long way, father. The way to Heaven is even longer, if one is not present at the rite. Are you going by yourself? And if you feel ill on the way? The angel of God will close my eyes. Jesus caresses his white trembling head and asks the woman: And what about you?

 I am looking for work. If I were better fed I would get rid of my fever. And if I were cured I could work at the corn. Do you think that food alone could cure you? No, You could, too. But I am a poor thing, too poor to ask You for mercy. And if I cured you, what would you like afterwards? Nothing else. I would already have had more than I could hope for. Jesus smiles and hands her a piece of bread dipped into some water and vinegar, which I think is their drink. The woman eats it without speaking and Jesus continues smiling. The meal is over. It was so frugal! The apostles and disciples look for a shady place along the slopes and among the thickets. Jesus remains under the tent. The old man is lying on the grass and tired as he was, has fallen asleep. After a short time the woman, who had gone away looking for some shade where to rest, comes towards Jesus Who smiles at her to cheer her up. She comes forward looking shy, but happy, almost as far as the tent. She is then overcome by joy, she walks with a vigorous stride and falling flat on her face with a choked cry exclaims: You have cured me! May You be blessed! At this time I used to shiver with fever, but I am not now... Oh! and she kisses Jesus' feet. Are you sure that you have been cured? I did not tell you. It might be by chance... Oh! no! Now I understand Your smile when You handed me the bread. Your virtue entered me with that morsel. I have nothing to give You in exchange, except my heart. Order Your maid, Lord, and she will obey You until she dies. Yes. See that old man? He is all alone and he is just. You had a husband and death took him away. He had a daughter and selfishness took her away. And that is worse. And yet he does not curse. But it is not fair that he should go about alone in his last hours. Be a daughter to him. Yes, my Lord. Mind you, it means working for two. I am strong now, and I will do it. Go up there, then, to that cliff and tell the man who is resting there, the one wearing a grey tunic, to come to Me. The woman goes away quickly and comes back with Simon Zealot. Come, Simon, I want to speak to you. Woman, wait here. Jesus walks away for a few yards. Do you think that Lazarus would find it difficult to take on another worker? Lazarus? I do not think that he even knows how many servants he has! One more, one less!... But who is it? That woman. I cured her and... That is enough, Master. If You cured her it means that You love her. What You love is sacred to Lazarus. I commit myself for him. That is true. What I love is sacred to Lazarus. You are right. And that is why Lazarus will become a saint, because by loving what I love he will love perfection. I want to join that old man to that woman and let that patriarch keep his last Passover in great joy. I am very fond of old holy people and I am happy if I can give them a serene sunset. You love also children...

 Yes, and sick people... And those who weep... And those who are alone... Oh! My Master! Don't You realise that you are fond of everybody? Also of Your enemies? I do not realise it, Simon. To love is My nature. There... the patriarch is waking up. Let us go and tell him that he will be keeping Passover with a daughter beside him, and without any more need for bread. They go back to the tent where the woman is waiting for them and the three of them go towards the old man who has sat up and is tying his sandals. What are you going to do, father? I am going down to the valley. I hope to find some shelter for the night and tomorrow I will beg on the road and then down, down, in a month's time, if I am not dead, I will be in the Temple. No. Must I not?... Why! Because God does not want it. You will not go alone. This woman will come with you. She will take you where I tell her and you will be made welcome for My sake. You will keep your Passover, but without any trouble. You have already carried your cross, father. Put it down now. All you have to do is to concentrate in prayer thanking the good Lord. But why... why... I... I do not deserve so much... You... a daughter... It is more than if You gave me twenty years... And where, where are You sending me?... The old man is weeping into his long beard. I am sending you to Lazarus of Theophilus. I do not know whether you know him. Oh!... I come from the border of Syria and I remember Theophilus. But... Oh! Blessed Son of God, allow me to bless You! And Jesus, sitting on the grass, in front of the old man, does bend His head to let him impose solemnly his hands on it, thundering out in a very deep voice the old blessing: May the Lord bless You and keep You. May the Lord let His face shine on You and be gracious to You. May the Lord uncover His face to You and bring You to peace. Jesus, Simon and the woman reply together: Amen.

173. The Sermon of the Mount. The Beatitudes (Part Four). 27th May 1945. The Sermon of the Mount continues. The crowd is growing larger and larger as the days go by. There are men, women, old people, children, rich and poor alike. The couple, Stephen and Hermas, is always present, although not yet associated with the old disciples led by Isaac. And there is also the new couple formed yesterday: the old man and the woman. They are in the very front, near their Comforter and they look much more cheerful than yesterday. The old man, to make up for the many months or years during which he was neglected by his daughter, has laid his wrinkled hand on the knees of the woman and she is caressing it out of the inborn instinct of a morally sound woman to be maternal.

Jesus passes near them to climb up to His rustic pulpit, and while passing He caresses the head of the old man who looks at Him as if he already saw Him as God. Peter says something to Jesus Who makes a gesture as if He wanted to say: It does not matter. But I do not understand what the apostle says. Peter remains near Jesus, and Judas Thaddeus and Matthew join him. The other apostles are scattered among the crowd. Peace be with you all! Yesterday I spoke of prayer, of swearing, of fasting. Today I want to instruct you in other perfections. They are also prayer, trust, sincerity, love, religion. The first thing I will speak to you of is the right use of riches, changed into as many treasures in Heaven by the good will of the faithful servant. The treasures of the earth do not last. But the treasures of Heaven are eternal. Are you fond of what is yours? Are you sorry to die because you will no longer be able to look after your property and you will have to leave it? In that case transfer them to Heaven. You may say: "What is of the earth will not enter Heaven and You have taught us that money is the filthiest thing on earth. How can we transpose them to Heaven?" No. You cannot take money, material as it is, into the Kingdom where everything is spiritual. But you can take the fruit of money. When you give a banker your money, why do you do it? That he may make it bear interest. You do not deprive yourselves of it, not even temporarily, that he may give you back the same amount. But out of ten talents you want him to give you back ten plus one or even more. Then you are happy and you praise the banker. Otherwise you say: "He is honest, but he is a fool". And, if instead of ten plus one, he should give you nine, saying: "I lost the rest", you would denounce him and send him to prison. What is the fruit of money? Does the banker sow your money and water it to make it grow? No. The fruit is given by a skilful handling of business, so that by means of mortgage deeds and loans at interest, the money is increased by the premium rightly requested for the loan of the gold. Is it not so? Now listen. God gives you earthly riches. To some people he grants a great deal, to some only as much as they need to live, and He says to you: "Now it is up to you. I have given them to you. Gain by these means an end as My love wishes for your own good. I have entrusted you with them, but not that you may turn them into evil. Make your wealth bear interest, for this real Fatherland, both because of the reputation I hold you in, and out of gratitude for My gifts". And here is the method to gain this end. Do not accumulate your treasures on the earth, living for them, being cruel for them, cursed by your neighbour and by God on account of them. It is not worth it. They are never safe in this world. Thieves can always rob you. Fire can always destroy your houses. Diseases of plants and animals can exterminate herds and orchards. How many things undermine your property! Whether it is real estate and unassailable, such as houses and gold; whether its nature is liable to be damaged, such as all living things, vegetables and animals, or precious cloths, they can be ruined. Thunderbolts, fire and floods can destroy houses; thieves, blight, dry weather, rodents and insects can damage fields; catching diseases, fever, crippling, murrain can destroy cattle; moths and mice can ruin valuable pieces of cloth and precious pieces of furniture; oxidization

can corrode vases, chandeliers and artistic gates; everything is subject to destruction. But if you turn earthly welfare into supernatural good, then it becomes free from all damage by time, men and calamities. Store up your treasure in Heaven, where thieves cannot break in, and where no calamities occur. Work with merciful love for all the miseries of the earth. You may caress your money and kiss it if you wish so, you may rejoice at the plentiful crops, at the vineyards laden with grapes, at the countless number of olives which bend the branches of the olive-trees, and at your prolific sheep with turgid udders. You may rejoice at all that, but not in a sterile or human way. Rejoice with love and admiration, with supernatural delight and foresight. "Thank You, my God, for this money, for these crops, plants, sheep and for this business! Thank you, sheep, plants, meadows, business, which serve me so well. May you all be blessed, because through Your goodness, o Eternal Father, and through yours, o things of mine, I can do so much good to those who are hungry, or are naked, homeless, sick, alone... Last year I did it for ten. This year - as I have more money, although I gave away much as alms, and the crops are more plentiful and the flocks larger - I will give twice, three times as much as last year. So that everybody, also those who have no wealth of their own, may partake of my joy and bless with me the Eternal Lord". That is the prayer of a just man. A prayer which joined to your deeds, transfers your wealth to Heaven, and not only keeps it eternally for you, but you will find it increased by the holy fruit of love. Store your treasure in Heaven so that your heart may also be there, above and beyond the risk that not only your gold, your houses, fields and herds may suffer damage, but that your very heart may be attacked and robbed, corroded, burnt and killed by the spirit of the world. If you do that, you will have your treasure in your heart because you will have God within you until the blessed day when you will be in Him. But in order not to diminish the fruit of charity, take care to be charitable in a supernatural spirit. What I said in regard to prayer and to fasting applies also to charity and to any other good action you may do. Keep the good you may do free from the violating sensation of the world, keep it immune from human praise. Do not profane the scented rose of your charity and of your good deeds, as it is a true censer of perfumes agreeable to the Lord. Good is profaned by a proud spirit, by the desire to be noted when doing good and by the quest for praise. The rose of charity is then dribbled and eaten away by the big slimy snails of satisfied pride and the censer is filled with the fetid straw of the litter on which the proud man basks like a well fed animal. Oh! Those deeds of charity accomplished to be pointed out by people! It would be better, much better, if they had not been performed at all! Who does not do them, commits a sin of harshness. Who does them letting people know both the amount given and the name of the person to whom it was given, and begging for praise, commits a sin of pride by making the offer known, as he says: "See how much I can afford?", sins against charity because he humbles the beneficiary by making his name known, and commits a sin of spiritual avarice as he wants to store up human praises... It is straw, nothing but straw. Let God and His angels praise you. When you give alms, do not have it trumpeted before you, to draw the

attention of passers-by and win their praise, as the hypocrites do, who want to be praised by men and thus give alms only where they can be seen by many people. They, too, have received their reward and will not have another one from God. Do not commit the same sin and do not be so presumptuous. But when you give alms, your left hand must not know what your right is doing, so secret and modest is your almsgiving and then forget about it. Do not linger admiring your deed, swelling with it like the toad that contemplates itself with its veiled eyes in the pond and sees also the clouds, trees and a chart near the bank reflected in the still water and when it sees that it is so small as compared to them, which are so large, it swells up with air until it bursts. Also your charity is nothing as compared to the Infinite, which is the Charity of God, and if you wanted to become like Him and make your small charity so big as to be equal to His, you would fill yourselves with the wind of pride and would end up by perishing. Forget about it. Forget about the action itself. A light, a sweet voice will always be present with you and will make your day bright, sweet and happy. Because that light will be the smile of God, the honey will be the spiritual peace, which still comes from God, and the voice will be the voice of God, the Father Who will say to you: "Thank you". He sees the hidden evil and the concealed good and will give you a reward for them. I can... Master, You give the lie to Your own words! The sudden resentful remark comes from the centre of the crowd. They all turn round in the direction of the voice. There is some confusion. Peter says: I told You! Eh! When there is one of those over there... everything goes wrong! Many people in the crowd hiss and grumble against the reviler. Jesus is the only one who remains calm. He has folded His arms and is standing, tall as He is, on His rock, with the sun in front of Him, in His dark blue tunic. The reviler, heedless of the reaction of the crowd, goes on: You are a bad Master because You teach what You do not do and... Be quiet! Go away! Shame! shout the crowd. And again: Go back to your Scribes! The Master is quite enough for us! Let the hypocrites go with the hypocrites! You false masters! Usurers!... and they continue but Jesus thunders out: Silence! Let him speak and the crowds no longer shout but they whisper their insults glaring at him at the same time. Yes. You teach what You do not do. You told us that we should give alms without being seen, and yesterday in the presence of a whole crowd You said to two poor people: "Stay and I will appease your hunger". I said: "Let the two poor people stay here. They will be the blessed guests who will give flavour to our bread". Nothing else. I did not say I wanted to satisfy their hunger. Which poor man has not at least some bread? It was My joy to extend to them our good friendship. Of course! You are cunning and You can play the lamb!... The old man stands up, turns round and raising his walking stick he shouts: Infernal tongue who are accusing the Holy One, do you think that you know everything and that you can accuse Him of what you know? As you do not know who God is and who He is Whom you are insulting, so you do not know His deeds. Only the angels and my overjoyed heart know. Listen, men, listen everybody and see whether Jesus is the liar and the proud man that this traitor to the Temple is saying. He...

 Be quiet, Ishmael! Be quiet for My sake! If I made you happy, please make Me happy by being silent Jesus begs him. I obey You, Holy Son. But let me say only this: the blessing of an old faithful Israelite is on Him Who assisted me in the name of God and God put that blessing on my lips for me and for Sarah, my new daughter. But there will be no blessing on your head. I will not curse you. I will not foul, with a curse, my mouth which must say to God: "Receive me". I did not do it to her who disowned me, and I have already received a divine reward for it. But there is One who will take the place of the Innocent you are accusing and of Ishmael, the friend of God, Who assists Him. A chorus of shouts closes the speech of the old man who sits down again, while a man sneaks away, followed by insults. The crowds then shout to Jesus: Go on, go on, Holy Master! We will listen only to You. Listen to us, not to those cursed birds of evil omen! They are jealous, because we love You more than we love them! But You are holy, they are wicked. Go on, speak to us. You can see that we have no other wish but to hear You. Our homes, our business? They are nothing, we left them to hear You. Yes, I will speak to you. But do not be upset by what happened. Pray for those poor people. Forgive them as I do. Because if you forgive men their faults, also your Father Who is in Heaven will forgive you your sins. But if you bear men a grudge and do not forgive them, neither will your Father forgive you your shortcomings. And everybody needs to be forgiven. I was saying to you that God will give you a reward, even if you do not ask to be rewarded for the good you have done. But do not do good to be rewarded, to have a security for tomorrow. Do not do good restricted within narrow limits by fear: "And after, will I have enough for myself? And should I have nothing, who will help me? Will I find anyone who will do what I did? And when I will no longer be able to give, will I still be loved?". Look: I have mighty friends among rich people and I have friends amongst the poor people of the earth. And I solemnly tell you that the mighty ones are not the most loved. I go to them not for My own sake or profit. But because they can give Me much for those who have nothing. I am poor. I have nothing. I would like to have all the treasures in the world and change them into bread for those who are hungry, into homes for the homeless, into clothes for the naked and into medicines for the sick. You may say: "You can cure people". Yes, I can do that and other things. But I do not always find faith in men, and I cannot do what I would do and would like to do, if the hearts of men had faith in Me. I would like to help also those who have no faith. And as they do not ask the Son of man for miracles, I would like, as a man to man, to help them. But I have nothing. That is why I stretch out My hand to those who are rich and I ask them: "Give Me some alms, in the name of God". That is why I have high-placed friendships. Tomorrow, when I am no longer on the earth, there will still be poor people, but I shall not be there to work miracles for those who have faith, nor to give alms to lead to faith. But then My rich friends, who are in touch with Me, will have learned how to help, and My apostles, after their experience with Me, will have learned how to give alms out of love for their brothers. And the poor will always receive assistance. Yesterday, I received from one who has nothing, more than all those who are rich have given Me. He is a friend, and as poor as I am. But he gave Me something which no money can buy, and which made Me happy, bringing back

to Me so many serene hours of My childhood and youth, when every evening the hands of a Just One were laid on My head and I went to rest with his blessing as the guardian of My sleep. Yesterday this poor friend of Mine made Me king with his blessing. You thus see that none of My rich friends has given Me what he gave Me. Therefore, be not afraid. Even if you no longer have the power of money, providing you have love and holiness, you can still assist who is poor, tired and distressed. And I therefore say to you: do not worry too much because you are afraid of having too little. You will always have what is necessary. Do not worry too much about your future. Nobody knows how much future there is ahead of him. Do not worry about what you will eat to support yourselves in life or what clothes you will put on to keep your bodies warm. The life of your souls is by far more precious than your stomachs and your limbs, it is much mote valuable than your food and your clothes, exactly as material life is more valuable than food and the body more precious than its clothes. And your Father knows. You ought to know, too. Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet they do not starve to death because the heavenly Father feeds them. And you men, the favourite creatures of the Father, are worth much more than they are. Which of you, with all his talent, can add one single cubit to his height? If you cannot raise your height even by a span, how can you possibly change your future conditions, increasing your wealth, to ensure that you will live to a long and happy old age? Can you say to death: "You shall come for me when I want"? You cannot. Why, then, worry about your future? And why go to so much trouble lest you should be left without clothes? Think of the lilies growing in the fields: they do not work or spin, they do not buy any cloth from vendors, yet I assure you that not even Solomon in all his regalia was robed like one of them. Now if that is how God clothes the grass in the field, which is there today and will be thrown into the furnace tomorrow or used to feed the cattle and will thus end up in ash or dung, how much more He will see to you, His children? Do not be of little faith. Do not worry about an uncertain future saying: "What shall I eat when I am old? What shall I drink? How will I clothe myself?". Leave such worries to the Gentiles, who do not have the lofty certainty of the divine paternity. You have it and you know that the Father is aware of your needs and loves you. Therefore trust Him. Seek first what is really necessary: faith, goodness, charity, humility, mercy, purity, justice, meekness, the three and four main virtues, and all the others as well, in order to be the friends of God, and have a right to His Kingdom. And I can assure you that all the rest will be given to you as well, without having to ask for it. There is no rich man richer than a saint or any man safer than he is. God is with the saint and the saint is with God. He does not ask anything for his body, and God supplies what is necessary. But he works for his soul, and God gives Himself to him in this world, and Paradise in the next one. So do not go to any trouble for what is not worth your trouble. Let your imperfections grieve you, not your scanty earthly means. Do not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself, and you will take care of it when you live it. Why worry today? Is life not already quite full of yesterday's sad memories and of today's troubles, that we should feel the need to add the nightmares of tomorrow's uncertainties? Leave to each day its own trouble!

There will always be in life more pains than we would wish, without adding the present pains to future ones! Always say the great word of God: "Today". You are His children, created to His likeness. So say with Him: "Today". And today I give you My blessing. May it accompany you until the beginning of a new today: of tomorrow, that is when I will give you once again My peace in the name of God.

174. The Sermon of the Mount. The Beatitudes (Part Five). Encounter with the Magdalene. 29th May 1945. It is a glorious morning and the air is clearer than usual. Distances seem to be shortened and remote things seem to be seen through a magnifying lens so clear and neat are the least details. The crowds are getting ready to listen to the Master. Day by day the country is becoming more beautiful in its luxurious dress at the height of the springtime season, which in Palestine I think is at end of March and beginning of April, because later it has the look typical of summertime, with ripe crops and thick fully developed foliage. The whole country is now in bloom. From the height of the mountain, which is adorned with its own flowers even in spots which would appear least suitable for blossom growth, one can see the flexuous corn undulating down in the plain, blown by the breeze making it look like sea-green waves, with a pale golden hue at the top of the ears now seeding in their bristly awns. The fruit trees, completely covered with petals stand straight above the crops undulating in the light breeze, and look like as many huge powder-puffs or balls of white, pale pink, dark pink, bright red gauze. The olive-trees by contrast, in their dress of penitent ascetics seem to be praying and their prayers are already changing into a tentative snowfall of tiny white flowers. The top of Mount Hermon is like pink alabaster and is kissed by the sun. Two diamond threads - they look like threads from here - run down from the alabaster top twinkling in an unbelievable fashion in the sun, and disappear into the green woods; they appear once again down in the valley where they form water-courses which flow towards Lake Merom, which cannot be seen from here. They then flow out with the beautiful waters of the Jordan and later drop into the light sapphire sea of Galilee, which twinkles like chips of precious stones set in and lit up by the sun. The sails moving on the lake, calm and splendid in its frame of gardens and wonderful countryside, seem driven by small light clouds sailing in the sea of the sky. Nature really seems to be smiling in this early hour of a spring day. And the crowds throng incessantly. They come up from all directions: old, healthy, sick, children and young couples who wish to start their married life with the blessing of God's word. There are beggars and wealthy people who call the apostles and give them offerings for those who are poor and they are so anxious to find a concealed place in which to do it that they seem to be going to confession. Thomas has taken one of the travelling bags and calmly pours all the money into it as if it were chicken-feed, and then takes it to the rock where Jesus is speaking, and he laughs happily saying: Rejoice, Master! You have enough for everybody today!

Jesus smiles and says: And we shall start at once, so that those who are sad may be happy immediately. You and your companions will select the poor and sick people and bring them here. That takes a comparatively short time, although they have to listen to the cases of many people and it would have taken much longer without the practical help of Thomas, who, standing on a stone to be seen by everybody, shouts in his powerful voice: All those suffering from physical trouble go to my right hand side, over there, in the shade. The Iscariot follows his example as he, too, is gifted with an exceptionally powerful and beautiful voice, and he shouts: And all those who think they are entitled to alms should come here near me. And make sure you are not telling lies because the eyes of the Master can read your hearts. The crowds start moving about to form three groups: those who are sick, those who are poor, and those who are anxious only to hear Jesus teaching. But two people, and then three of the last group seem to be in need of something which is neither health nor money, but is more necessary than both: a woman and two men. They look at the apostles but dare not speak. The severe looking Simon Zealot passes by; also Peter passes by; he is busy speaking to a dozen little children to whom he promises some olives if they keep quiet until the end of the sermon, and a thrashing if they disturb while the Master is speaking; the elderly grave Bartholomew passes by; Matthew and Philip pass carrying a cripple who would have to struggle too much to open his way through the crowd; also the cousins of the Lord pass by helping an almost blind beggar and a very old poor woman - I wonder how old she is - who weeps telling James all her troubles; James of Zebedee passes by holding in his arms a poor girl, who is certainly ill, and whom he has taken from her mother to ensure that she does not get hurt by the crowds, while the panting mother follows him; the last to pass by are Andrew and John, whom I would call the indivisible ones, because while John, in his serene simplicity of a holy child, is willing to go with his companions, Andrew, on account of his reservedness, prefers going with his old fishing companion and fellow disciple of the Baptist. They had stayed at the junction of the two main paths, to show people to their places, but there being no more pilgrims on the stony path of the mountain, the two have come together to go to the Master with the last offerings received. Jesus is already bending over sick people and the hosannas of the crowds punctuate each miracle. The woman, who appears to be completely distressed, dares to pull John's tunic, while he is speaking to Andrew and she smiles. He bends and asks her: What do you want, woman? I would like to speak to the Master... Are you not well? You are not poor... I am well and I am not poor. But I need Him... because there are evils without any fever and there is misery without poverty and mine... mine... and she weeps. Listen, Andrew. This woman is sick in heart and would like to speak to the Master. What shall we do? Andrew looks at the woman and says: It is certainly something which is painful to tell... The woman nods assent. Andrew goes on: Do not weep... John, try and take her behind our shed. I will take the Master there. And John, smiling, begs people to let him pass, while Andrew goes in the

opposite direction towards Jesus. But they are noticed by two distressed men, and one of them stops John, and the other Andrew, and shortly afterwards they are both with John and the woman behind the shed of branches which is part of the tent. Andrew reaches Jesus when the Latter is curing the cripple who raises his crutches like two trophies, as brisk as a skilled dancer, shouting his blessing. Andrew whispers: Master, behind our shed there are three people weeping. But it is their hearts that ache and their grief cannot be made known... All right. I still have this girl and this woman. Then I will come. Go and tell them to have faith. Andrew goes away while Jesus is bending over the little girl who is being held once again by her mother. What is your name? Jesus asks her. Mary. And what is My name? Jesus replies the child. And Who am I? The Messiah of the Lord Who has come to bring good to bodies and souls. Who told you? My mother and father who hope in you for my life. Live and be good. The child, whose spine I think was affected by a disease, because although she is about seven years old, and perhaps older, she only moved her hands and was all enveloped in thick stiff bandages from her armpits down to her hips they can be seen because her mother has lifted her dress to show them remains as she was for a few minutes, then begins to slide down from her mother's lap on to the ground and runs towards Jesus Who is curing the woman, whose case I do not understand. All the sick people have been satisfied and they are the ones who shout most in the crowd applauding the Son of David, glory of God and ours. Jesus goes towards the shed. Judas of Kerioth shouts: Master What about these? Jesus turns round and says: Let them wait where they are. They will be comforted, too and He walks fast to the back of the shed where the three people in anguish are with Andrew and John. The woman first. Come with Me into these hedges. Speak without any fear. My Lord, my husband wants to leave me for a prostitute. I have five children and the last one is two years old... Great is my grief... and I am worried about my children... I do not know whether he will take them or leave them to me. He will certainly want the boys, at least the oldest one... And I who bore him will no longer have the joy of seeing him? And what will they think of their father and of me? They must think evil of one of us. And I would not like them to judge their father... Do not weep. I am the Master of Life and of Death. Your husband will not marry that woman. Go in peace and continue to be good. But... You will not kill him? Oh! Lord, I love him. Jesus smiles: I will not kill anyone. But there is someone who will do his work. You must know that the demon is not greater than God. When you go back to your town you will find out that someone killed that evil creature and

in such a way that your husband will realise what he was doing and will love you again with revived love. The woman kisses the hand that Jesus had laid on her head and goes away. One of the men comes: I have a daughter, Lord. Unfortunately she went to Tiberias with some girl friends and it was as if she had taken some poison. When she came back to me she was like a mad woman. She wants to go away with a Greek man... and then... Why was she born? Her mother is heartbroken and perhaps will die of grief... I... only Your words, which I heard last winter, keep me from killing her. But, I tell You, my heart has already cursed her. No. God, Who is a Father, only curses an accomplished and obstinate sin. What do you want from Me? That You get her to mend her ways. I do not know her and she will certainly not come to Me. But You can change her heart also from far away! Do You know who sent me to You? Johanna of Chuza. She was leaving for Jerusalem when I went to her mansion to ask her whether she knew that wretched Greek. I was afraid she might not know him, because she is good, although she lives at Tiberias, but since Chuza has contacts with the Gentiles... She does not know him. But she said to me: "Go to Jesus. He called my soul back from very far away and He cured me, by that call, of my phthisis. He will cure also your daughter's heart. I will pray and you must have faith". I have faith. You can see it. Have mercy on me, Master. Your daughter this evening will weep on her mother's knees asking to be forgiven. You must be as good as her mother and forgive her. The past is dead. Yes, Master. As You wish and may You be blessed. He turns round to go away... but retraces his steps: Forgive me, Master... But I am so afraid. Lust is such a demon! Give me a thread of Your tunic. I will put it in my daughter's pillow. The demon will not tempt her while she is asleep. Jesus smiles and shakes His head... but satisfies the man saying: That your mind may be quieter. But you must believe that when God says: "I want it" the demon goes away without any further need. So keep this as a souvenir of Mine , and He gives him a small tuft from His fringe. The third man comes: Master, my father died. We thought he had some money. But we did not find any. That would not matter as my brothers and I are not short of bread. But I lived with my father as I am the eldest. The other two brothers are now accusing me of stealing the money and they want to sue me for theft. You can see my heart. I did not see one single coin. My father kept his money in a coffer in a metal case. When he died we opened the coffer but the case was no longer there. They say: "Last night, while we were sleeping, you took it". It is not true. Help me to restore peace and esteem among us. Jesus stares at him and smiles. Why are you smiling, Master? Because your father is the guilty one, the guilt of a child who hides his toy lest someone should take it But he was not a miser. Believe me. He was charitable. I know. But he was very old... It is the disease of old people... He wanted to preserve things for you, and out of too much love, he caused you to fall out with one another. But the case is buried at the foot of the cellar steps. I am telling you so that you may be aware that I know. While I am speaking to you,

by pure chance, your younger brother, by striking the ground angrily, caused it to vibrate and so they discovered it and they are now embarrassed and sorry for blaming you. Go back home with a quiet mind and be good to them. Do not reproach them for their lack of esteem. No, my Lord. I will not. But I am not going home, I am staying here to hear You. I will go tomorrow. And if they take that money? You say that we must not be greedy. I do not want to be so. It is enough for me if there is peace amongst us. On the other hand... I did not know how much money there was in the case and thus I will not suffer for any information contrary to the truth. And I consider that that money might have been lost... I will live now, as I lived before, should they deny me it. It is enough if they do not call me a thief. You are well advanced on the way of God. Proceed and peace be with you. And also that man goes away happily. Jesus goes back to the crowds, towards the poor people and gives them alms according to His own judgement. Everybody is now happy and Jesus can speak. Peace be with you. I explain the ways of the Lord to you, that you may follow them. Could you follow the path that goes down on the right hand side, and at the same time follow the one on the left hand side? You could not. Because if you take one you must leave the other. Even if the two paths were close together you could not walk any length with one foot in one and one in the other. You would end up by being tired and making a mistake, even if there was a wager. But between the path of God and Satan's there is a great distance, which becomes greater and greater, just like the two paths that come out up here, but as they run down the valley they become farther and farther from each other, as one goes towards Capernaum and the other towards Ptolomais. Such is life, it bestrides past and future, good and evil. Man is in the centre with his will power and free will; at the ends, on one side there is God and His Heaven, on the other side Satan and his Hell. Man can choose. Nobody forces him. Do not say to Me: "Satan tempts us" as an excuse for descending towards the low path. Also God tempts with His love, which is very strong, with His words, which are most holy, with His promises, which are most alluring! Why then should you allow yourselves to be tempted by one only of the two, by the most undeserving one to be listened to? Are God's words, promises, love not sufficient to counteract Satan's poison? Consider that that is not to your favour. When a man is physically very healthy, he is not immune from contagion, but overcomes it quite easily. Whereas if a man is already ill and consequently weak, he will almost certainly die in the event of catching a new infection, and if he survives, he is more seriously ill than previously because his blood lacks the strength to kill the contagious germs completely. The same applies to the superior part. If a man is morally and spiritually healthy and strong, you may be sure that he is not free from temptations, but evil does not strike roots in him. When I hear anyone say to Me: "I approached this man and that one, I read this book and that one, I endeavoured to persuade this person and that one to do good, but in actual fact the evil which was in their minds and in their hearts, the evil which was in the

book, entered my heart", I conclude: "Which proves that you had already created within yourself a suitable ground for penetration. Which proves that you are a weakling lacking in moral and spiritual strength. Because we must derive some good also from our enemies. By watching their errors we must learn not to fall into the same. An intelligent man does not become the laughing stock of the first doctrine he hears. A man saturated with a doctrine cannot make room in his mind for any other. This explains the difficulties met when one endeavours to convince those, who are persuaded of other doctrines, to follow the true Doctrine. But if you admit that you change your mind like a weathercock, I can see that you are thoroughly empty, that your spiritual stronghold is full of breaches, that the dam of your mind is leaking in hundreds of places, through which good water runs out and foul water runs in and you are so stupid and listless that you are not even aware of it and you do not see it. You are a wretch". Of the two paths, therefore, choose the good one and proceed on it resisting to the allurements of senses, of the world, of science, of the demon. Leave half faiths, compromises, pacts with two people, one opposed to the other, to the men of the world. They, too, should avoid them, if they are honest. At least you, men of God, must shun them. You cannot have them either with God or with Mammon. You must not have them with yourselves either, because they would be of no value. If your actions are a mixture of good and evil, they are of no value whatsoever. The entirely good ones would be cancelled by the bad ones. The evil ones would lead you straight into the Enemy's arms. Therefore do not indulge in them. Be loyal in your service. No one can serve two masters with two different minds. He will either love one and hate the other or viceversa. You cannot be both of God and of Mammon. The spirit of God cannot be conciliated with the spirit of the world. The former ascends, the latter descends. The former sanctifies, the latter corrupts. And if you are corrupt, how can you act with purity? Senses light up in corrupt people and other lusts follow senses. You already know how Eve was corrupted and how Adam became corrupt through her. Satan kissed the woman's eyes and bewitched them, so that every aspect, so far pure, became impure for her and roused strange curiosities. Then Satan kissed her ears and opened them to the words of a new science: his own. Also Eve's mind wanted to know what was not necessary. Then Satan showed her eyes and mind, now awake to Evil, what previously they had not seen or understood, and everything in Eve became sharp and corrupt. And the Woman went to the Man, revealed her secret and persuaded Adam to taste of the new fruit, so beautiful to the eye and so strictly forbidden so far. And she kissed him and looked at him with mouth and eyes already fouled by Satan's gloomy disorder. And corruption penetrated Adam who saw, and through his eyes he craved for what was forbidden and he bit it with his helpmate and fell from such height into mud. A corrupt person will draw another person to corruption, unless the latter is a saint in the true sense of the word. Watch your eyes, men. Both the eyes of your bodies and the eyes of your minds. If they are corrupt, they can but corrupt all the rest. The eye is the light of the body. Your thought is the light of your heart. But if your eye is not pure because since the organs are subject to thought, a corrupt thought will corrupt also senses - everything in you will become obscure, and a seducing haze will

create impure phantasms in you. Everything is pure in him who has a pure thought which causes a pure look, and the light of God descends as a master where there is no obstruction of senses. But if out of ill will you have accustomed your eyes to disorderly visions, everything will become darkness in you. In vain you will look at the most holy things. In the darkness they will be nothing but blackness and blackness will be the deeds accomplished by you. Therefore, o children of God, defend yourselves against yourselves. Look after yourselves diligently against all temptations. There is no evil in being tempted. An athlete prepares himself for victory fighting. But it is evil to be overcome because you are not prepared and you are negligent. I know that everything serves as a temptation. I know that defence is exhausting. I know that it is tiring to have to struggle. But think of what you will gain through these things. And for one hour of pleasure, whatever kind it may be, would you like to lose an eternity of peace? What does the pleasure of the flesh, of gold, of thoughts leave you? Nothing. What do you gain by rejecting them? Everything. I am speaking to sinners, because man is a sinner. Well, tell me the truth: after satisfying your senses, your pride, your greed, have you felt fresher, happier, safer? In the hour following your satisfaction, which is always the time of meditation, have you sincerely felt that you were happy? I have never tasted the bread of sensuality. But I will reply in your stead: "No. Languor, unhappiness, uncertainty, nausea, fear, restlessness: that was the juice squeezed out of the hour spent in pleasure". But I beg you: while I say to you: "Never do that", I also say to you: "Do not be inflexible with those who make mistakes". Remember that you are all brothers, made of one flesh and one soul. Consider that there are many reasons why one is led to sin. Be merciful towards sinners and kindly help them and take them back to God, showing them that the path they have followed is full of dangers for the flesh, the mind and the spirit. Do that and you will receive a great reward... Because the Father Who is in Heaven is merciful to good people and He knows how to give you one hundredfold to one. Now I say to you... And here Jesus tells me that you must copy the vision dated 12th August 1944, from line 35 to the end, that is to the departure of Mary Magdalene. ----------------------------12th August 1944. Jesus says: Look and write. It is the Gospel of Mercy that I give to everybody and in particular to those women who will recognise themselves in the sinner and whom I invite to follow her in her redemption. Jesus is standing on a rock and is speaking to a large crowd. It is a mountainous place. A lonely hill, between two valleys. The top of the hill is shaped like a yoke, or rather, like a camel's hump, so that a few yards from the top there is a natural amphitheatre where voices resound clearly as in a well-built concert hall. The hill is all in flower. It must be summer. The crops down in the plain are beginning to ripen and are getting ready to be cut. The glacier of a high mountain in the north is shining in the sun. Directly below, to the east, the Sea of Galilee looks like a mirror broken into numberless fragments, each of which is a sapphire lit up by the sun. Its blue-gold twinkling is dazzling and it reflects a few fluffy clouds in a very clear sky and the shadow of some swift sails.

Beyond the lake of Gennesaret there is a vast extent of plain ground, which because of a light mist near the earth, caused perhaps by evaporation of dew in fact it must be early morning as the grass on the mountain still has a few dewy diamonds glittering on its stems - looks like a continuation of the lake with an opal-like hue veined with green. Further back there is a chain of mountains, the side of which is so bizarre as to give the impression of clouds sketched on the clear sky. Some of the people are sitting on the grass, some on large stones, some are standing. The apostolic college is not complete. I can see Peter and Andrew, John and James, and I can hear the other two being called Nathanael and Philip. Then there is one who is and is not one of the group. Perhaps he is the last one who arrived: they call him Simon. The others are not there, unless they are among the crowds and I cannot see them. The sermon has already started. I understand that it is the Sermon of the Mount. But the Beatitudes have already been proclaimed. I would say that the sermon is drawing towards the close because Jesus says: Do that and you will receive a great reward. Because the Father Who is in Heaven is merciful to good people and He knows how to give you one hundredfold to one. So I say to you... There is much excitement amongst the people who crowd round the path leading to the tableau. The people closest to Jesus turn their heads round. Everybody's attention is distracted. Jesus stops speaking and turns His eyes in the same direction as the others. He is serious and handsome in His dark blue tunic, His arms folded on His chest while the first rays of the sun rising above the eastern peak of the hill shine on His head. Make room, you plebeians shouts the angry voice of a man. Make room for the beauty who is passing... and four dandies, smartly dressed, come forward, one of whom is certainly Roman, because he is wearing a Roman toga; they are carrying Mary of Magdala, still a great sinner, triumphantly on their hands, crossed to form a seat . And she smiles with her beautiful mouth, throwing back her head and her golden hair, which is all plaits and curls held by precious hair-pins and a pale gold leaf strewn with pearls, which encircles the upper part of her forehead like a diadem, from which small light curls hang down to veil her splendid eyes, made larger and more seductive by a refined make-up. The diadem disappears behind her ears, under the mass of plaits at the back of her snowwhite completely bare neck. And her nakedness extends much farther than her neck. Her shoulders are bare down to her shoulderblades and her breast is even more so. Her dress is held on her shoulders by two little gold chains. It is completely sleeveless. Her body is covered, so to say, by a veil the only purpose of which is to protect her skin from sunburn. The dress is of a very light fabric and when she throws herself back, out of affection, against one or the other of her lovers, she seems to be doing so completely nude. I am under the impression that the Roman is the one she prefers because she glances and smiles at him more frequently and rests her head on his shoulder. The desire of the goddess has been satisfied says the Roman. Rome has acted as a mount for the new Venus. Over there, there is the Apollo you wanted to see. Seduce Him, therefore... But leave some crumbs of your charm also to us. Mary laughs and with an agile provoking movement she jumps to the

ground, showing her small feet shod in white sandals with golden buckles, as well as a good length of her leg. Then her dress covers her whole body. It is in fact a very wide one of snow-white wool as thin as a veil, held tight at the waist, very low, near her sides, by a large belt made of supple gold bosses. And she stands on the green tableland, where there is a vast amount of lilies of the valley and wild narcissi, like a flower of flesh, an impure flower, which has opened there by witchcraft. She is more beautiful than ever. Her tiny purple lips seem a carnation opening on the whiteness of her perfect set of teeth. Her face and body would satisfy the most exacting painter or sculptor both because of her complexion and her figure. With her broad breast, her perfectly sized sides, her naturally supple slender waist, as compared with her sides and breast, she does look like a goddess, as the Roman said, a goddess sculptured in a light pinkish marble on the sides of which a fabric is draped and then hangs in the front in a mass of folds. Everything has been devised to please. Jesus stares at her. And she defiantly resists His look while she smiles and twists lightly as the Roman tickles her, running on her bare shoulders and breast a lily picked among the grass. Mary with affected indignation, lifts her veil saying: Have respect for my innocence which causes the four to burst into a guffaw. Jesus continues staring at her. As soon as the noise of the laughter fades away, Jesus resumes speaking, as if the apparition of the woman had kindled the flame of the sermon, which was losing intensity in its conclusion, and no longer looks at her. He looks instead at His audience who seem embarrassed and scandalised at the event. Jesus says: I told you to be faithful to the Law, to be humble and merciful, to love not only your brothers by the flesh but also those who are brothers because they were born, like you, of man. I told you that forgiveness is better than hostility, that compassion is better than stubbornness. But now I tell you that you must not condemn unless you are free from the fault you wish to condemn. Do not behave like the Scribes and Pharisees who are severe with everybody except themselves, who call impure what is exterior and can only contaminate what is exterior and then they receive impurity in the very depths of their hearts. God does not stay with the impure. Because impurity corrupts what is the property of God: souls, and in particular the souls of children who are angels spread over the earth. Woe to those who tear off their wings with the cruelty of devilish beasts and throw those flowers of Heaven into the mire, by letting them taste the flavour of material things! Woe... It would be better if they died struck by thunderbolts rather than commit such sin! Woe to you, rich and fast living people! Because it is amongst you that the greatest impurity thrives and idleness and money are its bed and pillow! You are now sated. The food of concupiscence reaches your throats and chokes you. But you will be hungry. And your hunger will be terrible, insatiable and unappeasable for ever and ever. You are now rich. How much good you could do with your wealth! Instead you do so much harm both to yourselves and to other people. But you will experience a dreadful poverty on a day that will have no end. You now laugh. You think you are triumphing. But your tears will fill the ponds of Gehenna. And they will never cease. Where does adultery nestle? Where does the corruption of young girls

hide? Who has two or three licentious beds, in addition to his own matrimonial one, on which he squanders his money and wastes the strength of a healthy body given to him by God that he may work for his family and not to wear himself out through filthy unions which place him below unclean beasts? You heard that it was said: "You shall not commit adultery". But I tell you that he who looks at a woman lustfully, that she who wished to go with a man, has already committed adultery in his or her heart, simply by that. There is no reason which can justify fornication. None. Neither the abandonment nor the repudiation of a husband. Nor pity for the repudiated woman. You have one soul only. When it is joined to another soul by a pact of faithfulness, it must not lie. Otherwise the beautiful body for which you sin will go with you, o impure souls, into the inexhausted fire. Mutilate your body, rather than kill it for ever by damning it. Come to your moral senses, o rich men, verminous sinks of vice, so that you may not disgust Heaven... Mary, who at the beginning listened with a face which was a dream of allurement and irony, sneering now and again, at the end of the sermon becomes livid with rage. She realises that although Jesus does not look at her, He is speaking to her. She becomes more and more livid and rebellious and at last can resist no longer. She spitefully envelops herself in her veil and followed by the glances of the crowds jeering at her and by Jesus' voice which pursues her, she runs down the slope of the mountain, leaving strips of her dress on the thistles and dogrose bushes growing on the edges of the path, laughing out of anger and mockery. I see nothing else. But Jesus says: You will see more. ----------------------------29th May 1945. Jesus resumes: You are indignant at what happened. For two days our shelter, which is well above the mud, has been upset by Satan's hiss. It is therefore no longer a shelter and we will leave it. But I wish to conclude this code of the "most perfect" in this wide and bright horizon. God really appears here in the majesty of the Creator and watching His marvels we can firmly believe that He and not Satan is the Master. The Evil One could not create even a blade of grass. But God can do everything. This should comfort us. But you are all already in the sun. And that is harmful. Spread out on the slopes where there is shade and it is cool. Have your meals, if you wish so. I will speak to you again on the same subject. Many things have delayed us. But do not be sorry about it. You are with God here. The crowds shout: Yes, we are. With You and they move under the thickets spread on the eastern side so that the slope of the hill and the tree branches shelter them from the sun, which is already too warm. In the meantime Jesus tells Peter to take the tent down. Are we really going away? Yes, we are. Because she came?... Yes, but do not tell anybody, especially the Zealot. He would be upset because of Lazarus. I cannot allow the word of God to be mocked at by heathens... I see, I see... Well, there is another thing you must understand. Which, Master?

 That it is necessary to be silent in certain cases. Please do not forget. You are so dear, but you are also so impulsive as to burst out into biting criticism. I understand... You do not want for Lazarus and Simon... And for others as well. Do You think there will be any today? Today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, always. It will always be necessary to watch the rashness of My Simon of Jonah. Go now and do what I told you. Peter goes away calling his companions to help him. The Iscariot is pensive in a corner. Jesus calls him three times, but he does not hear. At last he turns round: Do You want me, Master? he asks. Yes, go and take your food and help your companions. I am not hungry. Neither are You. Neither am I, but for different reasons. Are you upset, Judas? No, Master. I'm tired... We are now going to the lake and then to Judaea, Judas. To your mother's, as I promised you... Judas cheers up. Are You really coming only with me? Of course. Love Me, Judas. I would like My love to be such in you as to preserve you from all evil. Master... I am a man. I am not an angel. At times I feel tired. Is it a sin to feel the need of sleep? No, providing you sleep on My chest. Look over there how happy the people are and how beautiful the scenery is from here. Also Judaea must be lovely in springtime. Most beautiful, Master. But spring, there, on the mountains, which are higher than here, is later. But there are beautiful flowers. The apple-orchards are magnificent. Mine, which is looked after by my mother, is one of the most beautiful ones. And when she moves about in it, with the doves following her to get some corn, believe me, it is a sight that soothes your heart. I believe you. If My Mother is not too tired, I would like to take Her to see yours. They would love each other, because they are both good. Judas, drawn by this idea, cheers up and forgetting that he was not hungry and he was tired runs happily to his companions and tall as he is, he undoes the topmost knots without any trouble and eats his bread and olives, as happy as a child. Jesus looks at him pitifully and then goes towards the apostles. Here is some bread, Master. And an egg. I got that rich man over there, the one wearing the red tunic, to give me it. I said to him: "You listen and you are hungry. He speaks and is exhausted. Give me one of your eggs. It will do Him much more good than it would do you". Peter! No, Lord. You are as pale as a baby sucking from an empty breast, and You are becoming as thin as a fish after the mating season. Let me see to it. I do not want to have to reproach myself. I will put it under these warm ashes of the faggots I burnt, and You will eat it. Don't You know it is... how many? most certainly weeks that we have been feeding on bread and olives and a little milk. H'm!... One could say that we are purging ourselves. And You eat less than everybody and speak for everybody. Here is the egg. Take it while it's warm, it will do You good.

Jesus obeys and seeing that Peter is eating bread only, He asks: And what about you? Where are your olives? Sss! I need them for after. I promised them. To whom? To some children. But if they are not quiet until the end, I will eat the olives and give them the stones, that is blows. Very good indeed! Ehi! I will never do that. But if we don't say so... I got so many blows myself, and if they had given me all the ones I deserved for all my pranks, I should have had ten times as many! But they do you good. I am like this because I got them. They all laugh at the apostle's sincerity. Master, I would like to remind You that today is Friday and that these people... I do not know whether they will be able to get food in time for tomorrow or reach their homes says Bartholomew. That's true. It is Friday! several of them say. It does not matter. God will provide. But we will tell them. Jesus stands up and goes to His new place, in the middle of the crowds spread in the thickets. First of all I wish to remind you that this is Friday. I say that those who are afraid they cannot reach their homes in time and are not in a position to believe that God will provide food for His children tomorrow, should go away at once, so that they will not be still on the road at sunset. Of all the crowd there, about fifty people get up. All the others stay where they are. Jesus smiles and begins to speak. You heard that in the old days it was said: "You shall not commit adultery". Those who among you have heard Me in other places know that I have spoken about that sin several times. Because, look, as far as I am concerned, it is a sin not for one person only, but for two or for three. I will make Myself clear. An adulterer sins with regard to himself, he sins with regard to his accomplice, and sins causing the betrayed wife or husband to sin, they may in fact be led to despair or to commit a crime. That with regard to the accomplished sin. But I will say more. I say: "Not only the accomplished sin, but the desire to accomplish it is already a sin". What is adultery? It is to crave for him, who is not ours, or for her, who is not ours. One begins to sin by wishing, continues by seduction, completes it by persuasion, crowns it by the deed. How does one begin? Generally with an impure glance. And that is connected with what I said before. An impure eye sees what is concealed from a pure eye and through the eye thirst enters the throat, hunger enters the body and fever the blood. A carnal thirst, hunger, fever. Delirium begins. If the person looked at is honest, the delirious looker-on is left alone on tenterhooks, or will denigrate in revenge. If also the person looked at is dishonest, he will reply to the look and the descent into sin begins. I therefore say to you: "If a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has already committed adultery with her because his thought has accomplished the deed of his desire". If your right eye should cause you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to be without one eye than to be thrown into the infernal darkness for ever. And if your right hand should cause you to sin, cut it off and throw it away, for it will do you less harm to lose one part of you than to have your whole body go to hell. It is true that it is written that deformed

people cannot serve God in the Temple. But after this life, the deformed by birth who are holy and those who are deformed out of virtue, will become more beautiful than angels and will serve God, loving Him in the happiness of Heaven. It has also been said to you: "Anyone who divorces his wife, must give her a writ of dismissal". But that is to be condemned, for it does not come from God. God said to Adam: "This is the helpmate I made for you. Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and conquer it". And Adam, full of superior intelligence, because sin had not yet dimmed his reason made perfect by God, exclaimed: "This at last is bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh. This is to be called woman, that is: another I, because this was taken from man. This is why a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself to his wife and the two become one body". And in an increased splendour of light the Eternal Light approved smiling Adam's word, which became the first indelible law. Now, if owing to the ever increasing hardness of man, the human lawgiver had to give a new law; if owing to the ever increasing inconstancy of man, the lawgiver had to put a restraint and say: "If you have dismissed her you cannot take her back", that does not cancel the first genuine law, passed in the Earthly Paradise and approved by God. I say to you: "Whoever divorces his wife, except for the case of fornication, exposes her to adultery". Because what will the divorced woman do in ninety per cent of the cases? She will get married again. With what consequences? Oh! How much there is to be said about that! Do you not know that you can cause involuntary incests by such system? How many tears are shed because of lust. Yes: lust. There is no other name for it. Be frank. Everything can be overcome when the spirit is righteous. But everything is an excuse to satisfy sensuality when the spirit is lustful. Woman's frigidity, dullness, ineptitude for housework, shrewish tongue, love for luxury, everything can be overcome, also diseases and irascibility, if one loves holily. But as after some time one does not love as on the first day, what is more than possible is considered impossible and a poor woman is thrown on to the road and to perdition. He who rejects her commits adultery. He who marries her after the divorce, commits adultery. Death only dissolves a marriage. Remember that. And if your choice is an unhappy one bear the consequences as a cross, being both of you unhappy but holy, without making also the children unhappy, as they are innocent and suffer more because of such unfortunate situations. The love for your children should cause you to ponder one hundred times, also in the case of death of your partner. Oh! I wish you could be satisfied with what you already have had and to which God said: "Enough!" I wish you, widows and widowers, realised that death is not an attenuation but an elevation to the perfections of parents! To be a mother in the place of a dead mother. To be a father in the place of a deceased father. To be two souls in one and receive the love for the children from the cold lips of the dying partner and say: "Go in peace, without worrying for those who were born of you. I will continue to love them, on my own and on your behalf, I will love them twice and will be their father and mother and they will not suffer the unhappiness of orphans, neither will they feel the inborn jealousy that the children of a remarried consort experience with regard to him or her who takes the sacred place of mother or father called by God to a new abode". My children, My sermon is drawing to its end, as the day is nearing its end

while the sun is setting in the west. I want you to remember the words of this meeting on the mountain. Engrave them in your hearts. Read them over and over again and very often. Let them be your everlasting guidance. And above all be good to those who are weak. Do not judge that you may not be judged. Remember that the moment might come when God could remind you: "That is how you judged. So you knew that that was bad. You therefore committed a sin, knowing what you were doing. You must now pay for it". Charity is an absolution. Be charitable to everybody and in everything. If God gives you much assistance to keep you good, do not be proud of it. But endeavour to climb the full length of the ladder of perfection and give a hand to those who are tired or unaware and to those who are easily disappointed. Why do you observe so diligently the splinter in your brother's eye if first you do not go to the trouble of taking the plank out of your own eye? How dare you say to your brother: "Let me take the splinter out of your eye" while the plank in your eye is blinding you? Son, do not be a hypocrite. Take the plank out of your own eye first and then you will be able to take the splinter out of your brother's eye, without ruining him. As you avoid being uncharitable, avoid also being imprudent. I said to you: "Give a hand to those who are tired or unaware and to those who are easily disappointed". But if it is charity to teach the ignorant, to encourage the tired, to give new wings to those whose old ones are broken, it is imprudence to reveal the eternal truths to those affected by satanism, who take possession of them to pretend they are prophets, to insinuate themselves among simple people, to corrupt, lead astray and sacrilegiously foul the things of God. Absolute respect, to be able to speak, to be silent, to ponder, to act, are the virtues of the true disciple in order to make proselytes and serve God. You are gifted with the faculty of reason and, if you are just, God will grant you all the light to make a better use of your reason. You must consider that the eternal truths are like pearls, and no one has ever seen pearls thrown in front of pigs, which prefer acorns and rank broth to precious pearls, which they could crush under their feet and then, furious at being mocked at, they would turn against you to tear you to pieces. Do not give dogs what is holy. That is for the present and the future. I have told you much, My children. Listen to My words; he who listens to them and puts them into practice, can be compared to a thoughtful man, who wishing to build a house, chose a rocky place. He certainly worked hard to lay the foundations. He had to work with pick and stone chisel, he got callous hands and broke his back. But he was able to put lime in the fissures of the rock and lay bricks one close to the other, like the wall of a fortress, and the house was as solid as a mountain. The house was exposed to the inclemency of the weather and to downpours, the rain caused the rivers to overflow their banks, the winds whistled, the waves beat it, but the house resisted everything. Such is he who has a sound faith. Instead who listens superficially and does not strive to engrave My words in his heart, because he is aware that to do so he would have to work hard, suffer and extirpate too many things, is like a man who out of indolence and foolishness builds his house on sand. As soon as the inclement weather comes, the house quickly built, quickly collapses and the forlorn fool contemplates the rubble of the house and the ruin of his capital. And in that case the ruin can be repaired with expenses and work. But if the edifice of the spirit crashes, because it was badly built, there is no way to rebuild it. One

cannot build in future life. Woe to those who present themselves there with rubble! I have finished. I am now going down towards the lake and I bless you in the name of the One and Trine God. May peace be with you. But the crowds shout: We are coming with You. Let us come. No one has words like Yours! And they begin to follow Jesus Who goes down on the opposite side from which He came up and which is in the direction of Capernaum. The descent is steeper but faster and they soon reach the foot of the mountain on a green flowery plain. (Jesus says: Enough for today. Tomorrow...)

175. The Leper Cured at the Foot of the Mountain. 30th May 1945. Amongst the many flowers which perfume the earth and delight our eyes, I see the horrible spectre of a revolting, corroded leper, completely covered with sores. The crowds shout with fear and rush back to the lower slopes of the mountain. Some of them gather stones to throw at the rash man. But Jesus turns round with His arms fully stretched out and shouts: Peace! Stay where you are: be not afraid. Put the stones down. Have mercy on a poor brother. He is a son of God, too. The crowds obey, overwhelmed by the power of the Master, Who moves forward through the tall grass in bloom to a few steps from the leper, who, on his part, has understood that Jesus is protecting him, and has come nearer. When he reaches Jesus, he prostrates himself, and the blooming grass envelops him like cool scented water. The flowers undulate and gather together, forming a veil over the miserable man concealed amongst them. Only the mournful voice that can be heard reminds people of the wretched creature lying there. It says: Lord, if You want, You can cure me. Have mercy also on me! Jesus replies: Raise your head and look at Me. A man who believes in Heaven must be able to look at it. And you do believe, because you are asking for a grace. The grass is shaken and opens out once again. Like the head of a shipwrecked person emerging from the sea, the head of the leper appears, stripped of hair and beard. His head is a skull not yet entirely deprived of all flesh. And yet Jesus does not disdain touching that forehead with the tips of His fingers, where there are no sores on the skin. But the skin on that spot is ashen-grey, scaly, and lies between two putrid erosions, one of which has destroyed his scalp, and the other has opened a hole where his right eye was, so that I could not say whether the ball of his eye is still in the huge socket, which, between his temple and his nose, lays bare his cheek-bone and his nasal cartilage, full of corruption. And Jesus, holding the fingertips of His lovely hand there, says: I want it. Be cleansed. And as if the man were not eaten away and covered with sores, but only

covered with dirt on which cleansing waters were poured, the leprosy disappears at once. First the wounds heal; then his skin becomes clear, his right eye appears between fresh eyelids, his lips close round his yellowish teeth. Only his hair and beard are missing, that is, there are only scanty tufts of hair where previously there was only a tiny piece of wholesome skin. The crowds shout in amazement. And their joyful shouts tell the man that he is cured. He lifts his hands, so far concealed by the grass, he touches his eye, where the huge hole was; he touches his head, where the large sore showed the skull and feels his fresh skin. He stands up, looks at his chest, his hips... He is all wholesome and clean... He collapses once again on the flowery meadow weeping out of joy. Do not weep. Stand up and listen to Me. Go back to life according to the rite and do not tell anybody until you have accomplished it. Show yourself to the priest as soon as possible, make the offering prescribed by Moses as evidence of your miraculous cure. It's for You that I should witness, my Lord! You will witness for Me by loving My doctrine! Go. The crowd has come close once again and they congratulate the man miraculously healed, although from due distance. There are some people who feel they ought to give him some provisions for his journey and throw some coins to him. Others throw bread and foodstuffs, and a man, seeing that the leper's clothes are nothing but torn rags, through which his entire body is visible, takes his mantle off, ties it in a knot, as if it were a large handkerchief, and throws it to the leper who can thus cover himself decently. Another man, as charity is contagious when it is in common, cannot resist his desire to supply him with sandals, takes off his own and throws them to the leper. And what about you? asks Jesus Who saw the gesture. Oh! I live nearby. I can walk barefooted. He has to go a long way. May God bless you and all those who have helped our brother. Man: you will pray for them. Yes, I will, I will pray for them and for You; that the world may have faith in You. Goodbye. Go in peace. The man walks away a few yards, then turns round and shouts: Can I tell the priest that You have cured me? It is not necessary. Just say: "The Lord had mercy on me". It is the whole truth and nothing else is required. The people throng round the Master, forming a circle which does not want to open at any cost. But the sun has set and the Sabbath rest begins. The villages are far away. But the people do not pine for their villages, their food or anything else. But the apostles are worried about it and they tell Jesus. Also the elder disciples are worried. There are women and children, and while the night is mild and the grass of the meadow is soft, the stars are not bread, neither do stones become food. Jesus is the only one who does not trouble. The people in the meantime eat the remnants of their food without any worry and Jesus points it out to His apostles: I solemnly tell you that these people are worth more than you are! Look how thoughtlessly they are finishing everything. I said to them: "Who cannot believe that God will provide food for His children tomorrow, may go away", and they stayed. God will not belie His Messiah and will not disappoint

those who hope in Him. The apostles shrug their shoulders and do not show concern for anything else. It is nightfall after a placid, beautiful red sunset and the silence of the country spreads over everything, after the last choir of birds. There is a light whispering of the wind and then the first mute flight of a night bird, the first star appears and a frog croaks. The children are already asleep. The adults are talking among themselves and now and again someone goes to the Master asking for clarification of some point or other. So no one is surprised when a person, imposing by look, garments and age, is seen coming along a path between two corn fields. Some men are following him. Everybody turns round to look at him and they point him out to one another whispering. The whispering spreads from one group to another, it revives and fades away. The groups that are farther away come near drawn by curiosity. The noble looking man reaches Jesus, Who is sat at the foot of a tree listening to some men, and bows down before Him. Jesus stands up at once and responds with equal respect to the salutation. The people present are watching attentively. I was up on the mountain and perhaps You thought that I did not have faith as I went away for fear of having to fast. But I went away for another reason. I wanted to be a brother among brothers, the eldest brother. I would like to speak to You aside. Can You listen to me? Although a scribe, I am not Your enemy. Let us move away a little... and they go into the corn field. I wanted to provide some food for the pilgrims and I came down to tell the baker to bake bread for a large crowd. You can see that I am at a legal distance, because these fields belong to me, and it is lawful to walk from here to the top on a Sabbath. It was my intention to come up tomorrow with my servants. But I found out that You are here with the crowd. I beg You to allow me to provide for the Sabbath. Otherwise I would be very sorry that I had to forego Your words for nothing. For nothing, no, never, because the Father would have compensated you with His light. But I thank you and will not disappoint you. I only wish to point out that the crowd is very large. I asked them to heat all the ovens, also the ones used to dry foodstuffs and I will succeed in having bread for everybody. I did not mean that. I was referring to the quantity of bread... That does not trouble me. Last year I had a good crop of corn. You have seen what the ears of corn are like this year. Let me do it. It will be the greatest protection for my fields. After all, Master... You gave me such bread today... You really are the Bread of the spirit!... Let it be done as you wish. Let us go and tell the pilgrims. No. You said so. Are you a scribe? Yes, I am. May the Lord take you where your heart deserves. I understand what You mean but do not say. You mean: to the Truth. Because great are our errors... and our ill-will. Who are you?

 A son of God. Pray the Father for me. Goodbye. Peace be with you. Jesus goes slowly back to His apostles while the man goes away with his servants. Who was he? What did he want? Did he say something unpleasant to You? Has he sick people? Jesus is assailed with questions. I do not know who he is. Or rather, I know that he is goodhearted and that... He is John, the scribe says one of the crowd. Well, I know now, because you said so. He only wanted to be the servant of God with His children. Pray for him because tomorrow we shall all have food, thanks to his goodness. He is really a just man says one. Yes, indeed. I do not know how he can be the friend of others remarks another one. He is swathed in scruples and rules like a baby, but he is not a bad man concludes a third one. Do these fields belong to him? ask many who are not from this part of the country. Yes, they do. I think that the leper was one of his servants or peasants. But he allowed him to stay around here and I think that he also fed him. The comments continue but Jesus does not pay attention to them. He calls the Twelve near Him and asks them: And what should I say now in regard to your incredulity? Did the Father not put bread for all of us into the hands of one who, by caste, is an enemy of Mine? Oh! men of little faith!... Go into the soft hay and sleep. I am going to pray the Father that He may open your hearts and to thank Him for His kindness. Peace be with you. And He goes to the lower slopes of the mountain. He sits down and collects His thoughts in prayer. When He raises His eyes He sees the myriad of stars crowding the sky, when He lowers hem, He sees the crowd of people sleeping on the meadows. Nothing else. But such is the joy in His heart that His face seems to become transfigured by a bright light...

176. The Sabbath after the Sermon. At the Foot of the Mountain. 1st June 1945. Jesus has delayed somewhat up on the mountain during the night, so that at dawn He can be seen standing on the edge of an escarpment. Peter, who sees Him, points Him out to his companions and they go up towards Him. Master, why did You not come with us? many of them ask. I needed to pray. But You also need to rest very badly. My friends, during the night a voice came from Heaven asking for prayers for the good and the wicked and also for Myself. Why? Do You need it? As much as anybody. My strength is nourished with prayer and My joy with doing what My Father wants. My Father told Me the names of two people and a sorrow for Myself. The three things He mentioned need prayer so much.

Jesus is very sad and He looks at His apostles with eyes which seem to be begging or asking for something. His eyes rest on one, then on another and at last on Judas Iscariot and Jesus stares at him. The apostle notices it and asks: Why do You look at me like that? I was not looking at you. My eyes were contemplating something else... That is? The nature of a disciple. All the good and all the evil that a disciple can do and give to his Master. I was thinking of the disciples of the Prophets and of John. And I was thinking of My own. And I was praying for John, for the disciples and for Myself... You are sad and tired this morning, Master. Tell those who love You what Your trouble is begs James of Zebedee. Yes, tell us, and if there is anything we can do to relieve Your grief, we will do it says His cousin Judas. Peter speaks to Bartholomew and Philip, but I do not understand what they say. Jesus replies: Be good, endeavour to be good and faithful. That is the only relief. There is no other one, Peter. Have you understood? Forget your suspicion. Love Me and love one another, do not allow those who hate Me to seduce you, above all love the will of God. Eh! If everything is within its control, also our errors are within it! exclaims Thomas in a philosophical tone. Do you think so? But it is not so. But many people have woken up and are looking here. Let us go down and sanctify this holy day with the word of God. They go down while the people who wake up are more and more numerous. The children, as merry as little sparrows, are already prattling, running and jumping in the meadows, getting wet with dew, so that a few blows begin to fly with consequent tears. Then the children run towards Jesus Who caresses them and begins to smile once again as if He reflected their innocent cheerfulness. A little girl wants to put a little bunch of flowers on His belt, flowers she picked in the meadow because His tunic is more beautiful like that she says and Jesus lets her do it, although the apostles grumble. But Jesus says: You ought to be happy that they love Me! The dew removes the dust from flowers. The love of children removes all sadness from My heart. Jesus coming from the mountain arrives in the midst of the pilgrims at the same time as John, the scribe, who is coming from his house with many servants carrying baskets of bread, olives, cheese and a little lamb or little kid, whatever it may be, roasted for the Master. Everything is laid at His feet and He sees to the distribution giving everybody some bread, a slice of cheese and a handful of olives. But He gives a piece of the roasted lamb with bread to a mother who is still holding at her breast a plump baby who laughs showing his milk teeth, and He does likewise with two or three more people whom He thinks need special attention. But it's for You, Master says the scribe. I will have some, do not worry. But see... if I know that many partake of your goodness, it will taste better to Me. The distribution is over and the people nibble at their bread, leaving some for later. Jesus also drinks some milk which the scribe wishes to pour for Him into a precious cup from a little flask held by a servant and which looks like a little pitcher.

 But You must satisfy me and give me the joy of hearing You says John, the scribe, who is greeted by Hermas with equal respect and with greater respect by Stephen. I will not deny you that satisfaction. Come over here and Jesus leans against the mountain and begins to speak. God's will has held us in this place because had we gone any further, after the distance we had walked, we would have infringed the precepts and caused scandal. And may that never happen until the New Pact is written. It is right to sanctify feast days and praise the Lord in places of prayer. But the whole creation can be a place of prayer if man can make it thus through his elevation to the Father. Noah's Ark adrift on the water was a place of prayer and likewise the belly of Jonah's whale. Places of prayer were the house of the Pharaoh when Joseph lived in it, and the tent of Holofernes for the chaste Judith. And was not the corrupt place where the prophet Daniel lived as a slave, so sacred to the Lord, because of the holiness of His servant who so sanctified the place as to deserve the high prophecies of Christ and of the Antichrist, which are a key to present and future times? All the more reason this place is holy as with its hues and scents, with its pure air and rich crops, with its dewy pearls it speaks to us of God, the Father and Creator and says: "I believe. And you ought to believe because we bear witness to God". Let it therefore be our synagogue for this Sabbath and let us read the eternal pages on corollas and ears, with the sun as our lamp. I mentioned Daniel. I said to you: "Let this place be our synagogue". That reminds us of the joyful "bless the Lord" of the three holy young men in the flames of the furnace: Heavens and waters, dew and frost, ice and snow, fire and colours, light and darkness, lightning and clouds, mountains and hills, all germinated things, birds, fish and animals, praise and bless the Lord with humble holy-hearted men. We can pray and deserve Heaven everywhere. We deserve it when we do the Father's will. At daybreak they pointed out to Me that if everything is controlled by the will of God, also the errors of men are wanted by that will. That is an error and a widespread one. Can a father ever wish his son to be blameworthy? No, he cannot. And yet we see that in some families some sons become blameworthy, although they have a just father who points out to them the good to be done and the evil to be avoided. And no righteous person will accuse a father of urging his sons to do evil things. God is the Father, men are the sons. God points out the good and says: "Behold, I put you in this situation for your own good". Also when the Evil One and the men who serve him bring misfortunes to men, God says: "Behold, this is how you must behave in this painful hour; by doing so, this misfortune will serve for an eternal good". He advises you, but does not force you. So if a man, knowing what the will of God is, prefers to do the very opposite, can we say that this very opposite is the will of God? We cannot. Love God's will. Love it more than your own and follow it against the enticements and power of the world, of the flesh, of the demon. Also those things have a will. But I solemnly tell you that he who submits to such wills is most unhappy. You call Me Messiah and Lord. You say you love Me and you praise Me. You follow Me and that seems love. But I solemnly tell you that not everyone amongst you will enter the Kingdom of Heaven with Me. Also amongst My

earliest and latest disciples there are some who will not enter the Kingdom, because many will do their own will or the will of the flesh, of the world, of the demon, but not My Father's. Not those who say to Me: "Lord! Lord!" will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but those who do the will of My Father. They will be the only ones to enter the Kingdom of God. The day will come when I, Who am now speaking to you, after being the Shepherd, will be the Judge. Do not let the present appearance deceive you. Now My shepherd's staff gathers together all the scattered souls and kindly invites you to come to the pastures of Truth. Later the staff will be replaced by the sceptre of the Judge King and My power will be quite different. It will not be with kindness but with implacable justice that I will separate the sheep fed with Truth from those which mixed Truth and Error or fed only on error. I will do that a first time and then once again. And woe betide those who between the first and the second appearance before the Judge will not have purged themselves because they will not be able to purge themselves of their poisons. The third category will not purge itself. No pain could purge it. They wanted nothing but Error, so let them be in Error. And yet among them there will be someone moaning: "What, Lord! Did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name did we not cast out demons and work many miracles?". And then I will say very clearly to them: "Yes, you dared to clothe yourselves with My name that you might appear what you are not. You wanted your satanism to be considered as living with Jesus. But you are accused by the fruit of your deeds. Where are the souls you saved? When were your prophecies fulfilled? What was the result of your exorcisms? Who was the accomplice of your deviations? Oh! My Enemy is really powerful! But not more than I am. He helped you only to plunder more souls, and thanks to you, the circle of those swept away by heresy, has widened. Yes, you have worked wonders, which apparently looked even greater than those of the true servants of God, who are not histrionics who astonish crowds, but are so humble and obedient as to amaze angels. My true servants, through their sacrifices do not create phantasms, but wipe them out of hearts; they do not impose themselves on men, but show God to souls of men. They do nothing but the will of the Father and lead others to do it, like a wave that pushes the wave preceding it and draws the one following it, without putting themselves on a throne and saying: 'Look'. My true servants do what I tell them, without thinking of anything else, and their deeds bear the sign of My unmistakable peace, kindness and order. I can therefore say to you: they are My servants, but I do not know you. Go away from me all of you, workers of iniquity". That is what I will say. And it will be a dreadful word. Take care you do not deserve it and proceed along the safe, although painful way of obedience, towards the glory of the Kingdom of Heaven. Enjoy your Sabbath rest praising God with your whole selves. Peace be with you. And Jesus blesses the crowds before they scatter seeking shade, one group speaking to another, commenting on the words they have just heard. Jesus is left with His apostles and John, the scribe, who does not speak but is absorbed in deep meditation, watching every gesture of Jesus. And the cycle of the Mount is over.

177. The Servant of the Centurion Is Cured. 2nd June 1945. Jesus enters Capernaum coming from the country. Only the Twelve are with Him, nay, only eleven apostles, as John is not there. The usual greetings of the crowd form a vast range of expressions, from the entirely simple ones of children, to the rather shy ones of women, to the enraptured ones of people cured miraculously, and those which are either curious or ironical. There are enough to satisfy all tastes. And Jesus replies to everybody according to how He is greeted: caressing the little ones, blessing the women, smiling at those cured miraculously, and with deep respect for the others. But this time the series is completed by the greeting of' a centurion of the town, I think. He greets Him: Hail, Master! to which Jesus replies: May God come to you. While the crowd draws close to see the outcome of the meeting, the centurion continues: I have been waiting for You for several days. You do not recognise me as one of those who were listening to You on the Mount. I was wearing civilian clothes. Are You not asking me why I went there? No, I am not, but what do you want from Me? I have instructions to follow those who hold meetings, because too often Rome has had to regret having granted permission for apparently honest meetings. But seeing and listening to You, I thought of You as a... as a... I have a servant who is ill, Lord. He is lying in my house, in his bed, paralyzed by a disease of the bones and he suffers dreadfully. Our doctors cannot cure him. Your doctors refuse to come. I invited them to come because it is a disease caused by the corrupt air of this area and you know how to cure it with the herbs of the feversome soil of the shore where the water stagnates before being absorbed by the sand of the sea. I am very sorry because he is a faithful servant. I will come and cure him. No, my Lord. I am not asking You to go to all that trouble. I am a heathen, filth, as far as you are concerned. If the Jewish doctors are afraid of becoming contaminated by coming to my house, all the more reason it would contaminate You, Who are divine. I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof, but if You say only one word here, my servant will be cured because You rule over everything. Now if I, who am subject to my authorities, the first being Caesar, for whom I must act, think and behave as I am told, can in turn order soldiers under me, and if I say to one: "Go", to another: "Come" and to a servant: "Do that", the first one will go where I send him, the other will come because I call him, and the third will do what I tell him, You, as You are Who You are, will be immediately obeyed by the disease, which will vanish. But the disease is not a man... objects Jesus. Neither are You a man, You are the Man. You can therefore give orders to elements and fevers, because everything is subject to Your power. Some elders of Capernaum take Jesus aside and say to Him: He is a Roman, but listen to him because he is an honest man who respects and helps us. It was he who built our synagogue and he has given strict instructions to his soldiers not to gibe at us on Sabbaths. Grant him, therefore, the grace, for the sake of Your town, so that he may not be disappointed and irritated, and his

fondness for us may not turn into hatred. And Jesus, after listening to them, turns round smiling at the centurion and says: Go ahead and I will come after you. But the centurion says once again: No, my Lord, I have told You: it would be a great honour if You entered under my roof, but I do not deserve so much; say only one word and my servant will be cured. Let it be so. Go and have faith. This very moment the fever is leaving him and life is flowing back into his limbs. Endeavour to get Life to come also to your soul. Go. The centurion salutes, then bows and goes away. Jesus watches him go away, then turns to the people present and says: I solemnly tell you that I did not find so much faith in Israel. Oh! It is quite true! "The people that walked in darkness saw a great light; on those who live in a land of deep shadow a' light has shone", and also "The Messiah will hoist His flag over the nations and gather them together". Oh! My Kingdom! They will really flow to you in immense numbers! More numerous than all the camels and dromedaries of Madian and Ephah, than those who bring the gold and incense of Sheba, more numerous than all the flocks of Kedar and the rams of Nebaioth, will be those who come to you and My heart will exult with joy seeing all the peoples of the sea and the wealth of the nations coming to Me. The islands are waiting for Me to adore Me, and the children of foreigners will build the walls of My Church, the gates of which will lie open continually to receive the kings and the wealth of the nations and sanctify them in Me. What Isaiah saw, will be accomplished! I tell you that many will come from the east and the west and will sit with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven, whereas the children of the Kingdom will be thrown out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. You therefore foretell that the gentiles will be equal to the children of Abraham? Not equal, but greater. You can only regret that it is due to your fault. Not I, but the Prophets say so, and the signs already confirm it. Now some of you should go to the house of the centurion and ascertain that his servant is cured as the faith of the Roman deserved. Come. Perhaps in the house there are some sick people waiting for Me. Jesus with the apostles and a few more people turns His steps towards the usual house where He stays when in Capernaum, while most of the people, driven by curiosity, rush towards the centurion's house making a great noise.

178. Jesus Meets Three Men Who Want to Follow Him. 3rd June 1945. I see Jesus turning His steps towards the lake with eleven apostles, as John is still absent. Many people press round Him: among them there are many who were on the Mount, mainly men, who have reached Him at Capernaum to hear His word once again. They would like to detain Him. But He says: I belong to everybody. And there are many who are entitled to have Me. I will come back. You will join Me. But let Me go now. He has difficulty in walking through the crowd who throng the little narrow street. The apostles push with their

shoulders to make room for Him. But it is like pushing a spongy substance which immediately springs back again. They get angry, too, but to no avail. They are already in sight of the lake, after a fierce struggle, when a middle-aged refined looking man goes near the Master and touches His shoulder to attract His attention. Jesus turns round and stops, asking: What do you want? I am a scribe. But our precepts can in no way be compared to Your word and I am fascinated by it. Master, I do not want to leave You. I will follow You wherever You go. Which way are You going? The way to Heaven. I do not mean that. I am asking You where are You going now. In which houses will You stop after the present one, so that I may always find You? Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. The world is My home, wherever there are spirits to be taught, distress to be relieved, sinners to be redeemed. Everywhere, then. You are right. Can you, a doctor in Israel, do what these simple men do for My sake? What are required here are: sacrifice, obedience, charity for everybody, a mind adaptive for everything and with everybody. Because compliance is alluring. Because he who wishes to cure must bend over all sores. Afterwards there will be the purity of Heaven. But here we are in mud and we have to pull out of the mud, on which we walk, the victims already submerged in it. We cannot lift our clothes and move to one side because the mud is deeper there. Purity must be within us. We must be sated with it so that nothing else can enter. Can you do all that? At least let me try. Try. I will pray that you may succeed. Jesus begins to walk again and His attention is drawn by two eyes staring at Him, the eyes of a tall strong young man who has stopped to let the train of followers pass, as he seems to be going in a different direction. Jesus says to him: Follow Me. The young man starts, changes colour, blinks as if he were dazzled by light, then opens his mouth to speak but cannot find an immediate reply. At last he says: I will follow You. But my father died at Korazim and I must bury him. Let me do that and then I will come. Follow Me. Leave the dead to bury their dead. You have already been attracted by Life. On the other hand, you aspired to that. Do not weep over the gap which Life opened around you to make you a disciple. The maiming of affection is the root of the wings which are born of a man who has become a servant of the Truth. Leave corruption to its own fate. Rise towards the Kingdom of the incorrupt. You will find there also the incorruptible pearl of your father. God calls and passes by. Tomorrow you would no longer find your heart of today or God's invitation. Come. Go and announce the Kingdom of God. The man is leaning against a low wall and with his arms hanging by his sides: he is holding two bags, full of perfumes and bandages; his head is lowered in thought, wavering between two loves: for God and for his father. Jesus waits and looks at him, he then gets hold of a little child, clasps him to His heart saying: Say with Me: "I bless You, o Father, and I invoke Your light for those who weep in the haze of life. I bless You, o Father, and I invoke

Your strength for those who are like a child in need of support. I bless You, o Father, and I invoke Your love that it may cause men to forget everything which is not Yourself, as they can find all good in You, both here and in Heaven, although they cannot believe it". And the child, an innocent boy about four years old, repeats in his thin voice the holy words with his hands held in prayer by the right hand of Jesus, Who holds them by their plump wrists as if they were two flower stems. The man makes up his mind. He hands the two bundles to a companion and comes towards Jesus, Who puts down the child after blessing him, and embraces the young man, proceeding thus with him, to comfort him and support him in his effort. Another man questions Him: I would like to come with You, too. But before following You I would like to take leave of my relatives. Will You allow me? Jesus stares at him and replies: There are too many roots in your human being. Uproot them and if you cannot, cut them off. One must come to God's service with spiritual freedom. He who gives himself, must have no ties. Flesh and blood are always flesh and blood. I will slowly reach the freedom You refer to... No, you would never reach it. God is as exacting as He is infinitely generous in rewarding. If you wish to be a disciple you must embrace your cross and follow Me. Otherwise one remains a simple believer. The way of the servant of God is not strewn with petals of roses. And it is absolute in its demands. No one who has put his hand to the plough to furrow the fields of hearts and spread there the seed of God's doctrine, can look back to see what he left, what he lost and what he could have had if he had followed another common way. Who does that is not fit for the Kingdom of God. Work upon yourself. Make a man of yourself and then come. Not now. They reach the shore. Jesus goes on board Peter's boat and whispers a few words to him. I see Jesus smile while Peter makes a gesture expressing amazement. But He does not say anything. Also the man who did not go to bury his father in order to follow Jesus, gets into the boat.

179. The Parable of the Sower. 4th June 1945. Jesus says to me showing me the course of the Jordan, or rather, the mouth of the Jordan where it flows into Lake Tiberias, that is where the town of Bethsaida lies on the right bank of the river, with respect to those facing north: The town nowadays no longer appears to be on the shore of the lake, but a little inland. And that puzzles scholars. The explanation is to be found in the earth which filled this part of the lake, as it was deposited there throughout twenty centuries by the river, by alluvia and landslides from the hills of Bethsaida. The town was then just at the mouth of the river, and in fact the

smaller boats, particularly in seasons rich in water, used to sail upstream, almost as far as Korazim; the river, however, was always used as a harbour and shelter for the boats of Bethsaida when the lake was very rough. I am not saying this for you, to whom it is of no interest, but for difficult doctors. And now go on. ---------------------------The boats of the apostles, after crossing the short stretch of the lake between Capernaum and Bethsaida, land in the latter town. Other boats have followed them and many people come off them to join the people of Bethsaida who have come to greet the Master. Jesus enters Peter's house where his wife is staying once again. I suppose she has preferred to be alone rather than live with her mother who continuously grumbles about her husband. Outside the crowds claim Jesus at the top of their voices, which disturbs Peter very much, so much so that he goes up to the roof terrace and harangues the citizens telling them that they ought to have respect and manners. He would like to enjoy the company of his Master for a little while, in peace, now that he has Him in his house, whereas he has neither the time nor the pleasure to offer Him some water and honey among the many things he asked his wife to offer. And he grumbles... Jesus looks at him smiling and shakes His head saying: You would think that you never see Me and that we have just met by chance! But it is so! When we are in the world are You and I ever together? Never in your life! Between You and me there is the world with its sick people, its distressed people, its listeners, its curious people, its slanderers, its enemies, and You and I are never together. Here instead You are with me, in my house, and they ought to understand that! He is really upset. But I do not see the difference, Simon. My love is the same and My word is the same. Whether I tell you privately, or I tell everybody, what difference does it make? Peter then confesses his great grief: The trouble is that I am a blockhead and my mind wanders easily. When You speak in a square, on a mountain, amongst a large crowd, I understand everything, but I do not know why, I remember nothing. I told also my companions and they say that I am right. Other people, I mean the people who listen to You, understand You and remember what You say. How often have we heard someone say: "I have no longer done that because You told us", or: "I came because once I heard You say so and so and I was impressed by it". We instead... hum! it's like a water course which passes by and does not stop. The river bank no longer has the water which has passed by. It is true that other water comes, a great deal of it, but it passes by, it passes by... And I am terrified at the thought that, if what You say will come true, the moment will come when You will no longer be there to play the part of the river and... and I... What will I give to those who are thirsty if I cannot save even one drop of the great lot You give me? Also the others support Peter's moaning, complaining that they are left with nothing of what they hear, whilst they would like to remember everything to reply to those who ask them questions. Jesus smiles and replies: I do not think so. People are very satisfied also with you... Certainly... of course! For all we do! Make room for You, by elbowing our way through the crowds, carry sick people, collect alms and say: "Yes, that is

the Master!". Wonderful, isn't it? Do not defame yourself too much, Simon. I am not defaming myself. I know myself. That is the most difficult wisdom. But I wish to relieve you of your great fear. When I speak and you cannot understand and remember everything, ask Me without any fear of boring or discouraging Me. We always have some hours of privacy, when you can open your hearts to Me. I give so much to so many. And what would I not give you whom I love so much that God could not love you more? You spoke of waves that pass by and nothing is left on the bank. The day will come when you will realise that every wave has deposited a seed and that a plant has grown from every seed. You will find in front of you flowers and plants for all occasions and you will be amazed at yourself saying: "What has the Lord done to me?" because you will then be redeemed from the slavery of sin and your present virtues will have reached a great height of perfection. You say so, my Lord, and I rest upon Your word. Now let us go to those who are waiting for us. Come. Peace to you, woman. I will be your guest this evening. They go out and Jesus directs His steps towards the lake to avoid being oppressed by the crowds. Peter is quick in moving the boat a few yards from the shore, so that Jesus' voice may be heard by everybody, but with a space between Him and those listening. Coming here from Capernaum I was thinking what I should tell you and I found an indication in the events of this morning. You saw three men come to Me. One came spontaneously, the second because I urged him, the third came because of a sudden enthusiasm. And you also saw that I took only two of them. Why? Did I perhaps see a traitor in the third one? No, in truth. But I saw that he was unprepared. To all appearance, this one here beside Me, the one who was going to bury his father, seemed more unprepared. Instead the most unprepared was the third one. This one was so prepared, without being aware of it, that he was able to make a really heroic sacrifice. Heroism in following God is always evidence of strong spiritual preparation. And that is the explanation of certain surprising events that take place around Me. Those who are most prepared to receive Christ, whichever their caste and education might be, come to Me with absolute promptitude and faith. Those who are less prepared examine Me as an exceptional man or they study Me with suspicion or curiosity, or they attack and defame Me accusing Me in various ways. The different ways of behaviour are proportional to the unpreparedness of spirits. Among the chosen people it should be possible to find everywhere spirits ready to receive the Messiah in Whose expectation Patriarchs and Prophets were consumed by anxiety, the Messiah Who at last has come, preceded and accompanied by all the prophesied signs, the Messiah, Whose spiritual personality becomes clearer and clearer through the visible miracles worked on bodies and elements, and through the invisible ones worked on consciences which are converted and on Gentiles who turn to the True God. But it is not so. The promptitude in following the Messiah is strongly hindered by the children of that people and, what is sad to be said, it is more hindered the more one climbs to its higher classes. I am not saying this to scandalise you, but to induce you to pray and meditate. Why does that happen? Why do Gentiles and sinners proceed farther on My way? Why do they accept what I say and the others do

not? Because the children of Israel are anchored, nay, they are stuck like pearl-oysters to the bank where they were born. Because they are sated, overwhelmed and obese with their wisdom and they cannot make room for Mine by throwing away what is superfluous to make room for what is necessary. The others do not suffer from such slavery. They are poor heathens or poor sinners, unimpeded like a boat which is adrift, they are poor people, who have no treasures of their own, but only heaps of errors or sins, of which they gladly strip themselves as soon as they understand what the Gospel is and they taste its fortifying honey, which is quite different from the nauseating mixture of their sins. Listen, and perhaps you will understand better how the same action can bear different fruits. A sower went out to sow. He owned many fields of various kinds. He had inherited some from his father, on which his carelessness had allowed thorny plants to proliferate. Other fields had been purchased by him: he had bought them from a neglectful man and he had left them as they were. In other fields there were many intersecting roads, as the man loved comfort and did not like to travel a long way when going from one place to another. Finally, there were some fields, the closest to his house, which he had looked after to have a pleasant sight in front of his house. They were free from stones, thorns, couch-grass and so on. So the man took his sack of seed-corn of the best quality, and began to sow. The seed fell on the good soft soil, which had been ploughed, weeded, fertilized, in the fields near the house. It was spread in the fields with many roads and paths, which divided them into small portions, and caused also the fertile soil to be covered by ugly and dust. Some of the seed fell on the fields where the foolishness of the man had allowed the thorny plants to proliferate. The plough had turned them upside down, it looked as if they were not there, but they were, because only fire, the radical destructor of weeds, prevents them from growing again. The last seed fell on the fields which he had recently bought and had left as they were, without ploughing them and without removing all the stones, which had sunk into the ground forming a hard pavement on which no plant could take root. After scattering all the seed, he went back home and said: "Very well! All I have to do is to wait for the harvest". And he was delighted because, as months went by, he saw the corn come up thick in the fields near the house and grow... oh! what a beautiful sea! and it turned gold and it sang hosannas to the sun, as one ear rubbed against another. The man said to himself: "All the fields are like these ones! Let us prepare sickles and granaries. How much bread! How much gold!" And he was delighted... He cut the corn in the nearest fields and after that he went to the ones which he had inherited from his father and which he had left in a wild state. And he was taken aback. The corn had come up, because the fields were good and the soil cultivated by the father was rich and fertile. But its fertility had affected also the thorny plants which had been overturned but not destroyed. They had grown again and had formed a really thick ceiling of bramble, through which the corn had not been able to emerge, with the exception of a few ears, and it was completely suffocated. The man said: "I neglected this place. But there was no bramble in the other fields, so it should be all right". And he went to the fields which he had

purchased shortly before. His surprise and grief were greater. The thin withered corn leaves were strewn all over like dry hay. Nothing but dry hay. "How come?" moaned the man. "And yet there are no thorns here! And it was the same seed! And it had come up thick and beautiful. It can be seen by the well formed and numerous leaves. Why then did it all wither before coming into ear?" And with real regret he began to dig the ground to see whether there were any mole burrows or other pests. There were no insects or rodents. But how many stones! A stone-pit! The fields were literally paved with chips of stone and the scanty earth covering them was deceiving. Oh! if he had ploughed deep at the right time! Oh! if he had dug the ground before accepting the fields and buying them as good ones! Oh! if, after the mistake he had made in buying what he had been offered without making sure of its goodness, if at least he had improved them by working hard! It was now too late and all regret was useless. The man stood up, and, downhearted as he was, he went to the fields where he had built many roads for his comfort... and mad with grief he tore off his clothes. There was absolutely nothing there... The dark soil of the field was covered with a thin layer of white dust... The man collapsed to the ground moaning: "But why here? There are no stones, no bramble here, because these are our fields. My grandfather, my father and I have always owned them and in many many years we made them fertile. I built the roads, I have taken some of the earth away, but that could not make them so sterile..." He was still weeping when he received the answer to his grief from a swarm of birds which flew eagerly from the paths to the field and back to the paths in search of seeds... The field, which had been turned into a network of paths, on the edges of which the corn had fallen, had attracted many birds, which first had eaten the corn on the paths and then the seeds in the field, down to the last grain. So the same seed, sown in all the fields, had yielded one hundred to one in some, sixty, thirty, nothing in others. Listen, anyone who has ears. The seed is the Word: the same for everybody. The places where the seed fell: your hearts. Meditate the parable and understand it. Peace be with you. He then turns towards Peter and says: Go up the river as far as you can and stop on the other side. And while the two boats sail a short distance up the river and then stop near the bank, Jesus sits down and asks the new disciple: Who is left now at home? My mother and the eldest brother, who has been married for five years. My sisters are in various parts of the region. My father was very good and my mother mourns his death broken-heartedly. The young man stops all of a sudden, stifling heartfelt sobs. Jesus grabs his hand and says: I experienced that sorrow Myself and I saw My Mother weep. So I can understand... The rubbing of the boat on the pebbly river-bed causes the conversation to be interrupted to allow them to go ashore. The low hills of Bethsaida which almost reach down to the lake, have come to an end here, instead a plain rich in crops extends from this shore, on the other side of Bethsaida, northwards. Are we going to Merom? asks Peter. No, let us take this path among the fields. The lovely and well kept fields show ears of corn still tender but well formed, all of the same height; and while lightly undulating in the cool northern breeze they look like another small lake, the sails of which are the

trees growing here and there full of whistling birds. These fields are not like the ones of the parable remarks Jesus' cousin James. Not really! The birds have not devastated them, there are no stones, no bramble. The corn is beautiful! In a month's time it will be golden... and in two it will be ready for the sickle and the granary says Judas of Kerioth. Master... I remind You of what You said in my house. You spoke so well. But I am beginning to have ideas in my head which are as confused as those ruffled clouds up there... says Peter. This evening I will explain it to you. Now we are in sight of Korazim. And Jesus stares at the new disciple saying: Much is given to those who give. And possessions do not deprive the gift of its merits. Take Me to the sepulchre of your family and to your mother's house. The young man kneels down, kissing Jesus' hand and weeping. Get up. Let us go. My spirit has perceived your weeping. I want to fortify you in your heroism through My love. Isaac the Elder had told me how good You were. Isaac, You know? You cured his daughter. He was my apostle. But I see that Your kindness is much greater than I was told. We shall call also on the Elder to thank him for giving Me a disciple. They reach Korazim and Isaac's house is the first one they find. The old man, who is on his way back home, when he sees Jesus with His apostles and the young man from Korazim among them, raises his arms, holding his walking stick. in his hand, and is speechless and dumbfounded. Jesus smiles and His smile gives speech back to the old man. May God bless You, Master! Why so much honour to me? To say to you: "Thanks". But what for, my God? I have to say that word to You. Come in. Oh! I am sorry that my daughter is absent, assisting her mother-in-law. Because she got married, You know? I have received nothing but blessings after I met You! After she was cured that rich relative of ours came from far away, a widower, with the little ones needing a mother... Oh! But I have already told You all that! My head is old! Forgive me! Your head is wise and forgets to be proud of the good it does for its Master. To forget the good done is wisdom. It shows humility and trust in God. But I... I would not know... And this disciple... have I not had him through you? Oh!... But I have done nothing, You know? I only told him the truth... and I am happy that Elias is with You. He turns towards Elias and says: Your mother, after the first moment of astonishment, was relieved when she heard that You were with the Master. The last honours rendered to your father were really solemn. He has not been long buried. And what about my brother? He is quiet... you know... he was rather upset by your absence... because of the village people... He still has that mentality... The young man turns to Jesus: You said so. But I would not like him to be dead... Let him become alive as I am, and at Your service. The others do not understand and they look at one another inquisitively, but Jesus replies: Do not despair, but persevere. He blesses Isaac and goes

away, notwithstanding they entreat Him to stay. They stop first near the sepulchre and pray. After, through a still semibare vineyard, they go to Elias' house. The meeting of the two brothers is rather a cold one. The elder feels offended and wants people to notice it. The younger feels guilty from a human point of view and does not react. But the arrival of their mother, who without saying anything prostrates herself and kisses the hem of Jesus' tunic brightens the atmosphere and their spirits. And they want to honour the Master. But Jesus does not accept anything, He only says: Let your hearts be just, one towards the other, as just was he whom you are mourning. Do not give a human sense to what is super-human: death and the election to a mission. The soul of your just father was not upset seeing that this son was not present at the burial of his body, but it rested quietly on the certainty of Elias' future. Do not let worldly thoughts disturb the grace of the election. If the world was surprised at not seeing him near his father's coffin, the angels exulted seeing him beside the Messiah. Be just. And may that comfort you, mother. You brought him up wisely and he has been called by Wisdom. I bless you all. Peace be with you now and always. They go on the road which takes them back to the river, and from there to Bethsaida. Elias did not delay even for one moment on the threshold of his father's house. After kissing his mother goodbye, he followed the Master with the simplicity of a child who follows his real father.

180. Lesson to the Apostles in Peter's Kitchen and Announcement of the Baptist's Capture. 7th June 1945. We are in Peter's kitchen once again. The meal must have been a hearty one because dishes with leavings of meat, fish, cheese, dried fruit and honey cakes are being piled up on a kind of cupboard, which reminds me of our Tuscan kneading troughs. Pitchers and chalices are still on the table. Peter's wife must have worked miracles to satisfy her husband, and she must have worked all day. Now, tired but happy, she is in her little corner listening to what her husband and the others are saying. She watches her Simon, who, as far as she is concerned, must be a great man, even if he is somewhat exacting, and when she hears him speak new words, where before he could only talk of boats, nets, fish and money, she begins to blink as if she were dazzled by a bright light. Peter, both because of his joy in having Jesus at his table and because of the hearty meal he has had, is in the best of spirits this evening, and the future Peter, preaching to the crowds, is disclosed. I do not know which remark of a companion originated the clearcut reply of Peter who says: It will happen to them what happened to the founders of the Tower of Babel. Their own pride will provoke the collapse of their theories

and they will be crushed. Andrew objects to his brother: But God is Mercy. He will prevent the collapse to give them time to mend their ways. Do not believe that. They will crown their pride with false accusations and persecutions. Oh! I can already see it. They will persecute us to disperse us as unpleasant witnesses. And since they attack the Truth by laying snares for it, God will take revenge and they will perish. Will we have the strength to resist? asks Thomas. Well... as for me, I would not have it. But I put my trust in Him and Peter nods to the Master Who is listening and is silent, His head slightly inclined, as if He wished to hide His understanding countenance. I think that God will not put us to tests beyond our strength says Matthew. Or He will at least increase our strength in proportion to the tests concludes James of Alphaeus. He is already doing that. I was rich and powerful. If God had not decided to preserve me for a purpose of His, I would have surrendered myself to despair and perished when I was persecuted and an outcast. I would have acted harshly against myself... Instead a new wealth, which I had never possessed before, descended upon my desolation: the wealth of a conviction: "God exists". First... God... Yes, I believed, I was a faithful Israelite. But mine was a faith of formalism. And I thought that the reward of my faith was always inferior to my virtue. I took the liberty of debating with God because I felt that I was still something on the earth. Simon Peter is right. I, too, was building a tower of Babel by praising myself and satisfying my ego. When everything collapsed around me and I was like a worm crushed by the weight of all this human futility, then I no longer debated with God, but with myself, with my stupid self and I ended up by demolishing it. And as I did so, making room for what I think is the God immanent in our earthly beings, I gained a new strength and wealth: the certainty that I was not alone and that God was watching over man defeated by men and by evil. According to you, what is God, "the God immanent in our earthly beings" as you said? What do you mean? I do not understand you and I think it is a heresy. God is the One we know through the Law and the Prophets. There is no other God says rather sternly Judas of Kerioth. If John was here he would tell you better than I can. But I will tell you as best I can. God is the One we know through the Law and the Prophets. That is true. But in what do we know Him? And how? Judas of Alphaeus exclaims: Little and badly. The Prophets, who described Him for us, knew Him. The idea we have is a muddled one, as we can just see through a mound of explanations piled up by sects... Sects? What do you mean? We have no sects. We are the children of the Law. We all are the angry aggressive Iscariot says. The children of the laws. Not of the Law. There is a slight difference. Plural, not singular. In actual fact, we are the children of what we created, no longer of what God gave us retorts Thaddeus. The laws derive from the Law says the Iscariot. Also diseases originate in our bodies, but that does not mean that they are good replies Thaddeus. But let me hear what this immanent God of Simon Zealot is. The

Iscariot, who cannot argue against the remark of Judas of Alphaeus, endeavours to take the discussion back to where it started. Simon Zealot says: Our senses need a term to catch an idea. Each of us, I am referring to us believers, believes, by the virtue of faith, in the Most High Lord and Creator, Eternal God, Who is in Heaven. But every being needs more than such bare, pure, incorporeal faith, which is fit and sufficient for the angels who see and love God spiritually, as they share with Him a spiritual nature and can see God. We have to create a "picture" of God for ourselves, which picture is made with the essential features that we ascribe to God, to give a name to His infinite absolute perfection. The more a soul concentrates, the more it succeeds in achieving an exact knowledge of God. That is what I say: the immanent God. I am not a philosopher. Perhaps I have applied the word wrongly. In short, I think that the immanent God is to feel, to perceive God in our spirits, to feel and perceive Him no longer as an abstract idea, but as a real presence, bestowing strength and a new peace upon us. All right. But, to sum up, how did you feel Him? What is the difference between feeling by faith and feeling by immanence? asks the Iscariot somewhat ironically. God is safety, boy. When you perceive Him, as Simon says, by means of that word, which I do not understand literally, but I understand its spirit - and believe me, the trouble is that we understand only literally and we do not understand the spirit of God's words - it means that you are able to grasp the idea of the terrible majesty, but also of the most sweet paternity of God. It means that, should all the world judge and condemn you unjustly, you would feel that One only, He, the Eternal One, Who is your Father, does not judge you, but absolves and comforts you. It means that if all the world should hate you, you would feel over you a love greater than any this world can offer. It means that if you were isolated in jail or in a desert you would always hear One speak to you and say: "Be holy, that you may be like your Father". It means that for the true love for this Father and God, Whom at last you perceive as such, you accept, work, take and leave without any human consideration, as you are concerned only to return love for love and to copy God as much as possible in your actions says Peter. You are proud! To copy God! You are not entitled to declares the Iscariot. It is not pride. Love leads to obedience. To copy God seems to me a form of obedience because God said that He made us in His own image and likeness replies Peter. He made us. We must not go higher up. You are a poor wretch, my boy, if that is what you think! You are forgetting that we fell and that God wants to take us back to what we were. Jesus begins to speak: Even more, Peter, Judas and you all. Even more than that. Adam's perfection was still susceptible of improvement through love, which would have made him a more precise image of his Creator. Adam without the stain of sin would have been a most shining mirror of God. That is why I say: "Be perfect as your Father Who is in Heaven is perfect". Like your Father. Therefore like God. Peter is quite right. And so is Simon. I ask you to remember their words and apply them to your souls. Peter's wife almost faints from joy on hearing her husband being praised thus. She weeps behind her veil: she is quiet but happy.

Peter blushes so much that he seems to be having a stroke of apoplexy. He remains dumb for a few moments, then says: Well, then, give me my reward. The parable of this morning... Also the others join Peter saying: Yes, You promised. Parables serve very well to make people understand the comparison. But we know that they have a higher meaning than the comparison. Why do You speak to them in parables? Because they are not to understand more than I explain. You are granted much more, because as My disciples, you must be acquainted with the mystery; and you are therefore given to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. That is why I say to you: "Ask Me if you do not understand the spirit of the parable". You give everything and everything is given to you, so that you, in your turn, may give everything. You are giving everything to God: love, time, interests, freedom, lives. And God gives you everything to reward you and to enable you to give everything in the name of God to those who come after you. Thus, to him who has given will be given abundantly. But he who gave only partly or did not give at all, will be deprived also of what he has. I speak to them in parables, so that, while seeing, they may see only what is illuminated by their will to adhere to God, and while listening, always through the same will of adherence, they may hear and understand. See! Many hear My word, few adhere to God. Their spirits lack good will. Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled in them: "You will hear with your ears and will not understand, you will look with your eyes and will not see". Because this people is hardhearted; their ears are hard and their eyes are closed, so that they may not see and hear, that they may not understand with their hearts and convert, that I may cure them. But you are blessed because your eyes see and your ears hear, and because of your good will! I solemnly tell you that many Prophets and many just people were anxious to see what you see and they did not see it, and to hear what you hear and they did not hear it. They pined away with the desire to understand the mystery of the words, but as soon as the light of the prophecy went out, the words remained like burnt out coals, also for the holy man who had received them. Only God reveals Himself. When His light fades out, as soon as the purpose of illuminating the mystery comes to its end, the inability to understand envelops the regal truth of the word received, like the bandages of a mummy. That is why I said to you this morning: "The day will come when you will find everything I have given you". Now you cannot remember. But later light will come upon you, not just for a moment, but for an inseparable union of the Eternal Spirit with yours, whereby your teaching concerning what pertains to the Kingdom of God will be infallible. And what applies to you, will apply also to your successors, if they live of God as of one bread only. Now listen to the spirit of the parable. We have four kinds of fields: the fertile ones, the thorny ones, the stony ones and the ones full of paths. We also have four types of spirits. There are the honest spirits, the spirits of good will, prepared by their own will and by the work of an apostle, of a "true" apostle; because there are apostles who have the name but not the spirit of an apostle and they are more lethal for the will in formation, than birds, thorns and stones. They upset in such a way, through their intolerance, their haste, their reproaches and their threats, as to drive people away from God for ever. There are others who, on the contrary, through an excess of benignity, utterly out of place, cause the seed

to rot in too soft a soil. Because of their lack of vigour, they kill the vigour of the souls they cure. But let us consider the true apostles, that is, the shining mirrors of God. They are paternal, merciful, patient, and at the same time they are strong, as their Lord is strong. Now: the souls prepared by them and by their own will can be compared to the fertile fields, free from stones and brambles, from couch-grass and darnel, in which the word of God thrives and every word, that is every seed, bears a bundle of ears, yielding in some places one hundred, in others sixty, thirty per cent. Are there any like that among those who follow Me? There certainly are. And they will be holy. They come from all castes and countries. And there are Gentiles among them and they will yield one hundred per cent because of their good will, only because of that, or because of their good will and that of an apostle or disciple who prepares them for Me. The thorny fields are those in which thorny tangles of personal interests, which suffocate the good seed, have been allowed to grow by carelessness. You must watch yourselves all the time. Never say: "Oh! I am well formed, I have been sown, I can rest assured that I will bear seeds of eternal life". Watch yourselves; the struggle between Good and Evil is still on. Have you ever watched a colony of ants that install themselves in a house? There they are, near the fireplace. The housewife takes all foodstuff away from there and puts it on the table. They sniff the air and attack the table. The housewife puts the food in a cupboard and they get into the cupboard through the keyhole. The woman hangs her food supply from the ceiling, and they go a long way along walls and beams, down the rope and reach the food. The woman burns them, scalds them, poisons them. And thinking that she has destroyed them she is happy. But if she does not watch, what a surprise she gets! The new hatched ones come out and she has to start all over again. And that is what happens while you live; you must be careful and uproot the evil weeds as soon as they come up. Otherwise they will form a ceiling of brambles which suffocate the corn. Worldly cares, deceiving wealth form the tangle, suffocate the seed of God and prevent it from coming into ears. And here are the fields full of stones. How many there are in Israel! They are the ones that belong to the "children of the laws" as My cousin Judas quite rightly said. In them there is not the one Stone of Witness, nor the Stone of the Law. There is the quarry of poor petty human laws made by men. They are so many that with their weight they have broken also the Stone of the Law into chips. A disaster which does not allow the seed to take root. The root is no longer nourished because there is neither soil nor sap. The water stagnating on the stone pavement causes the seed to rot, the sun makes the stones hot and parches the little plants. Such are the spirits of those who put complicated human doctrines in place of the simple doctrine of God. They even receive My word with joy. At first it shakes and allures them. But later... They would need to be heroes and work hard to clean the field, their souls and minds of all rhetorical stones. The seed would then take root and bear long spikes. As it is... it bears nothing. The fear of human retaliation is enough. It is enough to say: "And after? What will the mighty ones do to me?" and the poor seed languishes without nourishment. It is enough for the whole quarry to stir with the vain sound of the hundreds of precepts, which have been put in place of the Precept, that man perishes with the seed received... Israel is full of them. That explains why the coming to God is in inverse ratio to human power.

The last are the dusty barren fields full of roads. Those of worldly selfish people. Their comfort is their law, enjoyment their aim. Their ambitions: to do no work, to slumber, to enjoy themselves, to feast... The spirit of the world is their king. The dust of worldliness covers the soil which becomes mouldy. Birds, that is dissipation, rush on to the thousand paths which have been built to make life easier. The spirit of the world, that is, of the Evil one, picks up and destroys all the seed that falls on this soil open to all sensuality and laxity... Have you understood? Have you any questions to ask? No? In that case we can go and rest and tomorrow we will leave for Capernaum. There is one place to which I must go before starting on My journey to Jerusalem for Passover. Shall we go through Arimathea again? asks the Iseariot. I am not sure. It depends on... There is a loud knocking at the door. Who can it be at this time? asks Peter getting up to open the door. John comes in. He is most upset, covered in dust, and he has obviously been weeping. You are here! they all shout. What's the matter? Jesus, Who has stood up, says only: Where is My Mother? And John, coming forward and kneeling at the feet of the Master, holding his arms as if he were asking for help, says: Your Mother is well, but She is weeping as I am, as many others are, and She begs You not to come following the Jordan on our side. That is why She sent me back, because Your cousin John has been captured... And John weeps while everybody is bewildered. Jesus turns very pale but does not become excited. He says only: Stand up and tell us. I was going down with Your Mother and the other women. Isaac and Timoneus were also with us. We were three women and three men. I was carryng out Your instruction to take Mary to John... Ah! You knew it was their last farewell!... It was to be their last farewell... Because of the storm of a few days ago, we had to stop for a little while. But it was enough to make it impossible for John to see Mary... We arrived at noon and he was captured at daybreak... Where? How? By whom? In his cave? they all ask, they all want to know. He was betrayed!... They used Your name to betray him! How horrible! Who did that? they all shout. And John shuddering, whispering in a low voice what not even the air should hear, states: It was one of his disciples... The confusion is at its highest pitch. Some curse, some weep, some are petrified with astonishment. John throws his arms round Jesus' neck and shouts: I am afraid for You!... for You! The saints have their traitors who sell themselves for gold and for fear of the mighty ones, yearning for reward, obeying Satan. For thousands of things! Oh! Jesus! Jesus! How dreadful! My first master! My John who gave me to You! It is all right! Do not worry! Nothing will happen to Me for the time being. But later? What will happen later? I look at myself, at these... I am afraid of everybody, also of myself. Will one of us be Your traitor?... Are you mad? And do you think that we would not tear him to pieces?

shouts Peter. And the Iscariot: Oh! You really are mad! It will never be I! But if I should feel so weak as to eventually become so, I would kill myself. Better than be the murderer of God. Jesus frees Himself from John's grip, shakes Judas violently saying: Do not swear! Nothing can make you weak, unless you want! And if that should happen, make sure you weep for it, and do not commit another crime in addition to deicide. He becomes weak, who cuts off his vital link with God. He then returns to John, who is weeping with his head on the table and he says: Speak calmly. It grieves Me, too. He was of My blood and was My Precursor. I only saw some of the disciples, who were dismayed and furious with the traitor. The others accompanied John towards his prison to be near him at his death. But he is not dead yet... the last time he managed to escape. says the Zealot endeavouring to comfort John of whom he is very fond. He is not dead yet. But he will die replies John. Yes, he will die. He knows as well as I do. Nothing and no one will save him this time. When? I do not know. I know that he will not come out of Herod's hand alive. Yes, Herod. Listen. John went to the mountain gorge, between Mount Ebal and Gerizim, where we also passed coming back to Galilee, because the traitor said to him: "The Messiah is dying after being attacked by His enemies. He wants to see you to entrust a secret to you". And he went with the traitor and some other people. Herod's armed men were in the shade of the valley and they captured him. The others ran away and gave the news to the disciples who had remained near Hennon. They had just come when I arrived with Your Mother. And the dreadful thing is that he was one from our towns... and that the Pharisees of Capernaum are the leaders of the plot to catch him. They went to John saying that You had been their guest and that You were leaving from there to go to Judaea... he would not have left his refuge but for You... Dead silence follows John's report. Jesus looks bloodless, His deep blue eyes are dimmed. He is standing with his head bowed, His hand still on John's shoulder, and His hand is trembling lightly. No one dare speak. Jesus breaks the silence: We shall go to Judaea following a different route. But I must go to Capernaum tomorrow. As early as possible. Rest now. I am going up to the olive-grove. I need to be alone. And He goes out without saying anything else. He is certainly going to weep whispers James of Alphaeus. Let us follow Him, brother says Judas Thaddeus. No. Let Him weep. But let us go out quietly and keep watch. I fear tricks everywhere replies the Zealot. Yes, let us go. We fishermen to the shore. If anybody comes from the lake We will see him. You go to the olive-grove. He is certainly in the usual place, near the walnut-tree. At dawn we will have the boats ready to go away early. Those snakes! Ehi! I did tell you! Tell me, boy? But... is His Mother really safe? Oh! Yes! Also the shepherd disciples of John have gone with Her. Andrew... we will never see our John again! Be quiet! It sounds like the song of the cuckoo... One precedes the other and... and... By the Holy Ark! Be quiet! If you go on talking about misfortunes to the

Master, I will start from you, letting your backs feel the weight of my oar! shouts an enraged Peter. You... he then says to those who are to go to the olive-grove: Get some clubs, some big branches, you will find some in the wood-shed... and spread out, armed with them. The first one to come near Jesus to harm Him, kill him. The disciples! We must be careful with the new ones! exclaims Philip. The new disciple feels hurt and asks: Are you in doubt about me? He chose me and wanted me. Not about you. I mean the scribes and Pharisees and their worshippers. That is where the trouble will come from, believe me. They go out, some towards the boats, some towards the olive-trees on the hills, and it all ends.

181. Parable of the Darnel. 8th June 1945. A clear dawn causes the lake to sparkle like pearls and envelops the hills in a mist as light as a muslin veil, through which olive and walnut-trees, houses and the background of villages look prettier than usual. Boats are sailing smoothly and quietly towards Capernaum. All of a sudden Peter turns the tiller of the rudder, so abruptly that the boat heels to one side. What are you doing? asks Andrew. There is the boat of an owl (1). It is leaving Capernaum now. My eyes are good and since yesterday evening I have the scent of a hound. I do not want them to see us. I am going back to the river. We will go on foot. Also the other boat has followed the manouevre, but James, who is holding the rudder, asks Peter: Why are you doing that? I will tell you later. Follow me. Jesus, Who is sitting astern, rouses when they are almost off the Jordan. What are you doing, Simon? He asks. We are getting off here. There is a jackal about. It is not possible to go to Capernaum today. I want to go and find out what is happening first. I will go with Simon and Nathanael. Three worthy people against three unworthy ones... if the unworthy ones are not more. You must not see traps everywhere, now! Is that not the boat of Simon the Pharisee? It is just that one. He was not present at John's arrest. I don't know. He has always shown respect to Me. I don't know. You make Me appear a coward. I don't know. Although Jesus does not feel like laughing, He cannot help smiling at Peter's holy obstinacy. But, after all, we must go to Capernaum. If not today, later... I told You that I am going first, to see... and if necessary... I will also go... it will be a bitter pill to swallow... but I will do it for Your sake... I will go... to the centurion and ask his protection... No! It is not necessary! The boat grounds on the little desert shore opposite Bethsaida. They all go ashore. (1) The owl is considered the bird of evil-omen. You two come with me. You too, Philip. You younger ones, stay here. We will not be long. Elias, the new disciple, begs Jesus: Come to my house, Master. I will be so happy to give You hospitality... Yes, I will come. Simon: you will meet Me at Elias' house. Goodbye, Simon. Go. But be good, wise and merciful. Come here that I may kiss you and bless you. Peter does not guarantee that he will be good, patient and merciful. He is silent and kisses Jesus while being kissed by Him. Also the Zealot, Bartholomew

and Philip kiss Jesus goodbye and the two parties go in opposite directions. They enter Korazim when it is broad daylight. All the stems twinkle with dewy gems. Birds are singing everywhere. The air is pure and cool, it seems to savour of milk, of a vegetable milk rather than animal milk. The scent of the corn coming into ears, of the almond-groves laden with fruit... is the scent I could smell in cool mornings in the rich fields in the Po Valley. They soon reach Elias' house. Many people in Korazim already know that the Master has arrived, and while Jesus is about to enter the house, a mother rushes towards Him shouting: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on my daughter! She is carrying in her arms a little girl, about ten years old, who is very thin and waxen, or yellowish rather than waxen. What is the matter with your daughter? She is feverish. She caught a disease at the pastures along the Jordan. Because we are the shepherds of a rich man. Her father sent for me when she was taken ill. He has gone back to the mountains. But You know that with this kind of disease one cannot stay up in high places. But how can I stay here? Our master has allowed me so far. But I look after the wool and the litters. This is the busy season for shepherds. If I stay here we will be dismissed or separated. And if I go back to the Hermon I will see my daughter die. Do you believe that I can cure her? I have spoken to Daniel, Elisha' shepherd. He said to me: "Our Child cures all diseases. Go to the Messiah". I have come from beyond Merom carrying her in my arms and looking for You. I was going to walk until I found You... You need walk no farther, but go home, to your peaceful work. Your daughter is cured because that is what I want. Go in peace. The woman looks at her daughter and at Jesus. She is perhaps hoping to see her daughter become fat and rosy all at once. Also the girl stares at Jesus with her tired eyes wide open and smiles. Do not be afraid, woman. I am not deceiving you. Her fever has gone for ever. Day by day she will become a healthy girl. Let her go. She will no longer stagger neither will she feel tired. The mother puts the child down and she stands upright. She becomes more and more cheerful and at last she trills in her silvery voice: Bless the Lord, mother! I am cured! I can feel it and with the navety of a little shepherd girl, she throws her arms round Jesus' neck and kisses Him. Her mother, reserved as her age demands, prostrates herself and kisses His tunic blessing the Lord. Go. Remember the gift of God and be good. Peace be with you. The crowds gather in Elias' little kitchen garden requesting Jesus to speak to them. And although He is not inclined to do so, sad as He is because of the Baptist's capture and the way it happened, He yields and begins to speak in the shade of the trees. As we are still in the lovely season when the corn bursts into ears, I wish to tell you a parable taken from the corn. Listen. The Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while the man and his servants were asleep, his enemy came and sowed darnel seeds among the wheat and went away. At first no one noticed anything. Winter came with rain and frost, the end of the month of Tebeth came and the corn sprouted. The tiny little green leaves which had just come up, looked all alike in their innocent early days. The months of Shebat and Adar came and the plants grew and the spikes seeded. They then saw that

it was not all wheat, and that there was also darnel, twisted with its thin strong bearbines round the corn stalks. The servants of the master went to his house and said: "Lord, what seed did you sow? Was it not selected seed, free from every other seed?". "It was certainly so. I picked all the grains and they were all of the same quality. I would have noticed any other seed". "If so, why has so much darnel grown among your corn?". The landlord became pensive and said: "Some enemy has done that to harm me". The servants then asked: "Do you want us to go into the field and free the corn from the darnel, weeding it out patiently? Tell us and we will do it". But the master said: "No. Because you might weed out also the corn and almost certainly you would damage the ears which are still tender. Let them both grow till the harvest. Then I will say to the reapers: 'Cut everything together, but before tying the sheaves, since the bearbines of the darnel are withered and friable, whereas the closed ears are stronger and harder, pick the darnel from the wheat and tie it into separate bundles. You will burn them and they will fertilize the soil. Take instead the good corn into the granaries and it will be used to bake good bread, to the great shame of my enemy who will have gained only to become despicable to God because of his envious malice' ". Consider now how often and how plentifully the Enemy sows in your hearts. And you must understand that it is necessary to watch patiently and constantly to ensure that little darnel is mixed with the chosen wheat. The fate of the darnel is to be burnt. Do you wish to be burnt or to become citizens of the Kingdom? You say that you want to become citizens of the Kingdom. Well, endeavour to be so. The good God gives you the Word. The enemy is vigilant to make it harmful, because the flour of wheat if mixed with the flour of darnel makes a bitter bread, which is harmful to the stomach. If there is darnel in your souls, pick it with good will and throw it away, so that you may not be unworthy of God. Go, My children. Peace be with you. The crowds slowly disperse. The eight apostles, Elias, his brother and mother, old Isaac, whose soul rejoices seeing his Saviour, stay in the kitchen garden. Gather round Me and listen. I will explain the full meaning of the parable to you, as it has two more meanings, besides what I told the crowd. In the universal sense the purport of the parable is as follows: the field is the world. The good seed is the children of the Kingdom of God sown by God in the world, while they wait to reach their end and be cut by the Mower and be taken to the Master of the world Who will store them in His granaries. The subjects of the Evil one are the darnel, which has also been spread in the field of God for the purpose of causing grief to the Master of the world and damage to the corn of God. The enemy of God has sown them deliberately, through witchcraft, because the demon really perverts the nature of man making him a creature of his own and then sows it to lead astray other people whom he has not been able to enslave otherwise. The harvest, that is the tying of the sheaves and carrying them to the granaries, is the end of the world and that is accomplished by the angels. They are given instructions to gather together the creatures which have been cut, to separate the corn from the darnel, and as in the parable the darnel is burnt, so the damned will be burnt in the eternal fire,

at the Last Judgement. The Son of man will have all scandalmongers and performers of iniquity removed from His Kingdom. Because the Kingdom then will be on the earth and in Heaven and many sons of the Enemy will be mixed among the citizens of the Kingdom. And, as prophesied also by Prophets, they will reach the perfection of scandal and abomination in every ministry on the earth and will be of great annoyance to the children of the spirit. The corrupt will have already been driven out of the Kingdom of God in Heaven, because no corruption will enter Heaven. And now the angels of the Lord, brandishing their sickles among the group of the last harvest, will mow down and separate the corn from the darnel and will throw the latter into the burning furnace, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. The just, instead, the chosen seed, will be taken to the eternal Jerusalem, where they will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of My Father and yours. That is the universal sense. But there is another sense, which is the answer to the question which you have been asking yourselves many times and particularly since yesterday evening. Your question is: "Can there be traitors in the mass of disciples?" and your hearts tremble with horror and fear. Yes, there may be some. There are certainly some. The Sower sows the good seed. In this case, instead of sowing, we could say that He "picks". Because the master, whether it is I or the Baptist, chose his disciples. How were they, therefore, led astray? No, I did not use the right word saying that the disciples are the "seed". You may misunderstand. I will call them "field". As many disciples as fields, chosen by the master to form the area of the Kingdom of God, the wealth of God. The master tires himself cultivating them so that they may yield one hundred per cent. He takes care of everything with patience, love, wisdom, working hard and perseveringly. He also sees their wicked inclinations, their barrenness and avidity, their stubbornness and weakness. But he hopes all the time, corroborating his hope through prayer and penance, because he wishes to lead them to perfection. But the fields are open. They are not gardens enclosed in walls of protection, of which the only owner is the master, who is the only one who can go in. They are open. Placed as they are in the centre of the world, among the world, anyone can go near them and into them. Everybody and everything. Oh! darnel is not the only bad seed sown! Darnel could be the symbol of the bitter frivolity of the worldly spirit. But all the other seeds, scattered by the Enemy, come up in them. There are nettles, couch-grass, dodder, bearbines, and finally hemlock and poisonous herbs. Why? What are they? Nettles: stinging untameable spirits which hurt through their excess of poison and cause so much trouble. Couch-grass: parasites who wear out the master as they can only creep and suck, taking advantage of his work and injuring the willing ones, who would make much more profit if the master were not upset and distracted by the cares required by the couch-grass. The sluggish bearbines rise from the ground only by making use of the efforts of other people. Dodders: they are a torture on the already painful road of the master and a torment to the faithful disciples who follow him. They twist, pierce, tear to pieces, scratch, cause mistrust and pain. The poisonous ones: the criminal disciples, who go as far as betraying and killing as hemlock and other poisonous plants do. Have you noticed how beautiful they are with their little flowers which later become white, red, blue-violet berries? Who would say that

the white or pinkish star-shaped corolla, with its little golden heart, or the many-coloured corals, so much like other little fruits which are the delight of birds and children, can cause death, once they are ripe? No one. And the innocent ones fall into the trap. They believe that everybody is as good as they are... they pick and die. They believe that everybody is as good as they are! Oh! The truth that makes the master sublime and condemns his traitor! How? Does goodness not disarm wickedness? Does it not make ill-will harmless? No. It does not, because the man who has fallen a prey to the Enemy is indifferent to what is superior. And what is superior changes aspect, as far as he is concerned. Kindness becomes weakness on which is lawful to tread and it stimulates his ill-will as the scent of blood stimulates a beast to slaughter. Also the master is always innocent... and he lets his traitor poison him, because he cannot possibly believe that a human being can murder an innocent person. The enemies come into the fields of the Master, that is to His disciples. They are many and Satan is the first one. The others are his servants, that is, men, passions, the world and the flesh. The disciple who is more easily struck by them is the one who is not entirely close to the Master, but is between the Master and the world. He is not capable and does not want to part completely with the world, the flesh, passions and demons, to belong entirely to Him Who wants to take him to God. And the world, flesh, passions and the demon scatter their seed in him: gold, power, women, pride, the fear of an unfavourable opinion of the world, the spirit of utilitarianism. "The great ones are the strongest. I will serve them so that they will be friendly to me". And they become criminals and damned for such miserable things!... Why does the Master, Who sees the imperfection of a disciple, not cast him away at once, even if He is not prepared to submit to the thought: "He will be My murderer"? That is what you are asking yourselves. Because it is useless to do so. If He did so he would not avoid having him as an enemy, a double and more dangerous enemy, because of his anger and his sorrow at being found out or at being driven away. Yes, because of his sorrow. Because sometimes a bad disciple does not realise that he is such. The demon's action is so subtle that he is not aware of it. He becomes wicked without even suspecting that he is subject to such action. And because of his anger. He is enraged at being known for what he is, when he is aware of Satan's work and of his followers: the men who tempt weak people in their weak points, to remove from the world a saint who offends them, wicked as they are, when compared with his goodness. The saint then prays and trusts in God. "Let what You allow, be done" he says. He adds only the clause: "providing it serves Your purpose". The saint knows that the time will come when the wicked darnel will be rejected from the harvest. By whom? By God Himself Who does not allow more than what is useful to the triumph of His loving will. If You maintain that Satan and his followers are always to be blamed... it seems to me that the responsibility of the disciple diminishes says Matthew. Do not believe that. If there is Good there is also Evil and man is gifted with discernment and freedom. You say that God does not allow more than what is useful to the triumph of His loving will. Therefore also such error is useful, if He allows it, and it serves the triumph of the divine will says the Iscariot.

And you infer, as Matthew does, that that justifies the disciple's crime. God created the lion without ferocity and the snake without poison, now one is ferocious and the other poisonous. That is why God separated them from man. Ponder over that and draw conclusions. Let us go to the house. The sun is already too warm. It looks as if there is going to be a storm. And you are tired because of the sleepless night. The rooms in the house are high, large and cool. You will be able to rest says Elias. They go up the outside staircase. But only the apostles lie down on the mats to rest. Jesus goes out on to the terrace, a corner of which is shaded by a very tall oak-tree, and becomes engrossed in thought.

182. On His Way to Magdala Jesus Speaks to Some Shepherds. 9th June 1945. Peter comes back only the following morning. And he is more calm than when he left, because he was made welcome at Capernaum and the town had been cleared of Eli and Joachim. They must have taken part in the plot. Because I asked some friends when they had left, and I understood that they had not come back after going to the Baptist as penitents. And I do not think that they will come back so soon, now that I mentioned that they were present at the arrest... There is much turmoil because of the Baptist's capture... I will ensure that the whole world knows about it... It is the best weapon we have. I met also Simon, the Pharisee... But if he really is what he appeared to me, I think he is favourably disposed towards us. He said to Me: "Tell the Master not to follow the Jordan along the western valley. The other side is safer" he said stressing the words. And he ended: "I have not seen you. I have not spoken to you. Don't forget. And mind what you do in mine, yours and everybody's interest. Tell the Master that I am a friend" and he kept looking up, as if he were speaking to the wind. They are always false, also when doing good things and... and I will say "strange", so that You will not reproach me. But... ehi!... but I went and I had a little chat with the centurion. Just... to ask: "Is your servant well?", and when I was told that he was, I said: "That is good! Make sure you keep him healthy because they are laying snares for the Master. The Baptist has already been captured..." and the Roman grasped the idea immediately. A cunning fellow he is! He replied: "Where there is a vexillum, there will be a guard for Him, and there will be someone reminding the Jews that no plot is allowed under the sign of Rome, death or the galley being the punishment". They are heath ens, but I could have kissed him. I like people who understand and take action! So we can go. Let us go. But all that was not necessary says Jesus. It was... it was necessary indeed! Jesus says goodbye to the hospitable family and also to the new disciple, to whom He must have given some instructions. They are alone once again: the Master with His apostles and they walk along the cool country, along a road which Jesus has taken much to Peter's surprise, as he wanted to take a different one. We are going away from the lake...

We will still arrive in time for what I have to do. The apostles become silent and go towards a little village, a handful of houses, spread out in the country. A loud ding-dong of sheep-bells can be heard as the flocks are driven towards the pastures on the mountains. When Jesus stops to let a large herd pass, the shepherds point Him out and gather together. They consult with one another but dare no more. Jesus puts an end to their doubts by walking through the herd, which has stopped to graze the thick grass. He goes straight to caress a little shepherd, who is standing towards the centre of the woolly bleating mass of sheep. He asks the boy: Are they yours? Jesus knows very well that they are not the boy's, but He wants him to speak. No, Lord. I am with those men. And the herds belong to many owners. We are all together for fear of the bandits. What is your name? Zacharias, the son of Isaac. But my father died and I work as a servant because we are poor and my mother has three more sons younger than I am. Has your father been long dead? Three years, Lord... and since then I have never smiled because my mother always weeps and I have no one who caresses me any more... I am the first born and my father's death has made a man of me, while I was still a child... But I must not weep but earn some money... But it is so difficult! Tears stream down his face which is too serious for his age. The shepherds have drawn near and so have the apostles. A group of men in the midst of moving sheep. You are not fatherless, Zacharias. You have a holy Father in Heaven, Who always loves you, if you are good, and your father has not ceased loving you because he is in Abraham's bosom. You must believe that. And because of such faith you must endeavour to become better and better. Jesus speaks kindly and caresses the boy. A shepherd dares to ask: You are the Messiah, are You not? Yes, I am. How do you know? I know that You are about in Palestine and I know that You speak holy words. That is why I recognised You. Are you going far? Up to the high mountains. The hot weather is coming... Will You not speak to us? Up there, where we are, only the winds speak, and sometimes the wolf speaks and it slaughters... as it happened to Zacharias' father. During the whole winter we were hoping to see You, but we never found You. Let us go under the shade of that thicket and 1 will speak to you. And Jesus goes ahead of them, holding the little shepherd by the hand and caressing with the other hand the little lambs which raise their heads, bleating. The shepherds gather the flock under a coppice and while the sheep lie down ruminating or graze or rub themselves against tree trunks, Jesus speaks. You said: "Upthere, where we are, only the winds speak, and sometimes the wolf speaks and slaughters". What happens up there, happens in men's hearts through the work of God, of men and of Satan. You may, therefore, have up there what you would have in any other place. Do you know the Law well enough and its ten commandments? And you, too, boy? In that case you know enough. If you faithfully practise what God commanded, you will be holy. Do not complain of being far from the world.

That will preserve you from much corruption. And God is not far from you, but closer in that solitude, where you can hear His voice in the winds, which He created, in the herbs and in the water, whereas you would not hear it among men. Your flock teaches you a great virtue, nay many great virtues. It is meek and obedient. It is satisfied with little and is grateful for what it has. It loves and knows those who take care of it and love it. Do likewise saying: "God is our Shepherd and we are His sheep. He watches us. He protects us and grants us not what is the source of vice, but what is necessary to live". And keep wolves away from your hearts. Wicked men are wolves: they seduce you and incite you to evil actions by Satan's order and it is Satan himself who induces you to -.in so that he may tear you to pieces. Be watchful. You shepherds know the habits of wolves. They are as shrewd, as sheep are simple and innocent. They steal close to you, after watching from above the habits of the herd, they sneak closer through bushes and lie as still as stones to avoid drawing your attention. Do they not look like huge stones which have rolled down on to the meadows? Then, when they are sure that no one is watching, they spring and bite. That is how Satan behaves. He watches you to find out your weak points, he roams about you, he seems harmless and absent, concerned with something else, whereas he is watching you, and then he suddenly leaps to induce you to sin, and sometimes he is successful. But close to you there area doctor and a compassionate spirit. God and your angel. If you are wounded, if you have been taken ill, do not go away from them, as a dog which has become rabid does. On the contrary, while weeping shout to them: "Help!". God forgives those who repent and your angel is ready to implore God with you and for you. Love one another and love this boy. Each of you must feel as if he were somehow the father of the orphan. The presence of a child amongst you should influence every action of yours through the holy restraint of respect for a child. And let your company make up for what death deprived him of. We must love our neighbour. This boy is the neighbour entrusted to you by God in a special manner. Teach him to be good, a faithful believer, honest and free from vices. He is worth much more than one of these sheep. Now, if you take care of the sheep because they belong to their owner, who would punish you if you should let them perish, how much more care you must take of this soul which God entrusts to you for Himself and for his dead fatter. His situation as an orphan is a sad one indeed. Do not make it more painful by taking advantage of him and vexing him because he is only a youngster. Remember that God sees the deeds and tears of every man and takes everything into account, in order to reward or punish. And you, My boy, remember that you are never alone. God sees you and so does the spirit of your father. When something upsets you and induces you to do wrong, say: "No, I do not want to be an orphan for ever and ever". You would be, if you damned your soul by sinning. Be good. I bless you so that all goodness may be with you. If we were going the same way, I would continue to speak to you for a long time. But the sun is rising and you must go, and so do I. Your task is to protect the sheep from the heat, Mine to relieve men of another ardour, a more dreadful one, the passions of their hearts. Pray that they may consider Me as their Shepherd. Goodbye, Zacharias. Be good. Peace be with you. Jesus kisses the little shepherd and blesses him and while the flock moves

slowly away, His eyes follow him. He then resumes His way. You said that we are going to relieve hearts of another ardour... Where are we going? asks the Iscariot. For the time being as far as that shady spot, where the stream is. We will have something to eat there and then you will be told where we are going. ----------------------------Jesus says: Insert here the vision of the second moment of Mary Magdalene's conversion, which you had last year, on the 12th of August 1944.

183. Jesus at Magdala. He Meets with Mary Magdalene the Second Time. 12th August 1944. The entire apostolic college is round Jesus. Sitting on the grass, in the cool shade of a thicket, near a stream, they are all eating bread and cheese and drinking the cool clear water of the stream. Their dusty sandals give to understand that they have walked a long way and perhaps the disciples wish but to rest on the long fresh grass. But the Tireless Walker is not of the same mind. As soon as he deems that the hottest hour is over, He gets up, goes on to the road and looks... He then turns round and says: Let us go. Nothing else. When they reach a crossroads, where four dusty roads meet, Jesus resolutely takes the one in a north-east direction. Are we going back to Capernaum? asks Peter. Jesus replies: No. Just: no. We are going to Tiberias, then insists Peter, who is anxious to know. Not there either. But this road takes one to the Sea of Galilee... and Tiberias and Capernaum are there... And there is also Magdala says Jesus with a half-serious expression to satisfy Peter's curiosity. Magdala? Oh!... Peter is somewhat scandalised, which makes me think that the town is ill-famed. Yes, to Magdala. Do you consider yourself too honest to enter that town? Peter, Peter!... For My sake you will have to enter not towns of pleasure but real brothels... Christ did not come to save those who are already saved, but those who are lost... and you shall be "Peter", or Rock, not Simon, for that purpose. Are you afraid of becoming contaminated? No! Not even this one, see (and He points at the very young John) will suffer any harm. Because he does not want, as you do not want, as your brother and John's brother do not want, as none of you, for the time being, wants. As long as one does not want, no harm is done. But one must not want resolutely and perseveringly. You will obtain will-power and perseverance from the Father, by praying with sincere intentions . Not all of you will be able to pray thus, in future... What are you saying, Judas? Do not be too self-confident. I, Who am the Christ, constantly pray to have strength against Satan. Are you better than I am? Pride is the opening through

which Satan penetrates. Be vigilant and humble, Judas. Matthew, since you are familiar with this place, tell Me: is it better to go to the town this way, or is there another road? It depends, Master. If You want to go to the area of Magdala where fishermen and poor people live, this is the road. But - I do not think this is the case but I am telling You to give You a complete answer - if You want to go where the rich people are, then in about one hundred yards, You have to leave this road and take another one, because their houses are approximately in this direction and it is necessary to go back... We will go back because I want to go to the residential area of the wealthy people. What did you say, Judas? Nothing, Master. It is the second time that You ask me in a very short time. But I have never spoken. Not with your lips, no. But you have spoken, grumbling in your heart. You have grumbled with your guest: your heart. It is not necessary to have an interlocutor, in order to speak. We say many words to ourselves... But we must not moan or calumniate, not even with our own ego. The group proceeds in silence. The main road becomes a town street, paved with one handbreath wide square stones. The houses are more and more splendid and magnificent, surrounded by luxuriant flourishing gardens and orchards. I am under the impression that the elegant Magdala was for the Palestinians a kind of place of pleasure like some towns around our lakes in Lombardy: Stresa, Gardone, Pallanza, Bellagio and so on. Among the rich Palestinians there are many Romans, who must have come from other places, such as Tiberias or Caesarea, possibly officials of the Governor or merchants who export to Rome the most beautiful products of the Palestinian colony. Jesus proceeds, sure of Himself, as if He knew where to go. He follows the contour of the lake, which reflects the houses and gardens built on its limits. A loud noise of crying people can be heard from a sumptuous house. It is the voices of women and children. The shrill voice of a woman shouts: My son! My son! Jesus turns round and looks at His apostles. Judas steps forward. No, not you orders Jesus. You, Matthew. Go and find out. Matthew goes and comes back: A brawl, Master. A man is dying. A Jew. The man who wounded him, a Roman, has run away. His wife, mother and children have rushed to help him... But he is dying. Let us go. Master... Master... It happened in the house of a woman... who is not his wife. Let us go. Through the wide open door they enter a large hall which opens on to a lovely garden. The house seems to be divided by this kind of covered peristyle, which is full of pots with green plants, statues and inlaid articles. It is a mixture of a hall and greenhouse. In a room, the door of which opens on to the hall, there are some women weeping. Jesus goes in confidently. But He does not pronounce His usual greeting. Among the men present there is a merchant who obviously knows Jesus, because as soon as he sees Him, he says: The Rabbi of Nazareth! and greets Him respectfully. Joseph, what is the matter?

Master, a stab wound in his heart... He is dying. Why? A grey-haired unkempt woman stands up - she was kneeling near the dying man holding his limp hand - and with distracted face and voice she shouts: Because of her, because of her... She has turned him into a devil... Mother, wife, children no longer existed for him! Hell will have you, satan! Jesus looks up and His eyes follow the trembling accusing hand and in a corner, against the dark red wall, He sees Mary of Magdala, more immodest than ever, wearing, I would say, nothing on half of her body, because she is half naked from the waist upwards, draped in a kind of hexagonal net decorated with little round objects which look like tiny pearls. But as she is in a half-light, I cannot see her well. Jesus lowers His eyes once again. Mary, lashed by His indifference, stands up, whereas before she seemed somewhat depressed, and strikes a defiant pose. Woman says Jesus to the mother. Do not curse. Tell Me. Why was your son in this house? I told You. Because she infatuated him. She did. Silence. So, he was in sin, too, because he is an adulterer and an unworthy father of these innocent children. He therefore deserves his punishment. In this life and in the next one there is no mercy for those who do not repent. But I feel sorry for your grief and for these innocent children. Is your house far? About one hundred yards. Lift the man and take him there. It is not possible, Master says Joseph, the merchant. He is breathing his last. Do as I tell you. They place a board under the body of the dying man and the procession slowly moves out. They cross the street and go into a shady garden. The women go on crying loudly. As soon as they enter the garden, Jesus addresses the mother. Can you forgive? If you forgive, God will forgive. We must be kind- hearted, to obtain grace. He has sinned and will sin again. It would be better for him to die, because, if he lives, he will fall into sin again and he will have to answer also for his ingratitude to God Who has saved him. But you and these innocent ones (and He points at the wife and children) would give yourselves up to despair. I have come to save, not to lose. Man, I tell you: stand up and be cured. The man begins to recover. He opens his eyes, sees his mother, wife and children and lowers his head shamefully. Son, son says the mother. You were dead, if He had not saved you. Come to your senses. Don't be infatuated for a... Jesus interrupts the old woman. Be quiet, woman. Have mercy, as mercy was granted to you. Your house has been sanctified by a, miracle, which is always the evidence of God's presence. That is why I could not work it where there was sin. You, at least, must endeavour to keep it such, even if he will not. Take care of him now. It is fair that he should suffer a little. Be good, woman. And you. And you little ones. Goodbye. Jesus has laid His hand on the heads of the two women and of the children. He then goes out passing in front of the Magdalene who followed the procession as far as the entrance of the house where she remained leaning against a tree. Jesus slackens His pace as if He were waiting for His disciples,

but I think He does so to give Mary a chance of making a gesture. But she does not. The disciples reach Jesus and Peter cannot help muttering between his teeth an epithet appropriate to Mary, who, wishing to strike an attitude, bursts into a laugh of a weak triumph. But Jesus heard Peter's word and addresses him severely: Peter. I do not insult. Do not insult. Pray for sinners. Nothing else. Mary stops her trilling laughter, lowers her head and runs away, like a gazelle, towards her house.

184. At Magdala in the House of Benjamin's Mother. 10th June 1945. The miracle must have taken place only a short while ago, because the apostles are talking about it, and also some citizens are making comments, pointing at the Master, Who with a grave countenance goes straight to the outskirts of the town, where the poor people live. He stops at a little house, from which a little boy comes bounding out followed by his mother. Woman, will you let Me go into your kitchen garden and rest there until it cools down a little? Go in, my Lord. Also into the kitchen, if You so wish. I will bring You some refreshments. Do not trouble. It is quite enough for Me to stay in this peaceful garden. But the woman offers Him some water mixed with I do not know what and then she wanders round the kitchen garden, as if she were anxious to but dare not speak. She busies herself with her vegetables, but it is only a pretence. In actual fact she is paying attention to the Master, but the little boy annoys her because every time he catches a butterfly or an insect, he shouts and thus prevents her from hearing what Jesus says. She gets angry and gives him a little slap and... he shouts louder. Jesus - Who was replying to the Zealot who had asked Him: Do You think Mary is upset because of it? saying: Much more than you would think... turns round and calls the child, who runs towards Him and stops crying on His knees. The woman shouts: Benjamin! Come here. Do not disturb the Master. But Jesus says: No, leave him. He will be good and will leave you in peace. He then says to the boy: Do not cry. Your mummy did not hurt you. She only made you obey, or, she wanted to make you obey. Why did you shout when she wanted you to be quiet? Perhaps she is not feeling well, and your shouting was annoying her. The boy, with the incontrovertable frankness of children, which is the desperation of adults, immediately exclaims: No, she is feeling all right. She wanted to hear what You were saying... She told me. But I wanted to come to You, so I was deliberately making a lot of noise, so that You would look at me. Everybody laughs and the woman blushes. Do not blush, woman. Come here. You wanted to hear Me speak? Why? Because You are the Messiah. No one but You can be the Messiah, considering the miracle You have worked... And I was anxious to hear You. I

never go out of Magdala because I have... a difficult husband and five children. The youngest is four months old... and You never come here. I have come, and to your house, as you can see. That is why I wanted to hear You. Where is your husband? At sea, my Lord. If he catches no fish, there is no food for us. I have but this little kitchen garden. Can it suffice for seven people? And yet that is what Zacchaeus would like... Be patient, woman. Everybody has a cross. Oh! No! Shameless women have but pleasure. You have seen the deeds of the shameless ones! They enjoy themselves and make other people suffer. They do not suffer the labour of childbirth neither do they break their backs working. Their hands do not blister digging, neither do they get spoiled washing clothes. They are beautiful and fresh looking. Eve's punishment does not affect them. Nay, they are our punishment, because... men... You know what I mean. I understand. But, believe Me, they have a terrible cross, too. The most dreadful one, which is not visible: their conscience which reproaches them, the world that sneers at them, their blood that disowns them, God that curses them. They are not happy, believe Me. They do not suffer the labour of childbirth, they do not break their backs working, they do not ulcerate their hands toiling. But they feel broken just the same, and ashamed. Their hearts are one big sore. Do not envy their fresh look, their apparent serenity. It is a veil laid over a ruin that bites and gives no peace. Do not envy their sleep, you, a mother who dreams of her innocent children... Their pillows are covered with nightmares. And in future, in their old age, in their agony, they will have nothing but remorse and terror. It is true... Forgive me... May I stay here? Yes, stay. I will tell Benjamin a nice parable and those who are no longer children will apply it to themselves and to Mary of Magdala. Listen. You doubt Mary's conversion to Good. There is no sign in her in that direction. Brazen and impudent, conscious of her rank and power, she dared to defy the people and come to the very threshold of the house where they are weeping because of her. She laughed at Peter's reproach. She replied to My inviting look, by striking a proud attitude. Perhaps some of you, either for Lazarus' sake or for Mine, would have liked Me to speak to her directly, at some length, subduing her with My power, showing My strength as Messiah and Saviour. No. All that is not needed. I already said so many months ago in regard to another sinner. Souls must react by themselves. I pass and sow the seed. The seed works in secret. A soul is to be respected in this work. If the first seed does not take root, another must be sown, and a third one... and one must give up only when there is definite proof that it is useless to sow. And one prays. Prayer is like dew on the clods of earth: it keeps them soft and nourishes them, so that the seed can sprout. Is that not what you do, woman, with your vegetables? Now listen to the parable of how God works in the hearts of men to establish His Kingdom there. Because every heart is a small kingdom of God on the earth. Later, after death, all these small kingdoms will agglomerate into one, immeasurable, holy eternal Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of God is created in men's hearts by the Divine Sower. He comes to his field - man belongs to God, because every man is initially His - and

sows His seed. He then goes to other fields, to other hearts. Days follow the nights and nights the days. The days bring sunshine and rain, in our case rays of divine love and effusion of divine Wisdom speaking to the spirit. The nights bring stars and restful silence: in our case enlightening calls of God and silence for the soul so that it may collect its thoughts and meditate. The seed, in this course of imperceptible but powerful influence, swells, splits, takes root, sprouts, grows. And all that happens without any help from man. The soil spontaneously produces grass from seeds, the herb becomes strong and supports the rising ear, the ear grows, swells, hardens, becomes golden and perfect when seeding. When it is ripe, the sower comes back and cuts it because the time of perfection has arrived for that seed. It cannot develop any further and so it is harvested. My word does the same work in hearts. I am referring to the hearts which receive the seed. But it is a slow process. One must not spoil everything by being hasty. How troublesome it is for the little seed to split and take root! Such work is painful also for a hard wild heart. It must open itself, allow people to search it, accept new things and nourish them laboriously, appear different being covered with humble useful things, instead of the fascinating, pompous, useless, exuberant flourishing that covered it previously. It must be satisfied with working humbly for the benefit of the divine Thought, without drawing other people's admiring attention. It must exert all its talent to grow and burst into ear. It must burn with love to become corn. And after overcoming all fears of human opinion, which are so grievous, after toiling, suffering and becoming attached to its new dress, it must be deprived of it by a cruel cut. It must give everything to receive everything. It must be divested to be clad again in Heaven with the stole of sainthood. The life of a sinner who becomes a saint is the longest, most heroic and glorious fight. I tell you. You will realise from what I told you that it is fair that I should deal with Mary as I am doing. Did I behave differently with you, Matthew? No, my Lord, You did not. And tell Me the truth: what convinced you more, My patience or the bitter reproaches of the Pharisees? Your patience, so much so that I am here. The Pharisees, by despising and anathematizing me, made me scornful, and out of contempt I did more harm than I had done so far. That is what happens. Sinners become more obstinate when they realise that they are treated as sinners. But when we are caressed instead of being insulted, we are dumbfounded and we weep... and when one weeps, the whole framework of sin collapses... One is left nude before Goodness and one implores it wholeheartedly to be reclothed by It. You are right. Benjamin, did you like My story? Yes? Good. Where is your mother? James of Alphaeus replies: She went out at the end of the parable and ran along that road. She may have gone to the seaside to see whether her husband is coming says Thomas. No. She has gone to her old mother's, to get the children. Mummy takes them there so that she can work says the little boy, who is leaning familiarly on Jesus' knees. And she keeps you here, my little man? You must be a handsome evil-doer if she keeps you here all by yourself! remarks Bartholomew.

I am the eldest, and I help her... You help her to gain Paradise, poor woman! How old are you? asks Peter. In three years' time I will be a son of the Law replies the urchin proudly. Can you read? asks Thaddeus. Yes but very slowly... because the teacher throws me out almost every day... What did I say! exclaims Bartholomew. But I behave like that because the teacher is old and ugly and says the same things all the time and makes you fall asleep! If he were like Him (and he points to Jesus) I would pay attention. Do You hit those who sleep or play? I do not hit anybody. But I say to My pupils: "Pay attention for your own good and for My sake" replies Jesus. Yes, that's all right! Out of love, not out of fear. But if you are good, the teacher will love you. Do You love only those who are good? You just said that You were patient with this man here, who was not good... The child's logic is cogent. I am good with everybody. But when one becomes good, I love that one very much and I am very good, too. The boy is pensive... he then looks up and asks Matthew: And what did you do to become good? I loved Him. The boy becomes pensive again and then looking at the Twelve asks Jesus: Are these ones all good? Of course they are. Are you sure? I sometimes behave as a good boy, but that is when... I am thinking of some big mischief. They all burst into laughter. Also the little fellow, who is in a confessing humour, laughs. Also Jesus laughs pressing him to His heart and kissing him. The boy, who is now friendly with everybody, wants to play and says: I will now tell You who is good and he begins his selection. He looks at them all and goes straight to John and Andrew who are nearby and says: You and you. Come here. He then chooses the two Jameses and places them with the other two. He then takes Thaddeus. He is quite pensive in front of the Zealot and Bartholomew and says: You are old, but good and he joins them to the others. He examines Peter, who undergoes the examination, jokingly frowning at him, and finds him to be good. Also Matthew and Philip pass the examination. He says to Thomas: You laugh too much. I am in earnest. Don't you know that my teacher says that he who always laughs, fails in the test? After all, also Thomas passes his examination, but with low marks. The boy then goes back to Jesus. Hey, you urchin! I am here, too! I am not a tree. I am young and handsome. Why don't you examine me? says the Iscariot. Because I don't like you. My mother says that when you don't like something, you must not touch it. You just leave it on the table, so that other people, who may like it, can take it. And she also says that if you are offered something which you do not like, you must not say: "I do not like it". But you say: "Thank you, but I am not hungry". And I do not hunger for you. Why not? Look, if you say that I am good, I will give you this coin. What am I going to do with it? What can I buy with a lie? Mummy says

that the money which is the fruit of deceit, becomes straw. Once at my grandmother's, I got them to give me a didrachma by telling a lie because I wanted to buy some honey-cakes, and during the night it turned into straw. I put it in that hole over there, under the door, to take it the following morning, but I found a handful of straw in its place. But how can you see that I am not good? What is wrong with me? Am I lame? Am I ugly looking? No. But you frighten me. Why? asks the Iscariot going near him. I don't know. Leave me alone. Don't touch me or I will scratch you. What a hedgehog! You are silly. Judas gives a forced laugh. I am not silly. You are bad and the boy takes shelter in the lap of Jesus, Who caresses him without speaking. The apostles make fun of the situation which is not very pleasant to the Iscariot. In the meantime the woman comes back with half a dozen people, and behind them, many more. They must be about fifty. All poor people. Would You speak to them? At least a few words. This is my husband's mother, these are my children. And that man over there is my husband. A word, Lord implores the woman. Yes, I will speak. To thank you for your hospitality. The woman goes back into the house, where her suckling claims her and she sits on the threshold breastfeeding her baby. Listen. Here on My knees I have a little boy who has spoken very wisely. He said: "Everything that is obtained by deceit, becomes straw". His mother taught him that truth. It is not a tale. It is an eternal truth. What is done dishonestly, is never successful. Because falsehood in words, deeds, and in religion is always a sign of alliance with Satan, the master of falsehood. Do not believe that the deeds worthy of achieving the Kingdom of Heaven are very noisy or showy. They are common, continuous deeds, but performed with a supernatural purpose of love. Love is the seed of the plant that sprouts in you and grows up as far as Heaven, and in its shade all the other virtues sprout. I will compare it to the tiny mustard seed. How small it is! It is one of the smallest seeds that man sows. But look how big and leafy it becomes when it has grown up and how much fruit it bears. Not one hundred per cent, but one hundred to one. The smallest. But the most diligent in working. How much profit it gives you. Love is the same. If you enclose in your hearts a tiny seed of love for your Most Holy God and for your neighbour, and if you accomplish your deeds guided by love, you will not fail in any of the precepts of the Decalogue. You will not lie to God by means of a false religion of practices but not of the spirit. You will not lie to your neighbour, behaving as ungrateful children, as adulterers, as too exacting husbands and wives, as thieves in business, as liars in life, as violent avengers towards your enemies. Look how many birds have taken shelter, in this warm hour of the day, among the branches of the trees in the garden. Before long, that mustard plant, which now is still very small, will be a real perch for birds. All the birds will come to the safe shade of those thick and comfortable trees and their little ones will learn to fly safely among those branches which are like steps and a net, which they can climb without falling. Such is love, the foundation of the Kingdom of God.

Love and you will be loved. Love and you will bear with one another. Love and you will not be cruel by wanting more than what is lawful from those who are under you. Love and sincerity to obtain the peace and glory of Heaven. Otherwise, as Benjamin said, every action of yours accomplished lying to love and to truth will turn into straw for your beds in hell. I will not say anything else to you. I will only say: always bear in mind the great precept of love and be faithful to God the Truth, to the truth in every word, deed and sentiment, because the truth is the daughter of God. Let the work of bringing yourselves to perfection be continuous, as the seed continuously grows until it is perfect. A silent, humble, patient work. You may rest assured that God sees your struggles and He will grant you a greater reward for overcoming your selfishness, for holding back a rude word, for satisfying a necessity without being ordered to do so, than if, fighting in a battle, you killed the enemy. The Kingdom of Heaven, which you will possess if You live as just people, is built with the little things of every day. With goodness, moderation, patience, with being satisfied with what one has, bearing with one another, and with love, love, love. Be good. Live in peace, one with the other. Do not grumble. Do not judge. God will then be with you. I give you My peace as a blessing and thanksgiving for the faith you have in Me. Then Jesus turns to the woman saying: May God bless you especially, because you are a holy wife and a holy mother. Persevere in virtue. Goodbye, Benjamin. Love the truth and obey your mother. My blessing to you, to your little brothers and to you, mother. A man comes forward. He is embarrassed and stammers: But, but... I am moved by what You say of my wife... I did not know... Have you no eyes or intelligence? Yes, I have. Why do you not make use of them? Shall I clear them? You have already done that, my Lord. But I love her, You know... The trouble is... that, that... one gets used... and... and... And one thinks that it is quite all right to exact too much, because the other one is more gentle than we are... Do not do that any more. You are always in danger with your work. Be not afraid of storms if God is with you. But if there is Injustice in you, be much afraid. Have you understood? More than You have said. I will do my best to obey You... I did not know... and he looks at his wife as if he saw her for the first time. Jesus blesses and goes out on to the little road. He resumes walking towards the country.

185. The Calming of the Storm. 30th January 1944. [...] Now that everybody is asleep I am telling you my joy. I saw today's Gospel. Mind you, this morning when I read it, I said to myself: This is an episode of the Gospel which I will never see, because it is not very suitable for a vision. Instead, when I was not thinking about it, it came to fill me with joy. This is what I saw. A sailing boat, not excessively large, nor very small, a fishing boat, on

which five or six people can move comfortably, is ploughing the water of the beautiful deep blue lake of Gennesaret. Jesus is sleeping in the stem. He is dressed in white as usual. He is resting His head on His left arm and under His arm and head He has placed His blue-grey mantle, which has been folded many times. He is sitting, not lying, on the bottom of the boat and His head is resting on the board that is at the very end of the stern. I do not know how sailors call it. He is sleeping peacefully. He is tired and calm. Peter is at the rudder. Andrew is busy with the sails, John and two more people - I do not know who they are - are sorting out the ropes and nets in the bottom of the boat, as if they were preparing to catch during the night. I would say that the day is drawing to its end because the sun is already setting in the west. All the disciples have pulled their tunics up, gathering them round their waists by means of belts, in order to be free in their movements, passing from one part of the boat to another, stepping over oars, seats, baskets and nets, without being hindered by their clothes. None of them is wearing a mantle. I see that the sky is clouding over and the sun is hiding behind huge storm clouds, which have suddenly appeared from behind the top of a hill. The wind blows them fast towards the lake. The wind, for the time being, is high up, and the lake is still quiet, it is only becoming darker and its surface is no longer perfectly smooth. There are no waves as yet, but the water is beginning to ruffle. Peter and Andrew watch the sky and the lake and are preparing to draw close to the shore. But the wind suddenly rages over the lake that in a few minutes surges foaming. The swelling waves clash one against the other, they strike the little boat, lifting it up, lowering it down, tossing it in all directions, thus preventing all manoeuvres of the rudder as the wind prevents manoeuvring the sail, which has to be lowered. Jesus is sleeping. Neither the steps and excited voices of the disciples, nor the howling wind, nor the waves pounding on the sides of the boat and its prow, awake Him. His hair is blowing in the wind and drops of water reach Him. But He is sleeping. John runs from stem to stern and covers Him with his mantle, which he has taken from under a board. He covers Him with delicate love. The storm rages more and more furiously. The lake is as black as if ink had been poured into it and is streaked by the foam of the waves. The boat lets in water and is driven farther and farther to the open sea by the wind. The disciples are perspiring in their efforts to manoeuvre the boat and baling out the water which the waves pour in. But to no avail. They are paddling in the water that reaches up to their knees and the boat is becoming heavier and heavier. Peter loses his calm and patience. He hands the rudder over to his brother, staggers towards Jesus and shakes Him vigorously. Jesus wakes up and raises His head. Save us, Master, we are going down! Peter shouts to Him (he must shout to make himself heard). Jesus stares at His disciple, looks at the others and then at the lake. Do you believe that I can save you? Quick, Master shouts Peter, while a real mountain of water moves fast from the centre of the lake towards the poor little boat. It is so high and

dreadful that it looks like a water spout. The disciples who see it coming kneel down and hang on to whatever they can, certain that it is the end. Jesus gets up. He stands on the stern board: a white figure against the livid storm. He stretches His arms out towards the billow and says to the wind: Stop and be quiet and to the water: Calm down. I want it. And the billow dissolves into foam, which falls harmlessly with a last roar, which fades into a whisper, while the wind dies down changing into a whistle and then a sigh. And the sky becomes clear once again over the appeased lake, while hope and faith fill the hearts of the disciples. I cannot describe Jesus' majesty. One must see it to understand it. And I enjoy it inwardly because it is still present in my mind and I think of how placid was Jesus' sleep and how imperious was His command to the winds and the waves. ---------------------------Jesus then says: I will not expound the Gospel in the same sense as everybody else does. I will elucidate the circumstances preceding the Gospel passage. Why was I sleeping? Did I perhaps not know that there was going to be a storm? Yes, I knew. Only I knew. Why was I sleeping, then? The apostles were men, Mary. They were full of good will, but still very much "men". Man thinks he is always capable of everything. When he is really capable of doing something he is full of haughtiness and attachment to his "ability". Peter, Andrew, James and John were good fishermen and consequently they thought they were unexcelled in handling a boat. As far as they were concerned I was a great "Rabbi", but a mere nothing as a sailor. Thus they thought I was unable to help them, and when on the boat to cross the Sea of Galilee, they begged Me to sit down because I was not capable of doing anything else. Also their love for Me was behind their attitude, as they did not want Me to do any material work. But their attachment to their own ability was greater than their love. I do not impose Myself, Mary, except in exceptional cases. I generally leave you free and wait. On that day, tired as I was and being requested to rest, that is to let them act, clever as they were, I went to sleep. In My sleep there was mingled also the ascertainment of how man is "man" and wants to do things by himself without feeling that God asks but to help him. I saw in those "spiritual deaf men", in those "spiritual blind men", all the spiritual deaf and blind people, who throughout centuries would ruin themselves, because "they wanted to do by themselves", although I was bent over their needs awaiting to be asked to help them. When Peter shouted: "Save us!", My bitterness dropped like a stone. I am not "man", I am the God-Man. I do not behave as you do. When someone rejects your advice or your help, and you see him in trouble, even if you are not so bad as to rejoice at it, you are uncharitable enough to look at him disdainfully and indifferently, without being moved by his shouts for help. Your attitude means: "When I wanted to help you, you did not want me? Well, help yourself now". But I am Jesus. I am the Saviour. And I save, Mary. I always save as soon as I am asked to. The poor men might object: "In that case, why do You allow single or collective storms to break out?". If by My power I should destroy Evil, you would consider yourselves the authors of Good, which in actual fact is a gift of

Mine, and you would not remember Me any longer. You would never remember Me. My poor children, you are in need of sorrow to remember that you have a Father. As the prodigal son remembered he had a father when he was hungry. Misfortunes persuade you of your nothingness, of your ignorance, which is the cause of so many errors, of your wickedness, the cause of so much mourning and grief, of your faults, the cause of the punishments which you inflict upon yourselves, as well as of My existence, of My power and of My goodness. That is what today's Gospel teaches you. "Your" Gospel of the present time, my poor children. Call Me. Jesus does not sleep except when He is in anguish because He sees that He is not loved by you. Call Me and I will came.

186. The Demoniacs of Gadara. 11th June 1945. The vision The calming of the storm which you saw on 30th January 1944, is to be put here. Then the following vision. Jesus, after crossing the lake from northwest to southeast, asks Peter to land near Hippos. Peter obeys without discussing and takes the boat down to the mouth of a little river, which is in flood because of the springtime rains and of the recent storm and flows into the lake through one of the wild rocky gorges common to this coastal area. The assistants - there is one in each boat fasten the boats and are ordered to wait until evening to go back to Capernaum. And be as dumb as an ox suggests Peter. If they ask you where the Master is, reply without hesitation: "I don't know". And if anyone wants to know where He is going to, give the same reply. In any case it is the truth, for you don't know. They part and Jesus begins to ascend a steep path which climbs the almost upright cliff. The apostles follow Him along a very hard path up to the summit of the cliff which levels over to a tableland strewn with oak-trees under which there are many pigs pasturing. Stinking animals! exclaims Bartholomew. They prevent us from passing... No, they do not. There is room for everybody replies Jesus calmly. In any case the swineherds, when they see the Israelites, endeavour to gather the pigs under the oak-trees, leaving the path free. And the apostles pass by, making endless grimaces, among the filth left by the grouting animals, which fat as they are, seem anxious to become even fatter. Jesus passes without any fuss, saying to the swineherds: May God reward you for your kindness. The swineherds, poor people not much cleaner than their pigs but infinitely thinner, look at Him amazed and then whisper to one another. One of them says: Is He perhaps not an Israelite? And the others reply to him: Don't you see that His tunic is fringed? The group of the apostles gather together, now that they can proceed in one group along a fairly wide path.

The view is beautiful. Only a few score of feet above the lake, it commands a view over the whole lake with the towns spread along its shores. Tiberias is splendid with its beautiful buildings on the opposite shore facing the apostles. Below this spot, at the foot of the basaltic cliff, the short beach looks like a green pillow, whereas on the opposite shore, from Tiberias to the mouth of the Jordan, there is a rather widespread marshy plain due to the river having difficulty in resuming its course after delaying in the placid lake. But the plain looks like a garden, because it is so thick with marsh flora, and is densely populated with colourful variegated water fowl, which seem bedecked with jewels. The birds rise from the thick grass and from the reed-thickets, they fly over the lake, they dive into it to steal a fish from its water, and they rise even more brilliant, because the water has brightened up their plumage, and then they fly back to the plain where the wind plays swaying its many-coloured flowers. Up here, instead, there are woods of very tall oak-trees, under which the grass is soft and emerald-green, and beyond this strip of woods, on the other side of a large valley, the mountain climbs again, forming a very steep rocky summit, on which houses rise, built on terraces. I think that the mountain side and the walls of the houses are all one, for its caves are used as dwellings, in a mixture of a troglodyte and ordinary village. It is a village characteristic of structures on large rising terraces, so that the roof of the house on the terrace below is at the height of the ground entrance of the terrace above it. On the sides where the mountain is very steep, so steep that no house can be built there, there are caves, deep crevices and descents dropping down to the valley. In the season of downpours the descents must become as many whimsical little torrents. All kinds of blocks, which the floods have rolled down to the valley, form a chaotic pedestal for the little mountain which is so wild and steep, hunchbacked and overbearing that it looks like a squire who wants to be respected at all costs. Is that not Gamala? asks the Zealot. Yes, it is Gamala. Do you know the town? says Jesus. I was a fugitive there, one night, a long time ago. Then I was affected by leprosy and I did not come out of the sepulchres any more. Did they pursue you so far? I was coming from Syria, where I had gone seeking protection. But they discovered me and only my flight to this place saved me from being captured. Afterwards slowly and continuously threatened I went down as far as the desert of Tekoa and from there, suffering already from leprosy, to the Valley of the Dead. Leprosy saved me from my enemies... These people are heathens, are they not? asks the Iseariot. Almost everybody. Only a few Jews are here on business, and then there is a mixture of beliefs, or no beliefs at all. But they did not treat the fugitive badly. These are places for bandits. What gorges! exclaim many. Yes, but believe me, there are more bandits on the other side says John who is still impressed by the capture of the Baptist. On the other side there are bandits also among those who enjoy the reputation of being just concludes his brother. Jesus begins to speak: And yet we go near them without feeling disgusted. Whereas here you were making grimaces because you had to pass near some

animals. They are unclean... A sinner is much more so. These animals are made like that, and it is not their fault if they are like that. Man instead is responsible for being unclean because of his sins. Why, then, are they classified as unclean for us? asks Philip. I have mentioned that once. In this commandment there is a supernatural reason and a natural one. The former reason is to teach the chosen people to live bearing in mind its election and the dignity of man, also in a common action like eating. A savage feeds on everything. It is enough for him to fill his stomach. A pagan, even if he is not a savage, also eats everything, without considering that overeating foments vices and inclinations which degrade man. Nay, pagans endeavour to arrive at this frenzy for pleasure, which is almost a religion for them. The more learned amongst you are aware of obscene celebrations in honour of their gods, which degenerate into lecherous orgies. A son of the people of God must be able to control himself, perfecting himself through obedience and prudence, bearing in mind his origin and his end: God and Heaven. The natural reason is not to stimulate the blood by means of food that causes a heat unbecoming of man, who is not forbidden also carnal love, but must always moderate it with the freshness of his soul tending to Heaven. Man must therefore make sure that the sentiment that joins him to his wife, in whom he must see a fellow creature like himself, not a female, is love, not sensuality. But the poor animals are neither guilty of being pigs nor of the effects that the flesh of pigs may cause in man's blood in the long run. And the swineherds are much less guilty. If they are honest, what difference will there be, in the next life, between them and the scribe who is bent over his books but does not learn to be good? I solemnly tell you that we shall see swineherds among the just and scribes among the unjust. But what is ruining? They all move away from the side of the mountain because stones and earth are rolling down and bouncing on the slope and they all look around amazed. There, there! Over there! Two men completely naked... are coming towards us gesticulating. Mad... Or demoniacs replies Jesus to the Iseariot, who was the first to see the two demoniacs come towards Jesus. They must have come out of some cave on the mountain side. They are howling. And one, who is running faster, rushes towards Jesus. He is running so fast and moving his arms up and down so much as if they were wings, that he looks like a strange ugly big bird stripped of its feathers. He collapses at Jesus' feet shouting: You are here, Master of the world? What have I got to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Has the hour of our punishment already come? Why have You come to torture us before the time? The other demoniac, both because his tongue is tied and because he is possessed by a demon who causes him to be dull-witted, does nothing but throw himself on the ground, face down, and weep. He then sits up, remains inert, playing with little stones and his bare feet. The demon continues to speak through the lips of the other man who writhes on the ground in a paroxysm of terror. I would say that he wants to react, whereas he can but worship, attracted and rejected at the same time by Jesus' power. He howls: I entreat You in the name of God, stop tormenting me. Let me go.

Yes. But out of this man. Unclean spirit, go out of them and tell Me your name. Legion is my name because we are many. We have possessed these men for years and through them we break bonds and chains, and there is no strength of man capable of holding them. They are a terror, because of us, and we make use of them to have You cursed. We revenge ourselves on them for Your anathema. We degrade man below a beast to mock at You and there is no wolf, jackal, hyaena, vulture or vampire like these which we possess. But don't cast us out. Hell is too horrid!... Go out! In the name of Jesus, go out! Jesus' voice thunders and His eyes fire splendour. At least let us go into the herd of pigs You met. Go. With a beastly howl the demons part from the two wretched men and in a sudden whirlwind, which causes the oak-trees to sway like reeds, they run into the large herd of pigs that with real demoniac cries begin to run, as possessed beings, through the oak-trees, pushing, wounding, biting one another and hurl themselves into the lake, when, after reaching the edge of the cliff, they have but the water below as a shelter. The swineherds are overwhelmed and dumbfounded and while they shout seized by fear, hundreds of animals fall headlong into the calm water in a succession of splashes, causing the water to surge and foam; they sink, refloat, showing in turn their round bellies or their pointed snouts with terrified eyes, and in the end get drowned. The swineherds run towards the town howling. The apostles go towards the place of the disaster and come back saying: Not one of them is saved! He has done them a bad turn. Jesus replies calmly: It is better if two thousand pigs perish than one man. Give them some clothes. They cannot stay like that. The Zealot opens his bag and gives one of his tunics. Thomas gives another one. The two men are still somewhat stunned as if they were just awaking from a sound sleep full of nightmares. Give them some food. Let them go back to the normal life of men. Jesus watches them, while they eat the bread and olives given to them and they drink out of Peter's flask. At last they speak: Who are You? asks one. Jesus of Nazareth. We don't know You says the other. Your souls know Me. Get up now and go home. We have suffered very much, I think, but I cannot remember very well. Who is this man? asks the one who spoke on behalf of the demon, and he points at his companion. I do not know. He was with you. Who are you? Why are you here? he asks his companion. The one who was dumb, and is still more inert, says: I am Demetrius. Is this Sidon? Sidon is on the sea, man. Here you are beyond the lake of Galilee. Why am I here? Nobody can reply. Some people are arriving followed by the swineherds. They look frightened and curious. When they see the two men dressed and tidy, their astonishment increases.

That is Mark of Josiah!... And that is the son of the heathen merchant!... And He is the one who cured them and caused our pigs to perish, because they became mad when the demons entered them say the swineherds. Lord, You are powerful, we admit it. But You have already caused us too much harm! A damage of many talents. Go away, please, lest Your power should bring the mountain down and hurl it into the lake. Go away... I will go. I do not impose Myself on anybody and Jesus, without further discussion goes back the way He came. The demoniac who spoke follows Him, behind the apostles. Farther back, at some distance, there are many citizens watching whether He is really leaving. They go down the steep path back to the mouth of the little torrent, near the boats. The citizens remain on the terrace watching. The demoniac who has been cured goes down behind Jesus. In the boats the assistants are terrified. They saw the pigs raining into the lake and are still contemplating their bodies which surface more and more numerous, more and more swollen, with their round bellies in the air and their stiff short legs like four pegs stuck into a huge fat bladder. What happened? they ask. We will tell you later. Loosen the boats and let us go... Where, my Lord? To the gulf of Tarichea. The man who has followed them, now that he sees them getting into the boats, implores: Take me with You, Lord. No. Go home: your relatives are entitled to have you. Speak to them of the great things the Lord has done to you and tell them how He had mercy on you. This area is in need of faith. Light the flames of faith out of gratitude to the Lord. Go. Goodbye. Comfort me at least with Your blessing, that the demon may not possess me again. Be not afraid. If you do not want, he will not come. But I bless you. Go in peace. The boats depart from the shore westwards. Only then, when the boats are ploughing through the waters strewn with the swine victims, the inhabitants of the town, which did not want the Lord, withdraw from the terrace and go away.

187 Towards Jerusalem for the Second Passover. From Tarichea to Mount Tabor. 12th June 1945. Jesus dismisses the boats saying: I am not coming back and followed by His apostles, and across the area, which appeared to be very fertile also from the opposite shore, He turns His steps towards a mountain, which appears towards the south-west. The apostles are walking in silence, communicating with one another only by casting glances. In fact they are not enthusiastic for the journey across this beautiful but wild area, which is full of bog grass that gets entangled with their feet; of reeds that cause a drizzle of dew to fall on their heads from the edges of the leaves; of hazels that strike their faces with the hard canes of their dry fruit; of willow trees the fragile branches of which hang down everywhere tickling

them; of treacherous patches of grass that seems to be growing on solid ground, whereas it conceals puddles of water into which their feet sink, they are in fact patches of foxtails and tares, growing in tiny pools and so thick as to conceal the element in which they have come up. Jesus, instead, seems to be extremely happy in the midst of all that green and the thousand hues of all the flowers, which creep on the ground, or stand upright, or cling to other plants to climb up, forming thin festoons strewn with light convolvuli of a very delicate mallow pink, or forming delicate blue carpets for the thousand corollas of water myosotises, which open the perfect cups of white, pink, blue corollas among the large flat leaves of the water lilies. Jesus admires the tufts of the water reeds, as soft as silk and pearled with dew, and He bends joyfully to watch the delicate features of foxtails, which lay an emerald veil on the water. He stops ecstatically in front of the nests which the birds are building, flying happily to and fro, trilling, darting from branch to branch, working happily, with their beaks full of wisps of hay, of down of reeds, of flocks of wool picked on hedges, which had torn it from migrating sheep... He seems the happiest person in the world. Where is the world with its wickedness, falsehood, sorrows, snares? The world is beyond this green flowery oasis, where everything scents, shines, smiles, sings. This is the earth created by the Father and not desecrated by man and man can be forgotten here. He wants to share His happiness with the others. But He does not find a favourable ground. The hearts of the apostles are tired and embittered by so much ill-will and they react against things and also against the Master by means of a stubborn silence, which is like the stillness of the air before a storm. Only His cousin James, the Zealot and John take an interest in what interests Jesus. All the others are... absent, if not hostile. Perhaps they are keeping quiet, not to grumble. But inwardly they must be speaking, and speaking too much. It is a more lively exclamation of admiration before the living jewel of a kingfisher which flies down, taking a little silver fish to its mate, that makes them open their mouths. Jesus says: Can there be anything more gentle? Peter replies: Perhaps not more gentle... but I can assure You that a boat is more comfortable. Here it is damp just the same, but we are not comfortable... I would prefer the track for caravans to this... garden, if You wish to call it so, and I am in full agreement with Simon says the Iscariot. It was you who did not want the caravan route replies Jesus. Ehi! certainly... But I would not have given in to the Gherghesenes. I would have gone away from there, but I would have continued beyond the river to Gadara, Pella and down to the south grumbles Bartholomew. And his great friend Philip concludes: The roads belong to everybody, after all, and we could have passed through them as well. My friends! I am so anguished and disgusted... Do not increase My grief with your pettiness! Let Me seek some comfort in things which do not know how to hate... The reproach, kind in its sadness, moves the apostles. You are right, Master. We are not worthy of You. Forgive our foolishness. You can see the beautiful, because You are holy and You look with the eyes of Your heart. We are coarse flesh and can only perceive coarse flesh... But never mind. Believe me, even if we were in paradise, we would be sad without You. But with You... oh! it is always beautiful for our hearts. It is only our limbs that

refuse many of them whisper. We will soon be going out of here and will find a more comfortable ground, even if not so cool promises Jesus. Where are we going exactly? asks Peter. To give Passover to those who suffer. I have been wanting to do it for a long time. But I could not. I would have done it going back to Galilee. Now that they compel us to go along roads that we have not chosen, I am going to bless Jonah's poor friends. We will be wasting a lot of time! Passover is near! There are always delays for various reasons. Another chorus of complaints rises to the sky. I do not know how Jesus can be so patient... Without reproaching anyone, He says: Please, do not hinder Me! Endeavour to understand My need to love and to be loved. I have but this solace on the earth: to love and do the will of God. And are we going from here? Was it not better to go from Nazareth? If I had suggested that, you would have rebelled. No one will suspect that I am here... and I am doing it for you... because you are afraid. Afraid? Ah! No! We are ready to fight for You. Pray the Lord not to put you to the test. I know that you are quarrelsome, resentful, anxious to offend those who offend Me and to humble your neighbour. I know all that. But I do not know You to be brave. As far as I am concerned, I would have gone also by Myself and along the main road and nothing would have happened because it is not yet the time. But I feel sorry for you. But I have to obey My Mother, yes, also that and I do not want to upset Simon the Pharisee. I will not disgust them. But they will disgust Me. And where do we go from here? I am not familiar with this area says Thomas. We will reach Tabor, we will coast part of it and will go to Nain via Endor; from there to the plain of Esdraelon. Be not afraid!... Doras, the son of Doras, and Johanan are already in Jerusalem. Oh! It will be beautiful! They say that from the summit, from a certain spot, one can see the Great Sea, the Sea of Rome. I like it so much! Will You take us to see it? John begs with his kind childish face raised towards Jesus. Why do you like to see it so much? asks Jesus caressing him. I do not know... Because it is huge and you cannot see its end... It makes me think of God... When we were up on Lebanon I saw the sea for the first time, because I had never been anywhere else, except along the Jordan or on our little sea... and I was moved so much that I wept. So much blue! So much water! And it never overflows!... What a wonderful thing! And the stars make paths of light on the sea... Oh! do not laugh at me! I looked at the golden way of the sun until I was dazzled, at the silvery way of the moon, until I could see nothing but whiteness and I saw them getting lost far far away. Those ways spoke to me. They said: "God is in that infinite distance and these are the ways of fire and purity, which a soul must follow to go to God. Come. Dive into the infinite, travelling on these two ways, and you will find the Infinite One". You are a poet, John says Thaddeus admiringly. I do not know whether this is poetry. I know that it inflames my heart. But you have seen the sea also at Caesarea and at Ptolomais, and quite close, too. We were on the beach! I do not see the need to go all that way to see some more sea water. After all... we were born on the water... remarks James

of Zebedee. And we are in it also now, unfortunately! exclaims Peter, who diverting his mind for a moment to listen to John, has not noticed a treacherous puddle and has got soaked... They all laugh, and he laughs too. But John replies: That is true. But from high above it is more beautiful. You see more and farther. You think that it is deeper and vaster... You wish... you dream... and John is already dreaming... He looks in front of himself and smiles at his dream... He looks like a flesh-coloured rose spread with minute dew drops, so downy becomes his smooth clear skin of a young fair-haired man and as it gets sprinkled with a light perspiration it looks more like the petal of a rose. What do you wish? What are you dreaming? Jesus asks His favourite disciple in a low voice and He looks like a father who questions a dear son speaking in his sleep. Jesus speaks to John's soul, questioning him so gently as not to spoil the dream of His loving disciple. I wish to go on to the infinite sea... towards other lands beyond it. I wish to go and speak of You. I am dreaming... of going towards Rome, towards Greece, towards dark places to take the Light there... so that those living in darkness may get in touch with You and may live in communion with You, Light of the world... I am dreaming of a better world... to be bettered through the knowledge of You, that is, through the knowledge of the Love that makes people good, pure, heroic, of the Love that makes the world love and raise Your Name, Your Faith, Your Doctrine above hatred, sin, flesh, above the vices of the mind, above gold, above everything... and I dream of going with my brothers on the sea of God, on the road of light to take You... as Your Mother once brought You down to us from Heaven... I dream that I am a child, who knowing nothing but love, is happy also when facing trouble... and sings to comfort the adults who ponder too much, and moves forward... facing death smiling... towards glory with the humility of one who does not know what he is doing, but knows only that he is coming to You, Love... The apostles have not breathed during John's ecstatic confession... They remained still where they were, looking at the youngest one speaking with his eyes covered by his eyelids, like a veil thrown over the ardour rising from his heart, and looking at Jesus Who is enraptured finding Himself so completely in His disciple... When John stops speaking, slightly bent forward - he reminds me of the gracefulness of the Virgin Mary at the Annunciation in Nazareth - Jesus kisses his forehead saying: We shall go and contemplate the sea, to let you dream once again My future Kingdom in the world. Lord... You said that afterwards we shall be going to Endor. Make me happy too... that I may get over the bitterness of that boy's judgement... says the Iscariot. Oh! are you still thinking about that? asks Jesus. Yes, always. I feel degraded in Your eyes and in the eyes of my companions. I think of what Your thoughts... Why do you fret over trifles? I was not thinking of that trifle any longer, neither were the others. You are reminding us... You are a child accustomed only to being caressed and the word of a little boy seems the sentence of a judge to you. But you must not be afraid of that word, but of your actions and of God's judgement. But to convince you that you are as dear to Me as

previously, as always, I tell you that I will satisfy you. What do you wish to see at Endor? It is a poor village among the rocks... Take me there... and I will tell You. All right. But mind it does not cause you to suffer afterwards... If it cannot be painful for him to contemplate the sea, it cannot be harmful to me to see Endor. To see?... But it is the desire of what one seeks to see in looking that can be harmful. But we shall go... And they resume the road towards Mount Tabor, the huge mass of which appears to be nearer and nearer, while the marshy aspect of the ground changes, as the soil becomes solid and dry and the vegetation thinner, making room for taller plants and bushes of clematis and blackberries, the new leaves and early flowers of which are a pleasant sight.

188 From Tabor to Endor in the Cave of the Necromancer. Encounter with Felix Who Becomes John. 13th June 1945. Jesus and the apostles have passed Mount Tabor and left it behind them. They are now walking on a plain lying between that mountain and another one facing it, talking of the climb made by them all, although at the beginning the elder ones had not been too keen. But now they are happy they had gone up to the top. The journey is now easy because they are on a main road which is quite comfortable for walking. It is early in the morning because I am under the impression that they have spent the night on the slopes of the Tabor. That is Endor says Jesus pointing to a poor village built on the first heights of the other mountain. Do you really want to go there? If You wish to make me happy... responds the Iscariot. Let us go, then. But is it a long way? asks Bartholomew, who, because of his age, is not very keen on walking tours. Oh! no! But if you wish to stay... says Jesus. Yes! You may stay. I will go with the Master says Judas of Kerioth immediately. Listen, before making up my mind, I would like to know what there is to be seen... From the top of Mount Tabor we saw the sea and after the boy's speech I must admit that I saw it properly for the first time and I saw it as You see: with my heart. Here... I would like to know whether there is anything to learn, because in that case I will come even if it is tiresome... says Peter. Do you hear that? You have not yet said what you intend doing. Be kind to your companions and tell us now says Jesus invitingly. Did Saul not go to Endor to consult the necromancer? Yes, he did. So?

Well, Master, I would like to go there and hear You speak of Saul. In that case I will come, too! exclaims Peter full of enthusiasm. Let us go then. They walk fast along the last stretch of the main road, which they leave to follow a secondary road, which takes straight to Endor. It is a poor village, as Jesus said. The houses cling to the slopes which, beyond the village become steeper. Poor people live in them. Most of them must be shepherds who pasture their flocks on the sides of the mountain and in the woods of old oak-trees. There are a few small fields of barley, or similar fodder grains, in favourable sites and some apple and fig-trees. There are only a few vines around the houses, decorating the walls, which are dark because the place is obviously a damp one. We will now ask where the place of the necromancer was says Jesus. And He stops a woman who is coming back from the fountain with pitchers. She looks at Him curiously, then replies impolitely: I don't know. I have much more important things to worry about than such nonsense! and she goes away. Jesus turns to an old man who is carving a bit of wood. The necromancer?... Saul?... Who bothers about them now? But, wait... There is one here who has studied and perhaps he knows... Come with me. And the old man climbs laboriously up a stony lane to a very poor and shabby looking house. He lives here. I will go in and call him. Peter, pointing at some poultry scratching about in a dirty yard, says: This fellow is not an Israelite. But he says no more because the old man comes back followed by a man blind in one eye who is as dirty and untidy as everything round his house. The old man says: See? This man says that it is over there beyond that dilapidated house. There is a path, a stream, a wood and some caves, the one at the top, where there are still traces of ruined walls on one side, is the one you are looking for. Is that right? No. You have muddled everything. I will go with these strangers. The man's voice is harsh and guttural, which increases everybody's feeling of uneasiness. He starts walking. Peter, Philip and Thomas make repeated signs to Jesus to advise Him not to go. But Jesus does not pay attention. He walks with Judas behind the man, and the others follow Him... unwillingly. Are You an Israelite? asks the man. Yes, I am. I too, or almost, although I do not look like one. But I lived a long time abroad and I got into many habits, of which these fools here disapprove. I am better than the others. But they say that I am a demon, because I read a great deal, I breed poultry which I sell to the Romans and I can cure people by means of herbs. When young, because of a woman, I quarrelled with a Roman - I was at Cintium then - and I stabbed him. He died, I lost one eye and all my wealth and I was sentenced to life imprisonment. But I knew how to cure people, and I cured the daughter of one of the guards. I thus won his friendship and some freedom... I used it to escape. I acted badly, because the man certainly paid for my flight with his life. But freedom seems so beautiful when one is a prisoner... Is it not really beautiful afterwards?

No. Jail, where one is alone, is better than being in contact with men who do not allow you to be alone and come around us to hate us... Did you study philosophy? I was a teacher at Cintium... I was a proselyte... And now? Now I am nothing. I live according to the reality of facts. And I hate, as I was and am still hated. Who hates you? Everybody. And God is the first. She was my wife... and God allowed her to be unfaithful to me and ruin me. I was free and respected, and God allowed me to become a convict serving a life sentence. God abandoned me, men were unfair. Both He and they destroyed me. There is nothing left here... and he strikes his forehead and his chest. Rather, here, in my head, there are my thoughts, my knowledge. It is in here that there is nothing and he spits contemptuously. You are wrong. You have still two things there. Which? Remembrance and hatred. Remove them. Become really empty... and I will give you something new to put in there. What? Love. Ah! Ah! You make me laugh. I have not laughed for thirty-five years, man. Since I had the proof that the woman was unfaithful to me with the Roman wine merchant. Love! Love to me! It is like me throwing jewels to my chickens! They would die of indigestion, unless they passed them out with their excrement. The same would happen to me. Your love would be a burden to me, if I could not digest it... No, man! Do not say that! Jesus lays His hand on the man's shoulder, He is deeply and openly distressed. The man looks at Him with his only eye and what he sees on that most sweet and beautiful face causes him to be struck dumb and to change his expression. From being sarcastic he becomes very serious and then really sad. He lowers his head and with a changed voice he asks: Who are You? Jesus of Nazareth. The Messiah. You!!! I. Did you not know about Me, since you read so much? I knew... But I did not know that You were alive and... above all, I did not know this. I did not know that You are good to everybody... thus... also to murderers... Forgive me for what said... about God and love... Now I understand why You want to give me love... Because without love the world is hell, and You the Messiah want to make a paradise of it. A paradise in every heart. Give Me the remembrance and the hatred that make you ill and let Me put love into your heart! Oh! I wish I had known You before!... then... But when I killed, You were certainly not born yet... But later... when I was free, as free as a snake in a forest, I lived to poison people with my hatred. But you did also some good. Did you not say that you cured people by means of herbs? Yes. To be tolerated. But how many times I had to struggle against my desire to poison people by means of potions!... See? I took refuge here

because... it is a place where the world is ignored and which the world ignores. A cursed place. In other places I hated and was hated and I was afraid of being recognised... But I am wicked. You regret having harmed the prison guard. Do you not see that there is still some goodness in you? You are not wicked... Your only trouble is that you have a large open wound, which nobody is curing... Your goodness runs out of it as blood from a wound. But if someone would cure your wound and heal it, My dear brother, goodness would increase in you, because it would no longer vanish as it forms... The man weeps with bent head trying to conceal his tears. Only Jesus Who is walking beside him notices them. He notices but does not say anything further. They arrive at a cavern made of rubble and mountain caves. The man endeavours to steady his voice and says: Here it is. You may go in. Thank you, My friend. Be good. The man does not say anything and remains where he was, while Jesus with His apostles, passing over large stones which must have been part of very strong walls, upsetting green lizards and other ugly looking insects, enters a large smoky grotto, on the walls of which there are still graffiti signs of the zodiac and similar things. In a corner blackened by smoke there is a niche and under it a hole which looks like a gully-hole for water. Bats hanging in disgusting bunches decorate the ceiling and an owl, upset by the light of a branch which James has lit to ensure they do not tread on scorpions or asps, complains flapping its wadded wings and closing its ugly eyes which cannot bear the light. It is perched in the niche, and the foul smell of dead mice, of weasels and birds in decomposition at its feet is mixed with the stench of dung and of the damp soil. It is really a lovely place! says Peter. Your Tabor and your sea were much better, my boy! And then addressing Jesus: Master, satisfy Judas at once because this is not... Antipa's royal hall! Certainly. What is it that you want to know? He asks Judas of Kerioth. Well... I would like to know whether and why Saul sinned coming here... I would like to know whether it is possible for a woman to evoke the dead. I would like to know whether... Oh! It is better if You speak. I will ask You questions. It's a long story. At least let us go out there, in the sunshine, on the stones... We will get away from the dampness and the stench begs Peter. And Jesus agrees. They sit as best they can on the ruins of the walls. Saul's sin was only one of his sins. It was preceded and followed by many more. All of them grave. Double ingratitude towards Samuel who had annointed him king and who subsequently disappeared so as not to share with the king the admiration of the people. He was several times ungrateful to David who saved him from Goliath and spared him in the caves at Engedi and Hachilah. He was guilty of many acts of disobedience and of scandalising his people. He was guilty of grieving his benefactor Samuel by lacking in charity. He was guilty of jealousy, of making attempt on David's life, David being another benefactor of his, and finally, of the crime he committed here. Against whom? He did not kill anyone here. He killed his soul in here, he finished killing it. Why are you lowering your head?

I am thinking, Master. You are thinking. I can see that. What are you thinking of? Why did you want to come? You must admit it was not out of mere curiosity of a scholar. We always hear someone talk of magicians, necromancers, evoked spirits... I wanted to see whether I could discover anything... I would like to know how it is done... I think that since we are destined to amaze people in order to attract them, we should be, somehow, necromancers, too. You are You and You do things by means of Your power. But we must ask for power, for help in order to perform exceptional deeds, which are necessary... Are you mad? What are you saying? shout many. Be quiet. Let him speak. He is not mad. Yes, I thought that by coming here a little of the magic of gone by days would assume possession of me and make me greater. In Your interest, believe me. I know that your present desire is a sincere one. But I will reply to you with eternal words, because they are words of the Bible and the Bible will exist as long as man exists. Believed or mocked at, employed to defend the truth or scorned at, it will always exist. It is written: "And Eve, seeing that the fruit of the tree was good to eat and pleasing to the eye, took it and ate it and gave some to her husband... Then their eyes were opened and they realised that they were naked and they made themselves loin-cloths... And God said: 'How did you realise that you were naked? Only because you ate of the forbidden fruit'. And He expelled them from the garden of delights". And in the book of Saul, it is written: "Samuel appearing said: 'Why have you disturbed me, conjuring me up? Why do you consult me when the Lord has abandoned you? The Lord will deal with you as I told you... because you did not obey the voice of the Lord' ". Son, do not stretch your hand towards the forbidden fruit. It is imprudent even to go near it. Do not be curious to know ultramundane things, lest its satanic poison should conquer you. Avoid the occult and what cannot be explained. One thing only is to be accepted with holy faith: God. But avoid what is not God and what cannot be explained by man's reason or cannot be done by man's power, so that the sources of wickedness may not be opened for you and you may realise that you are "naked". Naked: repellent in your humanity mixed with satanism. Why do you wish to amaze people by means of obscure prodigies? Amaze them through your holiness, which should be as bright as things coming from God. Do not be anxious to rend the veils which separate the living from the dead. Do not disturb the deceased. Listen to them, if they are wise, while they are on the earth, venerate them by obeying them also after their death. But do not upset their second life. Who does not obey the voice of the Lord, loses the Lord. And the Lord has forbidden occultism, necromancy, satanism in all its forms. What more do you wish to know than the Word already tells you? What more do you wish to perform than your goodness and My power enable you to perform? Do not crave for sin, but for holiness, son. Do not feel mortified. I am glad that you disclose your humanity. Many people, too many, like what you like. But the purpose of your desire: "to be powerful to attract people to Me" removes a heavy weight from that humanity and puts wings on it. But they are the wings of a night bird. No, My dear Judas. Put wings as bright as the sun, wings of an angel on your spirit. By the simple breeze caused by flapping them you will attract hearts and will lead them in your wake to God. Can we go? Yes, Master! I was wrong...

No. You have been an inquirer... The world will always be full of them. Come. Let us get away from the stench of this place. Let us go towards the sun! In a few days it will be Passover, and afterwards we will go to your mother's. I conjure her up for you: your honest home, your holy mother. How peaceful it is! As usual, the recollection of his mother and the Master's praise for her, cheer Judas. They come out of the ruins and they begin to descend the path they had walked up previously. The man blind in one eye is still there. Are you still here? asks Jesus pretending that He does not notice that his face is flushed because of the many tears he has shed. Yes, I am still here. I will follow You if You allow me. I have something to tell you... Come with Me, then. What do you want to tell Me? Jesus... I find that to have the strength to speak and to work the holy magic of changing myself, of conjuring up my dead soul as the necromancer evoked Samuel for Saul, I must pronounce Your Name, which is as sweet as Your eyes, and as holy as Your voice. You have given me a new life, but it lacks form and energy, like the life of a new-born baby after a difficult birth. It still struggles in the grip of wicked old habits. Help me to come out of my death. Yes, My friend. I... I have realised that there is still a little humanity in my heart. I am not entirely a beast, and I can still love and be loved, forgive and be forgiven. Your love, which is forgiveness, has taught me. Is it not so? Yes, My friend. Then... take me with You. I was Felix! What an irony! But give me a new name. That my past may be really dead. I will follow You like a stray dog, which finally finds a master. I will be Your slave, if You wish so. But do not leave me alone... Yes, My friend. What name will You give me? A name dear to Me: John. Because you are grace granted by God. Will You take me with You? Yes, for the time being. Later you will follow Me with My disciples. But what about your house? I have no house any longer. I will leave what I have to the poor. Just give me love and bread. Come. Jesus turns round and calls His apostles. I thank you, My friends, and you in particular, Judas. Through you, Judas, through you all, a soul is coming to God. Here is a new disciple. He is coming with us until we can entrust him to our brother disciples. Be happy because you have found a heart and bless God with Me. But the Twelve do not really look very happy. But out of obedience and kindness they welcome him. If You do not mind I will go ahead. You will find me at the door of my house. Yes, go. The man runs away. He seems another man. And now that we are by ourselves I order you, and this is an order, to be kind to him and not to mention his past to anybody. I will immediately reject

anyone who should speak or be uncharitable to our redeemed brother. Is that clear? And see how good the Lord is! We came here for a human purpose and He allows us to go away after achieving a supernatural deed. Oh! I rejoice because of the joy now in Heaven for the new convert. They reach the house. The man is there, on the threshold, wearing a clean dark tunic and a mantle to match it, a pair of new sandals and carrying a large haversack over his shoulder. He closes the door and then, what is strange in a man who might be considered hard-hearted, he takes a white hen, perhaps his pet, which squats tamely in his hands, he kisses it weeping and lays it down. Let us go... and forgive me. But my chicken always loved me... I used to speak to them and... they understood me... I understand you, too... and I love you. So much. I will give you all the love that the world denied you in thirty-five years... Oh! I know! I can feel it! That is why I am coming. But be indulgent to a man who... loves an animal which has been more faithful to him than men. Yes... Forget your past. You will have so much to do! And, experienced as you are, you will do it very well. Simon, come here and you, too, Matthew. See? This man was more than a prisoner, he was a leper. And this one... a sinner. And they are very dear to Me, because they know how to understand poor hearts... Is that right? Thanks to Your goodness, my Lord. But you may rest assured, my friend, that everything is cancelled by serving Him. Only peace remains says the Zealot. Yes. Peace and a new youth take over from old vices and hatred. I was a tax collector. Now I am an apostle. The world is in front of us. And we know all about it. We are not absent-minded children who pass near the harmful fruit and the bending plant and do not see facts. We know. We can avoid evil and teach other people how to avoid it. And we can straighten up those who bend. Because we know what a relief it is to be supported. And we know Who supports: Him says Matthew. That's true! Quite true! You will help me. Thank you. I feel as if I were passing from a dark foul smelling place to the open in a flowery meadow... I felt something similar when I came out, at long last free, after twenty years of imprisonment and brutal work in the mines in Anatolia and I found myself - I escaped one stormy evening - on the top of a wild mountain, but in the open, in a place full of sunshine at dawn, and covered with scented woods... Freedom! But now it is better! Everything is more sublime! I had not been in chains for fifteen years. But hatred, fear and solitude were still like chains to me... But now they have been shaken off!... Here we are at the house of the old man who brought You to me. Ehi! Man! The old man rushes towards them and is dumbfounded seeing the fellow blind in one eye clean, wearing new clothes and smiling. Here, take this. It's the key of my house. I am going away, for good. I am grateful to you because you are my benefactor. You have given me a family. Do what you like with my property... and look after my chicken. Treat them well. A Roman comes every Sabbath and buys eggs... You will make a profit... Take care of my little hens... and may God reward you for it. The old man is astonished... He takes the key and stands openmouthed. Jesus says: Yes, do as he told you and I will be grateful to you, too. I bless you in the name of Jesus.

The Nazarene! You! Mercy! I have spoken to the Lord! Women! Men! The Messiah is here! He screams like an eagle and people rush from everywhere. Bless us! Bless us! they shout. Some shout: Stay here! and others: Where are You going? At least tell us where You are going. To Nain. I cannot stay. We will follow You. Do You mind? Come. Peace and blessing to those who remain here. They go towards the main road and take it. The man, who is walking near Jesus and can hardly carry his haversack, draws Peter's curiosity. What have you got in there that is so heavy? he asks. My clothes... and some books... My friends after and at the same time as the chicken. I could not part with them. But they are heavy. Eh! Science is heavy! Of course! And who likes it, eh? They prevented me from becoming mad. Eh! You must be fond of them! What books are they? Philosophy, history, Greek and Roman poetry... Lovely, certainly lovely. But... do you think you will be able to carry them with you? Perhaps I will be able to part with them. But you cannot do everything at once, can you, Messiah? Call Me Master. No, you cannot. But I will let you have a place where you will be able to keep your friends, your books. They may help you to discuss of God with the heathens. Oh! How free Your thought is from all restrictions! Jesus smiles and Peter exclaims: No wonder! He is Wisdom! And Goodness, believe me. And are you learned? Me? Oh! Most learned. I can tell an allice from a carp and my erudition ends there. I am a fisherman, my friend! and Peter smiles humbly and frankly. You are an honest man. It is a science you learn by yourself. And a very difficult one to learn. I like you. And I like you, too. Because you are sincere. Also when you accuse yourself. I forgive everything, I help everybody. But I am a ruthless enemy of false people. They make me sick. You are right. A false man is a delinquent. A delinquent. You are right. Say, would you mind giving me your sack for a little while? In any case, you may be sure that I will not run away with books... I think you are finding it difficult... Twenty years in a mine breaks your back... But why do you want to toil? Because the Master has taught us to love one another like brothers. Give them to me. And take my rags. My bag is not heavy... There is no history, no poetry in it. My history, my poetry and the other thing you mentioned, is He, my Jesus, our Jesus. 189. The Son of the Widow of Nain. l4th June 1945. Nain must have been a town of some importance in the days of Jesus. It is not a large town, but is well built, surrounded by its walls, lying on a low pleasant hill, an offshoot of the Little Hermon, commanding a very fertile plain which stretches towards the north-east.

One arrives here coming from Endor, after crossing a little river, which flows into the Jordan. But neither the Jordan nor its valley can be seen any longer, because they are concealed by hills which form an arch shaped like a question mark in the east. Jesus follows a main road which links the lake region to the Hermon and its villages. Many inhabitants of Endor walk behind Him talking to one another animatedly. Only a short distance separates the group of the apostles from the walls: about two hundred yards, at most. And as the main road runs straight to one of the town gates, which is wide open because it is broad daylight, it is possible to see what is happening in the inner side of the walls. Thus Jesus, Who is speaking to the apostles and the new convert, sees a funeral coming towards them, with a great noise of weepers and similar eastern displays. Shall we go and see, Master? ask many. And many of the inhabitants of Endor are already rushing to see. Yes, let us go says Jesus condescendingly. Oh! It must be a boy. See how many flowers and ribbons there are on the bier says Judas of Kerioth to John. Or it is probably a virgin replies John. No, it is certainly a young man, because of the shades they have used. And there is no myrtle either... says Bartholomew. The funeral comes out to the other side of the walls. It is not possible to see what there is on the bier, which is carried shoulder high by the bearers. One understands that there is a corpse, enveloped in bandages and covered by a sheet, only because of its outline and that it is the body of a fully grown person, because it is as long as the bier. A veiled woman is walking beside it, weeping, supported by relatives or friends. The only sincere tears in all that farce of mourners. And when a bearer trips on a stone or rise in the ground or stumbles and causes the bier to shake, the mother moans: Oh! no! Be careful! My boy has suffered so much! and she raises her trembling hand to caress the edge of the bier. And as she is unable to do anything else, she kisses the veils and the ribbons, which blown by a gentle breeze lightly touch the immobile corpse. Peter, sympathetic, his good keen eyes welling up with tears whispers: She is the mother. But he is not the only one whose eyes are shining with tears at the sight. Also the Zealot, Andrew, John, and even the ever merry Thomas have tears in their eyes. They are all deeply moved. Judas Iscariot whispers: If it were I! Oh! Poor mother of mine... Jesus, the kindness of Whose eyes is so deep as to be unbearable, directs His steps towards the bier. The mother, who is now sobbing louder because the funeral is about to turn towards the open sepulchre, pushes Him aside resolutely, when she sees that Jesus wants to touch the bier. I wonder what she is afraid of in her grief. She shouts: He is mine! and looks at Jesus with staring eyes. I know, mother. He is yours. He is my only son! Why should he die, he was so good and dear, he was my joy, and I am a widow. Why? The crowd of the hired mourners mourn more loudly, forming a chorus with the mother who continues: Why he, and not I? It is not just that she who has borne a child, should see her offspring perish. The offspring must live, otherwise why was my womb torn to give birth

to a man? and she strikes her abdomen wildly and desperately. Do not do that! Do not weep, mother. Jesus takes her hands clenching them firmly in His left hand, while with His right one He touches the bier saying to the bearers: Stop and put the bier down. The bearers obey and lower the little bed which rests on its four legs. Jesus takes the sheet covering the dead boy and pulls it back uncovering the corpse. The mother shouts her grief and the name of her son, I think: Daniel! Jesus, still clenching the mother's hands in His, stands up, His eyes imposingly bright, the power of miracle shining majestically on His face, lowering His right hand, orders in the full strength of His voice: Young man! I tell you: get up! The dead boy, enveloped in bandages as he is, sits up on the little bed and calls: Mother! He calls her with the stammering frightened voice of a terrified child. He is yours, woman. I give him to you in the name of God. Help him to get rid of the sudarium. And be happy. And Jesus makes the gesture of withdrawing. Impossible! The crowds rivet Him to the bier, on which the mother has thrown herself groping for the bandages, endeavouring to be quick, while the imploring childish moaning repeats: Mother! Mother! The sudarium and bandages are undone and mother and son can embrace each other, and they do so without bothering about the sticky balms, which the mother removes from his dear face and hands, making use of the same bandages. As she has not clothes to put on him, she takes off her mantle and envelops him in it, caressing him all the time... Jesus looks at her... he looks at the loving group, close together on the edge of the little bed, no longer a bier, and He weeps. Judas Iseariot sees His tears and asks: Why are You weeping, my Lord? Jesus turns His face towards him and says: I am thinking of My Mother... The brief conversation draws the woman's attention to her Benefactor. She takes her son by the hand, she supports him because his limbs are still somewhat numb, and kneeling down she says: You, too, my son. Bless this Holy man Who has restored you to life and to your mother and she bends to kiss Jesus' tunic while the crowd sing hosannas to God and to His Messiah, Who by now is well known for what He is, because the apostles and the people of Endor have taken upon themselves to tell Who He is Who worked the miracle. And the crowds exclaim: Blessed be the God of Israel. Blessed be the Messiah, His Messenger! Blessed be Jesus, Son of David! A great Prophet is risen among us! God has really visited His people! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! At last Jesus can steal away and enter the town. The crowd follow and pursue Him, exulting in their love. A man rushes towards Jesus and bows deeply to Him. Please come and stay under my roof. I cannot. Passover prevents Me from making any stop except those programmed. In a few hours it will be sunset and this is Friday... Exactly, that is why I must reach My halting place before sunset. I thank you just the same. But do not keep Me back. I am the head of the synagogue.

So you mean that you are entitled to have Me. Man, if I had arrived here only one hour later, that woman would not have had her son restored to her. I am going where other unhappy people are waiting for Me. Do not be so selfish as to delay their joy. I will certainly come again and I will be with you in Nain for several days. Now let Me go. The man does not insist any more. He only says: As You said. I will wait for You. Yes Peace to you and to the citizens of Nain. Also to you, people of Endor, peace and blessings. Go back to your homes. God has spoken to you through the miracle. Endeavour, through the power of love, to have all your hearts restored to Goodness. A last chorus of hosannas. Then the crowds let Jesus go and He crosses the town diagonally and goes out into the country, towards Esdraelon. 190. From Nain to Esdraelon. Jesus Stays at Micah's. l5th June 1945. The sun is setting in a red sky when Jesus comes in view of Johanan's fields. Let us quicken our pace, My friends, before the sun sets. And you, Peter, go with your brother to inform our friends, Doras' men. I will go indeed, also to see whether the son has really gone away. Peter stresses the word son . And he goes away. In the meantime Jesus proceeds at a slower pace, looking around to see whether any of Johanan's men are about. But He can only see the fertile fields, in which the ears of grain are already well formed. At last, a face, wet with perspiration, appears among the vineleaves and an exclamation is heard: Oh! Blessed Lord! and the peasant runs out of the vineyard and prostrates himself at Jesus' feet. Peace to you, Isaiah! Oh! You remember also my name? It is written in My heart. Stand up. Where are your companions? Over there. In the apple-orchards. But I will tell them at once. You will be our guest, will You not? The master is not here and we can welcome You. In any case... what with the fear, what with the joy... it is better. Just imagine, he gave us a lamb this year and will allow us to go to the Temple! He has given us only six days... but we will run all the way... We will be in Jerusalem, too... Imagine!... And thanks to You. The man is in his seventh heaven of delight because he has been treated as a man and as an Israelite. I have done nothing, as far as I know... says Jesus smiling. Eh! no! You have done a great deal. Doras, and the fields of Doras, and these ones here, which are instead so beautiful this year... Johanan was informed of your visit, and he is not a fool. He is afraid and... and he is afraid. Of what? He is afraid that what happened to Doras may happen to him. Both with regard to his life and to his property. Have You seen Doras' fields? I have come from Nain... In that case You have not seen them. They are a complete ruin. (The man whispers that in a low but clear voice, like someone imparting a secret

concerning something dreadful.) They are all ruined! There is no hay, no fodder, no fruit. Vines and orchards withered... Dead... everything is dead... like Sodom and Gomorrah... Come, I will show You. It is not necessary. I am going to see those peasants... But they are no longer here! Did You not know? Doras, the son of Doras, has scattered them or dismissed them, and the ones he sent to the other country places which belong to him, must not speak of You, or they will be lashed... Not to speak of You! That will be difficult! Also Johanan said so to us. What did he say? He said: "I am not so foolish as Doras and I will not say to you: 'I do not want you to speak of the Nazarene'. It would be useless, because you would do it just the same and I do not want to lose you by lashing you to death like untameable animals. On the contrary I say to you: 'Be good as the Nazarene certainly teaches you and tell Him that I treat you well'. I do not want to be cursed, too". Of course, he can see what these fields are like after You blessed them, and what the ones You cursed are like. Oh! Here are the ones who ploughed the field for me... and the man runs to meet Peter and Andrew. But Peter greets him briefly and proceeds on his way and begins to shout: Oh! Master! There is no one left! They are all new faces. And everything is laid waste! He could very well do without any peasants here. It is worse than the Salt Sea!... I know. Isaiah told Me. But come and see! What a sight... Jesus pleases him after saying to Isaiah: I will stay with you. Tell your companions. But do not go to any trouble. I have enough food. All we need is a barn to sleep in and your love. I will come back soon. The sight of Doras' fields is really distressing. Fields and meadows are dry and barren, vineyards are withered, the foliage and fruit of trees are completely destroyed by millions of insects of all kinds. Also the garden-orchard near the house looks like a desolate dying wood. The peasants wander to and fro uprooting weeds, crushing caterpillars, snails, earth-worms and the like, shaking branches under which they place basins full of water to drown little butterflies, aphides and other parasites which cover the leaves and eat away the plant until it dies. They endeavour to find a sign of life in the vine-shoots, which break like dry wood as soon as they are touched and some times fall off the main branch, as if the roots had been cut by a saw. The contrast with Johanan's fields, vineyards and orchards is most striking and the ruin of the cursed fields seems more impressive when compared to the fruitfulness of the others. The hand of the God of Sinai is a heavy one whispers Simon the Zealot. Jesus makes a gesture as if to say: How right you are! but He does not say anything. He only asks: How did it happen? A peasant replies between his teeth: Moles, locusts, worms... but go away! The steward is faithful to Doras... Don't cause us trouble... Jesus sighs and goes away. Another peasant, who is bent under an apple-tree earthing it up, in the hope he may save it, says: We will reach You tomorrow... when the steward goes to Jezreel for the prayer... we will come to Micah's house. Jesus makes the gesture of blessing and goes away. When He goes back to the cross-road, all the peasants of Johanan are there

and joyful and happy they surround their Messiah and take Him to their poor dwellings. Did You see, over there? Yes, I did. Doras' peasants are coming tomorrow. Of course, when the hyenas go to pray... We do that every Sabbath... and we speak of You, we tell what we heard from You in Tishri. We speak as best we can. Because it is impossible not to speak of You. And the more we suffer, the more we are forbidden, the more we speak of You. Those poor people... they drink the essence of life every Sabbath... But how many there are in this plain who are in need of knowing, of knowing You at least, and yet they cannot come here... I will see to them as well. And may you be blessed for what you do. The sun is setting while Jesus enters a kitchen blackened by smoke. The Sabbath rest begins.

Vol 3 INDEX THE SECOND YEAR OF THE PUBLIC LIFE (Conclusion) * on line * 275. Avarice and the Foolish Rich Man. 276. In the Garden of Mary of Magdala: Love for One's Neighbour. 277. Jesus Sends the Seventy-Two Disciples. 278. Jesus Meets Lazarus at the Field of the Galileans. 56 279. The Seventy-Two Disciples Report to Jesus What They Have Done. 280. At the Temple for the Tabernacles. 281. At the Temple They Are Aware of Ermasteus, of John of Endor and of Syntyche. 282. Syntyche Speaks in Lazarus' House. 283. The Mission of Four Apostles in Judaea. 284. Jesus Leaves Bethany for Trans-Jordan. 285. Arrival at Ramoth with the Merchant from the Other Side of the Euphrates.

286. From Ramoth to Gerasa. 287. Preaching at Gerasa. 288. The Sabbath at Gerasa. 289. From Gerasa to the Fountain of the Cameleer. 290. Going to Bozrah. 291. At Bozrah. 292. The Sermon and Miracles at Bozrah. 293. Farewell to the Women Disciples. 294. At Arbela. 295. Going to Aera. 296. Jesus Preaches at Aera. 297. The Little Orphans Mary and Matthias. 298. Mary and Matthias Are Entrusted to Johanna of Chuza. 299. At Nain, in the House of Daniel Raised from the Dead. 300. In the Sheepfold at Endor. 301. From Endor to Magdala. 302. Jesus at Nazareth for the Dedication. 303. Jesus with John of Endor and Syntyche at Nazareth. 304. Jesus' Lesson to Marjiam. 305. Simon Zealot at Nazareth. 306. An Evening at Home in Nazareth. 307. Jesus and the Wife of His Cousin Simon. 308. Simon Goes Back to Jesus. 309. Simon Peter at Nazareth. 310. Jesus Speaks about the Holy Economy of Universal Love. 311. John of Endor Will Have to Go to Antioch. End of the Second Year. THE THIRD YEAR OF THE PUBLIC LIFE

312. The Beginning of the Third Year at Nazareth, while Preparing for Departure. 313. Departure from Nazareth. 314. Towards Jiphthahel. 315. Jesus' Farewell to the Two Disciples. 316. Jesus' Sorrow, Prayer and Penance. 317. Leaving Ptolemais for Tyre. 318. Departure from Tyre on a Cretan Ship. 319. Storm and Miracles on the Ship. 320. Arrival and Landing at Seleucia. 321. From Seleucia to Antioch. 322. At Antigonea. 323. Farewell to Antioch after Preaching. 324. Return of the Eight Apostles and Arrival at Achzib. 325. At Achzib with Six Apostles. 326. Evangelizing at the Border of Phoenicia. 327. Arrival at Alexandroscene. 57 328. The Day after at Alexandroscene. Parable of the Vineyard Labourers. 329. The Sons of Thunder. Going towards Achzib with the Shepherd Annas. 330. The Cananean Mother.

331. Bartholomew Has Understood and Suffered. 332. On the Way Back to Galilee. 333. Meeting Judas Iscariot and Thomas. 334. Ishmael Ben Fabi. The Parable of the Banquet. 335. Jesus at Nazareth with His Cousins and with Peter and Thomas. 336. The Crippled Woman of Korazim. 337. Going towards Saphet. The Parable of the Good Farmer. 338. Going towards Meiron. 339. At Hillel's Sepulchre at Giscala. 340. The Deaf-Mute Cured near the Phoenician Border. 341. At Kedesh. The Signs of the Times. 342. Going towards Caesarea Philippi. Peter's Primacy. 343. At Caesarea Philippi. 344. At the Castle in Caesarea Paneas. 345. Jesus Predicts His Passion for the First Time. Peter Is Reproached. 346. Prophecy on Peter and Marjiam. The Blind Man at Bethsaida. 347. From Capernaum to Nazareth with Manaen and the Women Disciples. 348. The Transfiguration and the Curing of the Epileptic. 349. Lesson to the Disciples after the Transfiguration. 350. The Tribute to the Temple and the Stater in the Mouth of the Fish. 351. The Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Little Benjamin of Capernaum. 352. Second Miracle of the Loaves. 353. The Bread from Heaven. 354. Nicolaus of Antioch. Second Announcement of the Passion. 355. Going towards Gadara. 356. The Night at Gadara and the Sermon on Divorce. 357. At Pella. 358. In Matthias' House beyond Jabesh-Gilead. 359. Rose of Jericho. 360. Miracle on the Jordan in Flood. 361. On the Other Bank. Jesus Meets His Mother and the Women Disciples. 362. At Ramah. The Number of the Elect. 363. At the Temple. The "Our Father" and a Parable on True Sons. 364. At Gethsemane and Bethany. 365. Letters from Antioch. 366. The Thursday before Passover. Morning Preliminaries. 367. The Thursday before Passover. At the Temple. 368. The Thursday before Passover. Instructions to the Apostles. 369. The Thursday before Passover. In Johanna of Chuza's House. 370. The Thursday before Passover. The Evening. 371. Preparation Day. The Morning. 372. Preparation Day. At the Temple. 373. Preparation Day. In the Streets of Jerusalem. 374. Preparation Day. The Evening. 375. The Sabbath of the Unleavened Bread. 376. Mary Has Chosen the Better Part. 377. Jesus Speaks at Bethany. 378. Towards Mount Adomin. 379. After the Retreat upon Mount Cherith. 380. The Parable of the Unfaithful Steward. Essenes and Pharisees.

58 381. In Nike's House. 382. At the Ford between Jericho and Bethabara. 383. In Solomon's House. Old Ananias. 384. At the Cross-Road near Solomon's Village. Parable of the Labour Agents. 385. Towards the Western Bank of the Jordan. 386. At Gilgal. The Beggar Ogla. The Twelve Stones. 387. Towards Engedi. Taking Leave of Judas Iscariot and Simon Zealot. 388. Arrival at Engedi. 389. Preaching and Miracles at Engedi. 390. Elisha of Engedi. 391. At Masada. 392. At the Country House of Mary Mother of Judas. 393. Farewell to Kerioth. Parable of the Two Wills. 394. Anne of Kerioth. Farewell to Judas' Mother. 395. Farewell to Juttah. 396. Farewell to Hebron. 397. Farewell to Bethzur. 398. At Bether. 399. Jesus at Bether with Peter and Bartholomew. 400. Farewell to Bether. 401. Simon of Jonah' Struggle and Spiritual Victory. 402. Going towards Emmaus on the Plain. 403. Little Michael and Preaching near Emmaus on the Plain. 404. At Joppa Jesus Speaks to Judas of Kerioth and to Some Gentiles. 405. In the Estate of Nicodemus. The Parable of the Two Sons. 406. At the Estate of Joseph of Arimathea. 407. In the House of Joseph of Arimathea on a Sabbath. John, a Member of the Sanhedrin. 408. The Apostles Speak. 409. The Miraculous Gleaning in the Plain. 410. The Lily of the Valley. 411. In Jerusalem for Pentecost. 412. Jesus at the Banquet of Helkai, the Pharisee and Member of the Sanhedrin. 413. At Bethany. THE SECOND YEAR OF THE PUBLIC LIFE (Conclusion)

THE THIRD YEAR OF THE PUBLIC LIFE

10. The Beginning of the Third Year at Nazareth, while Preparing for Departure. 29th October 1945. John, James, Matthew and Andrew have already arrived in Nazareth and while waiting for Peter, they are walking round the kitchen garden, playing with Marjiam or talking among themselves. I do not see anybody else, as if Jesus were not in the house and Mary were busy. As there is smoke coming from the stone-oven chimney, I would say that She is in there baking bread. The four apostles are glad to be in the Master's house and they show their joy. Marjiam says to them three times: Do not laugh like that! . His third warning draws the attention of Matthew, who asks: Why, boy? Are we not right in being happy here? You have enjoyed this place, eh? We are enjoying it now and fillips him fondly on the cheek. Marjiam looks at him very seriously, but he does not reply. Jesus comes in with His cousins Judas and James, who greet their companions with much affection: they have been separated from them for many days. Mary of Alphaeus, flushed and covered with flour, looks out from the stone-oven and smiles at her big boys. The last to arrive is the Zealot, who says: I have done everything, Master. Simon will be here shortly. Which Simon? My brother or Simon of Jonah? Your brother, James. He is coming with the whole family to greet you. In fact a few minutes later, knocking at the door and noisy chattering announce the arrival of the family of Simon of Alphaeus, who is the first to enter holding by the hand a little boy about eight years old; behind him there is Salome, surrounded by her group of children. Mary of Alphaeus runs out of the stone-oven and kisses her grandchildren and is very happy to see them there. So, are You leaving again? asks Simon while his children make friends with Marjiam who, I think, is familiar only with Alphaeus, the boy who has been cured. Yes. It is time. You will still have wet weather.

It does not matter. Springtime is approaching day by day. Are You going to Capernaum? I will certainly go there as well. But not at once. I am now going round Galilee and beyond it. I will come to see You when I hear that You are in Capernaum. And I will bring Your Mother and mine to You. I will be grateful to you. For the time being, do not neglect Her. She will be all alone. Bring your children here. They will not become corrupted here, you may be sure of that... Simon blushes at Jesus' allusion to his past thoughts and because of an expressive look cast at him by his wife, who seems to be saying: Do you hear that? It serves you right. But Simon changes the subject saying: Where is Your Mother? She is baking bread. She will soon be here... Simon's children, however, wait no longer and they go to the stone-oven following their grandmother. And a little girl, not much taller than Alphaeus, the boy who had been cured, comes out almost immediately saying: Mary is weeping. Why? Eh! Jesus? Why is Your Mother weeping? Is She weeping? Oh! dear! Let me go to Her says Salome solicitously. And Jesus explains: She is weeping because I am going away... But you will come and keep Her company, will you not? She will teach you how to embroider and you will make Her happy. Will you promise Me? I will come, too, now that my father lets me come says Alphaeus eating a hot bun which has just been given to him. But although the bun is so hot that he can hardly hold it with his fingers, I think it is ice-cold compared to the heat suffered by Simon of Alphaeus, who blushes with shame at the words of his little boy. Although it is a rather cold winter morning, with a northern breeze blowing away the clouds in the sky and making one's skin tingle, Simon is sweating profusely, as if it were summer time... But Jesus pretends not to notice it and the apostles pretend they are interested in what Simon's children are saying, and so the incident is over, and Simon can collect himself and ask Jesus why all the apostles are not there. Simon of Jonah is about to arrive. The others will join Me at the right moment. It has all been settled. All of them? Yes. Also Judas of Kerioth? Yes...

Jesus, come with me for a moment begs His cousin Simon. And once they have moved away, towards the end of the kitchen garden, Simon asks: But do You really know who is Judas of Simon? He is an Israelite. Nothing more, nothing less. Oh! You are not going to tell me... he is on the point of getting excited and raising his voice. But Jesus calms him, interrupting him and laying a hand on his shoulder, saying: He is what prevailing ideas and those who approach him, have made him. Because, for instance, if he had found an upright soul and an intelligent mind in everybody here (and He lays stress on the words) he would not have been anxious to sin. But he did not find them. On the contrary, he found an entirely human element to which he adapted most comfortably his very human ego, which dreams and works for Me and sees in Me the king of Israel, in the human meaning of the word, as you dream and would like to see Me, and for Whom you would feel inclined to work, and your brother Joseph with you, as well as Levi, the head of the synagogue in Nazareth, and Mattathias and Simon and Matthias and Benjamin, and Jacob and, with the exception of three or four people, everybody in Nazareth. And not only in Nazareth... He has difficulty in perfecting himself, because you all contribute to his perversion. He is the weakest of My apostles. But for the time being, he is but a weak apostle. His impulses are good, his intentions are honest and he loves Me. He loves Me in a devious way, but it is still love. You do not help him to separate these good qualities from the bad ones that form his ego, on the contrary you aggravate them by adding to them your own incredulity and human limitations... But let us go home. The others have gone there ahead of us... Simon follows Him and looks a little humiliated. They are almost on the threshold when he holds back Jesus and says: Brother, are You angry with me? No, I am not. But I am endeavouring to perfect you as I do with all the other disciples. Did you not say that you want to be one? Yes, Jesus. But in the past You did not speak thus, not even when You were reproaching... You were kinder... And of what avail was it? I was kinder once. I have been so for two years... Everybody here has become loose resting on My patience and kindness or has sharpened teeth and nails... You have all taken advantage of My love, to harm Me. Is it not so?... Yes, it is. It is true. So, will You no longer be good? I will be just. And even so, I shall be such as you do not deserve, you people of Israel, who will not acknowledge Me as the

promised Messiah. They go into the little room that is so crowded with people, that the apostles had to move into the kitchen and into Joseph's workshop, with the exception of Alphaeus' two sons, who have remained with their mother and sister-in-law. The latter are joined by Mary, Who comes in holding little Alphaeus by the hand. Mary's face shows clear signs of weeping. While She is about to reply to Simon, who assures Her that he will come to see Her every day, a cart is proceeding along the little street with such a clanging of harness bells that it draws the attention of Alphaeus' children and the door is opened at the same time as they hear knocking outside. Simon Peter's merry face appears: he is still sitting on the cart, knocking at the door with the handle of the whip... Beside him, shy but smiling, there is Porphirea, sitting on cases and boxes, as on a throne. Marjiam runs out and climbs on the cart to greet his adoptive mother. The others also come out, including Jesus. Master, here I am. I brought my wife, on this cart, as she is not fit for long walks. Mary, may the Lord be with You. And with you, Mary of Alphaeus. He looks at everybody while getting off the vehicle and helps his wife to get off, and greets them all together. They would like to help him unload the cart. But he objects resolutely. Later, later he says, and without ceremony, he goes to the large door of Joseph's workshop and opens it wide, endeavouring to take the cart in, as it is. But it cannot go in, of course. However the manoeuvre helps to distract the attention of the guests and make them understand that they are not wanted... And in fact Simon of Alphaeus takes leave with all his family... Oh! now that we are by ourselves, let us attend to our business... says Simon of Jonah, driving back the donkey, which is making a dreadful noise, covered as it is with harness-bells, so much so that James of Zebedee cannot help laughing and asks: Where did you find it, harnessed like that? But Peter is busy taking the cases from the cart and handing them to John and Andrew, who expect to feel them heavy and are surprised because they are light, and they say so... Run into the kitchen garden and do not behave like frightened sparrows orders Peter, getting off the cart with a little case that is really heavy, and is placed in a corner in the little room. And now the donkey and the cart. The donkey and the cart? Yes... That is the problem!... And yet we must put everything inside... Through the kitchen garden, Simon says Mary in a low voice.

There is an opening in the fence, at the end. You cannot see it, because it is covered by branches... But it is there. Follow the path along the house, between the house and our neighbour's kitchen garden, and I will come and show you where the passage is... Who is coming to remove the bramble covering it? I am... I am... They all run to the end of the kitchen garden while Peter goes away with his noisy equipage and Mary of Alphaeus closes the door... With a sickle they clear the rustic railing and open a passage through which the donkey and cart come in. Oh! Well! And now let us take all this away. They have deafened me! and Peter hastens to cut the strings which fasten the bells to the harness. Why did you leave them on, then? asks Andrew. So that everyone in Nazareth could hear me arrive. And it was a success... I am now taking them off, so that no one in Nazareth may hear us depart. And that is why I loaded the cart with empty cases... We will leave with full ones and no one, should anybody see us, will be surprised seeing a woman sitting beside me on the cases. Our friend, the one who is far away from us just now, boasts that he has a good practical sense. But I have it, too, when I want... Excuse me, brother. Why is all this necessary? asks Andrew who has watered the donkey and taken it to the rustic wood-store near the stone-oven. Why? Don't you know?... Master, do they not know yet? No, Simon. I was waiting for you. Come into the workshop, all of you. The women are all right where they are. You did the right thing in doing what you did, Simon of Jonah. They go into the workshop, while Porphirea with the boy and the two Maries remain in the house. I wanted you here, because you must help Me to send John and Syntyche away, very far away. I decided so at the Feast of the Tabernacles. You have clearly seen that it was not possible to keep them with us, neither can we keep them here, without risking their peace. As usual, Lazarus of Bethany is helping Me in this plan. They have already been informed. Simon Peter was told a few days ago. You are being informed now. We are leaving Nazareth tonight, even if it should rain or be windy instead of moonlight of the first quarter. We should have already left. But I suppose that Simon of Jonah must have had difficulties in finding transport... I did, indeed! I was almost giving up hope. But at long last I got it from a slimy Greek in Tiberias... And it will be useful... Yes, it will be very useful, particularly for John of Endor. Where is he? I have not seen him asks Peter.

In his room with Syntyche. And... how did he take it? asks Peter again. Very sorrowfully. Also the woman... And You as well, Master. Your forehead is furrowed with a wrinkle, which was not there before, and Your eyes are sad and severe remarks John. It is true. I am deeply grieved... But let us speak of what we have to do. Listen to Me carefully, because we shall have to part. We will leave this evening, half way through the first watch. We shall leave like people who run away... because they are guilty. But we are not going away to do anything wrong, neither are we escaping because we have done it. We are going away to prevent other people from harming those who would not be strong enough to bear it. So we are leaving... We will go via Sephoris... We will stop in a house half-way and then leave at dawn. It is a house with many porches for animals. There are shepherds there who are friends of Isaac. I know them. They will give Me hospitality without asking any questions. Then we must reach Jiphthahel by evening and rest there. Do you think the donkey will be able to do it? Certainly! That crafty Greek made me pay for it, but he gave me a good strong animal. Very good. The following morning we will go to Ptolemais, and we will part there. Under the guidance of Peter, who is your head, and whom you must obey unconditionally, you will go to Tyre by sea. You will find a ship there sailing to Antioch. You will go on board and give this letter to the owner of the ship. The letter is from Lazarus of Theophilus. You will be believed to be his servants, sent to his land at Antioch, or rather to his garden at Antigonea. And you are to be such for everybody. Be careful, serious, wise and quiet. When you arrive at Antioch, go at once to Philip, Lazarus' steward, and give him this letter... Master, he knows me says the Zealot. Very well. But how can he believe that I am a servant? In the case of Philip it is not necessary. He knows that he has to receive and give hospitality to two friends of Lazarus' and help them in every way. That is written in the letter. You have taken them there. Nothing else. He calls you: "his dear friends from Palestine". And that is what you are, united by faith and by the action that you are accomplishing. You will rest there until the ship sails again for Tyre after the unloading and loading operations are completed. From Tyre you will come by boat to Ptolemais and join Me at Achzib...

Why do You not come with us, Lord? asks John with a sigh. Because I am staying to pray for you, and particularly for those two poor people. I am staying to pray. And My third year of public life begins. It begins with a very sad departure; like the first and second ones. It begins with a great prayer and penance, as the first one did... Because this year has the sorrowful hardships of the first year, and even more. I was then preparing to convert the world. I am now preparing for a wider and more powerful action. But listen to Me carefully and bear in mind that if in the first year I was the Man-Master, the Wise Man Who invites to Wisdom with perfect humanity and intellectual perfection, and in the second I was the Saviour and Friend, the Merciful Master Who passes by receiving, forgiving, pitying, bearing, in the third year I will be the Redeemer God and King, the Just Man. Do not, therefore, be surprised if you see new aspects of Me, and if in the Lamb you see flashes of Strength. What has Israel replied to My invitation of love, to My opening My arms saying: "Come: I love and forgive"? It replied with its ever growing deliberate dullness and hard-heartedness, with falsehood and deceit. Let it be so. I called every class of Israel, bowing My head to the dust. They spat on Holiness that humbled itself. I invited them to become holy. They replied by becoming demons. I did My duty in everything. They called My duty "sin". I was silent. They called My silence a proof of guilt. I spoke. They called My word blasphemy. Enough of that, now! They gave Me no peace. They granted Me no joy. And My joy consisted in bringing up in the life of the spirit the new-born to Grace. They lie in wait for them, and I have to tear them from My chest, causing them and Myself the grief of parents and children torn from one another, in order to save them from evil-minded Israel. They, the mighty ones in Israel, who call themselves "sanctifiers" and boast of being so, prevent Me, would like to prevent Me from saving souls and from taking delight in those I have saved. I have now had for many months Levi, a publican, as a friend and at My service, and the world can see whether Matthew is scandal or emulation. But the charge stands. And it will stand for Mary of Lazarus and for all the others I will save. That is enough! I will go My way, which is more and more difficult and wet with tears... I am going... Not one of My tears will fall in vain. They cry to My Father... And later... a much more powerful humour will cry. I am going... Let those who love Me follow Me and be virile, because the severe hour is coming. I will not stop. Nothing will stop Me. Neither will they stop... But woe betide them! Woe to them! Woe to those for whom Love becomes Justice!... The sign of the new time will be of severe Justice for all

those who are obstinate in their sin against the words of the Lord and the action of the Word of the Lord!... Jesus seems a punishing archangel. His eyes are so bright that I would say that they are like flames against the smoky wall... Even His voice seems to be bright, as it has shrill tones of bronze and silver struck violently. The eight apostles have turned pale and have almost become smaller for fear. Jesus looks at them... full of pity and love. He says: I am not referring to you, My friends. These threats are not for you. You are My apostles and I chose you. His voice has become kind and deep. He concludes: Let us go into the house. Let us make the two persecuted disciples feel that we love them more than ourselves, and I would remind you that they believe they are leaving to prepare My way in Antioch. Come...

313. Departure from Nazareth. 30th October 1945. It is evening. Another farewell evening for the little house in Nazareth and its inhabitants. Another supper during which grief makes people silent and unwilling to eat. Jesus, John, Syntyche, Peter, John, Simon and Matthew are sitting at the table. It was not possible for the others to sit there. The table in Nazareth is so small! It was made just for a small family of honest people, who at most can invite to sit at it a pilgrim or an afflicted person to give them refreshment of love rather than of food! Marjiam might have been able to sit at it tonight, as he is a very thin boy and takes up little room... But Marjiam is very serious and silent and is eating in a corner, sitting on a little stool at the feet of Porphirea, whom Mary has sat on the seat of Her loom and who, meek and reserved as she is, is eating the food which they have given her, looking with eyes full of pity at the two about to depart, who endeavour to swallow their food with lowered heads to conceal their faces reddened by weeping. The others, that is, the two sons of Alphaeus, Andrew and James of Zebedee have settled in the kitchen, near a kind of kneading trough. But they can be seen through the open door. The Blessed Virgin and Mary of Alphaeus come and go serving this one and that one, with motherly care although they are worried and sad. And if the Blessed Virgin caresses with Her smile, so sad this evening, those whom She approaches, Mary of Alphaeus, less reserved and more informal, adds actions and words to her smiles,

and more than once she encourages with a caress or a kiss, according to whoever benefits by it, this one or that one to take the food most suitable to their needs and in consideration of the imminent journey. I think that out of loving pity for John, who is exhausted and has become even thinner during the days of expectation, she would give herself as food to him, so anxious she is to convince him he should eat this or that dish, the flavour and beneficial properties of which she praises. But notwithstanding her... enticement, the food remains almost intact on John's plate and Mary of Alphaeus is distressed like a mother who sees her unweaned babe refuse her breast. But you cannot leave like that, son! she exclaims. And in her motherly love she does not consider that John is about her own age and that the name son is not appropriate. But she sees in him only a suffering human being and thus does not find any other name to comfort him... It will do you no good to travel on an empty stomach, on that shaking cart, in the cold dampness of the night. And then! Goodness knows what you will eat during the dreadful long journey!... Eternal mercy! At sea for so many miles! I would be frightened to death. And along Phoenician coasts and later!... even worse! And the owner of the ship will certainly be a Philistine, or a Phoenician or from some other hellish country... and will have no mercy on you... So, while you are still close to a mother who loves you, eat!... a little bit of this exquisite fish. Just to please Simon of Jonah who prepared it at Bethsaida with so much love and taught me how to cook it for you and Jesus, so that it may nourish you. You definitely do not want it?... Well... Oh! You will eat this! ... and she runs into the kitchen and comes back with a tureen full of a steaming pudding. I do not know what it is... It is certainly a kind of flour or corn mashed with milk: Look, I made this because I remembered that one day you spoke of it as a sweet remembrance of your childhood... It is good and will do you good. Come on, just a little. John lets her put some spoonfuls of the soft meal in his plate and tries to swollow it, but tears stream down his face adding their salt to the food, while he lowers his head even more towards his plate. All the others do ample justice to the dish, which is perhaps exquisite. Their faces have brightened up in seeing it and Marjiam has stood up... but then he felt that he had to ask the Blessed Virgin: May I eat some? It wants five days to the end of my vow... Yes, son. You may have some says Mary caressing him. But the boy is still uncertain and Mary, to appease the scruple of

the little disciple, asks Her Son: Jesus, Marjiam wants to know whether he can eat the pudding of barley meal... because of the honey which makes it a sweet dish, You know... Of course you can, Marjiam. I dispense you this evening from your sacrifice, providing John eats his honey pudding as well. See how keen the boy is to have it? Help him, so that he may have some and Jesus, Who is near John, takes his hand and holds it while John obediently strives to finish his helping. Mary of Alphaeus is now happier. And she makes a fresh assault with a lovely dish of steaming pears, baked in the oven. She comes back in from the kitchen garden with her tray and says: It's raining. It has just begun. What a nuisance! No! On the contrary! There will be no one in the streets. It is always sad to say goodbye when one leaves... It is better to go away sailing before the wind, without running into sandbanks or rocks which make one stop or slow down. And curious people are just like sandbanks and rocks... says Peter who sees sails and sailing in every action. Thank you, Mary. But I do not want anything else says John in an attempt to refuse fruit. Ah! Not these! Mary cooked them. Are you going to despise the food that She prepared? Look how well She prepared them! With spices in the little cavity... dressed with butter... They are food fit for a king. A julep. She got brown Herself standing near the fire to glaze them like that. And they are good for your throat and your cough... They warm and cure you. Mary, tell him how they helped my Alphaeus when he was ill. But he wanted You to cook them. Of course! Your hands are holy and bestow health!... The food that You prepare is blessed indeed!... My Alphaeus was calmer after eating Your pears... he breathed more freely... My poor husband!... and Mary takes advantage of her recollection to be able to weep at last and to go out to weep. Perhaps I am evil-minded, but I do not think that Mary would have shed a tear for her poor Alphaeus that evening, had she not felt pity for the two who were about to leave... Mary of Alphaeus was so deeply grieved for John and Syntyche and so distressed at the departure of Jesus, James and Judas, that she burst into tears in order not to suffocate. Mary now replaces her and lays a hand on the shoulder of Syntyche, who is sitting opposite Jesus, between Simon and Matthew. Come on. Eat up. Are you going to leave and let Me worry also because you have gone away on almost empty stomachs? I have eaten, Mother says Syntyche looking up and showing

her tired face marked by several days' weeping. She then lowers her head towards her shoulder, on which Mary's hand is resting, and rubs her cheek on the little hand to be caressed. With Her other hand Mary caresses her hair and draws towards Herself the head of Syntyche, whose face now rests on Her breast. Eat, John. It will really do you good. You must not get cold. Simon of Jonah, you will see that every evening he has some hot milk with honey, or at least some hot water and honey. Remember that. I will see to that, as well, Mother. You may rest assured says Syntyche. I am sure in fact. But you will do that when you are settled in Antioch. Simon of Jonah will see to it, for the time being. And remember, Simon, to give him much olive oil. That is why I gave you the little oil jar. Watch that it does not get broken. And if you see that he has difficulty in breathing, do as I told you, using the other little vase of balm. Take enough of it to rub his chest, shoulders and kidneys. Warm it first so that you can touch it without burning yourself, then rub it on and cover him immediately with the woollen bands I gave you. I prepared the balm for that special purpose. And you, Syntyche, remember its composition, so that you can make more. You will always be able to find lilies, camphor, dittany, resin and cloves with laurel, artemisia and the rest. I hear that Lazarus has gardens of essence plants at Antigonea. And they are wonderful says the Zealot who has seen them. And he adds: I do not want to advise anything. But I say that that place should be more healthy for John, both for his spirit and his body, than Antioch. It is sheltered from winds, light air comes from thickets of resin plants on the slopes of a little hill, which protects from sea winds but allows benign sea salts to spread there, it is serene and quiet and yet cheerful because of the large variety of flowers and birds that live there in peace... You will see yourselves what suits you best. Syntyche is so sensible! It is better to rely upon women in certain matters. Is it not? In fact I entrust My John just to Syntyche's good sense and kind heart says Jesus. And so do I says John of Endor. I... I... I have no more vigour... and... I will never be of any use... Do not say that, John! When autumn strips trees of their leaves, it does not mean that they are already inert. On the contrary they work with concealed energy to prepare the triumph of the next fructification. It is the same with you. You have been stripped by the

cold wind of your pain. But in actual fact in the depths of your soul you are already working for new ministries. Your very grief will be a spur to be active. I am sure of that. And then you, always you, will be the one to help me, a poor woman, who has still so much to learn to become something of Jesus. Oh! What do you expect me to be?! There is nothing I can do... I am a done man! No. It is not right to say that! Only a dying man can say: "I am a finished man". Nobody else. Do you think that you have nothing else to do? You still have to do what you told me one day: to complete the sacrifice. How can you, but by suffering? It is silly, John, to quote wise authors to you, a school master, but I would remind you of Gorgias of Leontina (or Leontine). He taught that one does not expiate, in this life or in the next one, but through sorrow and suffering. And I would remind you also of our great Socrates: "To disobey who is above us, be it god or a man, is evil and shameful". Now, if it was right to do so for an unjust judgement, passed by unjust men, what will it be if done by order of the most holy Man and of our God? Obedience is a great thing, simply because it is obedience. So, most great is the obedience to a holy order, which I consider, and you must consider with me, a great mercy. You always say that your life is approaching its end and that you do not yet feel that you have cancelled your debt with Justice. So why do you not consider this deep grief as a means of cancelling your debt, and do so in the short time you still have? A great grief to achieve a great peace! Believe me, it is worth suffering it. The only important thing in life is to have conquered Virtue when we arrive at the hour of our death. You encourage me, Syntyche... Please always do so. I will. I promise you here. But comply with me, as a man and as a Christian. The meal is over. Mary collects the pears which have been left and puts them in a vase, which She hands to Andrew, who goes out and comes back in saying: It is raining harder and harder. I would say that it is better... Yes. It is always an agony to wait. I am going at once to prepare the donkey. And you can come as well, with the chests and everything else. You, too, Porphirea. Quick! You are so patient that even the donkey is subdued and allows you to dress it (he says exactly that) without reacting. Afterwards Andrew will do it, as he is like you. Quick, all of you! And Peter pushes everybody, with the exception of Mary, Jesus, John of Endor and Syntyche, out of the room and the kitchen.

Master! Oh! Master, help me! The hour has come... and I feel that my heart is breaking! It has really come! Oh! why, good Jesus, did You not let me die here, after I had received the dreadful news of my sentence and I had striven to accept it?! And John collapses on Jesus' chest, weeping distressingly. Mary and Syntyche endeavour to calm him, and Mary, although always so reserved, detaches him from Jesus, embracing and calling him: My dear son, My darling son ... Syntyche in the meantime kneels at Jesus' feet saying: Bless me, consecrate me, that I may be fortified. Lord, Saviour and King, I, here, in the presence of Your Mother, swear and profess that I will follow Your doctrine and serve You until I breathe my last. I swear and profess that I will devote myself to Your doctrine and its followers for Your sake, my Master and Saviour. I swear and profess that there will be no other purpose in my life and that everything that is world and flesh is definitely dead, as far as I am concerned, whilst, with the help of God and of the prayers of Your Mother, I hope to defeat the Demon so that he may not lead me into error and I may not be condemned at the hour of Your Judgement. I swear and profess that allurements and threats will not bend me and I will remember everything, unless God allows otherwise. But I hope in Him and I believe in His bounty, whereby I am sure that He will not leave me at the mercy of obscure powers, stronger than my own. Consecrate Your servant, o Lord, that she may be protected from the snares of every enemy. Jesus lays His hands on her head, as also priests do, and prays over her. Mary leads John beside Syntyche and makes him kneel saying: Bless this one, too, Son, that he may serve You with holiness and peace. And Jesus repeats the gesture on the lowered head of poor John. He then lifts him and makes Syntyche stand up, and putting their hands in the hands of Mary He says: And let Her be the last one to caress you here and He goes out quickly, I do not know where. Mother, goodbye! I will never forget these days moans John. Neither will I forget you, dear son. I, too, Mother... Goodbye. Let me kiss You once more... Oh! after so many years I had satisfied my desire for maternal kisses!... But no longer now... Syntyche weeps in the arms of Mary Who kisses her. John sobs unreservedly. Mary embraces him also, She now has both of them in Her arms, the true Mother of Christians, and with Her most pure lips She touches John's wrinkled face lightly: a

chaste, but so loving kiss. And with Her kiss there are tears of the Blessed Virgin on the emaciated cheek... Peter comes in: It's ready. Come on... and he cannot say anything else because he is deeply moved. Marjiam, who follows his father like a shadow, clings on to Syntyche's neck and kisses her, he then embraces John and kisses him repeatedly... But he is weeping as well. They go out. Mary is holding Syntyche by the hand, and John has taken Marjiam's. Our mantles... says Syntyche and she makes the gesture of going back to the house. They are here. Quick, take them... Peter feigns coarseness as he does not want to show that he is moved, but with the back of his hand he wipes off his tears standing behind the two who are enveloping themselves in their mantles. Over there, beyond the hedge, the little swinging lamp of the cart gives a yellowish light in the dark air... The rain rustles among the olive leaves and resounds in the fountain full of water... A dove, awakened by the light of the lamps, which the apostles are shielding under their mantles, holding them low to illuminate the paths full of puddles, is cooing lamentingly... Jesus is already near the cart over which a blanket has been spread to act as a roof. Come on, quick, it's raining hard! urges Peter. And while James of Zebedee replaces Porphirea at the bridle, Peter, without ceremony, lifts Syntyche off the ground and puts her on the cart, and with greater speed he grasps John of Endor and throws him on. He gets on himself and gives the poor donkey such a strong blow with the whip, that it bounces forward almost running over James. And Peter insists until they are on the main road, a good distance from houses... A last farewell cry reaches the persons who are leaving and who weep unreservedly... Peter stops the donkey outside Nazareth, waiting for Jesus and the others, who soon join him walking fast in the increasing rain. They take a road among the vegetable gardens, to go again to the north of the town, without crossing it. But Nazareth is dark and asleep in the ice-cold rain of a winter night... and I think that the noise of the donkey's hooves, hardly audible on the wet beaten ground, cannot be heard even by those who are awake... The group proceeds in dead silence. Only the sobs of the two can be heard, mingled with the sound of rain on olive leaves.

314. Towards Jiphthahel. 31st October 1945. It must have rained all night. But at dawn a dry wind has blown the clouds southwards, beyond the hills of Nazareth. Thus a timid winter sun dares to peep out and light with its beam a diamond on every olive leaf. But they are gala dresses which the olive-trees soon lose, because the wind shakes them off the leaves, which seem to be weeping diamond chips, which get lost among the dewy grass or on the muddy road. Peter is preparing the cart and donkey with the help of James and Andrew. The others have not appeared as yet. But they soon come out, one after the other, from a kitchen, probably, because they say to the three who are outside: You can go now and have something to eat. And they go and come out shortly afterwards with Jesus. I have put the cover on again because of the wind explains Peter. If You really want to go to Jiphthahel, we shall have it in our faces... and it will be biting. I do not understand why we do not take the direct road to Sicaminon and then the one along the coast... It is longer but not so hard. Did You hear what the shepherd said, the man I encouraged to speak? He said: "Jotopata in the winter months is isolated. There is only one road to go there, but it is not possible to go there with lambs... You cannot carry anything on your shoulders because there are passes where you proceed more with your hands than with your feet, and lambs can not swim. There are two rivers, which are often in flood, and the very road is a torrent that flows on a rocky bed. I go there after the Tabernacles and in full spring, and I do good business, because they buy supplies for months". That is what he said... And we... with this thing... (and he kicks the wheel of the cart)... and with this donkey... bah!... The direct road from Sephoris to Sicaminon is better. But it is very busy. Remember that we must not leave traces of John... The Master is right. And we may find Isaac with some disciples... At Sicaminon in any case!... says the Zealot. Let us go then... I am going to call those two... says Andrew. And while he does so, Jesus takes leave of an old woman and a boy who are coming out of a sheepfold with buckets of milk. Also some bearded shepherds arrive and Jesus thanks them for the hospitality given to Him during the rainy night. John and Syntyche are already in the cart, which sets out along

the road, driven by Peter. Jesus with the Zealot and Matthew at His sides, and followed by Andrew, James, John and the two sons of Alphaeus, quickens His step to reach it. The wind bites their faces and swells their mantles. The cover stretched over the arches of the cart snaps like a sail notwithstanding the rain of the night has made it heavy: Never mind, it will soon dry! moans Peter looking at it. Providing the lungs of that poor man do not dry up!... Wait, Simon of Jonah This is what you do. And he stops the donkey, takes his mantle off, gets on the cart and envelops John carefully in it. Why? I already have one... Because pulling the donkey I am already as warm as I would be in a bread oven. And I am used to being naked on the boat, particularly when there is a storm. The cold spurs me and I am quicker. Come on, make sure you are well covered. Mary made so many recommendations to me in Nazareth, that if you were taken ill, I would not be able to face Her any longer... He gets off the cart, takes the bridle again and spurs the donkey. But he soon has to call his brother and also James to help the donkey get out of a muddy spot in which a wheel had sunk. And they proceed, pushing the cart in turns to help the donkey that digs its strong feet in the mire and draws the cart. The poor animal is panting and puffing with fatigue and greediness because Peter entices it to move on by offering it bits of bread and cores of apples, which, however, he lets it have only when they stop for a moment. You are cheating, Simon of Jonah says Matthew jokingly after watching Peter's manoeuvring. No. I am getting it to do its duty, and I am doing it kindly. If I did not do that, I would have to use the whip. And I do not like that. I do not strike my boat when she is wayward, although she is of wood. Why should I flog the donkey, which is flesh? This is my boat now... it is in water... it is indeed! So I am dealing with it as I deal with my boat. I am not Doras, you know? I wanted to name it Doras, before I bought it. Then I heard its name, and I liked it. So I did not change it... What is its name? they ask curiously. Guess! and Peter laughs through his beard. The strangest names are mentioned including those of the fiercest Pharisees and Sadducees etc. etc. But Peter always shakes his head. They give it up. Antonius is its name! Isn't it a beautiful name? That cursed Roman! Obviously also the Greek who sold me the donkey must have had a grudge against Antonius!

They all laugh while John of Endor explains: He is probably one from whom money was extorted after Caesar's death. Is he old? He is about seventy... and must have done all kinds of jobs... He now owns a hotel at Tiberias... They are at the cross-roads of Sephoris with the NazarethPtolemais, Nazareth-Sicaminon, Nazareth-Jotopata roads (I would point out that they pronounce J as a very soft G). On the consular milestone there are the three indications of Ptolemais, Sicaminon, Jotopata. Are we going to Sephoris, Master? It is quite useless. Let us go to Jiphthahel, without stopping. We shall eat something while walking. We must be there before evening. They proceed and cross two little torrents in flood, and begin to climb the slopes of a range of hills lying south-northwards with a large steep mass to the north stretching eastwards. Jiphthahel is over there says Jesus. I cannot see anything remarks Peter. It is to the north. The coast is very steep in our direction, as well as to the east and the west. So we must go right round all that mountain? No. There is a road at the foot of the highest mountain, in the valley. It is a short cut, but the road is very steep. Have You been there? No. But I know. The road is steep indeed! So much so, that when they arrive there, they are frightened. Night seems to fall all at once, so dark it is at the bottom of the valley, which is so horrifying and precipitous that it reminds me of Dantesque Malebolge; it is a road cut in the rock, so steep that it almost ascends in steps, a narrow wild road, enclosed between a furious torrent and an even more rugged mountain side that becomes steeper as one proceeds northwards. If the light increases little by little as one ascends higher, fatigue also increases, and in fact they unload the cart of personal baggage and Syntyche also gets off to make the cart as light as possible. John of Endor, who after his few words has not opened his mouth but to cough, would like to get off as well. But they do not let him and he remains where he is, while all the others push or pull cart and donkey sweating at each gradient of the road. But no one complains. On the contrary they all pretend to be satisfied with the exercise in order not to embarrass the two disciples for whom they do it and who have more than once expressed their regret for so much work.

The road turns at a right angle, then there is another corner, a shorter one, which ends in a town perched on such a steep slope that, as John of Zebedee says, it seems on the point of sliding down to the valley with all its houses. It is, instead, very solid. All one with the rock. Like Ramoth then... says-Syntyche who remembers the place. Even more. The rock here is part of the houses, not just their foundation. It reminds one more of Gamala. Do you remember it? Yes, and we remember those pigs as well... says Andrew. It was from there that we departed to go to Tarichea, the Tabor and Endor... says Simon Zealot. It is my fate to let you have painful recollections and hard work... says John of Endor with a sigh. Never! You have given us faithful friendship and nothing else, my friend says Judas of Alphaeus impulsively. And everybody joins him to confirm his statement. And yet... I have not been loved... No one tells me... But I can meditate and put together various facts, as in a picture. This departure was not foreseen and it was not a spontaneous decision... Why do you say that, John? asks Jesus kindly, although He is afflicted. Because it is true. I was not wanted. I was chosen to go far away, no one else, not even the great disciples. And what about Syntyche, then? asks James of Alphaeus, grieved at the lucidity of thought of the man of Endor. Syntyche is coming so as not to send me away alone... to conceal the truth pitifully... No, John!... Yes, Master. See? I could also tell You the name of my torturer. Do You know where I can read it? Just by looking at these good eight ones I read it! Only by considering the absence of the others I can read it! The one through whom I was found by You is also the one who would like me to be found by Beelzebub. And he drove me to this hour, and he drove You to it, Master, because You suffer as much as I do, perhaps more, and he drove me to this hour to make me fall back into despair and hatred. Because he is bad, cruel, envious. And much more. Judas of Kerioth is the dark soul amongst Your servants, who are all as clear as light... Do not say that, John. He is not the only one missing. They were all away for the Dedication, with the exception of the Zealot, who has no family. One cannot come from Kerioth in this season in a few stages. It is about two hundred miles' walk. And it was fair

that he should go and see his mother, like Thomas. I spared also Nathanael, because he is old, and Philip, to give him as a companion to Nathanael... Yes. Three more are absent... But, o good Jesus! You know men's hearts, because You are the Holy One. But You are not the only one to know them! Also the wicked know the wicked, because they know one another. I was wicked, and I saw myself again, with my worst instincts, in Judas. But I forgive him. For one reason only I forgive him for sending me to die so far away: because it was just through him that I came to You. And may God forgive him for the rest... for all the rest. Jesus does not deny... He is silent. The apostles look at one another while pushing the cart on the slippery road. It is almost night when they reach the town, where unknown amongst unknown people, they put up at a hotel situated on the southern end of the town. It is on the brink of a gorge, which makes one giddy looking down it, as it so steep and deep. At the bottom: a noise and nothing else in the shadow of peace already in the valley, where a torrent roars.

315. Jesus' Farewell to the Two Disciples. 1st November 1945. It is along the same road, which in any case is the only one in this village that looks like an eagle's nest on a solitary mountain top, that they set out again the following day, tormented by cold wet weather hindering their march. John of Endor also is compelled to get off the cart, because a downhill road is more dangerous than an uphill one, and if the donkey by itself would be in no danger, the weight of the cart, thrust forward by the slope, makes the situation very awkward for the poor animal. The apostles also are in trouble today, as they perspire not pushing but holding back the vehicle, which might crash down causing a disaster or, at least, the loss of the load. The road is dreadful for about one third of its total length, the last stretch towards the valley. It then forks, and the branch running westwards becomes more comfortable and level. They stop to rest wiping their perspiration and Peter rewards the donkey, which is shaking its ears trembling and panting, obviously engrossed in deep meditation on the painful situation of donkeys and the whims of men who choose certain roads. Apparently Simon of Jonah ascribes

to such considerations the thoughtful expression of the animal and to raise its spirits he hangs from its neck a bag of small beans, and while the donkey crushes the hard food with greedy relish, the men also eat bread and cheese and drink milk of which their little flasks are full. The meal is over. But Peter wants to water his Antonius that deserves more honour than Caesar he says, and taking a bucket from the cart he fetches some water from a torrent flowing towards the sea. We can go now... And we would like to trot the donkey because I think that the country is flat beyond that hill... But we cannot. However, we shall proceed fast. Come on, John, and you, woman. Get on and let us go. I am getting on as well, Simon, and I will drive. You will all follow us... says Jesus as soon as the two are in the cart. Why? Are You not well? You look so pale!... No, Simon. I want to speak to them alone... and He points at the two, who have also turned pale, as they realise that the moment of farewell has come. Ah! All right. Get on and we will follow You. Jesus sits on the plank used as a seat by the driver and says: Come here beside Me, John. And you, Syntyche, come near Me... John sits on the Lord's left and Syntyche at His feet, almost on the edge of the cart, with her back to the road, and her face raised towards Jesus. In her present position, sitting on her heels, relaxed as if she were burdened by a weight exhausting her, her hands abandoned on her lap and clasped to hold them still, as they were trembling, with her tired face and most beautiful dark violet eyes dimmed by the many tears shed, in the shade of her veil and mantle lowered over her forehead, she seems a desolate Piet. Not to mention John!... I think that if his scaffold were at the bottom of the road, he would not be so upset. The donkey is now ambling and is so obedient and sensible that Jesus is not compelled to keep a close watch on it. And Jesus takes advantage of the situation to drop the reins and take John's hand and lay the other one on Syntyche's head. My children, I thank you for all the joy you have given Me. This has been for Me a year strewn with flowers of joy, because I was able to take your souls and hold them in front of Me, to hide the ugly things of the world, to scent the air corrupted by the sins of the world, to instil kindness into Myself and confirm My hope that My mission is not useless. Marjiam, you, My John, Ermasteus, you, Syntyche, Mary of Lazarus, Alexander Misace and others... The

triumphal flowers of the Saviour, Whom only people with upright hearts can perceive as such... Why are you shaking your head, John? Because You are good and You are putting me amongst people with right hearts. But my sin is always present to me... Your sin is the fruit of the flesh stirred by two wicked people. Your heart's righteousness is the substratum of your honest ego, desirous of honest things, but unfortunate because they were taken away from you by death or by wickedness, but even so your ego was not less alive under the burden of so much grief. It was sufficient for the voice of the Saviour to penetrate into the depth of your heart, where your ego was languishing, and you sprang to your feet, shaking every burden off you, to come to Me. Is it not so? So you are righteous of heart. More, much more than others who do not have your sin, but have many worse ones, because they were premeditated and stubbornly preserved alive... May you, therefore, you the flowers of My triumph as Saviour, be blessed. In this dull hostile world, which sates the Saviour with bitterness and disgust, you have represented love. Thank you! In the most grievous hours of this year I bore you in mind to be comforted and supported. In the more grievous ones, which I am to suffer, I will bear you even more in mind. Until My death. And you will be with Me for ever. I promise you. I entrust you with My dearest interests, that is, the preparation of My Church in Asia Minor, where I cannot go, because the place of My mission is here, in Palestine, and also because the backward mentality of the mighty ones in Israel would injure Me in every possible way, if I went elsewhere. I wish I had more Johns and more Syntyches for other countries, so that My apostles would find the soil already ploughed to spread the seed in the hour to come! Be kind and patient, and strong at the same time, in order to penetrate and tolerate. You will come across dullness and mockery. Do not let that discourage you. Say: "We are eating the same bread and drinking the same chalice as our Jesus is". You are not worth more than your Master and you cannot expect to have a better lot. This is the greatest fortune: to share the lot of the Master. I give you one order only: do not be disheartened, do not endeavour to give yourselves an answer to why you have been sent away; you are not being sent into exile, as John is inclined to think, nay you are being placed on the threshold of your Fatherland before everybody else, because you are perfected servants, as no one else is. Heaven has come down upon you like a maternal veil and the King of Heaven is already welcoming you to His bosom, and will protect you under

His bright wings of love, as the first-born of the numberless swarm -of the servants of God, of the Word of God, Who in the name of the Father and of the Eternal Spirit blesses you now and for ever. And pray for Me, the Son of Man, Who is going towards all the tortures of the Redeemer. Oh! My Humanity is about to be crushed by the most bitter experience!... Pray for Me. I will need your prayers... They will be caresses... They will be professions of love... They will help Me, that I may not go to the extent of saying: "The whole of Mankind is made of demons"... Goodbye, John! Kiss Me goodbye... Do not weep... I would have kept you with Me, at the cost of tearing bits of flesh off My body, had I not seen all the good that this separation will bring about both for you and for Me. Eternal good... Goodbye, Syntyche. Yes, you may kiss My hands, but bear in mind that, if the difference of sex prevents Me from kissing you as a sister, I give My brotherly kiss to your soul... And let your souls wait for Me. I will come. I will be close to your work and to your souls. I certainly will, because if My love for man has closed My divine Nature in mortal flesh, it did not limit its freedom. And as God I am free to go to those who deserve to have God with them. Goodbye, My children. The Lord is with you... And He tears Himself away from the convulsive grip of John, who had grasped His shoulders, and of Syntyche, who was clinging to His knees, and He jumps from the cart, waving goodbye to His apostles, running away along the road He came, as fast as a chased deer... The donkey has stopped, feeling that the reins, which were previously on Jesus' knees, had dropped completely. The eight astonished apostles have also stopped and are looking at the Master Who is moving farther and farther away. He was weeping... whispers John. And He was as pale as a dead body... whispers James of Alphaeus. He has not even taken His sack... There it is on the cart... remarks the other James. And what will He do now? asks Matthew. Judas of Alphaeus shouts at the top of his powerful voice: Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!... The echo of the hills replies far away: Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!... But the green trees at a bend of the road conceal the Master, Who does not even look back to see who is calling Him... He has gone... All we can do is to go as well... says Peter desolately, getting on the cart and taking the reins to spur the donkey.

And the cart starts off and its squeaking is mingled with the rhythmical sound of the iron shoes of the donkey and the anguished weeping of the two disciples, who forlorn on the bottom of the cart are moaning: We will never see Him again, never, never again...

316. Jesus' Sorrow, Prayer and Penance. 2nd November 1945. Jesus is once again at the foot of the massive height on which Jiphthahel is built. But He is not on the main road (let us call it so) or mule-track, along which the cart came. He is instead on a little footpath fit for ibexes, so steep it is, strewn with large stone splinters and deep crevices, and seems to be stuck on to the mountain side; I would say that it is engraved on the vertical face of the mountain, which looks as if it were scratched by a huge claw. At its edge there is a precipice, a sheer deep drop, at the bottom of which an angry torrent foams along. To slip there means to fall hopelessly, bouncing from one bush to another of bramble or other wild plants, which have grown between the crevices of the rocks, I do not know how, as they have not come up vertically, as is normal with plants, but obliquely and even horizontally, compelled by their ubication. To slip there means to be torn to pieces by the thorns of such plants, or to have one's back broken by the impact on rigid tree trunks protruding over the abyss. To slip there means to be lacerated by the sharp-edged stones sticking out from the face of the precipice. To slip there means to drop bleeding and in pieces into the foamy water of the angry torrent and be drowned, and lie submerged on a bed of pointed rocks and be lashed by the impetuous water. And yet Jesus is walking along that path, that scratch in the rock, which is even more dangerous because of the dampness that rises steaming from the torrent, or drops from the overhanging surface and from the plants growing on that vertical face, which I would say is lightly concave. He proceeds slowly, cautiously, watching each step on the sharp stones, some of which are wobbly, at times He is compelled to squeeze against the mountain side when the path narrows; and to pass over some particularly dangerous spots, He has to get hold of branches hanging from the rocks. He goes round the western side thus and reaches the southern one, where the mountain, after a perpendicular drop from the summit, becomes more concave than elsewhere, allowing the path thus to widen a little, but reducing its

height, so that Jesus now and again must lower His head to avoid knocking it against the rocks. Perhaps He intends to stop there, where the path ends abruptly, because of a landslide. But when He sees that under the cliff there is a cave, a fissure in the mountain rather than a cave, He lets Himself down among the fallen stones. He goes in. There is a cleft at first, then a large grotto inside, as if the mountain had been hollowed out a long time ago by man, for some unknown reason. One can clearly see that the natural curves of the rock have been enlarged by man, who, on the side opposite the entrance, opened a narrow corridor, at the end of which there is a streak of light, and remote forests can be seen, which proves that the corridor cuts through the mountain spur from the southern side to the eastern one. Jesus slips into the narrow semidark tunnel and goes along it until He reaches its opening, which is above the road on which He came with the apostles and the cart to go up to Jiphthahel. The mountains surrounding the lake of Galilee are in front of Him, beyond the valley, and to the north-east the great Hermon shines in its snowy mantle. Rough steps have been dug on the mountain side, which is not so steep here, neither upwards nor downwards and the steps lead to the mule-track, which is in the valley, and also to the mountain top where is Jiphthahel. Jesus is satisfied with His exploration. He goes back into the large cave and looks for a sheltered place where He heaps up dry leaves that the wind has blown inside. A very poor pallet, a thin layer of dry leaves laid between His body and the bare icy soil... He drops on it and remains inert, lying with His hands under His head, staring at the rocky vault, absorbed, I would say bewildered, like one who bears a strain or is struck by sorrow greater than one's strength. Then tears, without sobs, begin to drop slowly from His eyes and stream down both sides of His face, disappearing in His hair, near His ears, and ending among the dry leaves... He weeps thus, for a long time, without speaking or moving... He then sits up, and with His head between His raised knees, embraced by His clasped hands, He calls His far away Mother, with all His soul: Mother! Mother! Mother of Mine! My eternal sweetness! Oh! Mother, I wish You were near Me! Why do I not always have You, the only comfort of God? Only the hollow cave replies to His words and His sobs with the whisper of a faint echo, and it seems to be weeping and sobbing itself through its edges and rocks and the few and still small stalactites hanging in a corner, the one which is probably most

exposed to the internal activity of water. Jesus continues weeping, although more calmly, as if the simple invocation of His Mother consoled Him and His weeping slowly changes into a monologue. They have gone... Why? Whose fault is it? Why did I have to grieve them thus? And grieve Myself, since the world fills each day of Mine with affliction?... Judas! ... I wonder where Jesus' thought wanders when He lifts His head from His knees and looks in front of Himself with wide open eyes and the tense face of a person engrossed in the vision of future spiritual events or in deep meditation. He no longer weeps. But he is evidently suffering. He then seems to be replying to an invisible interlocutor. And He stands up to do so. I am a man, Father. I am the Man. The virtue of friendship, which was wounded and torn from Me, is writhing and moaning sorrowfully... I know that I must suffer everything. I know as God and as God I want it for the good of the world. As man also I know, because My divine spirit informs My humanity. And also as man I want it, for the good of the world. But how grievous it is, o Father! This hour is much more sorrowful than the one I lived with Your spirit and Mine in the desert... And much stronger is the present temptation not to love and not to bear at My side the slimy tortuous being, whose name is Judas, the cause of the deep sorrow with which I am sated and which tortures the souls to whom I had given peace. Father, I perceive it. You are becoming more and more severe as I approach the end of My expiation on behalf of Mankind. Your kindness is moving farther and farther away from Me, and Your countenance appears more and more severe to My spirit, which is rejected more and more into the depth, where Mankind, struck by Your punishment, has been moaning for millennia. It was pleasant to suffer, pleasant was the way at the beginning of My life, it was pleasant also when from the son of a carpenter I became the Master of the world, tearing Myself away from a Mother to give You, Father, to man who had fallen. It was still pleasant to Me, as compared with the present hour, to struggle with the Enemy, in the Temptation in the desert. I faced him with the boldness of a hero with intact strength... Oh! Father!... My strength is now encumbered by the indifference of too many people and the knowledge of too many things... I knew that Satan would go, when the temptation was over, and he did go, and the angels came to comfort Your Son for being a man, subject to the temptation of the Demon. But the temptation will not cease now, after this hour, in which the Friend suffers because of the friends sent away, and because of the perjured friend who injures Him both when he is near and far away.

It will not cease. Your angels will not come to comfort Me in this hour and after it. But the world will come, with all its hatred, its mockery and incomprehension. And the traitor who sold himself to Satan will come and he, the perjurer, will be more and more tortuous and slimy. Father!!... It is really a cry of anguish, of fear and of invocation and Jesus is agitated and reminds me of the hour at Gethsemane. Father! I know. I can see... While I suffer here and will suffer, and I offer My suffering to You for his conversion and for those who have been torn away from My arms and who are going towards their destiny with broken hearts, he is selling himself to become greater than I am: the Son of Man! I am, am I not, the Son of Man? Yes, but I am not the only one. Children were born of mankind, of prolific Eve, and if I am Abel, the Innocent One, Cain is not missing among the children of Mankind. And if I am the First-Born, because I am what the children of man should have been, without stain in Your eyes, he, who was born in sin, is the first of what men have become after eating the poisoned fruit. And now, not satisfied with having in himself the disgusting blasphemous incentives of falsehood, anti-charity, of thirst for blood, of greed for money, of pride and lust, he is raving to be the man who becomes a demon, whilst he is a man who could become an angel... "And Lucifer wanted to be like God and was therefore driven out of Paradise and changed into a demon and he dwelt in Hell". But Father! Oh! Father! I love him... I still love him. He is a man... He is one of those for whom I left You... Save him, because of My humiliation... grant Me to redeem him, Most High Lord! I offer this penance more for him than for anybody else! Oh! I am aware of the incongruity of what I am asking, because I know everything!... But, Father, do not consider Me Your Word for a moment. Look only at the Humanity of the Just One... and let Me be for a moment only the "Man" in Your grace, the Man who is not aware of the future, who can deceive himself... the Man who not being aware of ineluctable fate can pray with absolute hope, to wring a miracle out of You. A miracle! A miracle of Jesus of Nazareth, for Jesus of Mary of Nazareth, Our eternal Beloved One! A miracle that violates what has been set down and cancels it! The salvation of Judas! He has lived beside Me, he has drunk in My words, has shared food with Me, has slept on My chest... No, do not let him be My satan! I am not asking You not to be betrayed... That must happen, and will happen... so that all falsehood may be cancelled by My sorrow of being betrayed, as all avarice may be expiated by My grief for being sold, as amends may be made for all blasphemy through My torment at being

cursed, and faith may be given to those who are and will be without faith, through My torture at not being believed, and all the sins of flesh may be cleansed by My being scourged... But I beg You: not him, not Judas, My friend, My apostle! I would like no one to be a traitor... No one... Not even the remotest inhabitant of the hyperborean ice fields or of the torrid zone... I would like You alone to be the Sacrificer... as You already have been in the past when You set fire to the holocausts by means of Your flames... But since I am to die by the hand of man, and since the traitor friend will be a more brutal executioner than the real executioner, the putrid traitor who will have in himself the stench of Satan, and is already inhaling it to be like Me in, power... that is what he thinks in his pride and lust... since I am to die by the hand of man, Father, do not let him whom I called friend and I loved as such, be My Traitor. Increase My torment, Father, but give Me Judas' soul... I am putting this prayer on the altar of My victim Person... Accept it, Father!... Heaven is closed and silent!... Is this therefore the horror that I shall have with Me until My Death? Heaven is silent and closed!... Is this therefore the silence and the prison in which I shall breathe My last? Heaven is closed and silent!... Is this therefore the supreme torture of the Martyr?... Father, may Your will be done, not Mine... But because of My suffering, oh! grant Me at least this: give peace and illusion to Judas' other martyr, to John of Endor, Father... He is really better than many. He has already gone a long way, such as few are or will be able to go. Redemption has already been completed for him. Give him, therefore, Your total complete peace, so that I may have him in My Glory, when everything will be completed also for Me in Your honour and obedience... Father!... Jesus has slowly fallen on His knees and is now weeping with His face on the ground, and while He prays the light of the short winter day fades precociously in the dark cavern, and the roar of the torrent seems to grow louder as the shade in the valley becomes darker...

317. Leaving Ptolemais for Tyre. 3rd November 1945. The town of Ptolemais looks as if it is to remain overwhelmed by a low leaden sky, without a gleam of azure, without any change in its dullness. There is not a cloud, a cirrus, a nimbus sailing all alone in the closed vault of heaven. The firmament looks like a solid

convex heavy lid on the point of crashing on a case. A huge lid of dirty, sooty, dull, oppressive tin. The white houses of the town seem to be made of chalk, of coarse rough chalk that looks desolate in this light... the green of evergreens seems dull and sad, the faces of people look wan or ghastly and the shades of their clothes colourless. The town is stifled with heavy sirocco. The sea matches the sky with similar deadly dullness. An infinite, still, lonely sea. It is not even leaden, it would be wrong to describe it as such. It is a limitless expanse, and I would say rippleless, of an oily substance, as grey, I suppose, as lakes of crude petroleum must be, or rather, if it were possible, lakes of silver mixed with soot and ashes, to make a pomade with a special brightness of quartziferous scales, which however is so deadly dull that it does not seem to shine. Its gleaming is noticed only through the discomfort it causes to one's eyes, dazzled by such flickering of blackish mother-of-pearl, which tires them without delighting them. There is not a wave as far as the eyes can see. One can see as far as the horizon, where the dead sea touches the dead sky, without seeing a wave stir; but one realises that the water is not solidified because there is an underwater gurgle, which is hardly perceptible on the surface through the dark glittering of the water. The sea is so still that at the shore the water is as motionless as the water in a vat, without the slightest indication of waves or surf. And the sand bears clean marks of dampness at a metre or little more from the water, proving thus that for many hours there has been no movement of waves on the shore. There is dead calm. The few boats in the harbour do not stir. They are so still that they seem to be nailed on a solid substance, and the few strips of cloth stretched out on the high decks, ensigns or garments, whatever they may be, are hanging motionless. The apostles with the two bound for Antioch are coming from a lane in the working-class district near the harbour. I do not know what has happened to the donkey and the cart. They are not there. Peter and Andrew are carrying one chest, James and John the other one, while Judas of Alphaeus is carrying on his shoulder the dismantled loom and Matthew, James of Alphaeus and Simon Zealot are laden with all the bags, including Jesus'. Syntyche is holding only a basket with foodstuffs. John of Endor is not carrying anything. They walk fast among the people coming back mostly from the market with their shopping, while seamen are hastening towards the port to load or unload ships or repair them, according to their requirements. Simon of Jonah is proceeding resolutely. He must be already

aware of where to go, because he does not look around. He is flushed while holding the chest, on one side, by a loop of a rope which serves as a handle, and Andrew does likewise on the other side. And one can see, both in them and in their companions, their efforts in carrying their weights, as the muscles of their calves and arms bulge, in fact, in order to move freely, they are wearing only short sleeveless undertunics and are thus like porters hurrying from warehouses to ships or vice versa, doing their work. They thus pass by completely unnoticed. Peter does not go to the large quay, but along a squeaky footbridge he goes to the little one, a little arched pier forming another much narrower dock for fishing boats. He looks around and cries out. A man replies, standing up in a stout rather large boat. Do you really want to go? Mind you, sails are of no use today. You will have to row. It will warm me up and give me an appetite. But are you really capable of sailing? Hey! man! I could not say "mummy" yet, and my father had already put line and sail ropes in my hands. I sharpened my milkteeth on them... It's because ... you know... this boat is all my wealth... you know?... You already told me yesterday... Don't you know any other song? I know that if you go to the bottom, I will be ruined and... I will be ruined, because I shall lose my life, not you! But this is all I own, it's my bread, my joy and the joy of my wife, it's my little girl's dowry, and... Ugh! Listen, don't get on my nerves, which are already seized with a cramp... a cramp! more dreadful than a swimmer's. I have given you so much that I could say: "I bought your boat", I did not haggle over the price requested by you, you sea-thief, I proved to you that I am more familiar with oars and sails than you are, and everything was settled. Now, if the leek-salad you had last night and your mouth stinks like a bilge - has given you nightmares and remorse, I don't care. The business was done in the presence of two witnesses, one was yours and the other one mine, and that's all. Get out of there, you shaggy crab, and let me get in. But I... at least some guarantee... If you die, who will pay for my ship? Your ship? Are you calling this hollowed pumpkin a ship? You miserable proud man! But I will reassure you, providing you make

up your mind: I will give you another hundred drachmas. With this lot and what you wanted as rent you can buy three more of such moles... No, just a moment. No money. You would be equally capable of saying that I am mad and asking for more when I come back. Because I will come back, you may rest assured. Even if I have to come back to teach you a lesson by boxing your ears if you have given me a boat with a faulty keel. I will pledge the donkey and cart to you... No! Not even that! I will not trust you with my Antonius. You might change trade and from a boatman become a carter, and slink off while I am away. And my Antonius is worth your boat ten times over. It is better if I give you some money. But mind you, it is a pledge and you will give it back to me when I come back. Is that clear? Hey, you of the boat! Who is from Ptolemais? Three faces appear from a nearby boat: We are. Come here. No, it's not necessary. Let us settle the matter between ourselves begs the boatman. Peter scans his face, ponders upon it, and when he sees that the other man leaves the boat and hastens to put on board the loom that Judas had left on the ground, he whispers: I see! He shouts to those in the other boat: It's no longer necessary. Stay where you are and taking some coins out of a small purse, he counts them and kisses them saying: Goodbye, my dear! and he hands them to the boatman. Why did you kiss them? asks the amazed man. Just a... rite. Goodbye, you thief! Come on, all of you. And you, man, at least hold the boat. You will count them later and will find that they are right. I do not want to be your companion in hell, you know? I am not a thief. Heave ho! Heave ho! and he pulls the first chest on board. He then helps the others to stow theirs, as well as the bags and everything else, balancing the weight and arranging the various items so as to be free to manoeuvre. And after the objects he arranges the passengers. You can see that I know how to do it, you blood-sucker! Let go and go to your destiny. And with Andrew he presses an oar against the little pier to depart from it. When the boat is in the flow of the current he hands the rudder over to Matthew saying: You used to come and catch us when we were out fishing, in order to fleece us properly and you can handle it fairly well and he sits on the first bench at the prow, with his back to the bows, and Andrew sits beside him. James and John of Zebedee are sitting in front of them and are rowing with strong regular strokes. The boat is sailing fast and smoothly, although it has a heavy

load, skimming the sides of large ships, from the boards of which words can be heard praising their perfect rowing. Then there is the open sea, beyond the break-waters... The whole of Ptolemais appears before the eyes of the departing group, as the town is stretched along the beach with the port to the south. There is dead silence in the boat. Only the squeaking of the oars in the rowlocks can be heard. After a long while, when Ptolemais has already been left behind, Peter says: However, if there had been a little wind... But nothing! Not a breath of it!... Providing it does not rain!... says James of Zebedee. H'm! It looks very much like it... There is silence for a long time while the men row hard. Then Andrew asks: Why did you kiss the coins? Because those who part always greet one another. I will never see them again. And I am sorry. I would have preferred to give them to some poor wretch... Never mind! The boat is really a good one, it is strong and well built. It is the best one in Ptolemais. That is why I gave in to the demands of the owner. Also to avoid many questions about our destination. That is why I said to him: "To make purchases at the white Garden"... Ah! It's beginning to rain. Cover yourselves up, you who are in a position to do so, and you, Syntyche, give John his egg. It's time... Much more so, because with a sea like this, nothing will upset his stomach... And what will Jesus be doing? I wonder what He is doing! With no clothes, no money! Where will He be now? He will certainly be praying for us replies John of Zebedee. Very well. But where?... Nobody can say where. And the boat proceeds heavily, laboriously, under a leaden sky, on the grey bitumenous sea, in a drizzling rain as fine as fog and as boring as protracted tickling. The mountains, which after a flat area are now close to the sea, look livid in the foggy air. The sea nearby continues to irritate one's eyes with its strange phosphorence, and farther away it fades into a hazy veil. We will stop at that village to rest and eat says Peter who rows untiringly. The others agree. They reach the village. A little group of fishermen's houses built on a mountain spur protruding towards the sea. It is not possible to land here. There is no bottom... grumbles Peter. Well, we shall eat where we are. In fact the oarsmen eat with appetite, whereas the two exiles take some food unwillingly. It begins and stops raining alternately.

The village is deserted as if there were no inhabitants in it. And yet flights of doves from one house to another and clothes hanging out on roof-terraces prove that there are people in it. At last a halfnaked man appears in the street and goes towards a little beached boat. Hey, man! Are you a fisherman? shouts Peter holding his hands like a speaking-trumpet. Yes. His assent is heard feebly owing to the distance. What will the weather be like? Long sea shortly. If you are not from this place, I tell you to round the cape at once. Over there it is not so rough, particularly if you keep close to the shore, which you can do, as the sea is deep. But go at once... Yes, I will. Peace to you! Peace and good luck to you. Let's go then says Peter to his companions. And may God be with us. He certainly is. Jesus is certainly praying for us replies Andrew resuming rowing. But the sea is, in fact, already long and the waves push and drag the poor boat alternately, while the rain becomes thicker... and a blustery wind joins in to torture the poor people in the boat. Simon of Jonah gratifies it with all the most picturesque epithets, because it is a wicked wind that cannot be used to sail and it pushes the boat towards the rocks of the cape, which is now close at hand. The boat proceeds with difficulty in the curve of the little gulf, which is as black as ink. They row with difficulty, flushing, sweating, clenching their teeth, without wasting the least particle of strength in words. The others, sitting opposite them - I can see their backs - are silent in the boring rain: John and Syntyche in the centre, near the sail mast, Alphaeus' sons behind them, Matthew and Simon are last, struggling to hold the rudder straight against each breaker. It is a difficult task to round the cape. But they succeed at last... And the oarsmen, who must be exhausted, have a little rest. They consult whether they should take shelter in a little village beyond the cape. But the idea prevails that the Master is to be obeyed even against common sense. And He said that they must arrive at Tyre in one day . So they go on... The sea calms all of a sudden. They notice the phenomenon and James of Alphaeus says: The reward of obedience. Yes, Satan has gone because he did not succeed in making us disobey confirms Peter. But we shall arrive at Tyre at night. We have been greatly

delayed... says Matthew. It does not matter. We shall go to bed and we shall look for the ship tomorrow replies Simon Zealot. But shall we find it? Jesus said so. So we shall find it says Thaddeus confidently. We can hoist the sail, brother remarks Andrew. The wind is favourable and we will move fast. The wind in fact fills the sail, although not very much, but enough to make rowing less necessary and the boat glides, as if it had been lightened, towards Tyre, the promontory of which, or rather, its isthmus, is white, to the north, in the last light of the day. And night falls fast. And it is strange, after so much dullness of sky, to see stars appear in an unforeseeable clear sky and the Great Bear shine brightly in its stars, while the sea is illuminated by placid moonlight, which is so white that it seems to be dawning after a painful day, without an intervening night... John of Zebedee looks at the sky and smiles and he suddenly begins to sing, pulling his oar with his song and modulating his words to the rhythm of rowing: Hail, Star of the Morning, Jasmine of the night, Golden Moon of my Heaven, Holy Mother of Jesus. The sailor hopes in You, Who suffers and dies dreams of You, Shine, holy pious Star, Upon those who love You, Mary!... He sings out happily in a tenor voice. What are you doing? We are talking of Jesus and you are singing of Mary? asks his brother. He is in Her and She is in Him. But He is because She was... Let me sing... And he starts singing with his whole heart, leading all the others... They thus reach Tyre where they land without any difficulty in the little port, south of the isthmus, lit up by lamps hanging from many boats, with the help also of people present there. While Peter and James remain in the boat to look after the chests, the others, with a man from another boat, go to a hotel to rest.

318. Departure from Tyre on a Cretan Ship. 4th November 1945. Tyre awakes among gusts of mistral. The sea is sparkling with bright white-blue little waves, under a blue sky and white cirri moving up there, as the foaming waves move down here. The sun is enjoying a clear day after so much dull bad weather. I see says Peter, standing up in the boat where he slept. It's time to go. And "it" (and he points at the sea, which is rough even within the entrance of the port) sprayed us with lustral water... H'm! Let us go and fulfil the second part of the sacrifice... Tell me, James... Don't you think that we are taking two victims to be sacrificed? I do. So do I, Simon. And... I thank the Master for thinking highly of us. But... I would have preferred not to see so much grief. And I would never have thought I was to see all this... Neither would I... But... You know? I say that the Master would not have done this, if the Sanhedrin had not poked their noses into the matter... He in fact said so... But who told the Sanhedrin? That is what I would like to know... Who? Eternal God, make me be silent and do not let me think! I made this vow to get rid of the suspicion that tortures me. Help me, James, not to think. Speak of something else. Of what? Of the weather? Yes, it's better. The trouble is that I know nothing about the sea... I think that we are going to be tossed... says Peter looking at the sea. No! Only small waves. It's nothing. It was worse yesterday. It will be lovely to look at this moderate sea from the upper deck of the ship. John will like it... It will make him sing. Which ship will it be? He stands up as well, looking at the ships on the other side, the high superstructures of which become visible particularly when their boat is raised by the up-and-down motion of the waves. They examine the various ships, guessing... The port is becoming alive with people. Peter asks a boatman, or the like, who is bustling on the dock: Can you tell me whether in the port over there, there is the ship of... wait a moment till I read his name... (and he takes out of his

belt a tied parchment), here it is: Nicomedes Philadelphius of Philip, a Cretan from Paleocaster... Oh! The great navigator! Who does not know him? I think that he is known not only from the Pearl Gulf to the pillars of Hercules, but also as far as the cold seas, where they say that night lasts for months! You are a sailor, how come you do not know him? No. I don't know him, but I shall soon meet him, because I am looking for him on behalf of our friend Lazarus of Theophilus, formerly governor in Syria. Ah! When I was a sailor - I am old now - he was in Antioch... Wonderful times... Your friend? And you are looking for Nicomedes, the Cretan? You need not worry, then. See that ship over there, the highest one, with flying colours? That's his ship. He will sail before the sixth hour. He is not afraid of the sea!... In fact there is no need to be afraid of it. It's not really rough. But a high wave gives him the lie, drenching both of them from head to foot. Yesterday it was too calm, today too rough. It's really mad. I prefer the lake... grumbles Peter drying his face. I advise you to go into the basin. Everybody goes there. But we are leaving. We are going in the ship of... of... wait: Nicomedes, and all the rest! says Peter who cannot remember the strange names of the Cretan. You are not going to load your boat also on the ship? Of course not! Well, there is room in the basin for boats and men to look after them until you come back. A coin a day until you come back. I suppose you are coming back... Certainly. We are going and will come back after seeing the state of Lazarus' garden, that's all. Ah! You are his stewards? Yes, and something more... Well. Come with me. I will show you the place. It's really made for those who leave their boats there, like you... Wait... Here are the others. We will be with you in a moment. And Peter jumps on the quay and runs to meet his companions who are approaching. Did you sleep well, brother? asks Andrew kindly. Like a baby in a cradle. And I was lulled to sleep with a lullaby... I think that you had also a good wash says Thaddeus smiling. Yes! The sea... is so kind that it washed my face to wake me up.

It looks very rough to me remarks Matthew. Oh! But if you knew with whom we are going! One who is known even to the fish of the ice-cold seas. Have you already seen him? No, but I was told by one who says that there is a place for boats, a depot... Come, we will unload the chests and will go, because Nicodemus, no, Nicomedes, the Cretan, will be sailing soon. In the Cyprus channel we shall be tossed about in good style says John of Endor. Shall we? asks Matthew anxiously. Yes. But God will help us. They are near their boat once again. Here we are, man. We are unloading this luggage and then we will go, since you are so kind. We help one another... says the man from Tyre. Of course! We help one another, we ought to help one another. We ought to love one another, because that is the Law of God... I am told that a new Prophet has risen in Israel and that is what He preaches. Is it true? Is it true! That and much more! And the miracles that He works! Come on, Andrew, heave ho! heave ho! a little to your right. Right, when the wave lifts the boat... There you are, it's up!... I was saying, man: and what miracles! Dead people rise from death, sick people are cured, the blind see, thieves repent and even... See? If He were here, He would say to the sea: "Be still" and the sea would calm down... Can you manage, John? Wait, I'll come and help you. Hold the boat still and close... Up, up... a little more... Simon, take the handle... Watch your hand, Judas! Up, up... Thank you, man... Watch you don't fall into the water, you sons of Alphaeus... Up... Here we are! Praised be the Lord! We had less trouble in stowing them than in pulling them up... But my arms are sore after yesterday's exercise... So, I was saying about the sea... But is it true? True? I was there and saw it! Were you? Oh!... But where was it? On the lake of Gennesaret. Come in the boat, while going to the basin, I will tell you... and he goes away with the man and James, rowing in the canal towards the basin. And Peter says that he does not know how to do... remarks the Zealot. Instead he has a talent for telling things in a simple way and he is more efficient than anybody else. What I like so much in him is his honesty says the man from

Endor. And his perseverance adds Matthew. And his humility. He does not pride himself on being our "head"! He works more than anybody and worries more about us than about himself... says James of Alphaeus. And he is so virtuous in his feelings. A good brother. Nothing more... concludes Syntyche. So it is all settled: you will be considered as brother and sister? the Zealot asks the two disciples after some time. Yes, it is better so. And it is not a lie, it is spiritual truth. He is my elder brother, of different marriage, but of the same father. The Father is God, the different marriages: Israel and Greece; and John is older, as one can see, by age, and - and one cannot see it but it is true - by being a disciple before me. Here is Simon coming back... It's all done. Let's go. Through the narrow isthmus they pass into the other port carrying the chests on their shoulders. The man from Tyre, familiar as he is with the place, takes them through the narrow passages between piles of bales of goods under very wide sheds, to the powerful ship of the Cretan, who is preparing to depart. He shouts to those on board to lower the gangway that they had already lifted. It's not possible. We have finished loadings shouts the head of the crew. He has letters to hand to you says the man pointing to Simon of Jonah Letters? From whom? From Lazarus of Theophilus, the former governor of Antioch. Ah! I will tell the boss. Simon says to the other Simon and to Matthew: You will speak now. I am too coarse to speak to a man like him... No. You are the head and you will speak because you are doing very well. We will help you, eventually. But there will be no need. Where is the man with the letters? Let him come up says a man as swarthy as an Egyptian: he is thin, handsome, agile, severe looking, about forty years old, or a little older, and looks down from the high ship's side. And he orders the gangway to be lowered. Simon of Jonah, who has put on his tunic and mantle while waiting for a reply, goes up with a dignified bearing. The Zealot and Matthew follow him. Peace to you, man greets Peter gravely. Hail. Where is the letter? asks the Cretan. Here it is. The Cretan breaks the seal, unfolds the roll and reads.

The messengers of Theophilus' family are welcome! The Cretans have not forgotten that he was good and kind. But be quick. Have you much to load? What you see on the quay. And how many are you... Ten. Good. We will find accommodation for the woman. You will adapt yourselves as best you can. Quick. We must set sail before the wind becomes stronger and that will happen after the sixth hour. With rending whistling he orders the chests to be loaded and stowed. Then the apostles and the two disciples go on board. The gangway is lifted, the ship's side is closed, the moorings are picked up, the sails are hoisted. And the ship sets out rolling steeply while leaving the harbour. Then the sails stretch out creaking, as the wind fills them, and pitching heavily the ship puts out to sea sailing fast towards Antioch... Notwithstanding the very strong wind, John and Syntyche, one close to the other, holding on to a tackle, aft, are looking at the coast, the land of Palestine move away, and they weep...

319. Storm and Miracles on the Ship. 5th November 1945. The Mediterranean is an enraged expanse of green-blue water, with very high foam-crested billows clashing one against the other. There is no thick fog today. But the sea water, pulverised by the continuous pounding of breakers, is turned into a burning salty dust that penetrates even into people's clothes, reddens eyes, irritates throats, and seems to spread like a veil of salt powder everywhere, both in the air, making it opaque as thin fog does, and on things that seem sprayed with bright flour: the minute salt crystals. That happens, however, where there is no pounding of billows, or where the waves do not wash the deck from one side to the other, crashing on to it, rushing over the ship's side, then falling again into the sea, with the roar of a waterfall, through bilge drain holes in the opposite side. And the ship rises and plunges into the water, a twig at the mercy of the ocean, a mere nothing compared to it, squeaking and moaning from the bilges to the tops of the masts... The sea is really the master and the ship its plaything... With the exception of those manoeuvring the boat, no one is on the deck. There are no goods either, only the lifeboats. And the

crewmen, first of all the Cretan Nicomedes, half-naked, rolling like the ship, run here and there, refitting and securing, a difficult task because of the flooded slippery deck. The locked hatchways make it impossible to see what is happening below deck. But I am sure that they cannot be very happy down there!... I cannot make out where they are, because there is nothing but sea around and a remote coast, which appears to be a mountainous one, with real mountains, not hills. I would say that they have been sailing for more than one day, because it is certainly morning, as the sun, which appears and disappears among thick clouds, is shining from the east. I think that the ship is making little progress, notwithstanding that she is tossed about so much. And the sea seems to become more and more precipitous. With a frightening crash a part of a mast, the precise name of which I do not know, breaks off, and in falling, dragged by an avalanche of water which collapses on the deck together with a real whirlwind, knocks down part of the ship's side. Those below must feel that the ship is foundering... And that is proved, after a moment, when a hatch is half-opened and Peter's grey haired head juts out. He looks around, sees, and closes the hatch just in time to prevent a torrent of water from falling through it. But later, in a moment of calm, he opens it again and jumps out. He clings to supports and watches all hell let loose, and he whistles and mumbles commenting the situation. Nicomedes sees him: Away! Go away! he shouts. Close that hatch. If the ship becomes heavier, she will sink. We are lucky if I do not have to throw the cargo overboard... Never seen a storm like this! I'm telling you, get away! I don't want landlubbers in my way. This is no place for gardeners, and... He cannot continue because another wave sweeps the deck drenching all those on it. See? he shouts to Peter who is dripping wet. I see. But it doesn't surprise me. I am not capable only of looking after gardens. I was born on water, of a lake, that's true... But even a lake!... Before being a gardener I was a fisherman and I know... Peter is very calm and he knows how to be with the rolling of the ship perfectly well with his sturdy legs wide apart. The Cretan watches him while he moves to go near him. Are you not afraid? he asks him. I wouldn't dream of it! And the others? Three are fishermen like me, that is, they were... The others,

with the exception of the sick man, are strong. Also the woman?... Watch! Look out! Hold on! Another avalanche of water invades the deck. Peter waits until it is over and then says: I could have done with this coolness last summer... Never mind! You were asking what the woman is doing. She is praying... and you had better do the same. But where are we now, exactly? In the Cyprus channel? I wish we were! I would sail to the island and wait for the elements to calm. We are just off Colonia Julia, or Beritus, if you prefer so. Now we will get the worst of it... Those are the Lebanon mountains. Could you not go in there, where the village is? It's not a good port, reefs and rocks. It's not possible. Watch!... Another whirlwind and another piece of a mast falls striking a man, who is not washed overboard only because the wave carries him against an obstacle. Go below deck! Go! See? I see, I see... but that man?... If he is not dead he'll come round. I cannot look after him... You can see!... In fact the Cretan has to have eyes in the back of his head for the sake of everybody's life. Give him to me. The woman will look after him... Anything you want, but go away!... Peter creeps as far as the motionless man, gets hold of his foot and pulls him towards himself. He looks at him, whistles... He grumbles: His head is split like a ripe pomegranate. The Lord should be here... Oh! if He were! Lord Jesus! My Master, why have You left us? There is deep sorrow in his voice... He loads the dying man on his shoulder, being drenched himself with blood, and goes back to the hatch. The Cretan shouts to him: It's quite useless. Nothing doing. See!... But Peter, loaded as he is, makes a gesture as if to say: We shall see and he presses against a pole to resist a new wave. He then opens the hatch and shouts: James, John, come here! and with their help he lowers the wounded man, then descends himself securing the hatch. In the smoky light of hanging lamps they see that Peter is bleeding: Are you wounded? they ask him. No, not I. It's his blood... But... you may as well pray because... Syntyche, look here. You told me once that you know how to cure wounded people. Look at this head... Syntyche leaves John of Endor, whom she was supporting, as he

is suffering a great deal, and goes to the table on which they have laid the poor man, and she looks... A bad wound! I have seen the like twice, in two slaves, one was struck by his master, the other by a stone at Caprarola. I would need water, a lot of water to clean it and stop the blood... If you want just water!... There is even too much! Come, James, with the tub. We will handle it better in two. They go and come back dripping wet. And Syntyche with wet cloths washes and applies compresses to the nape of his neck... But the wound is a nasty one. The bone is bare from the temple to the nape. And yet the man opens his eyes vaguely and grumbles while gasping for breath. He is seized by the instinctive fear of death. Good! Be good! You will receover says the Greek woman comforting him with motherly love and she speaks to him in Greek as Greek is his language. The man, although stunned, is amazed and looks at her with a faint smile upon hearing his mother tongue and searches for Syntyche's hand... man who becomes a child as soon as he suffers and looks for a woman who is always a mother in such cases. I am going to try with Mary's ointment says Syntyche when the wound bleeds less. But that is for pains... objects Matthew, who has turned deadly pale, I do not know whether because of the rough sea or at the sight of blood, or because of both. Oh! Mary prepared it, with Her own hands! I will use it praying... Will you pray, too. It can do no harm. Oil is always a medicine... She goes to Peter's sack, takes a vase out of it, a bronze vase I would say, opens it, and takes a little ointment, which she warms on a lamp in the same lid of the vase. She pours it on a folded piece of linen cloth and applies it to the wounded head. She then bandages it tightly with linen strips. She places a folded mantle under the head of the wounded man who seems to doze off and she sits near him praying; the others also pray. The storm is still raging on the deck and the ship is pitching awfully. After some time a hatch is opened and a sailor rushes in. What's the matter? asks Peter. We are in danger. I have come to get incense and offerings for a sacrifice... Forget about such nonsense! But Nicomedes wants to sacrifice to Venus! We are in her sea... Which is as frantic as she is grumbles Peter in a low voice. Then a little louder: You, come with me. Let's go on deck. Perhaps

there is work to be done... Are you afraid to stay with the wounded man and those two? The two are Matthew and John of Endor, who are worn out by seasickness. No. You may go replies Syntyche. While getting on deck they run into the Cretan who is endeavouring to light the incense and who attacks them furiously to send them below, shouting: Can't you see that without a miracle we shall be shipwrecked? It's the first time! The first time since I have been sailing! Just listen: he will now say that we have cast a spell! whispers Judas of Alphaeus. In fact the man shouts louder: Cursed Israelites, what have you got on you? You dogs, you have cast a spell on me! Go away? I am now going to offer a sacrifice to new-born Venus... No, not at all. We will sacrifice... Go away! You are pagans, you are demons, you are... Do you hear that? I swear to you that if you let us do what we want to do, you will see the miracle. No. Go away! and he lights the incense and he throws into the sea, as best he can, some liquids that he had previously offered and tasted, as well as some powders, which I do not recognise. But the waves put the incense out and the sea, instead of calming, rages more and more, washing away all the paraphernalia of the rite and nearly sweeping away Nicomedes as well... Your goddess is giving you a beautiful answer! It's our turn now. We have One as well, purer than that one made of foam, but then... Sing, John, as you did yesterday, and we will follow you, and let us see! Yes, let us see! But if it comes to the worst, I will throw you overboard as propitiatory victims. All right. Come on, John! And John strikes up his song, followed by all the others, including Peter, who usually does not sing, as he is always out of tune. The Cretan is watching them, with folded arms and a smile that is half angry and half ironical. After the song, they pray with their arms stretched out. It must be the Our Father but it is in Hebrew and I do not understand it. They then sing louder. They thus alternate songs with prayers without fear or interruptions, although they are struck by the waves. They do not even hold on to supports, and yet they are so self-confident as if they were one thing with the wood of the deck. And the violence of the waves really begins to abate slowly. It does not cease completely, as the wind does not drop entirely. But the storm is not as furious as previously,

neither do the waves wash the deck. The face of the Cretan is a poem of amazement... Peter casts sidelong glances at him and continues praying. John smiles and sings louder... The others follow him exceeding the roar of the waves more and more clearly as the sea calms down into a normal motion and the wind begins to blow favourably. Well? What do you think of it?... But what did you say? What formula is it? That of the True God and of His holy Handmaid. You may hoist your sails and sort things out, here... Is that not an island? Yes, it's Cyprus... And the sea is even calmer in its channel... How strange! But that star that you worship, who is it? Venus, isn't it? You should say: that you venerate. We worship God only. But She has nothing to do with Venus. She is Mary. Mary of Nazareth, the Hebraic Mary, the Mother of Jesus, the Messiah of Israel. And that other thing, what was it? That wasn't Hebrew... No, it was our dialect, the dialect of our lake, of our fatherland. But we cannot tell you, a pagan. It's a speech addressed to Jehovah, and only believers can learn it. Goodbye, Nicomedes. And don't regret what has gone to the bottom. A... spell less to cause you misfortune. Goodbye, eh? Are you dumbfounded? No... But... Excuse me... I insulted you! Oh! It does not matter! The effects of... Venus' cult... Come on, boys, let's go to the others... and smiling happily Peter goes towards the hatchway. The Cretan follows them: Listen! And what about the man? Is he dead? Not at all! We may give him back to you safe and sound very shortly... Just another trick of our... spells... Oh! Please excuse me! But tell me, where can one learn them in order to be helped? I am prepared to pay for that... Goodbye, Nicomedes! It's a long story... and it's not allowed... Sacred things are not to be given to heathens. Goodbye! Fare you well, my friend! And Peter, followed by all the others, goes below deck, smiling. Also the sea is now a pleasant sight, a fair mistral now favours navigation while the sun is setting and a slice of the waxing moon looms in the east...

320. Arrival and Landing at Seleucia.

6th November 1945. The town of Seleucia appears in a beautiful sunset like a huge white mass on the edge of the blue water of the sea, which is placid and pleasantly bright, while the breeze plays among the little waves under a cloudless sky that blends its cobalt blue with the purple of sunset. The ship is heading under sail towards the remote town and is so flooded by the splendour of the setting sun, that she seems ablaze with lights of joy for the arrival now close at hand. On the deck, among sailors no longer busy or worried, there are passengers who see that their destination is approaching. The injured sailor is sitting beside John of Endor, who is much more emaciated than when he left. The man's head is still dressed with a light bandage and he is as pale as ivory because of the blood he has lost. But he is smiling and he speaks to those who saved him and to his companions who, as they pass, congratulate him on his return to deck. The Cretan also sees him and entrusting his post for a moment to the coxswain, he comes to greet his very good Demetes , who has come back on deck for the first time after being hurt. And thanks to all of you he says to the apostles. I did not think he could survive, after being struck by the heavy beam and by the iron, which made it even heavier. Demetes, these people have really brought you back to life, because you were as good as dead, and not once, but twice. The first time when you were lying like a bale of goods on the deck, and because of the blood you were losing and of the waves that would have washed you overboard, you would have died and gone down to the kingdom of Neptune among Nereids and Tritons. The second time because they cured you with their wonderful ointments. Let me see your wound. The man undoes the bandage and shows a smooth healed scar, like a red mark from his temple to his nape, just under his hair, which appears to be cut, probably by Syntyche, to keep it out of the wound. Nicomedes touches the mark lightly: Even the bone is healed! Marine Venus did love you! And she wanted you only on the surface of the sea and on the shores of Greece. May Eros be gracious to you, now that we land, and assist you to forget your misfortune and the terror of Thanatos as you were already in his grip. Peter's face displays his feeling on hearing so many mythological embellishments. Leaning against a mast, with his hands behind his back, he does not speak, but everything speaks in him fastening a biting epithet on heathen Nicomedes and his heathenism, and expressing his disgust at the whole of Gentilism.

The others are not less disgusted... Judas of Alphaeus is frowning as he normally does when in a bad temper, his brother is moving around showing a great interest in the sea. James of Zebedee decides that the best thing to do is to leave them all and go below deck to get the bags and the loom, Matthew is toying with his belt and the Zealot imitates him, busying himself exceedingly with his sandals, as if they were something new, and John of Zebedee is hypnotised contemplating the sea. The contempt and annoyance of the eight apostles is so obvious and the mutism of the two disciples sitting near the wounded man is just as clear - that the Cretan becomes aware of it and he apologises: It's our religion, you know? As you believe in yours, we all believe in ours... No one replies and the Cretan wisely decides to leave his gods in peace and descend from Olympus on the earth, or rather on the sea, on his ship, inviting the apostles to go on to the prow to have a good view of the town that they are approaching. There it is, see? Have you ever been here? I was here, once, but I came by land says the Zealot gravely and dryly. Very well! So you know that Seleucia is the real port of Antioch. The sea-town is at the mouth of the river Orontes, which is also gracefully suitable to receive boats that can go up the river as far as Antioch when the water is deep. The town you see, the larger one, is Seleucia. The other one, to the south, is not a town, but the ruins of a devastated place. They are deceiving, but it is a dead place. That chain is the Pierios, after which the town is called Seleucia Pieria. The mountain top farther inland, beyond the plain, is mount Casius, and it dominates like a giant the plain of Antioch. The other chain to the north is the Amanus. Oh! You will see the work the Romans have done in Seleucia and in Antioch! They could not have done anything greater. A port with three basins, which is one of the best, canals, jetties and breakwaters. There is not so much in Palestine. But Syria is better than other provinces in the Empire... His words fall in deathlike silence. Even Syntyche, who being Greek is less squeamish than the others, sets her lips, and her face becomes more than ever as sharp as a face sculptured on a medal or a bas-relief: the face of a goddess disdainful of earthly contacts. The Cretan notices it and he apologises: What do you expect! After all I make my money from the Romans!... Syntyche's reply is as sharp as a sabre-cut: And gold blunts the sword of national honour and freedom , and she says so in such a

way and in such pure Latin that the man is dumbfounded... Then he dares to ask: But are you not Greek? I am Greek. But you love the Romans. I am speaking to you in the language of your masters, not in mine, which is the language of our martyred Fatherland. The Cretan is embarrassed while the apostles silently rejoice at the lesson given to the praiser of Rome. And the Cretan changes the subject and asks by which means they will be going from Seleucia to Antioch. On foot, man replies Peter. But it is evening. And it will be night by the time you land... There will be a place where we can sleep. Of course. But you can sleep here until tomorrow. Judas Thaddeus, who has seen that they have already prepared everything necessary for a sacrifice to the gods, to be offered likely at their arrival in the port, says: It is not necessary. We thank you for your kindness, but we prefer to land. Is that right, Simon? Yes, it is. We also have our prayers to say, and it is... either you and yours gods, or us and our God. Do as you like. I would have liked to do a good turn to Theophilus' son. And we would have liked to do one to the Son of God, convincing you that there is only one God. But you are a rock that will not move. As you can see, we are on the same standing. But perhaps we shall meet again one day and you may not be so persistent... says the Zealot gravely. Nicomedes makes a gesture as if he wished to say: Perhaps! . A gesture of ironic carelessness concerning the invitation to acknowledge the true God and forsake the false one. He then goes to the pilot's place as the harbour is close at hand. Let us go below and get the chests. Let us do it by ourselves. I am dying to get away from this pagan stench says Peter. And they all go below with the exception of Syntyche and John. The two exiles are close to each other and are watching the breakwaters that are coming closer and closer. Syntyche, another step towards the unknown, another tug from the happy past, another agony, Syntyche... I cannot bear it any longer... Syntyche takes his hand. She is very pale and sorrowful. But she is still the strong woman who knows how to encourage people. Yes, John, another tug, another agony. But do not say: another step towards the unknown... It is not right. We know what our mission is here. Jesus told us. So we are not going towards the

unknown, on the contrary we blend more and more with what we know, with the Will of God. It is not even right to say: "another tug". We are being united to His will. A tug separates. We are being united. So we are not being pulled apart. We are only parting with the sensitive delights of our love for Him, our Master, reserving super-sensitive delights for ourselves, transferring love and duty to a supernatural level. Are you convinced that it is so? You are? Well, you must not even say: "another agony". Agony presupposes impending death. But by reaching a spiritual level to make it our abode, our atmosphere and our food, we do not die, "we live". Because what is spiritual, is eternal. We therefore rise to a more lively life, an anticipation of the great Life in Heaven. So, cheer up! Forget that you are the man-John, and remember that you are destined to Heaven. Reason, act, think and hope only as a citizen of that immortal Fatherland... The others come back with their loads, when the ship is entering the large port of Seleucia majestically. And now let us make off as quickly as possible, to the first hotel we come across. There must be some in the neighbourhood, and tomorrow... by boat or by cart we will go to our destination. The ship docks by directions given by whistling and the gangway is lowered. Nicomedes approaches the departing passengers. Goodbye, man. And thank you says Peter on behalf of everybody. Goodbye, Israelites. And I thank you. If you go along that street you will find lodgings at once. Goodbye. The apostles come down on this side, and he goes in the opposite direction, and while Peter and the others, laden like porters, go to rest, the heathen begins his useless rite...

Vol 4 INDEX

THE THIRD YEAR OF THE PUBLIC LIFE (Conclusion)

414. The Beggar on the Road to Jericho. 415. The Conversion of Zacchaeus. 416. At Solomon's Village. 417. In a Little Village of the Decapolis. Parable of the Sculptor. 418. The Demoniac of the Decapolis. 419. The Yeast of the Pharisees. 420. Consider Yourselves Unprofitable Servants. 421. The Repentant Sinner Is always To Be Forgiven. 422. Martyrdom for Love Is Absolution. 423. At Caesarea on the Sea. Parable of the Father Who Gives Each of His Children the Same Amount of Money. 424. At Caesarea on the Sea. The Roman Ladies and the Slave Galla Ciprina. 68 425. Aurea Galla. 426. Parable of the Vineyard and of Free Will. 427. Going about the Plain of Esdraelon. 428. The Fallen Nest and the Scribe Johanan ben Zaccai. 429. The Journey in the Plain of Esdraelon Continues. 430. Near Sephoris, with Johanan's Peasants. * 431. Arrival at Nazareth. 432. Parable of Painted Wood. 433. The Sabbaths in the Peace of Nazareht. 434. Before Being a Mother, the Blessed Virgin Is a Daughter and Servant of God. 435. Jesus and His Mother Converse. 436. The Blessed Virgin at Tiberias. 437. Aurea Does the Will of God. 438. Another Sabbath at Nazareth. 439. The Departure from Nazareth and the Journey towards Bethlehem in Galilee. 440. Judas of Kerioth with the Blessed Virgin at Nazareth. 441. The Death of Marjiam's Grandfather. 442. Jesus Speaks of Charity to the Apostles. 443. Arrival at Tiberias. Parable of the Rain on the Vine. 444. Arrival at Capernaum. 445. Preaching at Capernaum. 446. At Magdala. Parable on Good and Bad Will. 447. Little Alphaeus of Meroba. 448. At the Village before Hippo. 449. Morning Sermon in the Village on the Lake. 69 450. Near the Place of the Leper. Parable on the Ten Commandments. * 451. At Hippo. Love for the Poor. Cure of an Old Slave. 452. Towards Gamala. The Blessed Virgin's Love in Doing the Will of God. 453. Near Gamala, Jesus Entrusts the Church to the Blessed Virgin and Speaks of

* on line *

Mercy on Oppressed People. 454. From Gamala to Aphek. 455. Preaching at Aphek. 456. At Gherghesa and Return to Capernaum. 457. Be as Wise as Serpents and as Simple as Doves. 458. The Sabbath at Capernaum. 459. At Johanna of Chuza's. Letters from Antioch. 460. At the Thermal Baths of Emmaus of Tiberias. 461. At Tarichea. Galatia, the Sinner. 462. In Chuza's Country House. The Tempting Proposal Made to Jesus and Made Known by the Disciple Jesus Loved. 463. At Bethsaida and Capernaum. Departure on a New Journey. 464. In the House of Judas and Anne near Lake Merom. 465. Parable on the Distribution of Waters. 466. Judas Iscariot Fills Jesus with Joy. 467. Farewell to the Few Believers in Korazim. 468. Jesus Speaks of Matrimony to a Mother-in-law. 469. Jesus Speaks to Barnabas of the Law of Love. 470. A Judgement of Jesus. 471. Cure of the Boy Born Blind from Sidon. 472. A Vision that Is Lost in a Rapture of Love. 473. Going towards Sephoris. 474. Jesus with the Leprous Sinners of Bethlehem in Galilee. 70 475. Jesus and His Mother in the Wood of Mattathias. 476. Jesus Converses with Joseph of Alphaeus. 477. Awaiting Johanan's Peasants near the Jezreel Tower. 478. Taking to the Road Again towards Engannim. 479. Jesus and John Arrive at Engannim. 480. Jesus and the Samaritan Shepherd. 481. The Ten Lepers near Ephraim. 482. At Ephraim. Parable of the Pomegranate. 483. At Bethany for the Feast of the Tabernacles. 484. At the Temple: The Kingdom of God Does Not Come with Pomp . 485. At the Temple: Do You Know Me and Where I Come from? . 486. At the Temple: I Shall Remain with You for Only a Short Time Now . 487. At Nob. The Miracle on the Wind. 488. Jesus at the Camp of the Galileans with His Apostle Cousins. 489. On the Last Day of the Feast of the Tabernacles. The Living Water. 490. At Bethany. One Can Kill in Many Ways . 491. Near the Fountain of En-Rogel. 492. The Pharisees and the Adulterous Woman. 493. Instructions on the Road to Bethany. 494. At the Village of Solomon and in His House. 495. Jesus and Simon of Jonas. 496. Jesus to Thaddeus and to James of Zebedee. 497. The Man from Petra, near Heshbon. 498. Descending from Mount Nebo. 499. Parable of the Father Who Praises His Far-away Children. Cure of the Little

Blind Children Fara and Tamar. 500. Divine and Diabolical Possessions. 71 501. The Wife of the Sadducean Necromancer. 502. Death of Ananias. 503. The Parable of the Unscrupulous Judge. 504. Jesus, Light of the World. 505. Jesus Speaks in the Temple to the Incredulous Judaeans. 506. In Joseph's House at Sephoris. Little Martial Named Manasseh, 507. The Old Priest Matan (or Natan). 508. The Cure of the Man Born Blind. 509. At Nob. Judas of Kerioth Lies. 510. Among the Ruins of a Destroyed Village. 511. At Emmaus in the Mountains. Parable of the Rich Wise Man and of the Poor Ignorant Boy. 512. The Undecided Young Man. Miracles and Admonitions at Beth-Horon. 513. Towards Gibeon. The Reasons for Jesus' Sorrow. 514. At Gibeon. The Wisdom of Love. 515. Returning to Jerusalem. 516. Jesus, the Good Shepherd. 517. Towards Bethany and in Lazarus' House. 518. Going to Tekoah. Old Elianna. 519. At Tekoah. 520. Arrival at Jericho. Zacchaeus' Apostolate. 521. At Jericho. Two Parables: That of the Sick and the Healthy, and That of the Pharisee and the Publican. 522. In Zacchaeus' House with the Converts. The Soul and the Error of Reincarnation. 523. Sabea of Bethlechi. 524. At Bethabara, Remembering the Baptist. 525. Going Back to Nob. Jesus' Omniscience. 72 526. At Nob. Judas of Kerioth's Return. 527. At Nob during the Following Days. Hidden Possessions. 528. Judas of Kerioth Is Lustful. 529. Jesus Speaks to Valeria of Matrimony and Divorce. The Miracle of Little Levi. 530. Jesus and the Prostitute Sent to Tempt Him. 531. Jesus and Judas of Kerioth Going towards Jerusalem. 532. In the Synagogue of the Roman Freedmen. 533. Judas Iscariot and Jesus' Enemies. 534. The Seven Lepers Cured. Instructions to the Apostles and Arrival at Bethany. 535. At the Feast of the Dedication of the Temple. 536. Jesus Goes to the Grotto of the Nativity to be Alone. 537. Jesus and John of Zebedee. 538. Jesus with John and Manaen. End of the Third Year.

THE THIRD YEAR OF THE PUBLIC LIFE (Conclusion)

431. Arrival at Nazareth. 9th May 1946. Coming from the Sephoris countryside one enters Nazareth on the north-eastern side, that is, on the highest and rockiest side. The entire amphitheatre, on the terraces of which Nazareth is spread, appears when one reaches the top of the hill, which is the last one coming from Sephoris and which slopes down rather steeply through ravines towards the town. If I remember correctly, because a long time has passed and many mountain places are alike, the spot where Jesus is, is the precise one where His fellow-citizens tried to stone Him, but He stopped them with His power, walking through them. Jesus stops to look at His dear yet hostile town, and a smile of happiness brightens His face. What a blessing, ignored and undeserved by the Nazarenes, is His divine smile, which certainly pours and spreads graces on the land which received Him when He was a child, saw Him grow up and where His Mother was born and She became the Spouse of God and the Mother of God! Also the two cousins look at their town with evident joy, but Thaddeus' happiness is tempered by austere reserved gravity, whereas James' is more open and kind, more like Jesus'. Although it is not his town, Thomas' face shines brightly with joy, and pointing at Mary's little house, from the stone oven of which rings of smoke are rising, he says: The Mother is at home and She is baking bread... and he utters these simple words with such fervent love, that he seems to be speaking of his mother with all the affection of a son. The Zealot, more calm because of his age and upbringing, smiles saying: Yes, and Her peace is already arriving in our hearts. Let us go down quickly says James. We will go down this path and it is unlikely that any of the Nazarenes will see us arrive. They would delay us... But you will be going away from your home... Your mother also is anxious to see you. Oh! You may be sure, Simon, that our mother is with Mary. She is almost always there... And she will be there because they are baking and because of the sick girl. Yes, let us go this way. We will pass at the rear of Alphaeus' kitchen garden and we will arrive at the hedge of ours says Jesus. They go down quickly along a path which at first is very steep, then it becomes more gentle near the town. They go through olive-groves and small fields bare of crops. They pass near the first kitchen gardens in town. And the tall leafy hedges around the gardens and over which hang branches of trees laden with fruit, or the little dry-stone walls all covered with branches hanging outside from orchards, prevent their passing from being noticed by housewives moving about the gardens, or doing the washing or spreading it on the patches of grass near the houses... The hedge bordering one side of Mary's kitchen garden, which is a tangle of thorns in winter, then thick with leaves in summer, after the hawthorn blooms in spring or the little fruits become ruby-colour in autumn, is now adorned with a luxuriant jasmine and with the undulating calyces of a flower, the name of which I do not know, and which from the inside of the garden throw their branches onto the hedge making it thicker and more beautiful. A blackcap is

singing in the thick of the hedge and the cooing of doves is heard from inside the garden. The fence also is protected and entirely covered with branches in bloom says James who has run ahead to look at the rustic gate at the rear of the garden, the one which, after not being used for years, was opened to let Peter's cart go in and out for John and Syntyche. We will go along the lane and will knock at the door. My Mother would suffer seeing this protection destroyed replies Jesus. Her enclosed garden! exclaims Judas of Alphaeus. Yes. And She is its rose says Thomas. As a lily among the thistles says James. The sealed fountain says the Zealot. Better: the well of living water which gushing impetuously from the beautiful mountain gives the Water of Life to the Earth and spurts towards Heaven with its scented beauty says Jesus. She will soon be delighted to see You says James. Tell me, Brother, something which I have been longing to know for some time. How do You see Mary? As a Mother or as a subject? She is Your Mother, but She is a woman and You are God... asks Thaddeus. As sister and as bride, as delight and rest of God and as comfort of Man. I see everything and I have everything in Mary, as God and as Man. She Who was the Delight of the Second Person of the Trinity in Heaven, Delight of the Word as well as of the Father and of the Spirit, is the Delight of the God Incarnate, and She will be the Delight of the Man God Glorified. What a mystery! So God has deprived Himself twice of His delights? In You and in Mary and He gave You to the Earth... meditates the Zealot. What love! You ought to say. Love induced the Trinity to give Mary and Jesus to the Earth says James. And, not with regard to You, Who are God, but with regard to His Rose, was He not afraid to entrust Her to men, who are all unworthy of protecting Her? asks Thomas. Thomas, the Song of Songs replies to you: "The Peaceful One had a vineyard and he entrusted it to vine-dressers who, being profaners instigated by the Desecrator, would have paid large amounts to have it, that is, all allurements to seduce it, but the beautiful Vineyard of the Lord looked after itself by itself, and would not give its fruits to anybody but to the Lord and it unbosomed itself to Him generating the priceless Treasure: the Saviour". They have now arrived at the door of the house, While Jesus knocks, Judas of Alphaeus comments: It would be the case to say: "Open, my sister, my spouse, my beloved immaculate dove"... But when the door opens, and the sweet face of the Virgin appears, Jesus utters the sweetest word, stretching out His arms to receive Her: Mother! Oh! Son! Blessed! Come in and may peace and love be with You And with My Mother and the house and those in it says Jesus entering, followed by the others. Your mother is in there, and the two women disciples are busy baking and doing the washing... explains Mary after exchanging greetings with the apostles and Her nephews, who discreetly withdraw leaving Mother and Son alone. Here I am with You, Mother. We will be together for some time... How

sweet it is to come back... the house and You above all, Mother, after so much travelling amongst men... And men become more and more acquainted with You and through such knowledge of You they become divided into two groups: those who love You... and those who hate You... And the latter group is the bigger... Evil perceives that it is about to be defeated and it is furious... and makes people furious... How is the girl? A little better... But she was on the point of death... And her words, now that she is not delirious correspond, although they are more reserved, to those which she spoke while raving. It would be a lie to say that we have not reconstructed her history... Poor girl!... Yes, but Providence watched over her. And now?... Now I do not know. Aurea does not belong to Me as a creature. Her soul is Mine, her body belongs to Valeria. For the time being, she will stay here, to forget... Myrtha would like to have her. I know... But I am not entitled to do anything without permission of the Roman lady. I do not even know whether they purchased her with money or simply used the weapon of promises ... When the Roman lady will claim her... I will go in Your place, Son. It is not right that You should go... Let Your Mother see to it... We women... the least beings for Israel, are not noticed so much if we go and speak to Gentiles. And Your Mother is so unknown to the world! No one will notice the Jewess of the common people going through the streets in Tiberias, enveloped in her mantle, and knocking at the door of a Roman lady... You could go to Johanna's... and speak to the lady there... I will do that, Son. May Your heart be relieved, Jesus!... You are so distressed... I understand... and I would like to do so much for You... And You do so much, Mother. Thank You for everything You do... Oh! I am a very poor help, Son! Because I am not successful in making You loved, in giving You... joy... as long as You are allowed to enjoy some... So what am I? A poor disciple, indeed... Mother! Mother! Do not say that! My strength comes to Me through Your prayers. My mind rests thinking of You, and, see, My heart finds comfort thus, with My head against Your blessed heart... Mother of Mine!... Jesus has drawn His Mother to Himself, as She was standing in front of Him, while He was sitting on the chest against the wall, and He leans His forehead on the breast of Mary, Who gently caresses His hair... A pause of love. Jesus then raises His head, stands up and says: Let us go to the others and to the girl and He goes out with His Mother into the kitchen garden. The three women disciples, standing at the door of the room where the sick girl is, are talking to the apostles. But when they see Jesus, they become quiet and kneel down. Peace to you, Mary of Alphaeus, and to you, Myrtha and Naomi. Is the girl sleeping? Yes, she is. She is still feverish and her temperature stupefies and consumes her. If it persists like this, she will die. Her frail body will not resist the disease and her mind is upset by remembrances says Mary of Alphaeus. Yes... and she does not react because she says that she wants to die, so

that she may not see any more Romans... confirms Myrtha. And that grieves us because we are already fond of her... says Naomi. Be not afraid! replies Jesus going as far as the threshold of the little room and lifting the curtain... On the little bed against the wall, facing the door, appears the little thin face of the girl, bright red at the cheek-bones, while all the rest is snow-white, buried in the mass of her long golden hair. She is sleeping restlessly, muttering incomprehensible words through her teeth and with her hand abandoned on the blankets she now and then makes a gesture as if she were rejecting something. Jesus does not enter. He looks at her with pitiful eyes. He then calls her in a loud voice: Aurea! Come! Your Saviour is here. All of a sudden the girl sits up in her bed, she sees Jesus and with a cry she gets up and runs barefooted in her long loose tunic towards Him, and kneels at His feet saying: Lord! Now You have really freed me! She is cured. See? She could not die because she must become acquainted with the Truth first. And to the girl who is kissing His feet He says: Rise and live in peace and He lays His hand on the no longer feverish head. Aurea, in her long linen dress, perhaps one of the Virgin's, so long as to form a train, her loose hair falling over her slender figure like a mantle, her grey-blue eyes still bright because of the temperature which has just dropped and of the joy which has just filled her, looks like an angel. Goodbye! We are withdrawing into the workshop while you look after the girl and the house... says the Master and followed by His four apostles he goes into Joseph's old workshop and they sit on the benches no longer used...

432. Parable of Painted Wood. 10th May 1946. The rustic workshop fireplace has been lit after not being used for such a long time, and the smell of glue boiling in a can mingles with the characteristic smell of sawdust and fresh shavings, which are just piling up at the foot of a bench. Jesus is working with zest to transform some timber, with the help of saw and plane, into legs for chairs, drawers and so forth. Some pieces of furniture, the modest furniture of the little house in Nazareth, have been taken into the workshop to be repaired: the kneading trough, one of Mary's looms, two stools, a garden ladder, a little chest and the door of the stone oven, the lower part of which I think has been perhaps gnawed away by mice. Jesus is working to repair what usage and old age have consumed. Thomas, instead, with a complete outfit of a goldsmith's tiny tools, which he must have taken out of his sack lying on his little bed placed against the wall like the Zealot's, is working with a light hand at some thin silver plates. And the tapping of his little hammer on the burin, giving a silvery sound, mingles with the loud noise of the working tools used by Jesus. Now and again they exchange a few words, and Thomas is so happy to be there with the Master and at his work of goldsmith - and in fact he says so that in the intervals of conversation he whistles softly. Now and again he raises

his eyes and thinks, and absorbed in thought he stares at the smoky wall of the large room. Jesus notices that and asks: Are you drawing your inspiration from that black wall, Tom? It is true that it was the long work of a just man that made it so, but I do not think that it can inspire a goldsmith... No, Master, a goldsmith in fact cannot reproduce with rich metals the poetry of holy poverty... But with his metal he can imitate the beautiful things in nature and thus ennoble gold and silver reproducing with them the flowers and leaves which are in creation. I think of those flowers and leaves, and to remember their details precisely I become fixed thus, with my eyes on the wall, but in actual fact I see the woods and meadows of our Fatherland, the light leaves, the flowers resembling chalices or stars, the bearing of stalks and leafy branches... You are a poet, then, a poet singing in metal what another person sings with ink on parchment. Yes. A goldsmith in fact is a poet who writes on metal the beautiful things of nature. But our work, artistic and beautiful, is not worth Yours, which is humble and holy, because ours serves the vanity of rich people, whereas Yours serves the sanctity of the house and the usefulness of the poor. What you say is right, Thomas says the Zealot, who has appeared at the door opening on to the kitchen garden, with his tunic tucked up, his sleeves rolled up, with an old apron in front of him and a tin of paint in his hand. Jesus and Thomas turn round looking at him and they smile. And Thomas replies: Yes, what I say is right. But I want that once in a while the work of a goldsmith may serve to adorn a... good holy thing... What? It's a secret of mine. I have had this idea for a long time, and since we were at Ramah I have been carrying a goldsmith's little outfit, waiting for this moment... And what about your work, Simon? Oh! I am not a perfect craftsman like you, Tom. It is the first time that I have held a brush in my hand and what I paint is uneven, notwithstanding all my good will. That is why I began from the... most simple things... to acquire skill... and I can assure you that my inexperience made the girl laugh heartily. But I am glad! She is reviving hourly to a serene life, and that is what is required to cancel her past and renew her for You, Master. H'm! perhaps Valeria will not give her up... says Thomas. Oh! what do you think it matters to Valeria to have her or not? If she had kept her, it would have been only to prevent her from being left forlorn in the world. It would certainly be a good thing if the girl were safe for ever and in everything, above all in her spirit. Is that right, Master? That is true. We must pray hard for that. The girl is really simple and good, and if she were brought up in the Truth, she could yield much. She is instinctively inclined to the Light. I quite believe it! She has no consolation on the Earth... and she seeks it in Heaven, poor soul! I think that when Your Gospel is announced all over the world, the first and the most numerous to receive it will be the slaves, those who have no human comfort and who will take shelter in Your promises to have some... And I say that if the honour of preaching You falls to me, I will love those poor wretches with a special love And you will do the right thing, Tom says Jesus.

Yes. But how will you approach them? Oh! I will be a goldsmith for the ladies and... a master of their slaves. A goldsmith calls at houses or the servants of rich people come to his... and I will work... Two metals: those of the Earth for the rich... those of the spirit for slaves. May God bless you for your good intentions, Tom. Persevere in them Yes, Master, I will. Well, now that You have replied to Thomas, please come with me, Master... to see my work and to tell me what I must paint now. Simple things again, because I am a very incapable apprentice. Let us go, Simon... and Jesus lays down His tools and goes out with the Zealot... They come back after some time and Jesus points at the garden ladder. Paint that. Paint makes wood impenetrable and preserves it longer, in addition to making it more beautiful. It is like the defence and ornament of virtues on a human heart. It may be rough, coarse... But as soon as virtues clothe it, it becomes beautiful and pleasant. See, to have a beautiful paint which serves its purpose, one must take care of many things. First of all: you have to choose carefully what is necessary to make it. That is, a clean can free from mould and residues of old paints, good oils and good colours, and then you have to mix them patiently, working on them to make a liquid which is neither too thick nor too thin. And you must not tire working until the least clot is dissolved. When that is done, you have to take a brush the bristles of which do not come off, and they must be neither too hard nor too soft; the brush is to be cleaned of any previous paint, and before applying the paint, you have to remove from the wood all roughness, the peelings of old paints, dirt, everything, and then neatly, with a steady hand and much patience, you spread the paint, working in the same direction all the time. Because on the same board you meet different resistances. On knots, for instance, the paints remains smoother, that is true, but it does not cover them well, as if the wood rejected it. Viceversa, the paint sticks well on the soft parts of the wood, but the soft parts are generally not very smooth and thus blisters or stripes form... One then must remedy the defect by spreading the paint with a steady hand. Then in old pieces of furniture there are new parts, like this rung, for instance. And in order not to show that the poor ladder has been botched, but is very old, one must get the new rung and the old ones to be alike... There you are, like that! Jesus bent at the foot of the ladder is working and speaking at the same time... Thomas, who has left his burins to come near Jesus and see, asks: Why did You begin from the bottom and not from the top? Was it not better the other way round? It would appear to be better, but is not. Because the lower part is more worn out and will wear out more because it rests on the ground. So you must paint it several times. A first coat, a second and a third one if necessary... and not to waste time waiting for the lower part to dry and thus be ready for a new coat, you paint the top and then the central parts of the ladder. But in doing so, one might stain one's clothes and spoil what was painted previously. If you are careful you do not stain your clothes and you do not spoil anything. See? This is how you do it. You gather your clothes and stand apart. Not out of disgust for the paint, but not to spoil the paint which, being fresh, is

delicate and Jesus with His arms raised up paints the top of the ladder. And He continues to speak: And you do the same with souls. At the beginning I told you that paint is like the ornament of virtues on human hearts. It adorns and protects wood from wood-worm, from rain, from the sun. Woe to the landlord who does not take care of painted fittings and allows them to deteriorate! When one sees that the wood is losing its paint, one must not waste time, but fresh paint is to be put on. Paints must be refreshed... Also virtues acquired in a first fit of enthusiasm towards justice may grow feeble or fade away completely if the landlord does not watch, and body and soul, laid bare, at the mercy of inclement weather and of parasites, that is, of passions and dissipations, can be attacked and lose the garment which adorns them, and end by being... good only for the fire. Therefore, with regard both to ourselves and to those whom we love as our disciples, when we notice that the virtues which serve to defend our egos are being shattered or are fading away, we must provide at once with diligent patient work until the end of our lives, so that we may go to sleep, when we die, with body and soul worthy of a glorious resurrection. And in order to ensure that your virtues are true and good, you must begin with pure courageous intentions, which remove all rubbish and mould, and you must work not to leave any imperfection in the building up of virtues, and then take an attitude, which is neither too hard nor too lenient, because both intolerance and excessive indulgence are harmful. And the brush: your will. Let it be free from pre-existent human inclinations which might vein the spiritual hue with material disfigurements, and prepare yourselves or other people, with suitable operations, which are laborious, it is true, but necessary, to cleanse the old ego from any ancient leprosy, so that it may be pure to receive virtue. Because you cannot mix what is new with what is old. You then begin to work: in good order, with consideration. You must not jump here and there without a good reason. You must not work a little in one direction and then a little in another. One would get less tired, that is true. But the paint would be uneven. As happens in disorderly souls. They display perfect points, then close to them there are deformities, different shades... One must insist on the spots resisting the paint, on the knots: confusion of matter or of dissolute passions, which, of course, have been mortified by will, which like a plane has laboriously smoothed them, but they remain to offer resistance like a knot amputated but not destroyed. And they deceive at times, as they appear to be well clad with virtue, whereas it is but a light veil which soon falls off. Beware of the knots of concupiscence. Ensure that virtue covers them over and over again, so that they may not flourish again disfiguring the new ego. And cover the soft parts, which receive the paint too easily, but they do so to their own liking: if there are blisters and stripes you must insist with isinglass, smoothing and smoothing in order to give one or more coats of paint, so that such parts may become as glossy as hardened enamel. And watch that you do not overload. To exact too much from virtue makes the creature rebel, boil over and blister at the first impact. No. Neither too much nor too little. Be fair when working on yourselves and on creatures made of flesh and soul. And if, as in most cases - because girls like Aurea are an exception, not the rule - there are new parts mixed with old ones, as Israelites have, passing from Moses to the Christ, as well as heathens with their mosaic of beliefs which cannot be cancelled all of a sudden and will surface with nostalgic memories, at

least in the most pure matters, then one must be more vigilant and tactful and insist until the old part is homogeneous with the new one making use of pre-existent situations to complete the new virtues. For instance, the Romans hold in high esteem patriotism and manlike courage. They are both considered almost as myths. Well, do not destroy them but inculcate a new spirit on patriotism, that is, the spirit of making Rome great also spiritually as the Centre of Christendom and make use of Roman manliness to strengthen in Faith those who are strong in battle. Another instance: Aurea. Her disgust at a brutal revelation urges her to love what is pure and to hate what is impure. Well, make use of both feelings to lead her to perfect purity hating corruptness, as if it were the brutal Roman. Do you understand Me? And use habits as means of penetration. Do not destroy brutally. You would not dispose at once of what is needed to build. But slowly replace what must not remain in a convert, with charity, patience and tenacity. And since matter overwhelms people, heathens in particular as, even if they are converts, they are always in touch with the heathen world, in which they live, you must insist on the necessity of shunning sensual pleasures. All the rest comes in after sensuality. Watch the exasperated sensuality of heathens and which, let us admit it, is very strong also among us, and when you notice that the contact with the world spoils the preservative paint, do not continue to paint the top, but go back to the lower part, balancing spirit and flesh, top and bottom. But always start from the flesh, from material vice, to prepare the soul to receive the Guest Who does not cohabit in impure bodies or with spirits stinking with carnal corruption... Do you understand me? And do not be afraid of becoming corrupted if you touch with your garment the lower parts, that is the material ones, of those whose spirits you are curing. Act wisely, so that at all times you may reconstruct rather than bring about ruination. Live engrossed in your ego nourished with God, enveloped with virtue, proceed gently particularly when you have to take care of the most sensitive spiritual ego of other people, and you will certainly succeed in changing even the most despicable beings into creatures worthy of Heaven. What a beautiful parable You have told us! I want to write it for Marjiam! says the Zealot. And for me, as all of me is to be made beautiful for the Lord says slowly trying to find the words, Aurea who, barefooted, has been standing for some time at the door of the kitchen garden. Oh! Aurea! Were you listening to us? asks Jesus. I was listening to You. It is so beautiful! Have I done wrong? No, girl. Have you been here long? No. And I am sorry because I do not know what You said previously. Your Mother has sent me to tell You that the meal will be ready shortly. The bread is about to be taken out of the oven. I have learned how to bake it... How lovely! And I have learned to bleach linen, and Your Mother has told me two parables concerning bread and linen. Has She? What did She say? That I am like flour still in the sieve, that Your goodness purifies me, Your grace works in me, Your apostolate perfects me, Your love cooks me and from coarse flour mixed with so much bran I will end up, if I allow myself to be worked on by You, by being flour for hosts, flour and bread of sacrifice, good for the Altar. And on the linen, which was dark, oily and coarse, and which

after so much borit grass (1) and so many blows of mortification has become clean and soft, the sun will now shine, and it will become white... And She said that that is what the Sun of God will do with me, if I always remain in the Sun and I accept to be cleansed and mortified to become worthy of the King of kings, of You, my Lord. What lovely things I am learning... I seem to be dreaming... Lovely! Everything is beautiful here... Do not send me away, Lord! Would you not like to go with Myrtha and Naomi? I would prefer to stay here... But... also with them. But not with Romans, no, Lord... Pray, child! says Jesus laying His hand on her honey-blond hair. Have you learned the prayer? Oh! yes! It is so lovely to say: "My Father!" and think of Heaven... But the will of God frightens me a little... because I do not know whether God wants what I want... God wants your welfare. Does He? You say so?! In that case I am no longer afraid... I feel that I will remain in Israel... to become more and more acquainted with this Father of mine... And... to be the first disciple of Gaul, my Lord! Your faith will be satisfied because it is good. Let us go... And they all go out towards the basin under the spring of water to wash themselves, while Aurea runs to Mary and their two feminine voices are heard: Mary's, which is fluent in speaking, whereas the other is uncertain, of a person trying to find words. And one can hear their shrill voices laughing when a (1) Soap-wort. language error is made and which Mary corrects kindly... The girl is learning well and quickly remarks Thomas. Yes. She is good and willing. And then! With Your Mother as teacher!... Not even Satan could resist Her!... says the Zealot. Jesus sighs without speaking... Why are You sighing thus, Master? Was I not right? Yes, quite right. But there are men more resistant than Satan, who at least runs away from Mary's presence. There are men who are close to Her and who, although taught by Her, do not improve... But not us, eh? says Thomas. No, not you... Let us go... They go into the house and it all ends.

433. The Sabbaths in the Peace of Nazareth. 13th May 1946. The Sabbath is a day of rest. That is already known. And men rest as well as having tools covered up or neatly arranged in their places. Now that the red sunset of a summer Friday is almost over, Mary, Who is sat at Her smaller loom in the shade of the huge apple-tree, stands up, covers it and with the help of Thomas She carries it back to its place in the house. And

She asks Aurea, who is sitting on a little stool at Her feet sewing with still unskilful hand the dresses given to her by the Roman ladies and fitted on her by Mary, to fold her work tidily and put it on the shelf in her little room. And while Aurea is doing so, the Mother with Thomas goes into the workshop where Jesus and the Zealot are busy putting straight saws, planes, screwdrivers, hammers, tins of paint and glue and sweeping away sawdust and shavings from benches and the floor. Of all the work done so far only two small planks of wood remain, gripped in a vice, at an angle, so that the glue may dry up at the joints (it may be a future drawer), and a stool, half painted, besides the strong smell of fresh paint. Aurea also goes in and she bends over Thomas's burin work, which she admires and asks, somewhat curious and instinctively coquettish, what it is for and whether it would suit her. It would suit you fine, but it suits you better to be good. These ornaments embellish the body only, but are of no use to the spirit. Nay, by cherishing coquetry, they are harmful to the spirit. Why do you make them, then? asks the logical girl. Do you want to harm a spirit? Thomas, who is always kind-hearted, smiles at the remark and says: What is superfluous is harmful to a weak spirit. But in the case of a strong spirit, an ornament remains exactly what it is: a brooch to hold a garment in place. For whom are you making it? For your bride? I have no bride and will never have one. For your sister, then. She has more than she needs. For your mother, then. Poor old soul! What would she do with it? But it is for a woman... Yes, but it is not you. Oh! I would not even think of it... And, now that you have said that those things there are harmful to the spirit, I would not like to have it. And I will take the fringes off my dresses. I do not want to do any harm to what belongs to my Saviour! Clever girl! See, with your good will you have done a nicer work than mine. Oh! You are saying so because you are kind!... I am saying it because it is true. See: I took this piece of silver, I reduced it to thin plates as I needed them, then with a tool, or rather with many tools, I folded it thus. But I still have to do the most important work: join the parts together in a natural manner. At present, only these two tiny leaves joined to their little flower are complete and Thomas with his big fingers lifts a graceful stem of a lily of the valley joined to a leaf which is a perfect imitation of a natural one. It is impressive to see the trinket shining with the brilliancy of pure silver held by the strong dark fingers of the goldsmith. Oh! lovely! There were many on the island and we were allowed to pick them before sunrise. Because we blond girls had never to take the sun, so that we might be more valuable. They compelled brunettes instead to stay out in the sun, until they felt sick, to become darker. They... What do you say when one sells something saying that it is one thing, whereas it is another?... Who knows!... Deceit... swindle... I don't know.

See, they deceived them saying that they were Arabs or that they came from the Upper Nile, where it rises. They sold one girl saying that she was a descendant of the Queen of Sheba. Fancy that! They did not deceive the girls, but the purchasers. So you say: they cheated. What a race! A wonderful surprise for the purchaser when he saw... the false Ethiopian grow lighter! Did You hear that, Master? How many things we do not know!... Yes, I heard. But the sad side is not the cheating of the purchasers... it is the destiny of the girls... That is true. Souls desecrated for ever. Lost... No. God can always intervene He did on my behalf. You saved me!... says Aurea turning her clear serene eyes towards the Lord. And she concludes: And I am so happy! and as she cannot go and embrace Jesus, she clasps Mary with one arm bending her fair-haired head on the Virgin's shoulder in a gesture of confident love. The two fair-haired heads stand out, in their different shades, against the dark wall. A most gentle group. But Mary has to see to the supper. They part and go away. May I come in? says the rather hoarse voice of Peter at the workshop door which opens onto the road. Simon! Open the door! Simon! He could not stay away! exclaims Thomas laughing while he runs to open. Simon! This was to be expected... says the Zealot smiling. But it is not only Peter's face which appears at the door. All the apostles from the lake are there, with the exception of Bartholomew and the Iscariot. And Judas and James of Alphaeus have already joined them. Peace to you! But why did you come in this heat? Because... we could not stay away any longer. It's two and a half weeks, You know? Do You understand? We have not seen You for two and a half weeks! and Peter seems to be saying: Two hundred years! An enormity! But I told you to wait for Judas on every Sabbath. Yes, but he did not come on the last two Sabbaths... and we have come here on the third one. Nathanael remained there because he is not too well. And he will receive Judas, if he goes there... But he will not go... Passing through Tiberias to come to us, before going to the Great Hermon, Benjamin and Daniel told us that they had seen him at Tiberias and... Of course. I will tell You later... says Peter who has stopped speaking because of a tug at his tunic by his brother. All right. You will tell Me... But you were all so anxious to have a rest, and now that you had a chance you have been running about like this! When did you leave? Yesterday evening. The lake was like a mirror. We landed at Tarichea to avoid Tiberias... so that we would not meet Judas... Why? Because, Master, we wanted to enjoy Your company in peace. You are selfish! No. He already has his joys... Well! I don't know who gives him so much money to enjoy it with... Yes, I have understood, Andrew. But don't pull my tunic so violently. You know that it is the only one I have. Do you want me to

go back in rags? Andrew blushes. The others laugh. Jesus smiles. Well. We landed at Tarichea also because, well, don't reproach me... It may be the heat, it may be that I become wicked when I am far away from You, it may be the thought that he left you to join... Listen, stop tearing at my sleeve! You see that I can stop in time!... So, Master, it may be for many reasons... I did not want to commit a sin and if I had seen him I would have committed one. So I went straight to Tarichea. And at dawn we set off. Did you pass through Cana? No. We did not want to come the long way round... But it was a long way all the same. And the fish was beginning to go bad... We gave it to the people in a house, to have shelter for a few hours... the warm hours. And we left after the ninth hour, about the middle of the following hour... It was like an oven! You could have saved yourselves the trouble. I was coming soon... When? When the sun comes out of Leo. And do You think we could stay so long without You? We will defy a thousand of such hot days and we will come to see You. Our Master! Our adored Master! and Peter embraces his lost Treasure. And yet, when we are together you do nothing but complain of the weather, of the length of journeys... Because we are foolish. Because, while we are together we do not really understand what You are for us... But here we are. We are all already settled. Some will stay with Mary of Alphaeus, some with Simon of Alphaeus, some with Ishmael, some with Aser and some here, nearby, with Alphaeus. We will rest now and tomorrow evening we will leave, and we will be more happy. On last Sabbath we had Myrtha and Naomi here, they came to see the girl again says Thomas. You can see that whoever can manage to do so, comes here! Yes, Peter. And what have you done during these days? We have fished... painted the boats... mended the nets... Marjiam often goes fishing with the servants, which reduces the insults of my mother-in-law against "the sluggard who lets his wife die of starvation after bringing an illegitimate son to her". And yet Porphirea has never been so well as now that she has Marjiam for her heart... and for everything else. The sheep from three have become five and will soon be more... It is a great help for a little family like ours! And Marjiam by fishing makes up for what I do not do, except very rarely. But that woman has the tongue of a viper, whereas her daughter has the tongue of a dove... But I see that You have been working as well... Yes, Simon. We have worked. All of us. My brothers in their house, these apostles and I in Mine. To make our mothers happy and let them rest. Well, we have been working, too say the sons of Zebedee. My wife and I have worked at the beehives and in the vineyard says Philip. And what about you, Matthew? I have no one to make happy... so I made myself happy by writing down the things that I like to remember... Oh! in that case we will tell you the parable of the paint. I, a very inexperienced painter, was the cause of it... says the Zealot. But you soon learned the trade. Look how smooth he made this seat!

says Thaddeus... They are in perfect harmony. And Jesus, Who looks more rested since He has been at home, is bright with joy at having His dear apostles with Him. Aurea comes and remains on the threshold surprised. Oh! here she is! Look how well she is! She looks like a true little Hebrew, dressed like that! Aurea blushes and does not know what to say. But Peter is so good natured and fatherly, that she soon recovers and says: I am striving to become one... and with the help of my Teacher I hope to be one soon... Master, I am going to tell Your Mother that these people are here... and she goes away quickly. She is a good girl states the Zealot. Yes. I would like her to remain with us in Israel. Bartholomew lost a good chance and much joy by refusing her... says Thomas. Bartholomew is very respectful of... formulae says Philip excusing him. His only fault remarks Jesus. Mary comes in... Peace to You, Mary say those who came from Capernaum. Peace to you... I did not know that you were here. I will provide at once... Come in the meantime... Our mother is coming from our house with some provisions, and Salome is coming as well. Do not worry, Mary says James of Alphaeus. Let us go into the kitchen garden... The evening breeze is rising and it is pleasant in there... says Jesus. And they go into the kitchen garden and sit here and there, conversing fraternally, while the doves coo competing for the last meal which Aurea is spreading on the ground... It is then time to water the flower-beds and the beautiful vegetables so useful to man. And the apostles want to do it cheerfully, while Mary of Alphaeus, who has just arrived, and Aurea and the Virgin prepare a meal for the guests. And the smell of sizzling food mingles with that of the moist earth, as the chirping of birds competing cheekily for a good spot among the thick leaves above the garden, mingles with the deep or shrill voices of the apostles...

423.

Before Being a Mother, the Blessed Virgin Is a Daughter and Servant of God. 14th May 1946. And the Sabbath wears on. It is the true Sabbath. In the wonderful morning, when the air is still fresh and cool, it is beautiful to sit in a brotherly peaceful gathering under the shady pergola, or where the apple-tree, close to the fig and almond-trees, forms with them patches of shade extending that of the pergola on which grapes are ripening. And it is nice to walk up and down the paths between the flower-beds going from the beehives to the dove-cot and then to the little grotto, and, passing behind the women - Mary, Mary of Clopas, the daughter-in-law of the latter: Salome of Simon, Aurea - going towards the few olive-trees which from the cliff hang over the peaceful kitchen

garden. And that is what Jesus and His disciples, Mary and the other women are doing. And Jesus teaches unintentionally, and so does Mary. And the apostles of the Former and the women disciples of the Latter are carefully listening to the words of the two Teachers. Aurea, sat on her usual little stool at Mary's feet, almost in a squatting posture, is embracing her knees with joined hands, her face is raised and her wide-open eyes are staring at Mary's face. She looks like a little girl who is listening to a wonderful tale. But it is not a tale. It is a beautiful truth. Mary is telling the little heathen of yesterday the ancient stories of Israel and the other women, although they already know them, are listening attentively. Because it is pleasant to hear the story of Rachel, that of the daughter of Jephthah, that of Hannah of Elkanah, flowing from Her lips! Judas of Alphaeus comes near slowly and listens smiling. He is behind Mary Who therefore cannot see him. But the smiling look of Mary of Clopas at her Judas tells Mary that someone is behind Her and She turns round: Oh! Judas? Have you left Jesus to hear Me, a poor woman? Yes. I left You to go to Jesus, because You were my first teacher. But at times it is pleasant for me to leave Him and come to You, and become again a boy as when I was Your disciple. Go on, please... Aurea wants her reward each Sabbath. And the reward consists in telling her what impressed her most in our History, a little of which I explain to her every day while working. The others also have come near... Thaddeus asks: And what do you like, child? So much, I could say everything... But Rachel very much, and Hannah of Elkanah, then Ruth... then... ah! beautiful! Tobit and Tobias with the Angel, and then the bride who prays to be freed... And Moses, no? He frightens me... Too great... And of the prophets I like Daniel who defends Susanna. She looks around and then whispers: I also was defended by my Daniel and she looks at Jesus. But also Moses' books are beautiful! Yes. Where they teach not to do what is bad. And where they speak of that star which will be born of Jacob. I know its name now. I knew nothing before. And I am more fortunate than that prophet because I can see it and close by. She told me everything and I know as well she concludes with an air of triumph. And do you not like Passover? Yes... but... also the children of other people are the sons of mothers. Why kill them? I prefer the God Who saves to the God Who kills... You are right... Mary, have You not told her anything yet of His Birth? asks James pointing at the Lord Who is listening in silence. Not yet. I want her to know the past well before the present. She will thus understand the present which has in the past its reason for being. When she knows it, she will see that the God Who frightens her, the God of Sinai, is but a God of severe love, but still a God of love. Oh! Mother! Tell me now! It will be less difficult for me to understand the past when I know the present, which, as far as I know, is so beautiful and makes one love God without fear. I need not to be afraid! The girl is right. You must remember that truth when you will be

evangelizing. Souls need not to be afraid in order to go to God with full confidence. It is what I am striving to do, all the more when people, either through ignorance or because of their faults, are likely to be much afraid of God. But God, also the God Who struck the Egyptians and Who frightens you, Aurea, is always good. See: when He killed the sons of the cruel Egyptians, He had mercy on the sons, who did not grow up and did not become sinners like their fathers and He gave their parents time to repent of their evil doings. So it was severe goodness. One must be able to tell true goodness from loose upbringing. Also when I was a little baby, many little children were killed on the very laps of their mothers. And the world cried with horror. But when Time exists no more for individuals or for all Mankind, for a first time and for a second time you will realise that those were fortunate, blessed in Israel, in the Israel of the times of Christ, who slaughtered in their infancy, were preserved from the biggest sin, that of being accomplices in the death of the Saviour. Jesus! shouts Mary of Alphaeus springing to her feet, frightened, looking around as if she were afraid to see deicides appear from behind hedges and trunks of trees. Jesus! she repeats looking at him painfully. What? Do you perhaps not know the Scriptures, since you are so surprised at what I say? asks Jesus. But... But... It is not possible... You must not allow that... Your Mother... She is Saviour like Me, and She knows. Look at Her. And imitate Her. Mary is in fact austere, regal in Her deep pallor. She is motionless, with Her hands in Her lap clasped as if in prayer, Her head straight, looking into space... Mary of Alphaeus looks at Her. She then addresses Jesus again: All the same, You must not mention that horrible future! You are piercing Her heart with a sword. That sword has been in Her heart for thirty-two years. No! It's not possible! Mary... always so serene... Mary... Ask Her, if you do not believe what I say. I will ask Her! Is it true, Mary? You know?... And Mary in a gentle but firm voice says: It is true. He was forty days old and I was told by a holy man... But also previously... Oh! When the Angel told Me that while remaining the Virgin I would conceive a Son, Who would be called the Son of God and is such because of His divine conception, when I was told that, and that in the barren womb of Elizabeth a fruit had been formed by a miracle of the Eternal Father, I had no difficulty in remembering the words of Isaiah: "The Virgin will give birth to a son and they will call Him the Immanuel" All, all Isaiah! And where he speaks of the Precursor... And where he speaks of the Man of sorrows, stained with blood, unrecognizable... a leper... for our sins... The sword has been in My heart since then and everything has served to drive it in more deeply: the song of the angels and the words of Simeon and the visit of the Kings from the East, and everything... But which other everything, Mary? Jesus is triumphing, Jesus works miracles, Jesus is followed by larger and larger crowds... Is that not the truth? says Mary of Alphaeus. And Mary, always in the same posture replies to each question: Yes... without anguish, without joy, only a quiet assent, because it is so... Well then? Which other everything is piercing Your heart with a sword? Oh!... Everything... And You are so calm? So serene? Always the same as when You arrived

here, a young bride, thirty-three years ago, and I remember it so well that it seems yesterday to me... But how can You?... I... I would be mad... I would do... I don't know what I would do... I... No! It is not possible for a mother to know that and to be calm! Before being a Mother, I am a daughter and servant of God... Where do I find My tranquillity? In doing the will of God. From where does My serenity come? From doing that will. If I had to do the will of a man, I might be upset, because a man, even the wisest, can always impose a wrong will. But the will of God! If He wanted Me to be the Mother of His Christ, have I perhaps to think that that is cruel, and in that thought lose My serenity? Am I to be upset by the thought of what Redemption will be to Him and to Me, also to Me, and how I will be able to overcome that hour? Oh! it will be dreadful... Mary gives an involuntary start, She suddenly shudders and clenches Her hands to prevent them from trembling, as if She wanted to pray more fervently, while Her face grows even paler and Her delicate eyelids close on Her kind sky-blue eyes with an expression full of anguish. But She steadies Her voice after a deep sigh of anxiety and She concludes: But He, Who imposed His will on Me and Whom I serve with confident love, will grant Me His assistance for that hour. He will grant it to Me, to Him... Because the Father cannot impose a will that exceeds the strength of man... and He succours... always... And He will succour us, My Son... He will succour us... and there is no one but He, with His infinite means, who can succour us... Yes, Mother. Love will succour us, and in love we will succour each other. And in love we will redeem... Jesus has gone beside His Mother and lays His hand on Her shoulder and She raises Her face to look at Him, at Her handsome healthy Jesus destined to be disfigured by torture, killed with a thousand wounds, and She says: In love and in sorrow... Yes. And together... No one speaks any more... Standing around the two chief Protagonists of the future tragedy of Golgotha, the apostles and women disciples look like pensive statues... Aurea, on her little stool, is petrified... But she is the first to collect herself and without standing up she slides on her knees and thus finds herself facing Mary. She embraces Her knees and bends her head on Her lap saying: All that also for me!... How much I cost You and how much I love You for what I cost! Oh! Mother of my God, bless me, that my cost may not be fruitless... Yes, My daughter. Be not afraid. God will help you as well, if you always accept His will. She caresses her hair and cheeks and feels them wet with tears. Do not weep! The first thing of the Christ with which you have become acquainted is His sorrowful destiny, the end of His mission as Man. It is not fair, having learned that, that you should be unacquainted with the first hour of His life in the world. Listen... Everybody will be pleased to come out of the dark bitter contemplation by recalling the sweet hour, full of light, of songs, of hosannas, of His Birth... Listen... and Mary, explaining the reason for Her journey to Bethlehem in Judah, the town predicted to be the birthplace of the Saviour, in a soft gentle voice tells the story of the night of Christ's Nativity.

435. Jesus and His Mother Converse. 15th May 1946. I do not know whether it is the evening of the same Sabbath. I know that I see Jesus and Mary, sitting on the stone seat against the house, near the door of the dining-room, from which comes the faint light of an oil lamp placed close to the door. The little flame palpitates in the air, rising and sinking, as if it were breathing. It is the only light in the moonless night: a faint light visible in the kitchen garden where it illuminates the small strip of ground before the door and dies on the first rose-bush in the flower-bed. But the feeble light is sufficient to illuminate the profiles of the Two engaged in intimate talk in the calm night full of the scent of jasmines and other summer flowers. They are speaking of their relatives... of Joseph of Alphaeus persistently stubborn, of Simon not very brave in his profession of faith, overwelmed as he is by his eldest brother, who is as overbearing and obstinate in his ideas as his father was. It is the great sorrow of Mary Who would like all Her nephews to be disciples of Her Jesus. Jesus comforts Her and to excuse His cousin He points out his strong Israelitic faith: An obstacle, You know? A real obstacle. Because all the formulae and precepts form a barrier against the acceptance of the Messianic idea in its truth. It is easier to convert a heathen, provided his spirit is not completely corrupt. A heathen ponders and sees the good difference between his Olympus and My Kingdom. But Israel... the more learned part of Israel... finds it difficult to follow the new concept!... And yet it is always that concept! Yes. It is always that Decalogue, those prophecies. But their nature has been perverted by man. He has taken them, and from the supernatural spheres where they were, and has brought them down to the level of the Earth, in the atmosphere of the world, he has handled them with his humanity altering them... The Messiah, the spiritual King of the great Kingdom - which is called Kingdom of Israel, because the Messiah is born of the throne of Israel, but it would be more correct to call it: the Kingdom of Christ, because Christ centralises the better part of Israel, both past and present, and sublimates it in His perfection of God-Man - according to them the Messiah, cannot be the meek poor man, without yearning after power and riches, obedient to those who rule over us by divine punishment, because obedience is holiness when it does not invalidate the great Law. We can therefore say that their faith works against the true Faith. Of such stubborn people convinced that they are right, there are many... in every class... and even among My relatives and apostles. Believe, Mother, that their dullness in believing in My Passion lies in that. Their errors in valuation originate from that... Also their obstinate aversion to consider Gentiles and idolaters, not looking at man, but at the spirit of man, that spirit which has only one Origin and to which God would like to give only one Destiny: Heaven. Take Bartholomew... He is an instance. Very good, wise, willing to do everything to honour and comfort Me... But before, I will not say

an Aglae or a Syntyche, who is already a flower compared with poor Aglae, whom penance only restores from filth to a flower, but not even before a child, a poor child whose lot excites pity and whose instinctive modesty draws admiration, does his disgust for the Gentiles vanish, neither does My example convince him, nor My words that I have come for everybody. You are right. Nay, Bartholomew and Judas of Kerioth, the two most learned, or at least: the learned Bartholomew, and Judas of Kerioth, who I do not know to which class he belongs exactly, but who is imbued and saturated with the air of the Temple, are the most resistant. But... Bartholomew is good and his resistance can still be excused. Judas... no. You heard what Matthew, who went to Tiberias on purpose, said... And Matthew is a man of experience, particularly of that life... And the remark of James of Zebedee is correct: "Who is it that gives so much money to Judas?". Because that life costs... Poor Mary of Simon! Jesus makes His gesture with His hands, to say: It is so... and He sighs. He then says: Did You hear that? The Roman ladies are at Tiberias... Valeria has not told Me anything. But I must know before I resume My journey. Mother, I want You to come to Capernaum with Me for some time... You will then come back here, I will go towards the Syro-Phoenician border, and I will come back to say goodbye to You before going down towards Judaea, the obstinate sheep of Israel... Son, I will go tomorrow evening... I will take Mary of Alphaeus with Me. Aurea will stay with Simon of Alphaeus, because her staying here with You for several days would certainly be criticised... Such is the world... And I will go... To Cana as first stage, then at dawn I will leave and stop at the house of the mother of Salome of Simon. Then I will set out again at sunset and we will arrive at Tiberias in daylight. I will stay in the house of Joseph, the disciple, because I want to go personally to Valeria's house, and if I went to Johanna's, she would want to go... No. I, the Mother of the Saviour, will appear in her eyes, different from the disciple of the Saviour... and she will not say no to Me. Do not be afraid, Son! I am not afraid. But I am sorry for all Your trouble. Oh! to save a soul! What are twenty miles in a good season? It will also be a moral strain. To beg... perhaps to be humiliated... A passing trifle. But a soul remains! You will be like a lost swallow in corrupt Tiberias... Take Simon with You. No, Son. Just the two of us, two poor women... But two mothers and two disciples. That is, two great moral strengths... I will not be long. Let Me go... Just bless Me. Yes, Mother. With all My heart as Son, and with all My power as God. Go and may the angels escort you along the way. Thank You, Jesus. Well, let us go in. I will have to get up at dawn to prepare everything for those who leave and for those who are staying. Say the prayer, Son... Both Jesus and Mary stand up and they say together the Our Father... They then go back into the house, they close the door... the light disappears and human voices are heard no more. Only the rustling of the breeze among the leaves can be heard and the soft gurgling of the water in the fountain basin...

436. The Blessed Virgin at Tiberias. 16th May 1946. Tiberias is already in sight when the two tired pilgrims are proceeding in the darkening twilight. It will soon be dark... And we are still in the middle of the country... Two women alone... And near a large town full of... Ugh! what people! Beelzebub! Beelzebub mostly... says Mary of Alphaeus looking around frightened. Be not afraid, Mary. Beelzebub will do us no harm. He harms only those who receive him in their hearts... These pagans have him!... Not only pagans are in Tiberias. And also among the heathens there are just people. What? They have not our God!... Mary does not reply because She understands that it would be useless. Her good sister-in-law is but one of the many Israelites who believe that they are the only depositaries of virtue... simply because they are Israelites. They are silent: only the shuffling of the sandals on their tired dusty feet can be heard. It was better to take the usual road... We knew that one... it is more beaten by people... This one... among vegetable gardens, solitary... unknown... I am afraid, that's all! No, Mary. Look. The town is over there, a few steps from here. And here are peaceful kitchen gardens of the cultivators of Tiberias, and over there is the shore, only a few steps from here. Do you want to go to the shore? We will find fishermen there... We have only to go across these vegetable gardens. No! We would be going away from town again! And then... The boatmen are almost all Greeks, Cretans, Egyptians, Romans... and it seems as if she were mentioning infernal classes. The Blessed Virgin cannot help smiling in the shadow of Her veil. They go on. The road becomes an avenue, and thus darker... and Mary of Alphaeus is more frightened than ever and she invokes Jehovah at every step, while they proceed slower and slower. Come on, take heart! Make haste, if you are afraid! says Mary urging her after replying: Maran Atha! at each invocation. But Mary of Alphaeus stops and asks: But why did You want to come here? To speak perhaps to the Iscariot? No, Mary. Or at least that is not exactly the reason. I have come to speak to Valeria, the Roman lady... Goodness gracious! Are we going to her house? Ah! no! Mary! Don't do that! I... I am not coming with You! But why are You going there? To those... those... anathemas!... The kind smile of the Blessed Virgin becomes a severe expression while She asks: And do you not remember that Aurea is to be saved? My Son began her liberation. I will complete it. Is that how you practise love for souls? But she is not from Israel... Truly, you have not understood one word of the Gospel! You are a very imperfect disciple... You do not work for your Master and you grieve Me so

deeply. Mary of Alphaeus lowers her head... But her heart, full of the prejudices of Israel but congenitally kind, gets the upper hand and bursting into tears she embraces Mary and says: Forgive me! Don't say that I grieve You and I do not serve my Jesus! Yes! I am very imperfect and I deserve to be reproached... But I will not do it again... I will come! Even to Hell if You should go there to save a soul and give it to Jesus... Give me a kiss, Mary, to tell me that You forgive me... Mary kisses her and they resume their journey, walking fast, cheered up by love... They are now in Tiberias, near the little harbour of the fishermen. They look for the little house of Joseph, the fisherman disciple... They find it and knock at the door... The Mother of my Master! Come in, o Donna! And may God be with You and with me, who am giving You hospitality. And you, come in, too, and peace be with you, the mother of apostles. They go in while the wife and young daughter come to greet them followed by a little group of younger children... The frugal meal is soon over and Mary of Clopas, being tired, withdraws with the children. On the high terrace, from which the lake can be seen - it can be heard lapping the bank, rather than be seen, because there is no moonlight as yet - are the Blessed Virgin, the boatman and his wife, who endeavours to be good company, but in actual fact is nodding... She is tired!... says Joseph excusing her. Poor woman! Housewives are always tired in the evening. Yes, they do work. They are not like those there, who lead a gay life! says the boatman disdainfully, pointing at some illuminated boats departing from the shore among songs and music. They are going out now! They begin to work at this time, when honest people go to sleep! And they do harm to workers, because they go to the best spots, pretending that they are fishing, and they drive away us, who earn our living on the lake... Who are they? Roman women and the like. And among the latter you can count Herodias and her lustful daughter and some Jewesses as well... Because we have many Maries of Magdala... I mean Maries before repentance... They are poor wretches... Poor wretches? We are poor wretches because we do not stone them to rid Israel of those who have become corrupted and bring down on us the curses of God. In the meantime other boats have left and the lake reddens with the lights of the revellers' boats. Can you smell resin burning? First they become intoxicated with smoke, and they do the rest in the course of banquets. They are quite capable of going to the hot springs on the other side... In those Thermal baths... Infernal things take place! They will come back at daybreak, at dawn, perhaps later... drunk, lying one on top of the other, men and women, just like sacks, and their slaves will carry them home, to sleep it off... All the beautiful boats are going out this evening! Look! Look!... But I am more angry with the Jews who mix with them. With regard to them... we know! Shameless animals. But we!... Donna, do You know that Judas, the apostle is here?

I know. He is not setting a good example, You know? Why? Does he go with those people?... No... but... with bad companions... and a woman... I have not seen him... None of us has seen him in such company. But some Pharisees have sneered at us saying: "Your apostle has changed master. Now he has a woman and he is in the good company of publicans". Do not judge, Joseph, what you have only heard people say. You know that the Pharisees do not love you and they do not even praise the Master. That is true... But the rumour is spreading... and is harmful... As it rose, so it will fall. Do not sin against your brother. Where does he live? Do you know? Yes, with a friend, I think. One who has a warehouse of wines and spices. The third warehouse on the eastern side of the market, after the fountain... Are all the Roman women alike? Oh! more or less!... They do wrong, even if they do not let people see it. Which are the ones that do not let people see? The ones who came to Lazarus' at Passover. They are more retired... I mean... they do not always go to banquets. But they go so often that people can say that they are impure. Are you saying so because you are sure, or is it your Jewish prejudice that makes you say so? Think it over carefully... Well... really... I don't know... I have not seen them any more in the boats of the filthy ones... But they go out on the lake at night. You go out, too. Certainly! If I want to go out fishing! It is very warm! Only out on the lake is there relief at night. You said so yourself while we were having supper. That is true. So, why not consider that they go on the lake for that? The man is silent... He then says: It is late. The stars say that it is the second watch. I am withdrawing, Donna. Are You not coming? No. I will stay here and pray. I will go out early. Do not be surprised if you do not see Me at dawn. You are free to do as You like. Anne! Come on! Let us go to bed! and he shakes his wife who is fast asleep. They go away. Mary remains alone... She kneels down and prays... but She never loses sight of the boats sailing on the lake, the boats of rich people, all bright with lights,. with flowers, singing and smell of incense... Many sail eastwards, they become very small in the distance, their singing is no longer heard. A splendent solitary boat remains out on the lake in a sheet of water upon which the moon, setting in front of Tiberias, is shining brightly. It sails slowly up and down... Mary watches it until She sees it steer towards the shore. Mary then stands up saying: Lord, help Me! Let it be... She then goes downstairs nimbly, She enters a room the door of which is half open... In the moonlight it is possible to see a little bed. Mary bends over it and calls: Mary! Wake up! Let us go! Mary of Alphaeus wakes up and, overwhelmed with sleep, rubbing her eyes she asks: Is it already time to go? Is it already daylight? She is so sleepy that she does not realise that it is not the light of dawn but moonlight the feeble

phosphorescence which enters through the open door. She becomes aware of it when she is outside, on the small piece of cultivated ground in front of the boatman's house. But it's night-time! she exclaims. Yes. But we will finish sooner and we will get out of this town sooner... at least I hope so. Come! This way, along the shore. Quick! Before the boat sets ashore... The boat? Which boat? asks Mary. But she runs after the Virgin, Who is walking very fast on the deserted shore, towards the little pier, where the boat is heading. They arrive panting a few moments before it... Mary is watching carefully. She exclaims: Praised be the Lord! It is they! Follow Me now... because we must go where they go... I do not know where they live... But Mary... for pity's sake!... They will think that we are prostitutes!... The Most Pure Mother shakes Her head and whispers: The important thing is not to be one. Come! and She draws her into the shadow of a house. The boat lands and while it is manoeuvring, a litter, which was waiting nearby, is brought forward towards it. Two women get on it, while two remain outside and walk beside it, when it leaves carried by four Numidians walking in step and wearing very short sleeveless tunics, which hardly cover their trunks... Mary follows it, notwithstanding that Mary of Alphaeus protests in a low voice: Two women alone!... Behind those men! They are half-naked... Oh!... After a few metres the litter stops. A woman gets off while the leader knocks at a portal. Goodbye, Lydia! Goodbye, Valeria! A caress to Faustina from me. Tomorrow evening we will read again in peace, while the others revel... The portal is opened and Valeria, with her slave or freedwoman, is about to go in. Mary goes forward and says: Domina! A word! Valeria looks at the two women enveloped in very plain Jewish mantles lowered over their faces, and thinks that they are beggars. She orders: Barbara, give them offerings! No, domina. I am not asking for money. I am the Mother of Jesus of Nazareth and this is a relative of Mine. I have come in His Name to ask a favour of you. Domina! Your Son is perhaps... persecuted... Not more than usually. But He would like... Come in, Domina. It does not become You to remain here in the street like a beggar. No. A few words will suffice if you can listen to me in secret... Go away, all of you! Valeria orders her slave or freedwoman, whatever she may be, and the doorkeepers. We are alone. What does the Master want? I did not come because I did not want to harm Him in His town. He did not come in order not to harm me, perhaps, with my husband? No. I advised Him not to come. My Son is hated, domina. I know. And He finds comfort only in His mission. I know. He does not seek honours, or armies; He does not aspire to kingdoms or

riches. But He asserts His rights on souls. I know. Domina... He should hand that girl back to you... But do not be offended if I tell you, she could not perfect her soul for Jesus here. You are better than the others... But around you... there is too much filth of the world. That is true. So? You are a mother... My Son has the feelings of a father for every soul. Would you allow your daughter to be brought up among people who can ruin her?... No. I understand... Well... Say these words to Your Son: "In memory of Faustina, saved in her body, Valeria gives You Aurea that You may save her soul". It is true! We are too corrupt... to assure a saint... Domina, pray for me! and she withdraws quickly, before Mary can thank her. She withdraws, I would say, weeping... Mary of Alphaeus is dumbfounded. Let us go, Mary... We will leave during the night and tomorrow evening we will be in Nazareth... Let us go... She gave her up... as if she were a thing... She is a thing to them. To us she is a soul. Come. Look... It is already dawning over there. One can say that there is no night-time in this month... They go along a road which is no longer semi-dark and which opens in front of them, instead of taking the shore. It is a road behind a row of modest houses... When they are half way along it, Judas springs out from a corner, manifestly drunk. A Judas returning from who knows what party, with dishevelled hair, crumpled clothes, his face beaten. Judas! You? In this state? Judas does not have time to feign that he does not know Her and he cannot run away... Surprise clears his thoughts and keeps him fixed where he is, immobile. Mary approaches him, overcoming the repulsion which the sight of the apostle stirs in Her, and She says to him: Judas, wretched son, what are you doing? Are you not thinking of God? Of your soul? Of your mother? What are you doing, Judas? Why do you want to be a sinner? Look at Me, Judas! You have no right to kill your soul... and She touches him trying to take his hand. Leave me alone. I am a man after all. And... I am free to do what everybody does. Tell Him, Who has sent You to spy on me, that I am not yet all spirit, and I am young! You are not free to ruin yourself, Judas! Have pity on yourself... If you behave like that you will never be a happy spirit... Judas... He did not send Me to spy on you. He prays for you. Only that, and I pray with Him. In the name of your mother... Leave me alone says Judas rudely. Then realising that he has been rude, he rectifies himself: I do not deserve Your pity... Goodbye... and. he runs away... What a demon!... I will tell Jesus exclaims Mary of Alphaeus. My Judas is right! You will not say anything to anybody. You will pray for him. Yes... Are You weeping? Weeping for him? Oh!... I am weeping... I was happy having saved Aurea... I am now weeping because Judas is a sinner. But to Jesus, Who is distressed, we will take only the

good news. And we will snatch the sinner from Satan by penance and prayers... As if he were our son, Mary! As if he were our son!... You are a mother, too, and you know... For that unhappy mother, for this soul of a sinner, for our Jesus... Yes, I will pray... But I do not think that he deserves it... Mary, do not say that!... I will not say it... But it is so. Are we not going to Johanna's? No. We will come back soon, with Jesus...

437. Aurea Does the Will of God. 20th May 1946. The Virgin is very tired when She sets foot again in Her little house. But She is very happy. And She looks at once for Her Jesus, Who is still working, in the last light of the dying day, at the stone oven door, which He is repairing. Simon opens the door to Her, and after greeting Her, he wisely withdraws into the workshop. I do not see Thomas. Perhaps he is out. Jesus lays down His tools as soon as He sees His Mother, and goes towards Her cleaning His greasy hands (He is oiling hinges and latches to make them run smoothly) on His apron. Their reciprocal smiles seem to brighten up the kitchen garden where it is growing dark. Peace to You, Mother. Peace to You, Son. How tired You are! You have not rested... I did, from dawn to sunset in Joseph's house... But if it had not been so warm, I would have left at once to come and tell You that Aurea is Yours. Yes?! The joyful surprise makes Jesus' face look even younger. It seems the face of a man about twenty years old, and as joy rids Him of the gravity which is generally on His face and in His gestures, He resembles even more His Mother, Who is always such a serene girl in Her deportment and looks. Yes, Jesus. And I achieved that without any effort. The lady agreed at once. She was moved admitting that she and her friends are too corrupt to educate a creature for God. Such a humble, sincere, true avowal! It is not easy to find people who admit they are faulty without being forced to do so. No, it is not. Many in Israel are not capable. They are beautiful souls buried under a crust of filth. But when the filth falls off... Will that happen, Son? I am sure it will. They tend instinctively to Good. They will end up by adhering to it. What did she say? Oh! Only a few words... We understood each other at once. But we had better have Aurea here at once. I want to tell her this, but only if You wish so, Son. Yes, Mother. We will send Simon and in a loud voice He calls Simon who comes immediately. Simon, go to Simon of Alphaeus' house and tell him that My Mother is back, then come here with the girl and Thomas, who must be there finishing the little job which Salome asked him to do. Simon bows and goes away at once.

Tell Me, Mother... Your journey... your conversation... Poor Mother, how tired You are because of Me! Oh! no, Jesus! It is no trouble when You are happy... and Mary tells Him about Her journey and Mary of Alphaeus' fears, their rest in the house of the boatman, the meeting with Valeria, and She concludes: I preferred to see her at that time, since Heaven allowed it. She was freer, I was freer, and Mary of Clopas was comforted sooner, because she was terrified at the idea of two women being all alone in Tiberias and only her love for You and the thought of serving You overcame her terror... and Mary smiles remembering Her sister-in-law's anxiety... And Jesus smiles saying: Poor woman! She is the true woman of Israel, the ancient woman, reserved, wholly devoted to her family, the strong woman according to Proverbs. But in the new Religion women will not be strong only at home... Many will exceed Judith and Jael, being gifted with the same heroism as the mother of the Maccabees... And our Mary will be such. But for the time being... she is what she is... Did You see Johanna? Mary smiles no longer. She is perhaps afraid of a question about Judas. And She replies quickly: I did not want to cause more worries to Mary. We remained in the house until half the time between the ninth hour and evening, resting, and then we left... I thought that we shall soon be seeing her on the lake... You did the right thing. You have given Me proof of the feeling of the Roman ladies with regard to Me. If Johanna had intervened, we could have thought that they were yielding to their friend. We will now wait until the Sabbath and if Myrtha does not come we will go to her with Aurea. Son, I would like to stay here... I can see that You are very tired. No, not because of that... I think that Judas may come here... As it is right that someone should always be in Capernaum to wait for him and give him a friendly welcome, it is equally right that someone should be here to receive him with love. Thank You, Mother. You are the only one who understands what can still save him... They both sigh thinking of the disciple who causes grif... Simon and Thomas come back with Aurea who runs towards Mary. Jesus leaves her with His Mother and goes into the house with His apostles. You have prayed very much, My daughter, and the good God has listened to you... begins Mary. But the girl interrupts Her with a cry of joy: I am staying with You! and she throws her arms round the Virgin's neck kissing Her. Mary returns the kiss and holding Aurea in Her arms all the time She says: When one does a great favour, it is necessary to reciprocate it, is that right? Oh! Yes! And I will repay You with so much love. Yes, My dear. But above Me there is God. It is He Who did you this great favour, this immeasurable grace of receiving you among the members of His people and making you a disciple of the Master Saviour. I have been but the instrument of the grace, but He, the Most High, granted the grace. What will you, therefore, give the Most High to tell Him that you thank Him? Well... I don't know... Tell me, Mother... Love, that is certain. But love, to be really such, is to be united to sacrifice,

because a thing has more value if it costs, has it not? Yes, Mother. Then, I would say that, with the same joy with which you shouted: "I am staying with You!", you should shout: "Yes, o Lord" when I, His poor servant, tell you the will of the Lord concerning you. Tell me, Mother says Aurea whose countenance becomes grave. The will of God entrusts you to two good mothers, Naomi and Myrtha... Two big tears shine in the clear eyes of the girl, and stream down her rosy cheeks. They are good women. They are dear to Jesus and to Me. Jesus saved the son of one of them, I suckled the baby of the other one. And you have seen that they are good... Yes... but I was hoping to stay with You... My daughter, it is not possible to have everything! You see that I am not always with My Jesus. I have given Him to you all, and I am far, so far from Him, when He goes about Palestine preaching, curing and saving girls... That is true... If I had wanted Him all for Myself, you would not have been saved... If I had wanted Him all for Myself, your souls would not be saved. Consider how great is My sacrifice. I am giving you a Son to be sacrificed for your souls. In any case, you and I will always be united, because women disciples are and will always be united around Christ, forming a large family united by our love for Him. That is true. And then... I will come here again, will I not? And we will meet again? Certainly. As long as God wants... And You will always pray for me... And I will always pray for you. And when we are together, will You still teach me? Yes, My dear... Ah! I wanted to become like You. Will I ever be able? To know, in order to be good... Naomi is the mother of a head of a synagogue and a disciple of the Lord. Myrtha is the mother of a son who deserved the grace of a miracle and is a good disciple. And the two women are good and wise, besides being so full of love. Can You assure me? Yes, My daughter. Then... bless me and may the will of the Lord be done... as Jesus' prayer says. I have said it so many times... It is only right that now I should do what I said to obtain the grace of not going any more among the Romans... You are a good girl. And God will always help you. Come, let us go and tell Jesus that the youngest woman disciple knows how to do the will of God... and holding her by the hand Mary goes back into the house with the girl.

438. Another Sabbath at Nazareth. 21st May 1946.

Another Sabbath at Nazareth. That is, another beginning of a Sabbath, because Myrtha and Naomi arrive with young Abel, just when the sunset of Friday is beginning. They dismount from their little donkeys, which Abel takes away, obviously to a stable, probably to that of the two friendly ass-drivers of Nazareth, who have become disciples. The women go in through the workshop, door, which has been left open to ventilate the large room, where up to a short time before, the heat of the coarse fireplace has joined the intense summer heat. Thomas is putting away his tools, Simon is sweeping the sawdust, while Jesus is cleaning pots of glue and paint. Peace to You, Master, and to you, disciples greet the two women, bowing low as soon as they enter and then, after walking across the workshop, prostrating themselves at Jesus' feet. Peace to you. You are very faithful, to come in this heat! Oh! nothing! One feels so well here, that one forgets everything. Where is Your Mother? She is in there, finishing a dress for Aurea. You may go in. The two women walk away with their knapsacks and one can hear their clear voices, which are rather deep, blend with the shrill rather strident voice of Aurea and with the silvery voice of Mary. They will be happy now! says Thomas. Yes. They are good women replies Jesus. Master, Myrtha has not only kept the son she had, but she got another child. And in little more than one year... says the Zealot. Yes! In little more than one year! It is already over a year since Mary of Lazarus was converted. How time flies! It seems yesterday... How many things last year! The lovely retreat before the election! Then John of Endor! Then Marjiam! Then Daniel of Nain, then Mary of Lazarus and then Syntyche... But where is Syntyche? I often think about her and I cannot understand why... Thomas stops speaking to himself, because Jesus and Simon do not reply to him, on the contrary they go out into the kitchen garden to wash themselves and then join the women disciples. And we begin to see again... Abel of Bethlehem in Galilee comes back and finds Thomas who is still pensive, in front of the place where he generally works, moving, lost in thought, his tiny masterpieces in gold-work. Have you found work? asks the disciple bending over the tiny objects. Oh! I have made all the women in Nazareth happy. I would never have thought that there were so many buckles, bracelets, necklaces and lilies to be repaired. I had to ask Matthew to bring me some metal from Tiberias. I have more customers... ha! ha! (he laughs happily) than my father has. It is true that I do not ask for money... You lose. everything? No. I charge only the value of the metal. My work is a present. You are generous. No. I am wise. I am not idle. I set an example of industriousness and detachment from money and... I preach... Be quiet! I think that I have preached more by doing so, without telling a parable, without saying a word in the synagogue, than I would have done if I had spoken incessantly. And then... I do a bit of training. I have promised myself to propagate our faith with my work

when I will have to go and preach Jesus among the infidels. And I am training myself. You are wise both as a goldsmith and as an apostle. I strive to be so for Jesus' sake. So you have acquired a sister. Treat her well, you know? She is like a little dove in its nest. I am telling you, because in my trade I am accustomed to dealing with women. She is a candid dove who was scared to death by a hawk, and who is looking for motherly and brotherly wings to defend her. If your mother had not wanted her, I would have asked to have her for my twin sister. One child more, one less! My sister is so good, you know? Also my mother. She lost a little daughter when she remained a widow. Perhaps her milk had gone bad, grieved as she was over the death of her husband... I can hardly remember my little sister... and perhaps I would not remember her at all if my mother did not mourn her death so often, and if every poor girl in Bethlehem were not entitled to some food and clothing in our house, in memory of the dead baby... But as I was brought up in the company of my mother only, I have ended up by loving little girls very much myself... I realise that this one is not a little girl... but I will consider her such, because of her heart, if she is as my mother, Naomi and you say... You can be sure. Let us go into the other room. In the other room, that is, in the dining room, are the women, Jesus and the Zealot. And Myrtha, who came full of hope, is winning over Aurea by fitting for her a linen dress which she made for the girl. It fits you really well she says taking it off her and caressing her while she adjusts her dress which had become crumpled when putting on the new one. It really fits well. And everything will be all right. You will see, my dear daughter... Oh! here is my Abel. Come here, son. Here is Aurea. She will be a member of our family now, you know? I know, mother, and I am happy with you. He looks at the girl... he studies her... his dark eyes stare at and get lost in her large pale blue ones. He is satisfied with his examination. He smiles at her. He says to her: We will love each other in the Lord Who saved us and we will love Him and have Him loved. And I will be a brother to you in spirit and in affection. I promise it in the presence of the Master and of my mother and with a beautiful limpid smile of a pure youth, well advanced in high spirituality, he holds out his strong tanned hand to her. Aurea hesitates and then, blushing, she puts her left hand into the right hand offered to her and says: We will do that. In the Lord. The adults smile... One can enter here without knocking at the doors... Here is Simon of Jonah! This time he could not resist temptation... says Thomas laughing, while he runs out. Yes! I did not resist... Peace to You, Master! He kisses Jesus and is kissed by Him. Who can resist? He sees Mary and bows greetings, he then resumes: But, to satisfy our consciences, we came by Tiberias and we looked for Judas. Because... we are all here, eh?! The others are coming. Including Marjiam... So I was saying that we came by Tiberias. H'm! Yes! to look for Judas in the event that... he should think of coming to Capernaum, at least on the fourth. Sabbath... It would not be nice if we were all away... And we found him... yes! Nay, Isaac found him, as he had gone to see Jonathan... Because Isaac ended up

by coming to Capernaum waiting for You with I don't know how many more, who have remained there to become more learned under the good guidance of Hermas and Stephen, of your son, Naomi, and of John, the priest... But Isaac came with us, because he, too, will die if he does not see You... Poor Isaac! he was not made welcome by Judas. But Isaac, during his long sickness, must have destroyed all feelings of impatience, grudge and anger... He never reacts! Even if they box his ears, he smiles... What a peaceful man! Well. He said to us: "I saw Judas. He is not coming. Do not insist". I understood. I asked him: "Did he answer you insolently? Tell me. I am the chief and I must know...". "Oh! no" he replied. "He did not answer insolently, but his insolence did. He is to be pitied..." Well, let us pity him... Well, we are here. And happy to... Here are the others... And with the others there are Judas and James of Alphaeus with their mother and the disciples of Nazareth: Aser, Ishmael and Simon of Alphaeus, and, a rarity, also Joseph of Alphaeus. They unburden themselves of their bags. Nathanael has brought some apples and Philip a basketful of grapes as golden as Aurea's hair. Peter and Zebedee's sons some pickled fish. Matthew, who has no home cared for by women and thus has nothing good, has brought a jar full of earth with inside it a slender trunk, which judging by its foliage, I would say is a lemon or orange-tree or another citrus-tree and he explains: It's a rarity... Only who goes to Cyrene can get them, and I know a man who was at Cyrene, one of the revenue authorities like me once. He has now retired at Ippo. I went to him to get the plant because it must be planted out at the new moon. The fruit is beautiful and good, its flower is sweet-smelling and looks like a waxen star, a star like Your name... Here and he offers the plant to Mary. But what a trouble for you, Matthew, all this weight! I am grateful to you. My garden is becoming more and more beautiful, thanks to you all. Porphirea's camphor, Johanna's roses, you rare plant, Matthew, the other flower plants brought by Judas of Kerioth... How many beautiful things, how kind you all are to Jesus' Mother! All the apostles are moved; they only cast sidelong glances at each other when Mary mentions Judas' name. Yes. They love You. But we love You, too says gravely and stiffly Joseph of Alphaeus. Of course! You are the dear children of My dear relative Alphaeus and of Mary, who is so good. And You love Me. It is natural. We are relatives... These instead are not our blood, and yet they are like sons to Me, like brothers to Jesus, as they love Him so much and follow Him... Joseph takes the hint immediately, he clears his throat, searching for words... He finds them... He says: Of course! But if I am not yet with them, it is because I think also of the consequences for Him, for You... and... and... Well! I love You, too, You especially, poor woman, as You are left all by Yourself too long... And I have come to tell Jesus that I am glad that He has remembered also the needs of His Mother and has done what was necessary here... and, satisfied with being the head of the kindred and thus in a position to praise and admonish, he deigns to commend Jesus for all the work of carpentry, painting and other jobs done in that month: That is how it should be done! One can now see that this woman has a son! And I am happy to be able to say that I have found again my wise Jesus of Joseph. Bravo!

And the wise Jesus of Joseph, the most wise Divine Word humiliated in our flesh, meek and humble, accepts the praises mixed with... the authoritative advice of His cousin Joseph, smiling so kindly, that it helps to check any untimely reaction of the apostles in His favour. And Joseph, having set off, seeing that they listen to him, does not stop, but he continues: I do hope that from now on Nazareth will no longer see a poor woman forlorn, while Her Son unwisely leaves the trodden path to beat paths which are uncertain, both with regard to their ends and their consequences. I will speak to my friends, to the head of the synagogue... We will forgive You... Oh! Nazareth will be happy to open out her arms to You, as to a son who has come back... as an example of virtue to all the citizens. Tomorrow I will take You to the synagogue myself and... Jesus raises His hand imposing silence and calmly but very resolutely, He says: I will certainly come to the synagogue, as a believer, exactly as I went there on the other Sabbaths. But it is not necessary for you to plead in My favour. Because one hour after sunset I will set out again to evangelize, as it is My duty to obey the Most High. A bad let-down for Joseph!... A very bad one!... All his good naturedness is shattered and his hostile intolerance comes to light again: All right! But do not look for me in the hour of need. I have done my duty and Your certain misfortunes will not fall on me. Goodbye. I am one too many here because I cannot understand you, and you cannot understand me. I am going away, with no grudge, but very sad... May the Lord protect You as He protects all those who... are simple-minded, incomplete... Goodbye, Mary! Take heart, poor Mother! Goodbye, Joseph. But I must take heart for you, not for Him. Because you are the one who is out of the path of God and you grieve Me says Mary calmly but sure of Herself. You are a fool, that's what you are! And if you were not the head of the family I would give you a thrashing, as you are a creature of my blood but not of my spirit... shouts Mary of Alphaeus. And she would have said more, but Mary implores her: Be quiet! For My sake. I'll be quiet. Yes. But... tell me if I have to see a rascal like him among my sons!... The rascal in the meantime has gone away, while good Mary of Alphaeus unburdens her soul with regard to that stubborn son. And she ends giving vent to her feelings by bursting into tears, and sobbing she expresses her greatest pain: And I will not have him with me in Heaven, I will not have him! I will see him in torments! Oh! Jesus! It's for You to work the miracle! Yes, Mary! Do not weep! His hour will come, too. The eleventh perhaps. But it will come. I can assure you. Do not weep... says Jesus comforting her... And when her weeping is over He says to the apostles and disciples: Let us go into the olive grove while the women prepare their things. We will speak among ourselves.

11.

The Departure from Nazareth and the Journey towards Bethlehem in Galilee. 22nd May 1946.

It is the evening of the true Sabbath and life begins again after the Sabbatical rest. Here, in the little house in Nazareth, it begins, after the rest, with the preparations for departure. Provisions are packed, clothes are crammed in knapsacks, the straps of which are fastened tightly, sandals are examined to ensure that the leather laces and buckles are in good condition, and the little donkeys are watered and fed near the hedge of the kitchen garden... and greetings and tears shed among smiles and blessings, and promises to meet again soon... And the unexpected offer of Thomas to Mary: a buckle, we could call it a brooch, to keep a dress closed at the neck. It is made of three thin, airy, perfect stems of lily of the valley, enclosed in two leaves, so like real ones, as the metal has been wrought by a master-hand. I know, Mary, that You will never wear it, but please accept it just the same. I have been anxious to make it since the day when my Lord spoke of You comparing You with the lilies of the valley... I have done nothing for Your house... but I made this for You, so that the praise of Your Son may be expressed in a symbol for You Who deserve it more than any other woman. And if I have not been able to give the stem the softness of a living one and the sweet scent of the flower, may my sincere respectful love for You soften it like a caress and put on it the scent of my devotion for You, Mother of my Lord. Oh! Thomas! It is true. I never wear jewels, as they seem vain things to Me. But this one is not so. This is love of My Jesus and of His apostle, and it is dear to Me. I will look at it every day and think of good Thomas who loves his Master so much, that he remembers not only His Doctrine, but also His most humble words about the most humble thing and the most humble insignificant people. Thank you, Thomas. Not for its value, but for your love, thanks! Everybody admires the perfect work and Thomas, beaming with joy, pulls out a smaller piece of work: three tiny jasmine stars with a tiny leaf bound in a thin circle, and gives it to Aurea. Because you did not behave coquettishly to have it, because you were here when the jasmine bloomed, and so that these little stars may remind you of our Star. But mind! With your virtues you must perfume flowers and be a flower yourself, a candid, beautiful pure flower scenting towards Heaven. If you do not do that, I will take my brooch back. Come on, do not weep... everything passes... and we will soon come back to Mary's or She will come to us... and... But Thomas, seeing that Aurea is shedding more and more tears, feels that it is better not to continue and he goes out, mortified, saying to Peter: If I had known that... it was going to make her weep more, I would not have given it to her... I made that brooch just to comfort her in this hour... I guessed wrongly... And Peter, in the confusion of the moment, does not control himself and says: It is always like that when parting... You should have seen Syntyche... and he realises that he has spoken, he wants to correct himself, he becomes purple... but... it is done... Thomas understands, and kindly throws his arm round Peter's neck saying: Don't be distressed, Peter. I know how to be quiet. And I understand why you have not said anything... Because of Judas of Simon. On the God of our fathers I swear to you that what I have learned involuntarily is forgotten. Do not be upset, Simon!... It's because the Master did not want... He certainly had good reasons for that. I don't take offence.

I know. But what will He say? Nothing, because He will not know. You can trust me. Ah! No! I will not resort to subterfuges with the Master. I made a mistake. I deserve to be reproached. And at once. I will not have peace unless I confess my error to Him. Thomas, be good. Go and call Him... I am going into the workshop. Go, and come back with Him. I am too upset to go and the others would notice me. Thomas looks at him with compassion full of admiration and goes back into the house to call Jesus: Master, please come here for a moment. I have something to tell You. Jesus, Who was saying goodbye to Mary of Alphaeus, follows him at once. What do you want? He asks while walking beside him. I, nothing. Simon wants to speak to You. There he is... Simon! What is the matter, why are you so upset? Peter throws himself at Jesus' feet moaning: I have sinned! Absolve me! Sinned? How? You were there with us, happy and peaceful ... Ah! Master, I disobeyed You. I told Thomas about Syntyche... I was upset because of the tears and he was more upset than I was; he thought that he had increased them... to comfort him I said: "It is always like that when parting... If you had seen Syntyche..." and he understood!... Peter raises his troubled face, he looks mortified and desolate. Praised be God, My Simon! I thought you had done something much graver than that. And your sincerity cancels even that. You spoke without malice, you spoke to one of your companions. Thomas is good and will not divulge the news... He swore it to me, in fact... But see? Now I am afraid that I am too foolish and that I cannot keep a secret. You have kept it so far. Yes, but just consider! Never one word to Philip and Nathanael! And now... Come on, stand up! Man is always imperfect. But when he is so without malice, he commits no sin. Be careful, but do not distress yourself any more. Your Jesus can but kiss you. Thomas, come here. Thomas approaches Him. You have certainly understood the reasons for being silent. Yes, Master. And I swore to respect them as far as I am concerned and capable. I have already told Simon... The foolish Simon says Peter with a sigh. No, my friend. You have edified me through your perfect humility and sincerity. You have taught me a great lesson, which I will never forget. For prudential reasons I shall not be able to make it known, and that grieves me, because only a few among us are or would be as just as you have been... But they are calling us! Let us go. Many in fact are already in the street and the three women - Naomi, Myrtha and Aurea - have already mounted their little donkeys. Mary and Her sister-in-law are near Aurea, and they kiss her again, and when they see Jesus approaching, they kiss the two women disciples and they greet Jesus last and are blessed by Him, before He sets out... And the Blessed Virgin and Mary of Clopas go back into the house... where, in remembrance of what was there a short while before, there are chairs out of place, kitchenware lying about... the disorder which takes place at every

departure. Mary, lost in thought, caresses the little loom on which She taught Aurea to work... Her eyes are shining with tears She has restrained. You are suffering, Mary! says Mary of Clopas who is weeping without any effort to hold back her tears. You had grown fond of her!... They come here... then they go away... and we suffer... It is our life of women disciples. You heard what Jesus said today: "That is what you will do in future; you will be hospitable, supernaturally hospitable, seeing in every creature a brotherly soul, considering yourselves pilgrims and welcoming your guests as pilgrims. You will give them help, comfort, advice, and then you will let your brothers go to their destiny, without holding them back with jealous love, sure as you are that you will meet them after your death. Persecutions will come and many will leave you to go towards martyrdom. Do not be cowardly and do not advise cowardice to anybody. Remain in your empty house praying to support the courage of martyrs, unperturbed to fortify the weaker ones, strong in order to be ready to imitate heroes. Get accustomed to separations, to heroism, to the apostolate of brotherly charity, as from now". And we do so. Suffering certainly! We are creatures made of flesh But the spirit rejoices with a supernatural happiness which is to do the will of the Lord and cooperate to His glory. On the other hand... I am the Mother of everybody... and I must not be the Mother of one only. I am not even the Mother of Jesus exclusively... You see how I let Him go away without holding Him back... I would like to be with Him, that is true. But He deems that I must stay here until He will say: "Come". And I am staying. His days of rest here? My joys of a mother. My peregrinations with Him? My joys of a disciple. My solitude here? My joys of a believer who does the will of Her Lord. That Lord, Mary, is Your Son... Yes. But He is still My Lord ... Are you staying with Me, Mary? Yes, if You will allow me... My house is so sad during the first hours, when my sons go away!... Tomorrow it will be different... And this time, I would weep even more... Why, Mary? Because I have been weeping my heart out since yesterday... I am like a cistern... A cistern in the rainy season. But why, My dear? Because of Joseph... yesterday... Oh! I don't know whether I should go and reprimand him severely, because after all he is my son, because I carried him in my womb and I suckled him at my breast and no first-born son is above his mother, ... or whether I should not speak any more to that rascal who was born of me and offends my Jesus and You and... You will do nothing of the kind. You will always be his "mother". The mother who pities her stubborn, sick, perverted son and soothes him with her kindness, and leads him to God with prayers and patience... Cheer up, do not weep!... Come with Me. We will pray for him in My room, and for those who are travelling, for the girl, that she may not suffer too much and she may grow in holiness... Come, Mary and She takes her away... -----------------------------The pilgrims in the meantime are going their way south-westwards. The women are in front, on their donkeys, which, being well fed and rested, are

trotting lively, compelling Marjiam and Abel, who for prudential motives are at either side of Aurea, as she is in the saddle for the first time, to proceed almost at a running pace. But although it is tiring, it helps to take the girl's mind off the sorrowful separation from Mary. Now and again, to let the two young men take breath, Myrtha reins in her donkey and makes a halt. And she resumes going only when the apostolic group joins them. And during such pauses, Aurea becomes sad again, as she is not distracted by the adventures of horseback riding... Marjiam, who is experienced in the misfortunes of a little orphan taken in, out of charity, by an adoptive mother after he had known Mary, comforts her telling her how one becomes attached to the adoptive mother exactly as if she were one's own mother , and mentions his own impressions and relates how happy are Mary and Matthias with Johanna, and Anastasica with Eliza. Aurea listens to the stories, and when Marjiam concludes by saying: Believe me, the women disciples are all good, and Jesus knows to whom we poor wretches should be entrusted , and Abel corroborates saying: And you must trust my mother who is so happy to have you and has prayed so much during these days to have you from God , Aurea replies: I believe it. And I love her... But Mary is Mary... and you must bear with me... Yes. But we are sorry to see you sad... Oh! but I am not so sad as I was in the house of the Roman or during the first hours after my liberation... I am only... lost. For years I have never received a caress... Only Mary caressed me after I had been subjected to masters for many years... My darling! But I am here to caress you! I will be another Mary for you. Come here, near me... If you were a little girl, I would take you in the saddle with me, as I used to do with my Abel when he was a little boy... But you are already a woman... says Myrtha approaching her and taking her by the hand. You are my little woman and I will teach you many things, and when Abel goes away evangelizing, you and I will receive pilgrims as the Lord says, and we will do much good in His Name. You are young and you will help me... But look at that light over there, beyond that hill! exclaims James of Zebedee, who has come up to the women. Is it a wood on fire? Or a village? Let us run up there and see... No one is tired any longer, because curiosity overwhelms all sensations. Jesus follows them benevolently, leaving the road to take a path which climbs up a hillock. They soon reach the top... But it is neither a wood nor a village which is on fire, but a large hollow moor all covered with heather, lying between two hills. The heather, parched by the summer heat, has caught fire perhaps because of a spark which escaped the woodmen working higher up cutting trees, and is now burning: a carpet of low but bright flames which move around seeking new heather to burn, after having consumed where they had been burning previously. The woodcutters try to fight the fire by striking the flames. But in vain. They are too few and if they work on one side, the fire spreads on another. If it reaches the wood, it will be a disaster. There are resin trees there says Philip. Jesus, with folded arms, standing on the extreme edge of the hillock, looks

and smiles... thinking... The contrast between the white moonlight to the east and the red glow of the flames to the west, is strong and the backs of the onlookers are white in the moon-beams, whereas their faces are red in the reverberation of the flames. And the flames spread unceasingly, like water which rises, overflows and floods... The fire is now only a few metres from the wood and it is already lighting up the piles of wood placed at its borders, while the light, which is becoming brighter and brighter, shows the little houses of a village on the top of the hill where the fire is climbing. Poor people! They will lose everything! say many. And they look at Jesus, Who is smiling, but does not speak... Then... He unfolds His arms and cries: Stop! Die down! I want it. And suddenly, as if a huge bank of earth had fallen to suffocate the flames, the fire goes out prodigiously, the lively nimble dance of the flames changes into red flameless embers, then the red becomes violet, grey-red... an occasional flash quivers among the ashes... and then only the silvery moonlight shines on the forests. In the clear light the woodcutters are seen while they gather gesticulating, looking around, above... for the angel of the miracle... Let us go down. I will work on those souls through the unforeseen opportunity given to Me and we will stop in the village instead of resting in the town. We will leave at dawn. They will certainly have room for the women. The wood is quite enough for us says Jesus and He goes down quickly followed by the others. But why were You laughing? You looked very happy! asks Peter. You will find out from My words. They are already where the fallow ground is covered with ashes still warm and creaking under their sandals. They go across it. When they are in the middle, where the moon shines fully, they are seen by the woodcutters. Oh! I told you! He is the only one who could do that! Let us run and venerate Him shouts a woodman and he does so by throwing himself on the ashes at Jesus' feet. What makes you think that I could do it? Because only the Messiah can do that. And how do you know that I am the Messiah? Do you know Me, perhaps? No. But only the Good One Who loves the poor can have had pity, and only the Holy One of God can have given an order to the fire and be obeyed. Blessed be the Most High Who sent us His Messiah! And blessed be the Messiah Who came in time to save our homes! You ought to be more anxious to save your souls. We save them by believing in You and endeavouring to do what You teach. But You realise, Lord, that the distress of being deprived of everything can weaken our already weak souls... and lead us to doubt Providence. Who informed you of Me? Some of Your disciples... Here are our families... We had them woken because we were afraid that the whole hill would catch fire... Come here... Then we sent another man to inform them that a miracle had been worked and to come and see. Here they are, Lord. Mine. Jacob's, this one is Jonathan's, this one Mark's, this is the family of my brother Tobias, this one is of my

brother-in-law Melkia, this is Philip's and this is Eleazar's. The others are the families of the shepherds who are now at the pastures up in the high mountains... It is a group of about two hundred and fifty people at most, including the little ones, sucking infants or babies just weaned, whimpering half asleep, or sleeping unaware of the danger in which they had been. Peace to you all. The angel of God has saved you. Let us praise the Lord together. You saved us! You are always present where faithful people believe in You! say many women... And the men nod solemnly. Yes. Providence is present where there is faith in Me. But one must act with constant circumspection both in spiritual matters and in material ones. What set fire to the moor? Probably a spark from one of your fires or a little branch which one of the boys wanted to light on the fire to play with it, waving it and throwing it down the slope with the thoughtlessness of his age. It is in fact pleasant to see an arrow of fire furrow the air at dusk. But you can see what an imprudent act may cause! It can cause serious damage. A spark or a little branch which fell on the dry heather was enough to set a valley on fire, and if the Eternal Father had not sent Me, the whole wood would have become a bonfire, which in the grip of fire would have consumed your goods and your lives. The same applies to matters of the spirit. You must pay continual prudent attention to ensure that no arrow of fire or spark may cling to your faith and destroy it, after smouldering unnoticed in your hearts, by means of arson wanted by those who hate Me and committed to deprive Me of believers. Since the fire was stopped here in time, from malefic it became beneficent, destroying the useless heath which you allowed to flourish in the valley, and preparing, by such destruction and the fertilizing ashes, a ground which you can exploit with useful cultivations, if you are willing to do so. But with hearts it is quite a different matter! When all the Good has been destroyed, nothing but bramble for the fodder of demons will grow in them. Remember that and be vigilant against My enemies' insinuations, which will be thrown into your hearts like infernal sparks. Be ready to fight the fire then. And what is that fight? A stronger and stronger Faith, a firm will to belong to God. It means to belong to a holy Fire. Because fire does not consume fire. Now, if you are fire of love for the true God, the fire of hatred against God will not be able to harm you. The Fire of love defeats every other fire. My Doctrine is love and those who accept it enter the Fire of Charity and cannot be tortured by the fire of the Demon. From the top of that hill, while I was watching the heather burning and I heard the words of your souls to the Lord their God, more than I noticed your actions aiming at putting out the flames, I was smiling. And one of My apostles asked Me: "Why are You smiling?". I promised him: "I will tell you when speaking to those who have been saved". And I am doing that now. I was smiling thinking that as the flames spread among the heather of the valley, in vain restrained by your efforts, so My Doctrine will spread throughout the world, persecuted in vain by those who reject Light. And it will be light. It will be purification. It will be beneficent. How many little snakes have perished among these ashes, and other harmful insects with them! You were afraid to come to the valley, because there were too many asps in it. Well, not even one has survived. Likewise the world will be freed of many heresies, of many sins,

of many sorrows, when it becomes acquainted with Me and is cleansed by the fire of My Doctrine. Cleansed and freed of harmful vegetation, it will be ready for the seed, and will become rich in holy fruits. That is why I was smiling... In the fire which was advancing, I saw a symbol of the spreading of My Doctrine in the world. Then the love for our neighbour, which is never to be separated from that for the Lord, made Me consider your necessities. And I lowered My thoughts from the contemplation of the interests of God to that of the interests of My brothers, and I stopped the fire, so that while rejoicing, you might praise the Lord. You can thus see that My thought rose to God, it descended from Him made more powerful, because union with God always increases our powers, and rose, once again, to God with yours. Thus, through charity, I did at the same time promote the interests of the Father and of My brothers. Do likewise in your future lives. And now I ask you to give shelter to these women for the night. The moon is setting and the fire has delayed our journey. We cannot therefore proceed to the next town. Come! Come all of you! There is room for everybody. We might have been homeless! Our homes are yours. Our houses are poor, but clean. Come and they will be blessed they all shout. And they slowly climb the rather steep slope as far as the little village, which miraculously escaped destruction, then each pilgrim disappears with his host...

440. Judas of Kerioth with the Blessed Virgin at Nazareth. 23rd May 1946. Dawn is breaking and the eastern sky is just beginning to redden, when Judas of Kerioth knocks at the door of the little house in Nazareth. On the road there are only peasants, or rather: small landowners of Nazareth, who are going to their vineyards or olive-groves with their working tools and are greatly surprised at seeing the man knock at Mary's door so early in the morning. They speak in low voices to one another. He is a disciple says one replying to the remarks of another. He is certainly looking for Jesus of Joseph. It's no use. He went away yesterday evening. I saw Him myself. I will tell him... says another man. Never mind! It's Judas of Kerioth. I don't like him. Perhaps we are guilty of much wrong doing with regard to Jesus and we are making a mistake. But he, that man over there, did much harm to us here last year... We might have been converted. But he... What? How do you know? I was present one evening in the house of the head of the synagogue and I foolishly believed everything at once... Now... that's enough! I think I have sinned and... Perhaps he also realised that he had sinned and...

They move away and I can hear nothing else. Judas knocks once again at the little door, to which he has been clinging, his face pressed against the wood, as if he wished to avoid being seen and recognised. But the little door remains closed. Judas makes a gesture of disappointment and he goes away along a path skirting the kitchen garden and he goes to the rear of the house. He casts a glance over the hedge of the quiet garden. Only the doves animate it. Judas considers what to do. He talks to himself: Has She perhaps gone away, too? And yet... I would have seen Her. And then! No. I heard Her voice yesterday evening... Perhaps She has gone to sleep at Her sister-in-law's... Ugh! This is as annoying as a bee on one's face, because She will come back with her, and I want to speak to Her alone, without that old woman as a witness. She is gossipy and would raise objections. And I don't want any. And she is as sly as every old wife of the people. She would not -accept my excuses and she would point that out to that stupid dove of her sister-in-law... I know I can make a fool of Her... in every way. She is as dull as ditch-water... And I must put right what happened at Tiberias. Because if She speaks... I wonder whether She has mentioned it or has kept quiet? If She has spoken, it is more difficult to put matters right... But She will not have spoken... She confuses virtue with foolishness. Like Mother like Son... And the others are busy while they are fast asleep. In any case they are right. Why leave them aside if they seem to be wanting... But what do they want after all?... My notions are foggy... I must stop drinking and... Of course! But money is a temptation, and I am like a colt which has been kept inside too long. Two years, I say! Even longer! Two years of all kinds of abstinence... But in the meantime... What did Helkai say the day before yesterday? Eh! He is not a bad teacher! Certainly! Everything is legal providing we succeed in putting Jesus on the throne. But if He does not want that? But He must certainly consider that if we do not triumph, we will all end up like the followers of Theudas or of Judas the Galilean... Perhaps I ought to part company with them because... well, I do not know whether what they want is right. I don't trust them very much... They have changed too much recently... I would not like to... How dreadful! I to be the means to damage Jesus? No. I will part company. But it is sad to have dreamt of a kingdom and have to go back to what? To nothing... But better nothing than... He always says: "He who will commit the great sin". Hey!? It won't be me, eh! Me? Me? I will sooner drown myself in the lake... I'll go away. It is better for me to go away. I will go to my mother, I will get her to give me some money, because I certainly cannot ask the members of the Sanhedrin to give me the money to go away. They help me because they hope that I will help them to get over their state of uncertainty. Once Jesus is acknowledged as king, we will be settled. The crowds will side with us... Herod... who will bother about him? Neither the Romans nor the people. They all hate him! And... and... But Jesus is quite capable of renouncing the throne as soon as He is proclaimed king. Oh! Well! When Eleazar ben Annas assures me that his father is ready to crown Him king!... Afterwards He cannot remove His sacred character. After all... I am doing what the unfaithful steward of His parable did... I am having resort to my friends on my behalf, that is true, but also on His. So I am making unfair means serve as... Well, no! I must try once again to persuade Him. I am not convinced that I am doing the right thing by resorting to this subterfuge... and... Oh! If I could only convince Him! Because it would be so beautiful! Yes... very! That is

the best solution: to tell the Master everything frankly. To implore Him... Providing Mary has not told Him about Tiberias... What did I say I should tell Mary?... Ah! yes! The refusal of the Roman ladies. Cursed be that woman! If I had not gone to her, I would not have met Mary that evening! But who could have imagined that Mary was in Tiberias? And yet I never went out on the day before the Sabbath, on the Sabbath or the day after it, as I did not want to see any of the apostles... What a fool! I could have gone to Hippo, to Gerghesa to find a woman! No! I had to go just there! To Tiberias through which the people of Capernaum must pass to come here... And all that because of the Roman ladies... I was hoping... No, that is what I must say to excuse myself, but it is not true. There is no sense in saying that to myself, as I know why I went: to meet some of the powerful people in Israel and to have a good time, since I had plenty money... But... how quickly money goes. I will soon have none left... Ha! Ha! I will invent some story for Helkai and his partners and they will give me some more... O Judas! Have you gone mad? I have been watching you for some time from the top of this olive-tree. You are gesticulating, speaking by yourself... Has the sun of the month of Tammuz harmed you? shouts Alphaeus of Sarah leaning out of the forked branches of a huge olive-tree, about thirty metres away from the spot where Judas is standing. Judas starts, looks round, sees him and moans: May death rake you! Cursed village of spies! But smiling affably he shouts: No. But I am worried because Mary is not opening... Is She perhaps not well? I have knocked several times!... Mary? You can knock as long as you like! She is in the house of a poor old woman who is dying. They sent for Her at the third watch... But I must speak to Her. Wait. I will come down and I will go and tell Her. But do you really need Her? Eh! I should say so! I have been here since sunrise. Alphaeus climbs down the tree solicitously and runs away. He has seen me, too! And he will certainly come back with that other woman! Everything is going awry? and he hurls a string of insults at Nazareth, the Nazarenes, Mary of Alphaeus, and even at the Blessed Virgin's charity for the dying woman and at the dying woman herself... He has not yet finished when the door, which from the dining-room leads into the kitchen garden, is opened and Mary appears looking very pale and sad. Judas! , Mary! they say simultaneously. I will now open the door to you. Alphaeus said to Me only: "Go home. There is someone wanting You" and I ran here, also because the old woman no longer needs Me. She has finished suffering because of a bad son... Judas, while Mary is speaking, runs along the path and goes back to the front of the house... Mary opens the door. Peace to you, Judas of Kerioth. Come in. Peace to You, Mary. Judas is somewhat hesitant. Mary is kind, but serious. I knocked so much, at dawn. Yesterday evening a son broke his mother's heart... And they came looking for Jesus. But Jesus is not here. I am saying that to you, too: Jesus is not here. You came late.

I know that He is not here. How do you know? You have just arrived... Mother, I will be frank with You, since You are good: I have been here since yesterday... And why did you not come? Your companions came here every Sabbath, except one... Eh! I know! I went to Capernaum but I did not find them. Do not lie, Judas. You never went to Capernaum. Bartholomew remained there all the time and he never saw you. Bartholomew came here only yesterday. But you were not here yesterday... So... Why are you telling lies, Judas? Do you not know that a lie is the first step towards theft and homicide?... Poor Esther died, killed by grief because of the behaviour of her son. And Samuel, her son, became the shame of Nazareth through little lies, which became bigger and bigger... And from them he passed on to all the rest. Do you, an apostle of the Lord, wish to imitate him? Do you want your mother to die broken-hearted? She reproaches him slowly, in a low voice. But Her words bear heavily on him. Judas does not know what to reply. He sits down abruptly, his head in his hands. Mary watches him. She then says: Well? Why did you want to see Me? While assisting poor Esther I prayed for your mother... and for you... Because I feel sorry for both of you, and for two different reasons. Then, if you pity me, forgive me. I have never had ill-feelings. What?... Not even because... of that morning at Tiberias?... You know? I was in that state because the evening before the Roman ladies had maltreated me as madman and... as the traitor of the Master. Yes, I admit it. I did the wrong thing in speaking to Claudia. I was mistaken with regard to her. But I do it for a good purpose. I grieved the Master. He has not mentioned it to me, but I am aware that He knows that I spoke. It was certainly Johanna who told Him. Johanna has never liked me and the Roman ladies grieved me... To forget, I drank... Mary's expression of compassion is unintentionally ironic, and She says: Jesus, then, should get drunk every night, considering the grief He supposedly enjoys every day... Did You tell Him? I do not increase the bitterness of the chalice of My Son with the news of fresh defections, falls, sins, snares... I have been and will be silent. Judas falls on his knees trying to kiss Mary's hand, but She withdraws, without being rude, but quite decided not to be touched or kissed. Thank You, Mother! You are saving me. That is why I came here... and that You might make it easier for me to approach the Master without being reproached or ashamed. To avoid that, all you had to do was to go to Capernaum and then come here with the others. It was very simple. That is true... But the others are not kind, and they had me spied upon in order to reproach and accuse me. Do not give offence to your brothers, Judas. Stop committing sins! You have been spying here, in Nazareth, the fatherland of the Christ, you... Judas interrupts Her: When? Last year? They have distorted my words!

But believe me, I... I do not know what you did or said last year. I am referring to yesterday. You have been here since yesterday. You know that Jesus went away. So you have been investigating. But not in the friendly houses of Aser, Ishmael, Alphaeus, or of the brother of Judas and James, or of Mary of Alphaeus, or of any of the few people here who love Jesus. Because if you had done so, they would have come and told Me. Esther's house became crowded with women at dawn, when she died, but none of them had heard of you. They are the best among the women of Nazareth, those who love Me and love Jesus, and they strive to practise His Doctrine notwithstanding the hostility of their husbands, fathers and children. So you made inquiries among those who are enemies of My Jesus. What do you call that? I do not want to know. I tell you this only. Many swords will be plunged into My heart, which will be pierced over and over again, mercilessly, by the men who grieve My Jesus and hate Him. And one of the swords will be yours, and it will never be withdrawn. Because the memory of you, Judas, who do not want to be saved, who are ruining yourself, who are frightening Me, not because I am afraid for Myself, but for your soul, the memory of you will never be forgotten by My heart. Just Simeon pierced my soul with one sword, while I was carrying My Baby, My holy little Lamb, against My heart... You... you are the other sword. The point of your sword is already torturing My heart. But you are not yet satisfied with distressing a poor woman thus... and you are waiting to thrust your sword, like an executioner, right through the heart which has given you nothing but love... But it is foolish of Me to expect pity from you, who have none for your own mother!... On the contrary, now, I tell you! With one blow you will transfix Me and her, o wretched son, whom the prayers of two mothers cannot save!... Mary weeps while speaking, but her tears do not fall on Judas' dark-haired head, because he has remained where he fell on his knees, apart from Mary... The holy tears are absorbed by the brick floor. And the scene reminds me of Aglae, on whom, instead, Mary's tears fell, because she was pressing against Mary in sincere desire of redemption. Can you not find one word, Judas? Can you not find within yourself the strength for a good purpose? Oh! Judas! Judas! Tell Me: are you satisfied with your way of living? Examine yourself, Judas. First of all, be humble and sincere with yourself, and then with God, so that you may go to Him, after removing your burden of stones from your heart, and say to Him: "Here I am. For Your sake I got rid of these stones". I haven't... the courage to confess to Jesus. You have not the humility to do it. That is true. Help me... Go to Capernaum and wait for Him, humbly. But You could... I can but tell you to do what My Son always does: to have mercy. I do not teach Jesus, but it is Jesus Who teaches Me, His disciple. You are His Mother. And that concerns My heart. But, by right, He is My Master. Exactly the same as He is for all the other women disciples. You are perfect. He is the Most Perfect One. Judas is silent and pensive. He then asks: Where has the Master gone?

To Bethlehem in Galilee. And then? I do not know. Is He coming back here? Yes, He is. When? I do not know. You do not want to tell me! I cannot tell you what I do not know. You have followed Him for two years. Can you say that His itinerary was always certain? How many times did the will of men compel Him to change it? True. I will go away... To Capernaum. The sun is too strong to travel. Stay here. You are a pilgrim like all the others. And He said that the women disciples are to take care of them. My presence is unpleasant to You... The fact that you do not want to be cured is grievous to Me! Only that... Take off your mantle... Where did you sleep? I did not sleep. I waited until dawn as I wanted to see You all alone. Then you must be tired. In the large room there are the little beds which Simon and Thomas used. It is still quiet and cool in there. Go and sleep while I prepare some food for you. Judas goes away without discussion. And Mary, without a rest after sitting up the whole night, goes into the kitchen to light the fire and then into the kitchen garden to get some vegetables. And tears and tears fall silently while She bends over the fireplace arranging the firewood, or when She stoops to pick the vegetables, and while She washes them in the basin and prepares them... And tears fall with the golden grains of corn when She feeds the doves, and they fall on the clothes which She takes out of the wash-tub and hangs out in the sun... The tears of the Mother of God... of the Faultless Mother, Who was not exempt from sorrow and suffered more than any other woman, in order to be the Co-Redeemer...

441. The Death of Marjiam's Grandfather. 25th May 1946. Jesus must have left the women because He is with the apostles, Isaac and Marjiam. They are going down the last slopes towards the Esdraelon plain while it is slowly getting darker. Marjiam is very glad that the Lord is taking him to his dear grandfather. The apostles are not so happy, as they remember the recent incident with Ishmael. But they are gravely silent, in order not to grieve the boy, who rejoices that he has not touched the honey which Porphirea gave him, because he says I was hoping that the Lord would satisfy the desire of my heart by letting me see my grandfather. I do not know why... but for some time he has always been present to my spirit, as if he were calling me. I told Porphirea and she said to me: "It happens to me as well, when Simon is away". But I don't think it is as she says, because it never happened to me before. Because you were a little boy previously. Now you are a man and you ponder more over things Peter says to him. I have also two small round pieces of cheese and some olives. Just what I could bring of my own to my beloved grandfather. Then I have a hemp tunic and another hemp garment. Porphirea wanted to make them for me. But I said to her: "If you love me, make them for the old man". He is always so tattered and torn, so hot wearing clothes of coarse wool!... He will have some relief. And so you are left without any cool clothes, and you are sweating like a sponge wearing woollen ones Peter says to him. Oh! It does not matter! My grandfather went very often without food to give it to me, when I lived in the wood... At last I also can give him something. I wish I could save enough to give him what he needs to redeem himself! How much have you got so far? asks Andrew. Little. I earned one hundred and ten didrachmas with the fish. But I will soon be selling the lambs and then... If I could do it before it gets very cold!... Will you be keeping him? Nathanael asks Peter. Yes. We shall not be ruined if the poor old man has a morsel of our food... And then... He will be able to do little jobs... He can come to Bethsaida, where we are, is that right, Philip? Of course... We will help you, Simon, and thus make our good Marjiam and the old man happy... Let us hope that Johanan is not there... says Judas Thaddeus. I will go ahead and warn them says Isaac. They walk fast in the moonlight... At a certain point Isaac parts from them quickening his step, while the group follows him more slowly. There is dead silence in the plain. Even nightingales are quiet. They walk on, until they see two shadows running towards them. One is certainly Isaac... The other... may be Micah or the steward. One is as tall as the other... says John. They are now close... very close... It is the steward followed by Isaac who looks dismayed. Master... Marjiam... poor son! Come quickly... Your grandfather, Marjiam, is ill... very ill... Ah! Lord!... shouts the boy sorrowfully.

Let us go, let us go... Be strong, Marjiam and Jesus takes his hand and starts almost to run while He says to the apostles: You can follow us. Yes... But don't make too much noise... Johanan is there shouts the steward who is already far away. The poor old man is in Micah's house. Even a fool can understand that he is really dying. He is lying languidly, his eyes closed, his features relaxed, as is typical of a dying person. He is waxen, with the exception of his cheek-bones, where a cyanotic red persists. Marjiam bends over the little bed calling: Grandpa! My grandpa! I am Marjiam! Do you understand? Marjiam! Jabez! Your Jabez!... O Lord! He no longer hears me... Come here, Lord... Come here. Will You try... Cure him... Let him see me, let him speak to me... Must I see all my relatives die thus, without a parting word to me?... Jesus approaches him, He bends over the dying man, He lays a hand on his head saying: Son of My Father, listen to Me. Like one who awakes from a deep sleep, the old man takes a deep breath, he opens his already glassy eyes looking vaguely at the two faces bent over his. He tries to speak, but his tongue is powerless. But now he must have been able to recognise, because he smiles and tries to take the hands of the two to lift them to his lips. Grandpa... I had come... I prayed so hard that I might come!... I wanted to tell you... that I will soon have enough money... that I will be able to give you what you need to redeem yourself... and you will come with me, to Simon and Porphirea, who are so good, so kind to your Jabez... and to everybody... The old man succeeds in moving his tongue and he says with difficulty: May God reward them... and reward you... But it is late... I am going to Abraham... to suffer no more... He turns towards Jesus and eagerly asks: It is so, is it not? It is. Be in peace! and Jesus straightens Himself imposingly saying: With My power of Judge and Saviour, I absolve you of all faults and omissions you may have committed during your lifetime, and of any feeling of your heart against charity and against those who hated you. I forgive you everything, son. Go in peace! Jesus has held His hands stretched out high above the little bed as if He were before an altar and He, the Priest, were consecrating a victim. Marjiam is weeping, while the old man smiles gently whispering: One falls asleep peacefully with Your help... Thank You, Lord... and he collapses... Grandpa! Grandpa! Oh! he is dying! he is dying! Let us give him some honey... his tongue is dry... He is cold... honey warms one... shouts Marjiam and he tries to search in the sack with one hand while he supports with the other his grandfather's head, which is becoming heavier. The apostles have appeared on the threshold... and are watching in silence... All right, Marjiam. I will hold your grandfather says Jesus... and then, addressing Peter: Simon, come here... And Simon comes forward, deeply moved. Marjiam tries to give a little honey to the old man. He puts a finger into the little vase and takes it out covered with liquid honey, which he places on the lips of his grandfather, who opens his eyes again, looks at him, smiles and says: It's good. I made it for you... And also the tunic of fresh hemp...

The old man lifts his trembling hand and endeavours to lay it on the brown-haired head saying: You are good... better than honey... And that... the fact that you are good, does me good... But your honey... does not serve any more... Neither does your cool tunic... Keep them... keep them with my blessing... Marjiam falls on his knees and weeps with his head resting on the edge of the little bed moaning: All alone! I am remaining all alone! Simon goes to the other side of the bed and in a voice made more hoarse than ever by emotion, he caresses Marjiam's hair saying: No... Not alone... I love you. Porphirea also loves you... The disciples... as many brothers... And then... Jesus... Jesus Who loves you... Don't weep, my son! Your... son... yes... I... happy... Lord!... Lord.... the old man whispers confusedly... he feels the end is approaching. Jesus embraces him with one arm, lifts him up, and intones slowly: I lift my eyes to the mountains, whence help will come to me and He continues till the end of psalm 120. He then stops watching the man who is dying in His arms placated by those words... He intones psalm 121. But He says little of it, because as soon as He starts the fourth verse He stops, saying: Go in peace, just soul! and He lays him down again slowly and closes his eyelids with His hand. Such a placid death that no one, except Jesus, noticed it. But they realise seeing the gesture of the Master and they begin to whisper. Jesus makes a gesture requesting silence. He goes beside Marjiam, who has not noticed anything, as he is weeping with his head on the bed, He bends and embraces the boy and tries to lift him up saying: He is in peace, Marjiam! He does not suffer any more. This is the greatest grace of God for him: death, and in the arms of the Lord! Do not weep, dear son. Look how peaceful he is... In peace... Few people in Israel had the reward which this just man had, to die on the breast of the Saviour. Come here, in My arms... You are not alone. And there is God, and that is everything, and He loves you for the whole world. Poor Marjiam is really in a pitiful state, but he still finds the strength to say: Thank You, Lord, for coming... and you, Simon, for bringing me here... And to you all, thanks... for what you gave me for him... But it is of no further use... But... the garment is... We are poor... We cannot have him embalmed... Oh! grandfather! I cannot even give you a sepulchre!... But if you trust me, if you can... meet the expenses and in October I will give you the money of the lambs and of the fish... Hey! I say: you still have a father! I will see to it, at the cost of selling a boat. The old man will receive full honours. The important thing is to have a loan... and someone who can give a sepulchre... The steward says: In Jezreel there are some disciples among the people. They will not deny anything. I will go at once and I will be back by the third hour... Good, but... the Pharisee? Don't worry. I will let him know that there is a dead man and in order not to be contaminated, he will not come out of the house. I am going... And while Marjiam, bent over his grandfather, weeps and caresses him, and Jesus speaks in a low voice to the apostles and to Isaac, Micah and the others are busy preparing the last honours to their dead companion. ----------------------------

And I make here a personal comment. I happened to be in similar situations several times, and I often noticed that the people present, with good intentions or with blameworthy intolerance, contradict those who grieve over the loss of a relative. I point out the kindness of Jesus, Who bears with the suffering of the orphan and does not exact an unnatural heroism from him... How much there is to be learned from each least act of Jesus!...

442. Jesus Speaks of Charity to the Apostles. 30th May 1946 (Ascension-Day). Where did you leave the boats, Simon, when you came to Nazareth? asks Jesus while walking north-eastwards, leaving behind the Esdraelon plain and proceeding towards Mount Tabor. I sent them back, that they may go fishing, Master. But I told them to be at Tarichea every third day... I did not know how long I would be staying with You. Very well. Which of you wants to go to tell My Mother and Mary of Alphaeus to join us at Tiberias? Joseph's house will be the meeting place. Master... we would all like to go. But it is better if You say who is to go. Then, Matthew, Philip, Andrew and James of Zebedee. Let the others come with Me to Tarichea. You will explain to the women the reason for the delay. And tell them to close the houses and to come. We will be together for the whole duration of the moon. Go, because this is where the road diverges. And may peace be with you. He kisses the four who part, and He takes to the road again with the others. But after a few steps He stops and watches Marjiam who is walking with his head lowered a little behind the group. When the boy comes up with Him, Jesus passes His hand under his chin forcing him to raise his head. Tears are streaming down the boy's tanned face. Would you like to go to Nazareth, too? Yes, Master... But do as You wish. I want you to be consoled, son... Go... Run after them. My Mother will comfort you. He kisses the boy and lets him go, and Marjiam starts running and soon comes up with the four apostles. He is still a boy... remarks Peter. And he is suffering much... Yesterday evening, as I found him weeping in a corner of the house, he said to me: "It is as if my father and mother had died yesterday... The death of my old grandfather has renewed all the grief in my heart..." says John. Poor son!... But it was a good thing that he was present at that death... says the Zealot. He had so fondly cherished the illusion that he might be able to help the old man!... Porphirea told me that he made all sorts of sacrifices in order to be able to save money. He worked in fields, he made faggots for bakers, he fished, he did not eat any cheese or honey, so that he might sell them... He had that fixed idea in his heart and wanted the old man with him... who knows! says Peter. He is a serious-minded and strong-willed man. Sacrifice and work are no

burden to him. Good points says Bartholomew. Yes, he is a good son and will be one of the best disciples. You can see how strictly he controls himself even in the most troubled circumstances... His afflicted heart was longing for Mary, but he did not ask to go. He has understood so well what strength there is in praying, that he exceeds many adults says Jesus. Do you think that he makes sacrifices with an intent fixed in advance? asks Thomas. I am sure he does. It is true. Yesterday he gave some fruit to an old man saying: "Pray for my father's father, who died recently", and I remarked to him: "He is in peace, Marjiam. Do you not consider Jesus' absolution valid?". He replied to me: 'I do consider it valid. But when offering sacrifices, I think of the souls for whom no one prays, and I say: if my grandfather no longer needs this, let these sacrifices be atonement for those who are forgotten by everybody". And I remained edified says James of Alphaeus. Yes says Peter. Yesterday he came to me and throwing his arms round my neck, because, after all, he is still a boy, he said to me: "Now you really are my father... and I am giving back to you what your kindness had allowed me to save. My old grandfather no longer needs that money... and you and Porphirea are doing so much for me" I, I found it difficult to restrain my tears, I replied to him: "No, son. We will use that money as alms to poor old people or to orphans and God will make use of your alms to increase the peace to your old grandfather". And Marjiam kissed me twice so fondly that... well... I could not hold back my tears. And how grateful he is to you, Bartholomew, for meeting the expenses. He said to me: "As far as I am concerned the honour paid to my old grandpa is priceless. I will tell Bartholomew to keep me as his servant". Oh! poor son! Not even for one hour! He serves the Lord and edifies us all. I honoured a just man. I was able to do it because my name is well known and it is easy for me to find people willing to advance a sum of money. When in Bethsaida I will have the little debt settled, after all it was a trifle... Yes. With regard to money it was not much, because those in Jezreel were generous. But your love for a fellow disciple is not a trifle. Because each act of love is of great value. You are being perfected in your neighbour's love, which is the latter part of the fundamental precept of the Law of God, and which had been gravely neglected in Israel. The many precepts, the minuteness which followed the simple, yet complete, although brief Law of Sinai, have distorted the former part of the fundamental precept, converting it into a heap of exterior rites which lack what gives them strength, value, truth: that is they lack active consistence of the interior with the exterior forms of cult, through deeds performed and temptations overcome. What value can the ostentation of a cult have in the eyes of God, when internally a heart does not love God, does not annihilate itself in respectful love for God, when a heart does not praise and admire God by loving what He made, and first of all by loving man, who is the masterpiece of the terrestrial Creation? Do you understand how the mistake was made in Israel? It happened because, at first, of one precept they made two, and afterwards, with the decline of spirits, they cut the latter neatly off from the former, as if it were a useless branch. It was not a useless branch, there were not even two branches.

It was one trunk only, which from its very base had adorned itself with the individual virtues of the two loves. Look at that big fig-tree which has grown up there, on that hillock. It grew spontaneously, and almost from its roots, that is, as soon as it sprang up from the ground, it split into two branches, which are so united that the two barks have adhered together. But each branch has put forth its own foliage at the sides, in such an eccentric manner, that the little village on this hillock has been named after it the "House of the twin fig-tree". Now, if one should want to separate the two trunks, which are actually one trunk only, one would have to use a hatchet or a saw. But what would one do? One would cause the tree to die, or, if one were so skilful as to handle the hatchet or the saw in such a way as to injure one only of the two trunks, one would be saved whilst the other would inexorably die, and the survivor, although still alive, would live poorly and would probably wither, bearing no fruit or very little. The same happened in Israel. They wanted to divide, to separate the two parts, which were so united as to really be one thing only, they wanted to touch up what was perfect. Because each work, each thought and work of God is perfect. Therefore, if God on Sinai ordered man to love the Most High God and his neighbour, by means of one only precept, it is evident that they are not precepts which may be practised independently one from the other, but they are one precept only. And as I am never satisfied with perfecting you in this sublime virtue, the greatest of them all, because it rises with the spirit to Heaven and is the only one which subsists in Heaven, I insist on it, the soul of the whole life of the spirit, which dies if it loses Charity, because it loses God. Listen to Me. Suppose one day a very wealthy couple came and knocked at your door, asking to be given hospitality for their lifetime. Could you say: "We accept the husband, but we do not want the wife" without hearing the husband reply to you: "That is not possible, because I cannot part with the flesh of my flesh. If you do not want to accept her, I cannot stay with you, and I will go away with all my treasures, which I would have shared with you"? God is joined to Charity. And Charity is truly, and more intimately and really the spirit of His Spirit even than is a married couple who love each other deeply. God Himself is Charity. Charity is but the most manifest and illustrative aspect of God. Of all His attributes Charity is the sovereign and original one, because all the other attributes of God originate from Charity. What is Power but active charity? What is Wisdom but teaching charity? What is Mercy but forgiving charity? What is Justice but ruling charity? And I could go on thus with regard to all the numberless attributes of God. Now, after what I have said, can you believe that he, who has no Charity, has God? No, he has not. Can you imagine that he may accept God, but not Charity? There is one Charity only and it embraces Creator and creatures and it is not possible to have only one half of it: that for the Creator, without having also the other half: that for our neighbour. God is in His creatures. He is in them with His indelible sign, with His rights of Father, Spouse and King. The soul is His throne, the body His temple. Now he who does not love one of his brothers and despises him, holds in contempt, grieves and underestimates the Landlord of his brother's house, the King, the Father, the Spouse of his brother, and it is natural that this great Being Who is Everything, and Who is present in a brother, in all brothers, should consider as given to Him the offence given to a lesser being, to a part created by Everything, that is to a single man. That is why I taught you the

corporal and spiritual works of mercy, that is why I taught you not to scandalise your brothers, that is why I taught you not to judge, not to have contempt or to reject your brothers, whether they are good or not good, faithful or Gentiles, friends or enemies, rich or poor. When on a nuptial bed a conception takes place, it is performed through the same action, whether it happens on a golden bed or on straw in a stable. And the creature which forms in a royal womb is not different from that which forms in the womb of a beggar. To conceive, to form a new being, is the same in every spot of the Earth, irrespective of parents' religion. All creatures are born as Abel and Cain were born of Eve's womb. And to the equality of conception, formation and manner of birth of the children of man and woman on the Earth, corresponds another equality in Heaven: the creation of a soul to be infused into the embryo, so that it may be the soul of a man and not of an animal, and it may accompany him from the moment of its creation until death, and may survive expecting the universal resurrection, when it will join the risen body and have with it a reward or a punishment. A reward or punishment according to the deeds accomplished in the earthly life. Do not think that Charity is unfair, and that only because many people do not belong to Israel or to Christ, although they are virtuous in the religion which they follow convinced that it is the true one, they are to remain for ever without reward. After the end of the world no other virtue will survive except Charity, that is, the Union of all the creatures who lived in justice, with the Creator. There will not be several Heavens: one for Israel, one for Christians, one for Catholics, one for Gentiles, one for heathens. There will be one Heaven only. And likewise there will be one reward only: God, the Creator, Who rejoins His creatures who lived according to justice, and in whom, because of the beauty of the souls and bodies of saints, He will admire Himself with the joy of Father and of God. There will be one Lord only. Not one Lord for Israel, one for Catholicism, one for each of the other religions. I will now reveal a great truth to you. Remember it. Hand it down to your successors. Do not always wait for the Holy Spirit to clarify the truth after years or centuries of darkness. Listen. You may say: "Then, what justice is there in belonging to the holy religion, if at the end of the world we shall be treated exactly as the Gentiles?". I reply to you: the same justice which there is - and it is true justice - for those who, although they belong to the holy religion, will not be beatified, because they did not lead a holy life. A virtuous heathen, only because he lived according to choice virtue, convinced that his religion was good, will have Heaven at the end. When? At the end of the world, when of the four abodes of the dead, two only will remain: that is, Paradise and Hell. Because Justice, at that time, will only be able to keep and give the two eternal kingdoms to those, who from the tree of free will, chose good fruits or wanted wicked ones. But what a long expectation before a virtuous heathen achieves that reward!... Do you not think so? And that expectation, particularly from the moment when Redemption will have taken place with all its consequent wonders and the Gospel will have been preached all over the world, will be the purgation of the souls which lived with justice in other religions, but were not able to enter the true Faith, after they became acquainted with its existence and the proof of its reality. Their abode will be Limbo for centuries and centuries, until the end of the world. The believers in the true God, who were not heroically holy, will have a long Purgatory, which may last until the end of the

world for some of them. But after expiating and waiting, the good, irrespective of their provenance, will all sit at the right hand of God; the wicked, whichever their provenance may be, at the left hand and then in the dreadful Hell, while the Saviour will enter the eternal Kingdom with all the good souls. Lord, forgive me if I do not understand. What You say is very difficult... at least for me... You always say that You are the Saviour and that You will redeem those who believe in You. So those who do not believe, either because they did not know You, as they lived before You, or because - the world is so large! - they had no news of You, how can they be saved? asks Bartholomew. I told you: because of their just lives, of their good deeds, and through their faith which they believe is the true one. But they did not have recourse to the Saviour... But the Saviour will suffer also for them. Do you not consider, Bartholomew, what ample value My merits of Man-God will have? My Lord, they will always be inferior to those of God, to those You have always had. Your reply is and is not correct. The merits of God are infinite, you say. Everything is infinite in God. But God does not have any merits in the sense that He has not merited. He has attributes, virtues of His own. He is He Who is: Perfect, Infinite, Almighty. But to merit, it is necessary to do something, and with effort, superior to our nature. For instance, to eat is not a merit. But to eat frugally can become a merit, if we make real sacrifices, in order to give to the poor what we save. It is no merit to be silent. But it becomes a merit if we are quiet instead of retorting an insult. And so forth. Now, you know that God does not need to make any effort, because He is Perfect, Infinite. But the Man-God can make an effort by humiliating His infinite divine Nature within human limitations, by defeating human nature, which is not absent or metaphorical, but real, in Him, with all its senses and feelings, with its possibility of suffering and dying, with its free will. No one loves death, particularly when it is painful, untimely and undeserved. No one loves it. And yet, every man must die. So man ought to look at death with the same calm with which he sees every living being come to an end. Well, I force my Humanity to love death. Not only. But I chose life to be able to have death. For the sake of Mankind. Thus, in my condition of Man-God I gain those merits which I could not have gained if I had remained God. And through them, which are infinite, because of the manner in which I gain them, because of the divine Nature joined to the human nature, because of the virtues of Charity and Obedience, with which I put Myself in condition to deserve them, because of Fortitude, Justice, Temperance, Prudence, because of all the virtues which I put in My heart to make it acceptable to God, My Father, I will have infinite power, not only as God, but also as Man, Who sacrifices Himself for the sake of everybody, that is, Who reaches the extreme limit of Charity. It is sacrifice which gives merit. The greater the sacrifice, the greater the merit. A complete merit for a complete sacrifice. Perfect merit for a perfect sacrifice. And it may be used according to the holy will of the victim, to whom the Father says: "Let it be as you wish! , because the victim has loved both God and his neighbour measurelessly. I tell you. The poorest man can be the richest and benefit countless brothers, if he can love to the extent of sacrifice. I tell you: even if you did not have a crumb of bread, a glass of water, a ragged garment, you can always help. How? By praying and suffering for your brothers. Help whom? Everybody. In which way?

In a thousand holy ways, because if you can love, you will be able to act, teach, forgive, administer as God does, and to redeem, as the Man-God redeems. O Lord, grant us that charity! says John with a sigh. God gives you it, because He gives Himself to you. But you must receive it and practise it more and more perfectly. No event is to be separated from charity, as far as you are concerned. Both with regard to material and to spiritual events. Everything is to be done with charity and for Charity. Sanctify your actions, your days, put salt in your prayers, and light in your actions. Light, flavour, sanctification are Charity. Without it rites are of no value, prayers are vain, offerings false. I solemnly tell you that the smile with which a poor man greets you as brothers is of greater value than a sack of money which one may throw at your feet only to be noticed. Love, and God will always be with you. Teach us how to love thus, Lord. I have taught you for two years. Do what you see Me do and you will be in Charity and Charity will be in you, and on you there will be the seal, the chrism, the crown, which will really make you known as the ministers of God-Charity. Let us stop now in this shady place. The grass is thick and long and the trees mitigate the heat. We will proceed in the evening...

443. Arrival at Tiberias. Parable of the Rain on the Vine. 3rd June 1946. Jesus arrives at Tiberias with His apostles on a stormy morning. He has come along the short route from Tarichea to Tiberias, with the boats tossing terribly on the very rough lake which is greyish like the sky, where large clouds chase one another threateningly. Peter scans the sky and the lake and orders the servants to put the boats in a safe place: Before long you will hear some fine music! I am no longer Peter the fisherman, if the downpour and the billows of the lake do not cause damage shortly. Is there anybody on the lake? he asks himself scanning the heavy sea of Galilee. And he sees that it is deserted, with billows sweeping it more and more violently, under the vault of heaven which is becoming more and more threatening. He takes comfort seeing that it is deserted and thinking that it will not cause any harm to human beings, and he happily follows the Master, Who is proceeding among such strong gusts of wind, that the apostles walk with difficulty in clouds of dust, while their garments flap fiercely in the storm. In Tiberias, in this part of the town where ordinary people live, families of fishermen or of poor workmen employed in jobs connected with fishing, people are busy coming and going to put back in the houses what could be damaged by the storm. Some run laden with nets, some with the oars from boats which have already been beached safely, and some drag their working tools into the

houses, and all this takes place in the howling wind which raises clouds of dust and makes doors bang. The other part of Tiberias, the northern one, with buildings lined along the lake and beautiful parks visible along the curved shore, is sleeping idly. Only some servants or slaves, according to whether the house belongs to Israelites or to Romans, are busy removing curtains from roof-terraces, beaching sport-boats, and taking away chairs lying about in gardens... Jesus, Who has come to this part, says to Simon Zealot and to His cousin Judas: Go and ask the door-keeper of Johanna of Chuza whether any of our friends have been looking for us. I will wait here. All right. And what about Johanna? We will see her later. Go and do what I told you. The two go away quickly, and while the others are awaiting their return, Jesus sends them, some here, some there, to get a little food for themselves and for the women, because it is not fair to be a burden to the family of the disciple says Jesus. And He remains alone, leaning against the wall of a garden, from which, comes the roar of a hurricane, so violent is the struggle of its tall trees against the wind. Jesus is engrossed in thought, enveloped in His clothes, which He holds tight under His mantle, the top part of which He has pulled over His head like a hood, to protect Himself against the wind, which blows His hair in His eyes. And thus, covered in dust, with His face half hidden by the edge of His mantle, leaning against a wall almost at the corner of a road, which crosses a beautiful thoroughfare coming from the lake towards the town centre, He looks like a beggar waiting for alms. Some people pass by and look at Him. But since He does not say anything and does not ask for anything and is keeping His head lowered, no one stops to give Him anything or to speak to Him. The storm in the meantime has become more violent and the noise of the lake stronger, filling the whole town with its roar. A tall man, who is walking stooped to defend himself from the wind - he also is completely enveloped in his mantle, which he is holding tight under his chin with one hand - is coming from the internal road towards the coast one, and, on looking up to avoid a file of donkeys of market-gardeners who, after leaving the vegetables at the market, are going back to their gardens, he sees Jesus (and I see that the young man is Judas of Kerioth). Oh! Master! he exclaims from the other side of the donkey file. I was just coming to Johanna's looking for You. I was at Capernaum looking for You, but... The last donkey has gone by and Judas rushes towards the Master, ending his speech: ...but there was nobody at Capernaum. I waited for days, then I came back here, and I went to Joseph's and to Johanna's every day looking for You... Jesus looks at him with His piercing eyes, and stops those impetuous words by saying simply: Peace be with you. It's true! I did not even greet You! Peace be with You, Master. But You always have such peace! And have you not? I am a man, Master. A just man has peace. Only the guilty man is upset. Are you such? I... No, Master. At least... Of course, if I have to tell You the truth, the fact that I was far from You did not make me happy... but that was not exactly

being deprived of peace. I missed You, because I am fond of You... But peace is something different, is it not?... Yes. It is. Separations do not impair the peace of the heart, if the heart of the separated person does not do things which his conscience tells him to be such as to grieve the person he loves, if the latter should hear of them. But those who are absent do not know... Unless somebody tells them. Jesus looks at him and is silent. Are You alone, Master? asks Judas trying to change the subject to more usual topics. I am waiting for those whom I sent to Johanna to find out whether My Mother has come from Nazareth. Your Mother? Are You making Your Mother come here? Yes, I am. I will stay with Her at Capernaum for the whole month, and I will go by boat to the villages on the banks of the lake, returning every day to Capernaum. There must be many disciples... Yes... Many... Judas has lost his gift of the gab. He is pensive... Have you nothing to tell Me, Judas? We are alone now... Has nothing happened to you, during the time of this separation, no incident about which you feel the need of a word of your Jesus? Jesus asks kindly, in such a manner as to help the disciple to confess by making him feel all His merciful love. And do You know of anything in me which needs Your word? If You know - and I really do not know of anything which deserves such word - speak up. It is burdensome for a man to have to remember his sins and faults and confess them to another man... I, Who am speaking to you, am not another man, but... No. You are God. I know. That is why it is not even necessary that I should speak. You know... I was saying that I am not another man, but I am your most loving Friend. I am not saying your Master, your superior, I am saying: your Friend... It's still the same thing. And it is always boring to pry into what one has done in the past, as such confession may cause reproaches. But the annoying part is not so much to be reproached, as to lose a friend's esteem... At Nazareth, the last Sabbath I was there, Simon Peter inadvertently told a companion something which he should not have mentioned. It was not a voluntary disobedience, it was not slander, it was not anything which might have injured his neighbour. Simon Peter had mentioned it to an honest heart and to a serious man, who realising that he had become acquainted with a secret, although neither he nor Peter wished so, swore that he would not repeat the secret to anybody else. Simon could have set his mind at rest... But he did not resign himself until he confessed his fault to Me. At once... Poor Simon! He called it a fault! But if in the hearts of My disciples there were only such faults, and so much humility, so much confidence, so much love, as Peter has, oh! I should proclaim Myself the Master of a crowd of saints!... And so You want to tell me that Peter is holy and I am not. It's true. I am not a saint. Send me away, then... You are not humble, Judas. Pride is ruining you. And you do not know Me yet... concludes Jesus most sadly. Judas perceives His grief and whispers: Forgive me, Master!... Always. But be good, son! Be good! Why do you want to harm yourself? Tears well up in Judas' eyes, whether they are true or not I do not know,

and he seeks shelther in Jesus' arms, weeping on His shoulder. And Jesus caresses his hair whispering: Poor Judas! Poor Judas, who is seeking elsewhere, where he cannot find it, his peace and who may understand him... Yes. It is true. You are right, Master. Peace is here... In Your embrace... I am a wretch... You are the only one who understands and loves me... You alone... I am the fool... Forgive me, Master. Yes, be good, be humble. If you fall, come to Me and I will raise you. If you are tempted, run to Me. I will defend you, from yourself, from those who hate you, from everything... But stand up. The others are coming... A kiss, Master... A kiss... And Jesus kisses him... And Judas recomposes himself... But in the meantime he has not confessed his faults at all, at least I do not think so... We are a little late because Johanna was already up and the door-keeper wanted to tell her. She will come today, to pay her respects to You, at Joseph's house says Thaddeus. At Joseph's? If we get all the rain which heaven is promising, those streets will be like quagmires. Johanna will certainly not come to that hovel and along those streets. We had better go to her house... says Judas who has already become sure of himself once again. Jesus does not reply to him, but He replies to His cousin asking: Did any of our friends look for us at Johanna's? No, not yet. All right. Let us go to Joseph's house. The others will join us... If I were sure that our mothers are on the way here, I would go and meet them... says Judas of Alphaeus. It would be a good thing. But there are several roads from Tiberias. And perhaps they did not take the main one... That's true, Jesus... Let us go... They walk away fast, while the first thunder and lightning furrow the leaden sky, rumbling in the gorges of the hills which surround the lake almost completely. They enter Joseph's poor house, which in the stormy atmosphere looks poorer and darker. There is only one bright thing, the face of the disciple, and those of his relatives, who are so happy to have the Master in their house. But You are unlucky, Lord apologises the boatman. I could not go out fishing on a lake like this and I have nothing... but vegetables... And your kind heart. But I have provided. Our companions are coming now with what is necessary. Do not tire yourself, woman... We can sit also on the floor. It is so clean. You are a clever woman, I know. And the tidiness which I see here confirms it. Oh! my wife! She is really a strong woman! My, nay, our joy proclaims the boatman, who is thrown into a transport of delight by the praise of the Lord, Who has sat down peacefully on the lower edge of the fireplace in which no fire is lit, almost on the floor, holding between His legs a little boy, who looks at Him full of amazement. Those who had gone to do the shopping arrive at the moment of the first downpour and they shake mantles and sandals on the threshold, to avoid carrying water and mud into the house. It seems the end of the world because of thunder, lightning, rain and wind. The roaring of the lake sounds like an accompaniment to the soli of thunderbolts and howling wind.

Good health! Summer is wetting its feathers and drenching the fireplace... We will feel better afterwards... Providing it does not damage the vines... May I go upstairs to have a look at the lake? I want to see in what mood it is... Go. The house is yours the disciple replies to Peter. And Peter, wearing only his tunic, goes out happily to enjoy the storm. He climbs up the outside staircase and remains on the terrace to freshen himself and to give his responses to those inside the house, as if he were on the deck of his boat giving orders for manoeuvres. The others are sitting about in the kitchen, where they can hardly see, as they are compelled to keep the door ajar because of the rain, and only a thread of greenish light comes in through the fissure, interrupted by the short dazzling flashes of lightning... Peter comes back in, wet through as if he had fallen into the lake and he states: It's above our heads now. It's moving away towards Samaria. It's going to drench all there... It has already soaked you! You are running like a fountain remarks Thomas. Yes. But I feel so well after so much heat. Come inside. It will do you no good to stand at the door wet as you are advises Bartholomew. No! I am like seasoned wood... I was not yet able to say "father" well, when I began to remain in dampness. Ah! How well one breathes!... The street, however, is like... a river... You should see the lake! It's all the colours of the rainbow and is boiling like a pot. You cannot even see which way the billows are running. They boil on the spot... But it was needed... Yes, we needed rain. The walls were not cooling down any more, they were so heated by the sun. The leaves of my vines were curled up and dusty... I watered the roots... but... What can a little water do when all the rest is like fire? says Joseph. It does more harm than good, my friend states Bartholomew. Plants need water from heaven, because their leaves also drink it, eh?! It does not seem so, but it is true. Roots, roots! Very well. But leaves are there, too, for some reason and they have their rights... Master, do You not think that Bartholomew is proposing the subject for a beautiful parable? asks the Zealot provoking Jesus to speak. But Jesus, Who is lulling the little boy frightened by the thunder, does not relate the parable, however, He agrees saying: And how would you propose it? Badly, certainly, Master. I am not You... Tell it as best you can. It will be a great help to you to preach by means of parables. Get accustomed to doing it. I am listening, Simon... Oh!... You are the Master, I... a fool... But I will obey. I would say this: "A man had a beautiful vine. But as he did not own a vineyard, he had planted the vine in the little kitchen garden near his house, so that it might climb up to the terrace to give shade and grapes, and he took great care of his vine. But it was growing amid houses, near the street, so the smoke of kitchens and ovens and the dust of the road began to molest it. And while the rain still descended from heaven in the month of Nisan, the leaves of the vine were cleaned of impurities and enjoyed sunshine and air without any ugly crust of dirt on their surfaces preventing it. But when summer came and no more water descended from

heaven, smoke, dust, excrement of birds formed thick layers on the leaves, while the sun, which was too strong, dried them up. The owner of the vine watered the roots deeply set in the ground, and thus the plant did not die, but it vegetated with difficulty, because the water sucked by the roots nourished only the central part, and the poor leaves did not enjoy any of it. On the contrary, fumes of fermentation rose from the torrid soil, wetted with little water and spoiled the leaves with spots resembling malignant pustules. But at last a torrential rain came from heaven and the water descended on the leaves, it ran along the branches, the trunk, the grapes, it quenched the fierce heat of walls and ground, and after the storm, the owner of the vine saw that his plant was clean, fresh, enjoying and giving joy under the serene sky". That is the parable. Good. But what about the comparison with man?... Master, do it Yourself. No. You must do it. We are among brothers, so you must not be afraid of cutting a bad figure. I am not afraid of a bad figure, as if it were something grievous. On the contrary I love it, because it helps me to be humble. But I would not like to say anything wrong... I will correct you. Oh! In that case I would say: "The same applies to a man who does not live isolated in the garden of God, but lives in the midst of the dust and smoke of worldly things. They, in fact, encrust him slowly, almost inadvertently, and he finds that his spirit is sterilised under such a thick layer of humanity, that the breeze of God and the sun of Wisdom can no longer be of any avail to him. And in vain he tries to make up for it with a little water drawn from practices, and given with so much humanity to the inferior part, that the superior part does not enjoy any of it... Woe to the man who does not cleanse himself with the water from Heaven, as it cleans out impurities, it extinguishes the ardours of passions, and gives true nourishment to his whole ego". I have spoken. You have spoken well. I would also say that, unlike plants, which have no free will and are fixed to the ground, and consequently they are not free to go and look for what helps them and shun what is harmful for them, man can go and look for the water of Heaven and avoid the dust, the smoke and the ardour of the flesh, of the world and of the demon. The teaching would then be more complete. Thank You, Master. I will remember that replies the Zealot. We do not live a solitary life... We live in the world... So... says Judas of Kerioth. So what? Do you mean that Simon has spoken foolishly? asks Judas of Alphaeus. I don't mean that. I am saying that as we cannot live all alone... we are bound to be covered with things of the world. The Master and Simon are just saying that we must seek the water of Heaven to keep ourselves clean notwithstanding that the world is around us says James of Alphaeus. Sure! But is the water of Heaven always available to cleanse us? Of course it is replies John sure of himself. Is it? And where do you find it? In love.

Love is fire. It will burn you even more. Yes, it is fire. But it is also water which cleanses. Because it removes everything which belongs to the Earth and gives all the things which come from Heaven. ...I do not understand these operations. It removes, it gives... No. I am not mad. I say that it removes what is humanity and it gives you what comes from God and is therefore divine. And a divine thing can but nourish and sanctify. Day after day love cleanses you of what the world gave you. Judas is about to reply, but the little child who is in Jesus's lap says: Another parable, a beautiful one... for me... which puts an end to the argument. On what, child? asks Jesus condescending. The little fellow looks around and he finds it. He points at his mother and says: On mothers. A mother is for the soul and the body what God is for them. What does a mother do for you? She looks after you, she takes care of you, she teaches you, she loves you, she watches that you do not hurt yourself, she keeps you under the wings of her love, just as a dove does with its little ones. And a mother is to be obeyed and loved, because everything she does, she does it for our good. Good God also, and much more perfectly than the most perfect of mothers, keeps His children under the wings of His love, He protects them, He teaches them, He helps them and He thinks of them day and night. But also good God, just like, even much more than a mother - because a mother is the greatest love on Earth, but God is the greatest and eternal love on Earth and in Heaven - is to be obeyed and loved, because everything He does, He does it for our good... Also thunderbolts? interrupts the boy who is frightened of them. Yes. Why? Because they clean the sky and the air and... And then appears the rainbow!... exclaims Peter, who, half inside and half outside the house, has listened and been quiet. And he adds: Come, little dove, and I will show it to you. Look how beautiful!... In fact the weather is clearing up, as the storm is over, and a huge rainbow, from the shores of Hippo, stretches its arched ribbon across the lake, disappearing beyond the mountains behind Magdala. They all go to the door, but in order to see the lake, they have to take off their sandals, because the yard is a little pond of yellowish water, which is slowly decreasing. The only remembrance of the storm is the lake, that has become yellowish, while its waves are beginning to calm down. But the sky is clear and the air fresh. The shades of leaves have brightened up. And Tiberias becomes busy again... And along the road still full of water and mud, they soon see Johanna come with Jonathan. She looks up to greet the Master, Who is on the terrace, where she climbs up quickly to prostrate herself, full of happiness... The apostles are speaking to one another, with the exception of Judas, who, half way between Jesus and Johanna on one side and the apostles on the other, is absent-minded, pensive. I wager that he is all ears listening to the words of Johanna, whose attitude towards Judas is not known, as she greeted all the apostles, just saying: Peace to you. But Johanna is speaking only of the children and of the permission she got from her husband

to go to Capernaum by boat while the Master is there. And Judas' suspicions subside and he joins his companions... With the lower parts of Her garments splashed with mud, but dry elsewhere, there appears the Most Holy Virgin Mary coming forward with Mary of Alphaeus and the five who had gone to bring Her here. Mary's smile while She goes up the short staircase is more beautiful than the rainbow still visible in the sky. Your Mother, Master! announces Thomas. Jesus goes to meet Her, followed by all the others. And they congratulate the women on their having had no other trouble but a little mud on the edges of their garments. As soon as it began to rain we stopped at a market-gardener's explains Matthew. And he asks: Have you been waiting long for us? No. We arrived at dawn. We are late, because of a poor wretch... says Andrew. Well. Now that you are all here and that the weather is clearing up, I would say that we should leave for Capernaum this evening says Peter. Mary, Who is always agreeable, this time objects: No, Simon. We cannot leave, if first... Son, a mother has implored Me to ask You - as You are the only one who can do it - to convert the soul of her only son. I beg You, listen to Me, because I promised... Forgive him... Your forgiveness... He has already forgiven, Mary. I have already spoken to the Master... interrupts Judas thinking that Mary is referring to him. I am not speaking of you, Judas of Simon. I am referring to Esther of Levi, a woman of Nazareth, a mother killed by the behaviour of her son. Jesus, she died the night You left. Her invocations to You were not for herself, a poor mother martyr of a disgraceful son, but for her son... because we mothers are solicitous about you sons, not about ourselves... She wants her Samuel to be saved... But now that she is dead, Samuel, a prey to remorse, seems mad and will not listen to reason... But You, Son, can cure his intellect and spirit... Is he repentant? How can You expect him to be so if he is desperate? In fact to have killed one's mother by grieving her continuously, must make one desperate. The first commandment of love for our neighbour cannot be infringed with impunity. Mother, how can You expect Me to forgive and God to give peace to this impenitent matricide? Son, that mother is asking for peace from the other life... She was good... she suffered so much... She will have peace... No, Jesus. There is no peace for the spirit of a mother, if she sees that her child is deprived of God... It is just that he should be deprived. Yes, Son. Of course. But for poor Esther's sake... Her last word was a prayer for her son... And she asked Me to tell You... Jesus, during her lifetime Esther never had any joy, You know that. Give her this joy now that she is dead, give it to her spirit which is suffering because of her son. Mother, I tried to convert Samuel when I stopped at Nazareth. But I spoke to him in vain because love was extinguished in him... I know. But Esther offered her forgiveness, her sufferings, that love might revive in Samuel. And, who knows? Could his present torment not be love

coming back to life again? A painful love, and one could say: a useless love, since his mother can no longer enjoy it. But You... but I, we know, I through faith, You by knowledge, that the charity of the dead is vigilant and close at hand. They do not lose interest, neither do they ignore what happens to the beloved ones they left here... And Esther may still enjoy this late love which her ungrateful son, now tortured by remorse, has for her. My Jesus, I know, this man fills You with disgust because of the enormity of his sin. A son who hates his mother! A monster, for You, Who are full of love for Yours. But just because You are full of love for Me, listen to Me. Let us go back to Nazareth together, at once. The road is no burden to Me, nothing is of any trouble to Me, if it helps to save a soul... All right. You have won, Mother... Judas of Simon, take Joseph with you and leave for Nazareth. You will bring Samuel to Me at Capemaum. I, why I? Because you are not tired. The others are. They walked for such a long time, while you were resting... I have walked, too. I went to Nazareth looking for You. Your Mother can tell You. Your companions went to Nazareth every Sabbath and they have just come back from a long tour. Go and do not argue... The fact is... they do not like me at Nazareth... Why send me? They are not fond of Me either, and yet I go to Nazareth. It is not necessary to find love in a place to go there. Go and do not argue, I am telling you again. Master... I am afraid of madmen... The man is deranged by remorse, but he is not mad. Your Mother said that he is... And for the third time I say to you: go and do not argue. It will do you nothing but good to ponder on the consequences which may be brought about by making a mother suffer... Are You comparing me with Samuel? My mother is the queen in her house. I am not even close to her to control her or to be a burden to her by keeping me... Such things are no burden to mothers. But the lack of love of their sons, the fact that they are imperfect in the eyes of God and of men are rocks that crush them. Go, I tell you. I am going. But what shall I tell the man? To come to Capernaum, to Me. If he never obeyed even his mother, do You expect him to obey me, particularly now, that he is so desperate? And have you not yet understood that if I am sending you, it means that I have already worked on the spirit of Samuel, freeing him from the delirium of desperate remorse? I am going. Goodbye, Master. Goodbye, Mary. Goodbye, friends. And he leaves, not at all enthusiastic, followed by Joseph, who, on the contrary, is overjoyed at being chosen for that mission. Peter sings something softly between his teeth... Jesus asks him: What are you saying, Simon of Jonah? I was singing an old lake song... Which is?

It says: "Always so! Farmers like fishing, fishermen don't!". And here, truly, we have seen that the disciple was more anxious to go fishing than the apostle... Many laugh. But Jesus does not laugh, He sighs. Have I grieved You, Master? asks Peter. No. But do not criticise all the time. My Cousin is grieved because of Judas says Judas of Alphaeus. Will you be silent, too, and above all in the bottom of your heart. But has Samuel really received a miracle already? asks Thomas who is curious and somewhat incredulous. Yes, he has. Then there is no need for him to come to Capernaum. It is necessary. I have not cured his heart completely. He must seek to be cured, by himself, that is, he must ask for forgiveness through holy repentance. But I have enabled him to reason again. It is for him to achieve the rest through his free will. Let us go downstairs. We will go among the humble people... Not to my house, Master? No, Johanna. You can come to Me whenever you wish so. They are tied to their work and I am going to them... And Jesus descends from the terrace and goes out into the street followed by the others, also by Johanna, who has sent Jonathan home and who is quite determined not to part from Jesus, since Jesus is not willing to go to her house. They go among poor little houses, towards poorer and poorer suburbs... And the vision ends thus.

444. Arrival at Capernaum. 4th June 1946. I do not know whether spontaneously or because she was informed by somebody, Porphirea is on the little shore of Capernaum when the boats arrive there, and they are three instead of two, which makes me think that someone went to Capernaum ahead of the others, to inform that the Master was arriving, and to get another boat for the women and Marjiam. And with Porphirea are the daughters of Philip and Mirjiam of Jairus, in addition to the mother of James and John. But my attention is attracted by Porphirea who, ignoring the wavelets which beat upon the shore with merry and somewhat cheeky laps, as the lake is not yet completely calm, goes into the water, up to her knees, and she leans on the boat, in which Marjiam is, and kisses him saying: I will love you also on his (1) behalf. My dear son, I will love you on behalf of everybody! and she is deeply moved when saying so. And as soon as the boat stops, and the people in it land, (1) Porphirea is referring to Marjiam's grandfather, who had died recently. Porphirea embraces Marjiam, as she does not wish to cede to anybody the task of making the boy feel that he is deeply loved. She then joins the group of the other boat to venerate the Master and be able to do so before the people of Capernaum and the many disciples, who

have been waiting for the arrival of the Master for a long time, may take possession of Jesus, depriving the women disciples of the joy of having Him to themselves. The women crowd around the Master, and only the children of Capernaum can break their circle squeezing their slim bodies between the women and thus arrive at Jesus, Who is going slowly towards the house. As it is early morning, there are not many people in the streets; they are mostly women going to the fountain or to the market, surrounded by their host of children, or some fishermen, who are coming back taking oars and nets to the boats, to prepare them to go out fishing in the evening. But there are no notables, with the exception of Jairus, who comes forward respectfully to venerate Jesus and to express his happiness, as he has heard that the Master will be staying for some weeks, going at night to the towns on the lake, to speak there in the morning, coming back to Capernaum to rest during the day. And it is Jairus, on account of the respect which he inspires in his fellow citizens, who is the first to succeed in placing himself beside Jesus. And he is successful because he pushes aside his daughter with paternal authority. After him the more influential disciples are able to join Jesus, that is, those to whom, out of instinctive motion of justice, the others surrender the first places after the apostles, that is the old priest John (the ex leper), Stephen, Hermas, Timoneus, Naomi's son John, Nicolaus and the shepherd disciples, who are all present, with the exception of the two who went towards Lebanon. Jesus takes an interest in the others, those who are absent, and He inquires after them of their companions. Are they still fervent? Oh! very! Are they resting at home? No. They are working in their towns or in nearby villages making new disciples. And what about Ermasteus? Ermasteus has gone along the coast and is going down to his own town. He is with Joseph, the disciple from Emmaus, and they want to speak of the Saviour along all the coasts, and they have been joined by their two friends Samuel and Abel, who want to show what the Lord can do, as one was a cripple and the other a leper. Questions and answers, and the road is not sufficient to exhaust them, neither can Thomas' house in Capernaum receive so many people who are now pressing around the Master, Who has come back after such a long absence. And Jesus decides to go towards the country, so that He may stay with them all, without any preferences.

445. Preaching at Capernaum. 22nd June 1946. It is the Sabbath. I think it is, because I see people gathered in the synagogue. But they may have gathered there to avoid being in the sun, or to be more tranquil in Jairus' house. And the people are pressing, paying attention, notwithstanding the heat which not even the doors and windows left open to have currents of air can alleviate. Those who have not been able to enter the synagogue, in order not to be roasted in the sun outside, have taken shelter in the shady garden behind the synagogue, Jairus' garden rich in thick pergolas and leafy fruit-trees. And Jesus is speaking near the door opening onto the garden, so that He may be heard both by these listeners and by those inside

the synagogue. Jairus is beside Him, listening attentively. The apostles are in a group near the door which opens onto the garden. The women disciples, with Mary in the middle, are sitting under a pergola, which almost touches the house. Mirjiam of Jairus and Philip's two daughters are sitting at Mary's feet. From the words I hear I gather that there has been an incident between the usual Pharisees and Jesus and that the people are upset because of that. Jesus in fact is exhorting them to be peaceful and to forgive, saying that the word of God cannot bear fruit in hearts which are upset. We cannot bear You to be insulted shouts someone from crowd. Leave it to My Father and yours and imitate Me. Be patient, and forgive. Enemies are not convinced by returning insult for insult. They are not convinced either by continual meekness. You are letting them tread upon You shouts the Iscariot. My apostle, do not cause scandal by setting an example of wrath and criticism. Your apostle, however, is right. His words are just. The heart which utters them is not just, neither is the heart which listens to them. He who wants to be My disciple must imitate Me. I tolerate and I forgive. I am meek, humble and peaceful. The children of wrath cannot stay with Me, because they are the children of the century and of their passions. Do you not remember the fourth Book of Kings? In a passage it says that Isaiah spoke against Sermacherib who thought he could attempt everything, and prophesied that nothing would save him from God's punishment. He compares him with an animal, through the nostrils of which a ring is put and a bit through its lips to subdue its wicked fury. You know how Sennacherib perished by the hands of his own sons. In fact cruel people perish through their own cruelty. They perish both in their bodies and in their souls. I do not love cruel people. I do not love proud people. I do not love wrathful, greedy, lustful people. I have not confirmed by word or set an example for you of such things, on the contrary I have always taught you the virtues which are the opposite of such evil passions. How beautiful is the prayer of our king David, when, re-sanctified by sincere repentance of past sins and by years of wise behaviour, he praised the Lord, meek and resigned to the decree by which he was not allowed to be the builder of the new Temple! Let us say it together, praising the Most High Lord... And Jesus intones the prayer of David (1 Paralipomena 29, 10-19), while those who are sitting stand up and those leaning against the wall assume an attitude of respect moving away from their support. Then, in His habitual tone, Jesus resumes: You must always remember that everything is in the hands of God, every enterprise, every victory. Magnificence, power, glory and victory belong to the Lord. And He grants this or that thing to man, if He deems that it is the right time to grant it for a certain good purpose. But man cannot pretend anything. God did not allow David to build the Temple, although he had been forgiven, as he was still in need of victory over himself, after his past errors: "You have shed much blood and fought too many battles; it is not for you to build a house for My Name since you have shed so much blood in My presence. But a son will be born to you and he will be a man of peace... he will therefore be named Peaceful (1)... he shall build a house for My Name". That is what the Most High said to His servant David. I say the same to you. Are you willing, because of your wrath, not to deserve to build in your hearts the house for the Lord your God? Reject,

therefore, every feeling which is not love. Have perfects hearts, as David invoked for his son, the builder of the Temple, so that, by keeping My commandments and doing everything according to what I taught you, you may succeed in building within your hearts the abode of your God, while waiting to go yourselves to His eternal joyful house. Give Me a parchment, Jairus. I will explain to them what God wants. Jairus goes where the rolls are piled and he takes one at random in the middle of the pile, and after dusting it, he hands it to Jesus, Who unrolls it and reads: "Jeremiah, chapter 5. Rove to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, look, watch, search her squares, if you can find one man who does right and tries to be faithful, and I will be merciful unto her". (The Lord says to me: Do not continue. I will read the whole chapter. ) Jesus, after reading it all, hands the roll back to Jairus and speaks. My children. You have heard which dreadful punishments are laid aside for Jerusalem, for Israel, for not being just. But do not rejoice at that. She is our Fatherland. Do not rejoice thinking: "Perhaps we shall no longer be here". She is always full of your brothers. Do not say: "Serves her right, because she is cruel with the Lord". The misfortunes of the Fatherland, the sorrows of fellow-citizens must always grieve those who are just. Do not measure as other people do, but as God measures, that is, mercifully. What are you, therefore, to do with respect to (1) Peace is shalom; Solomon is derived from it. this Fatherland and these fellow-countrymen, whether by Fatherland and fellow-countrymen you mean the great Fatherland and its inhabitants, the whole of Palestine, or this little one, that is, Capernaum, your hometown, whether you mean all the Hebrews, or these few, who are hostile to Me, in this little town of Galilee? You must accomplish deeds of love. Endeavour to save Fatherland and fellow-countrymen. How? Perhaps through violence? With scorn? No. By love, by patient love to convert them to God. You have just heard. "If I find one man who does right, I will pardon him". Strive, therefore, so that hearts may come to justice and become just. In actual fact in their injustice they say of Me: "It is not Him", and they thus believe that by persecuting Me, no harm will befall them. They really say: "Such things will never happen. The prophets spoke at random". And they will try to make you speak as they do. You who are present here, are faithful. But where is Capernaum? Is this all Capernaum? Where are those whom the other times I saw crowd around Me? So the yeast, which fermented the last time I was here, has ruined many hearts? Where is Alphaeus? Where is Joshua with his three sons? Where is Haggai of Malachi? Where are Joseph and Naomi? Where is Levi, Abel, Saul, Zacharias? Have they forgotten the undeniable help they received, because false words overwhelmed it? But can words destroy facts? You can see! This is only a small place. In this place, where is the largest number of people assisted, envious malice has been able to devastate faith in Me. I see gathered here only those who are perfect in faith. And could you expect remote events, remote words to keep all Israel faithful to God? That should be the case, because faith must be such also without the support of facts. But it is not so. And the greater is science, the smaller is faith, because learned people think that they are exempted from simple sound faith, which believes

through the strength of love and not by means of the assistance of science. It is love which you must hand down to posterity and inflame. And to do that you must be inflamed. You must be convinced, heroically convinced, in order to convince. In place of ill manners, in reply to insults, you must have humility and love. And with them you must go and remind of the words of the Lord those who no longer remember them: "We must fear the Lord Who gives us the rain of the early and later season". They would not understand us! On the contrary they would of offend us saying that we are sacrilegious, teaching without the right to do it. You know who are the scribes and Pharisees!... Yes. I know. But even if I had not known, I would know now. But it does not matter what they are. It matters what we are. If they and priests clap their hands to false prophets who prophesy what gives them some profit, forgetting that hands should be clapped only to the good deeds which the Decalogue commands, that is no reason why my faithful believers should imitate them or feel discouraged and just stand looking, as if they had been defeated. You must work as hard as Evil works... We are not Evil shouts from the threshold, on the street, the husky voice of Eli the Pharisee, who tries to enter shouting all the time: We are not the Evil ones, instigator. Man, you are the disturber, go away! says at once a centurion who must have been there watching, as his intervention is so fast. You, a pagan, you dare impose on me... I a Roman, do. Go out! The Rabbi is not disturbing you, but you are disturbing Him. You cannot... We are the Rabbis, not the Galilean carpenter cries the old man, who resembles more a barrow woman than a master. One more, one less... You have hundreds of them, and they are all wicked teachers. Here is the only virtuous one. I order you to go out. Virtuous, eh?! Virtuous the man who pays Rome for His safety! Sacrilegious! Unclean! The centurion utters a cry and the heavy steps of soldiers mingle with Eli's shrill insults. Take that man and throw him out! orders the centurion. Me? Pagan hands touching me? The feet of pagans in one of our synagogues! Anathema! Help! They are polluting me!... I beg you, soldiers. Let him go! Do not come in. Please respect this place and his old age says Jesus from His place. As You wish, Rabbi. Ha! Ha! Intriguer! But the Sanhedrin will be informed. I have the proof! Now I believe the words which were related to us. I have the proof. Anathema on You! And my sword on you if you say another word. Rome defends what is right. She does not intrigue, you old hyena, with anybody. The Sanhedrin will be informed of your lies. The Proconsul will have my report. I am going to write it at once. Go home and remain there at the disposal of Rome and the centurion makes a perfect right-about turn and goes away followed by four soldiers, leaving Eli astounded and trembling cravenly... Jesus resumes speaking as if nothing had interrupted Him: You must work as hard as Evil works, to build within you and around you the house of the Lord, as I was saying at the beginning. You must act with great holiness so that

God may descend again into hearts and on our dear Fatherland, which is already punished so severely and does not know which clouds of misfortune are piling up for her in the north, in the strong country which already rules over us and will rule more and more, because the deeds of citizens are such as to disgust the Most Kind Lord and to arouse the strong ruler. And with the indignation of God and of the ruler, do you expect perhaps to have peace and welfare? Be good, children of God. Strive to have not one, but hundreds of good people in Israel, to ward off the dreadful punishments of Heaven. I told you at the beginning that where there is no peace, there can be no word of God, which heard peacefully may yield fruit in hearts. And you know that this meeting has been neither tranquil nor fruitful. There is too much agitation in hearts... Go. We will still have some hours to be together. And pray, as I do, that those who upset us, may mend their ways... Let us go, Mother and squeezing through the crowd, He goes out into the street. Eli is still there and, as white as death, he throws himself at Jesus' feet. Have pity! You saved my grandson once. Save me, that I may have time to mend my ways. I have sinned! I confess it. But You are good. Rome... Oh! what will Rome do to me? She will remove the summer dust from you with a good thrashing shouts one, and the people laugh while Eli utters a painful groan as if he already felt the scourge, and he moans: I am old aching all over... Alas! The cure will do you good, you old jackal! You will be restored to youth and will be able to dance... Silence! Jesus orders the scoffers. And He says to the Pharisee: Stand up. Be dignified. You know that I do not conspire with Rome. So, what do you want Me to do for you? That is true. Yes. It is true. You do not conspire. Nay, You disdain the Romans, You hate them, You c... Nothing of the kind. Do not lie praising Me, as you lied previously accusing Me. And you had better know that it would be no praise to Me to say that I hate this one or that one, or I curse this or that one. I am the Saviour of every soul, and there are no races or faces in My eyes, but souls only. That is true! Very true! But You are just and Rome knows and that is why she defends You. You keep the crowds calm, You teach them to respect the laws and... Is that perhaps a fault in your eyes? Oh! no! It is justice! You know how to do what we should all do, because You are just, because... The crowds sneer and murmur. Several epithets, such as Liar! Coward! This very morning he spoke differently! and so forth can be heard, although spoken in a low key. Well? What shall I do? Go! Go to the centurion. Quick! Before the messenger leaves. See? They are getting the horses ready! Oh! Have mercy! Jesus looks at him: small, trembling, wan with fear, miserable... and examines him... compassionately. Only four eyes look at him pitifully: those of Jesus and of His Mother. All other eyes are either ironical, or severe, or upset... Even the eyes of John and Andrew are stern with disdainful severity. I have pity. But I will not go to the centurion... He is Your friend...

No. He is grateful to You, I mean... because You cured his servant. I cured also your grandson. And you are not grateful to Me, although you are an Israelite like Me. Beneficent help creates no obligation. Yes, it does. Woe to those who are not thankful to... Eli realises that he is condemning himself and becomes quiet, stammering. The crowds sneer at him. Quick, Rabbi. Great Rabbi! Holy Rabbi! He is giving orders, see?! They are on the point of leaving! You want me to be laughed at! You want me dead! No. I am not going to remind him of a favour. Go and say to him: "The Master tells you to be merciful". Go! Eli runs away and Jesus sets out in the opposite direction towards His house. The centurion must have agreed, because I see the soldiers, who had got into the saddles, dismount and hand back a wax tablet to the centurion and then take the horses away. What a pity! It would have served him right! exclaims Peter, and Matthew replies to him: Yes. The Master should have let him be punished! A blow for each insult to us. Hateful old man! And so he is ready to start all over again! exclaims Thomas. Jesus turns round severely: Have I followers, or have I demons? Go away, you with merciless hearts! Your presence is unpleasant to Me. The three remain where they are, petrified by the reproach. Son! You are already so grieved! And I am in such great pain! Do not add this one... Look at them!... implores Mary. And Jesus turns round to look at the three. Three desolate faces, with eyes full of hope and of sorrow. Come! orders Jesus. Oh! Swallows are not as swift as the three. And let it be the last time that I hear you speak such words. You, Matthew, have no right to speak thus. You, Thomas, are not yet dead, to judge who is imperfect, thinking that you are saved. And you, Simon of Jonah, behaved like a rock carried with great difficulty to a mountain top and then rolled down to the valley. Understand Me for what I mean... And now listen. It is useless to speak here in the synagogue, or in town. I will speak from the boats on the lake, now here, now there. Prepare the boats, as many as are needed and we will go out in the placid evenings or at the cool dawns...

446. At Magdala. Parable on Good and Bad Will. 24th June 1946. Where, Master? asks Peter who has completed the manoeuvres and preparations for navigation and is with his boat at the head of the little flotilla

which, laden with people, is ready to follow the Master. To Magdala. I promised Mary of Lazarus. All right replies Peter and he manoeuvres the rudder in order to tack in the right direction. Johanna is in the boat with the Master, the Blessed Virgin, Mary of Clopas, Marjiam, Matthew, James of Alphaeus and a man whom I do not know: she points at the many boats on the lake in the quiet summer evening, which softens the glow of sunset with cascades of purple veils, as if heaven rained showers of amethysts or of trusses of wistaria in bloom. She remarks: Perhaps the boats of the Roman ladies are among those. It is one of their favourite amusements to simulate fishing in these placid evenings. But they will be farther south observes the man whom I do not know. Oh! no, Benjamin. They have fast craft and experienced sailors. They come up as far as here. For all they have to do... grumbles Peter, and he continues through his beard, as he is an intolerant fisherman who considers navigation and fishing a profession, not a pastime, almost a religion completely regulated by severe useful laws, and its improper usage seems a profanation to him: With their incense, their flowers and perfumes and other demoniacal things they contaminate the water; with their music, loud cries and language they disturb the fish; with their smoky lamps they frighten them; with their cursed nets cast inconsiderately they spoil the bottom and damage reproduction... It should be forbidden. The Sea of Galilee belongs to Galileans, who are also fishermen, not to prostitutes and their partners... If I were the master! I would fix you, you filthy heathen boats, you floating sinks of vice, alcoves sailing to bring here, on these waters of God, of our God, to His children, your... Oh! look! They are coming straight here! Can one stand that!... Can one allow... Can... Jesus interrupts the accusatory oration, by which Peter gives vent to his spirit of Israelite and fisherman, flushing, suffocating with rage, panting as if he were struggling against infernal forces, and He says with a peaceful smile: It is a good job that you are not the master. Fortunately you are not! For them and for yourself. Because you would prevent them from following a good impulse, thus an impulse impressed on their spirits - pagan, I agree, but naturally good impressed on their spirits by the Eternal Mercy which guides these creatures, who are not guilty of being born Romans and not Jews. And God looks at them with merciful eyes because He sees that they tend to what is good. And you would harm yourself because you would commit an act against charity and one against humility... Humility? I don't understand... Being the master of the lake, it would be lawful for me to dispose of it as I like. No, Simon of Jonah. No. You are wrong. Also the things which belong to us, belong to us because God grants them to us. So, even if we possess them for a limited period of time, we must always consider that He Who possesses everything without any limitation of time or measure is One only. One only is the Master. Men... Oh! they are only administrators of crumbs of the great Creation. But He is the Master, My Father and yours and of all living beings. Further, He is God, thus most perfect in all His thoughts and actions. Now: if God looks benignly at the movement of these heathen hearts towards the Truth, and does not only look, but encourages such movement, communicating to it a stronger and stronger motion towards Good, do you not think that you, a

man, by wanting to stop it, actually want to prevent God from doing something? And when do you stop anything? When you do not consider it good. So this is what you would be thinking of your God: that He is doing a deed which is not good. Now, if it is not right to judge our brothers, because every man has his faults and his faculty of knowing and judging is so limited that seven times out of ten his judgement is wrong, it is absolutely wicked to judge God in His action. Simon, Simon! Lucifer wanted to judge God in one of His thoughts and he considered it wrong and wanted to take the place of God, thinking that he was more just than God. You know, Simon, what Lucifer achieved. And you know that all the pains we suffer have come because of that pride... You are right, Master! I am a poor wretch! Forgive me, Master! And Peter, who is always impulsive, leaves the tiller of the rudder to throw himself at Jesus' feet, while the boat, suddenly left to itself, and just on the crest of a wave, yaws and heels in a fearful manner amidst the screams of Mary of Clopas and Johanna and the shouts of those in the light twin boat, when they see Peter's heavy boat coming straight for them. Fortunately Matthew is quick in taking the rudder, and the boat resumes its course after pitching dreadfully, also because the others, to keep away from it, have used their oars with vigorous strokes, thus agitating the water. Hey! Simon! Once you were insolent to the Romans, whom you treated as landlubbers, because they were coming straight for us. But now you are cutting a bad figure... and, what is more, in their presence. Look how they are all standing in their boats to see... says the Iscariot teasing Peter and pointing at the Roman boats, which are now so close, in the sheet of water before Magdala, that those on board are able to see clearly, notwithstanding that the purple veils of the evening have become darker and darker dimming daylight. You have also lost a hamper and a small bucket, Simon. Shall we try to fish them up with the hooks? says James of Zebedee, from another boat, which is now close at hand, because, after the incident, they have all crowded round Peter's boat. But how did you manage to do that? It never happens to you! exclaims Andrew from another boat. Peter replies to them all, one after the other, whilst they have almost spoken all together. Have they seen me? It does not matter! I wish they had seen also my heart in the same way and... Well, better not say that, Peter... But you must know that you are not hurting me. It was not a wrong manoeuvre, it happened for a good purpose, one that can mortify me... Don't worry, James! Old things went to the bottom... I wish I could throw out after them also the old man persisting in me! I would be prepared to lose everything, even my boat, to be just as the Master wants me... How did I manage? Eh! I proved to myself, to my pride, which wants to teach even God things of the spirit, that I am an utter beast also in matters concerning boats... It serves me right. I made a parable of myself for myself... Didn't I, Master? Jesus smiles nodding... Sitting astern, in His habitual place, white against the darkening air, tranquil, His hair blowing gently in the evening breeze, He stands out in the twilight like an angel of peaceful brightness. The Roman boats have reached them. They have very good boats and perfect sails... not to mention the sailors! They go as fast as halcyons! They exploit every puff of wind and even the

slightest currents... Almost all the oarsmen are from Crete or from the Nile region explains Johanna. The sailors of the delta are most skilled, and so are those from Crete. But also those from Italy are very good... They pass through Scylla and Charybdis... and that is enough to say that they are very good admits the unknown man whose name is Benjamin. Where are we going, Lord? To Magdala, or... Look! Those of Magdala are coming here... In fact all the little boats of that village hasten to depart from the shingly shore and the little harbour, laden, nay, frightfully overladen with people, so much so that the gunwales are almost on a level with the surface of the water and they are steering with difficulty towards the boats from Capernaum. No. Let us stop here offshore from the town. I will speak from the boat The trouble is that... Those imprudent people want to be drowned. Look, Master! It is true that the lake is as smooth as a millpond... but water is always water... and weight is weight... and there... they seem to think that they are on land and not on water... Tell them to go back... They will be drowned... Man of little faith! Do you not remember that while you believed in My invitation, you walked on water as on solid ground? They have faith. And thus, in spite of the laws of balance between weight and density, the waters will support those overloaded boats. If that happens... this is really the evening of a great miracle... murmurs Peter shrugging his shoulders, casting the little anchor to secure the boat, which remains thus in the centre of a circle of boats, some from Capernaum, some from Magdala and some from Tiberias. These last ones are those of the Roman ladies, and they prudently remain behind those from Capernaum, towards the centre of the lake. Jesus faces away from them. He looks towards those of Magdala, towards the large shady garden of Mary of Lazarus, towards the little houses, the whiteness of which, spread as they are along the shore, stands out in the night. The lake, no longer agitated by prows and oars, has become calm again: a large sheet of plateglass veined with silver in the early moonlight and strewn with scales of topazes and rubies where the flames of torches or the light of lamps, placed on every prow, are mirrored in the lake. Faces look strange in the contrast of the red-yellow lights or of the moonbeams; some appear very clear, some can hardly be seen as they are, some seem cut into two, lengthwise or horizontally, with only the forehead or only the chin lit up, or with one cheek only, half a face, with a clean-cut profile, as if there was nothing on the other side. Some eyes are shining, some look like empty eye-sockets, and likewise, some mouths are seen smiling cheerfully displaying strong teeth, while others seem to be erased from the shaded faces. But to make it possible for everybody to see Jesus, the boats from Capernaum and Magdala hand over a large number of lamps, which are placed at Jesus' feet, on the little benches, while some are hung on the inactive oars, some are placed in the bow and stern, and some are even hung up in clusters on the mast, the sail of which has been struck. Jesus' boat is thus resplendent in a circle of boats left without lamps, and He is now clearly visible, as He is floodlit. Only the Roman boats still look reddish because of their red torches, the flames of which flicker in the very light breeze.

Peace be with you! begins Jesus standing up, steady notwithstanding the light pitching of the boat, and stretching out His arms to bless. He then goes on, speaking slowly, to be heard by everybody, and His voice carries powerfully and harmoniously over the silent lake. A short time ago one of My apostles suggested a parable to Me which I will now propose to you and it may be useful to everybody, as everybody can understand it. Listen to it. A man, sailing on the lake on a calm evening like this and feeling sure of himself, presumed that he was faultless. He was most skilled in manoeuvring and consequently he considered himself superior to all the other people he met on the lake, many of whom were on it to amuse themselves and thus they lacked the experience which comes from habitual work done to earn one's living. Further, he was a good Israelite and so he thought that he possessed all virtues. Finally, he was really a good man. Now, one evening when he was sailing confidently, he took the liberty of passing judgement on his neighbour. A neighbour, according to him, so remote as not to be considered as neighbour. No tie of nationality, or of trade or faith joined him to that neighbour and thus, without any restraint of national, religious or professional solidarity, he derided him frankly, nay, severely, and he complained at not being the master of the place, because, if he were, he would drive his neighbour from it, and in his intolerant faith, he almost reproached the Most High for allowing those other people, who were different from him, to do what he did and to live where he lived. In his boat was a friend, a good friend who loved him with justice and therefore wanted him to be wise and, when necessary, corrected his wrong ideas. So that evening, this friend said to the boatman: "Why such thoughts? Is not the Father of men one only? Is He not the Lord of the Universe? Does perhaps His sun not shine on all men to warm them, and do His clouds perhaps not rain on the fields of Gentiles as they do on those of Hebrews? And if He does that for the material needs of man, will He not provide likewise for their spiritual necessities? And would you suggest to God what he must do? Who is like God?". The man was good. In his intolerance there was much ignorance, many wrong ideas, but his will was not evil, he had no intention of offending God, on the contrary it was his intention to defend His interests. Upon hearing those words he threw himself at the feet of his wise friend and asked him to forgive him for speaking foolishly. He asked him so impetuously, that he almost caused a disaster, sinking the boat and drowning those in it, because in his anxiety to ask for forgiveness, he neglected rudder, sails and currents. Thus after his first mistake of evil judgement, he made another error of wrong manoeuvre, and proved to himself that he was not only a poor judge but also a clumsy sailor. That is the parable. Now listen. According to you, was that man forgiven by God or not? Remember: he had sinned against God and his neighbour by judging the actions of both and he almost became the homicide of his companions. Meditate and reply... And Jesus folds His arms and looks around at all the boats, as far as the most remote ones, at the Roman boats, which display a line of attentive faces of patricians and oarsmen, looking over the gunwales... The people speak in low voices and confer with one another... A hardly audible murmur of voices which mingles with the barely sensible lapping of the

water against the hulls. The judgement is a difficult one. The majority, however, are of the opinion that the man was not forgiven because he had sinned. No, he was not forgiven at least as far as the first sin was concerned... Jesus hears the murmur become louder in that sense and smiles while His most beautiful eyes shine even at night like two sapphires in the rays of the moon, which is more and more beautiful and bright, so much so that many put out torches and lamps and remain with only the phosphorescent moonlight. Put out these lights as well, Simon. They are as tiny as sparks when compared with the stars and planets with which this sky is strewn says Jesus to Peter who is in suspense waiting to hear the judgement of the crowds. And Jesus caresses His apostle, while the latter stretches out to detach the lamps, and He asks him in a low voice: Why do you look so upset? Because this time You are having me judged by the people... Oh! Why are you afraid of them? Because... like me... they are unfair... But it is God Who judges, Simon! Yes. But You have not yet forgiven me and You are now awaiting their judgement to do so... You are right, Master... I am incorrigible... But... why this judgement of God for Your poor Simon?... Jesus lays His hand on his shoulder and He does so easily because Peter is in the lower part of the boat and Jesus is standing on a stern board, thus much above Peter. And He smiles... but does not reply to him. He instead asks the people: Well? Speak up. Boat by boat. Alas! Poor Peter! If God had judged him according to the opinion of the people who are present, He would have condemned him. With the exception of three boats, all the others, including the apostolic ones, condemn him. The Romans do not give their opinions, and they are not asked to do so, but it is obvious that they also judge that the man is to be condemned, because they wave from one boat to the other - there are three of them - with thumbs down. Peter's frightened rolling eyes look up at Jesus' face and they meet an even kinder glance coming from His sapphire eyes, just like peace, and he sees a face bright with love bend over him while he feels being drawn against Jesus' side, so that his grey-haired head is against Jesus' chest, while the arm of the Master clasps him embracing his shoulder. That is how man judges. But God does not judge so, My children! You say: "He was not forgiven". I say: "The Lord did not even see in him anything to be forgiven". Because forgiveness presupposes fault. But in this case there was no fault. No, do not grumble, shaking your heads. I repeat: there was no fault here. When is it that a fault occurs? When there is the will to commit a sin, the knowledge of sinning and the persistence to want to sin also after knowing that a certain action is sinful. It all depends on the will by which one performs an action, whether it is virtuous or sinful. When one does something which is apparently good, but does not know that it is a good action, nay, one believes that it is a bad action, one commits a sin as if one had performed a bad action, and viceversa. Take, as an instance, a man who has an enemy who knows that he is ill. He knows that by the doctor's order his enemy must not drink any cold water, nay, any liquid whatsoever. He goes to visit him, feigning friendliness. He hears him moan: "I am thirsty! I am thirsty!" and simulating pity, he hastens to give him some icy water from a well, saying: "Drink, my friend. I love you and I cannot

bear to see you suffer so much from thirst. Look. I brought you this water on purpose, it is so cool. Drink it, for a great reward is given to those who assist sick people and give drink to the thirsty" and by giving him to drink, he causes his death. Do you think that that action, good in itself because it comprised two works of mercy, is a good one now that it has been performed for a wicked purpose? No, it is not. And again: a son who has a drunken father and who locks the wine-cellar so that he may not drink himself to death, takes his money and imposes himself severely on him so that he may not go about the village, drinking and ruining himself, do you think that he sins against the fourth commandment simply because he reproaches his father and he acts as head of the family also with regard to his father? To all appearance he makes his father suffer and seems to be guilty. In actual fact he is a good son, because his will is good, as he wants to save his father from death. It is always one's will which sets value on one's deeds. And again: is the soldier who kills in war a homicide? No, if his spirit does not agree to slaughter and if he fights because he is compelled to do so, and he does so with the least humanity which the hard law of war and his subaltern situation impose. Therefore that boatman, who through the good will of believer, patriot and fisherman, could not stand those who, according to him, were desecrators, did not sin against the love for his neighbour, but he only had the wrong idea of love for our neighbour. Neither did he sin against respect for God, because his resentment against God came from his good, but not well balanced or bright spirit of believer. And he did not commit homicide because he caused the boat to heel through his good will to ask for forgiveness. So you must always distinguish. God is Mercy more than intransigence. God is good. God is a Father. God is Love. That is the true God. And the true God opens His heart to everybody, saying to everybody: "Come", pointing His Kingdom to everybody. And He is free to do so, because He is the Only, Universal, Creator, Eternal Lord. I beg you, you people of Israel. Be just. Remember these things. Beware lest they should be understood by those whom you consider unclean, while they remain incomprehensible to you. Also excessive and disorderly love for religion and fatherland is sinful, because it becomes selfishness. And selfishness is always the reason and cause of sin. Yes. Selfishness is a sin, because it sows in hearts an evil will, which makes people rebel against God and His commandments. The mind of a selfish person no longer sees God or His truth clearly. Pride exhales fumes in the egoist and dims the truth. The mind, which in the fog no longer sees the pure light of truth as it saw it before becoming proud, begins the process of queries, and from queries it passes on to doubt, from doubt to indifference not only with regard to love and trust in God and His justice, but also in respect of the fear of God and of His punishment. And thus the easiness to sin, and from such easiness the solitude of the soul which departs from God, and as it no longer has the will of God as guidance, it lapses into the law of its own will of sinner. Oh! the will of a sinner is a nasty chain, one end of which is in the hands of Satan, and the other end is fastened together with a cannon ball to the feet of man to hold him there, a slave, in filth, bent, in darkness. Is it then possible for man not to commit mortal sins? Is it possible for him not to commit them, if he

is urged only by his evil will? Only then God does not forgive. But when man is animated by good will, and performs also spontaneous acts of virtue, he certainly ends up by possessing the Truth, because good will leads to God, and God, the Most Holy Father, bends lovingly, pitifully, leniently to assist, to bless, to forgive His children who have good will. So the man of that boat was fondly loved because, as he did not wish to sin, he had committed no sin. Go in peace, now, to your homes. The stars have filled the whole sky and the moon is clothing the world with purity. Go, and be as obedient as the stars and become as pure as the moon. Because God loves those who are obedient and pure in spirit, and He blesses those who in all their actions apply their good will to love God and their brothers and to work for His glory and their benefit. Peace be with you! And Jesus stretches out His arms again blessing, while the circle of the boats move away, breaks up, and each boat resumes its course. Peter is so happy that he does not think about moving. Matthew shakes him: Are you not moving, Simon? I am not very experienced... That's true!... Oh! My Master! So You had not condemned me?! And I was so afraid... Be not afraid, Simon of Jonah. I took you to save you, not to lose you. I took you because of your good will... Cheer up. Take the rudder and look at the North Star and go with confidence, Simon of Jonah. Never hesitate... In all your navigations... God, your Jesus, will always be standing beside you in the prow of your spiritual boat. And He will always understand you, Simon of Jonah. Do you understand? Always. And He will not have to forgive you because you may also fall, like a weak child, but you will never have the evil will to fall... Be happy, Simon of Jonah. And Peter nods... he is too moved to be able to speak, suffocated by love, and his hand is rather shaky on the rudder, but his face shines with peace, with confidence, with love, while he looks at His Master standing beside him, on the edge of the little boat, like a bright white archangel. 447. Little Alphaeus of Meroba. 25th June 1946. Take provisions and clothes for several days. We are going to Hippo and then to Gamala and Aphek, we will then go down to Gherghesa and come back here before the Sabbath orders Jesus, standing on the threshold of the house and caressing absentmindedly some children of Capernaum, who have come to greet their great Friend, as soon as the setting sun is no longer deadly scorching and allows people to leave their houses. And Jesus is one of the first to do so in the little town which revives after the suffocating torpor of the hot hours of the day. The apostles do not appear to be very enthusiastic about the order they have received. They look at one another, they cast glances at the sun, which is so pitiless, they touch the walls of the house and feel that they are still hot, with their bare feet they touch the ground and say: It is as hot as a brick near the fire... implying by such pantomime that one must be mad to go about... Jesus stands off the door-post against which He was leaning lightly and He says: Anyone who does not feel like coming may remain here. I do not force

anybody. But I do not want to leave this area without My word. Master... don't say that! We are all coming... Only... we thought it was still early to go about... Before the Feast of the Tabernacles I want to go towards the north, so much farther and where boats cannot go. Consequently we must do this area now, as travelling by lake we can save much of the road. You are right. I am going to prepare the boats... and Simon of Jonah goes out with his brother and the two sons of Zebedee and some disciples, to prepare for departure. Jesus is left with the Zealot, His cousins, Matthew, the Iscariot, Thomas and the inseparable Philip and Bartholomew, who are preparing their sacks and filling flasks, packing loaves of bread, fruit, everything that is needed. A little child is whining leaning against Jesus' knees. Why are you weeping, Alphaeus? asks. Jesus, bending to kiss him... No reply... He whimpers more loudly. He has seen the fruit and wants it says the bored Iscariot. Oh! poor little fellow! He is right! One must not let children see certain things, without giving them some. Take this, son. Don't cry! says Mary of Alphaeus, picking a golden bunch of grapes from a vine branch, placed in a basket with all the leaves and bunches still attached to it. I don't want the grapes... and he cries louder. He wants honeyed water, certainly says Thomas and he offers his little flask saying: Children like it and it is good for them. Also my little nephews... I don't want your water... and his crying increases in tone and intensity. What do you want then? asks Judas of Alphaeus half serious and half annoyed. Two slaps, that's what he wants! says the Iscariot. Why? poor boy! asks Matthew. Because he is a bore. Oh! If we had to box all the boring persons' ears... we would have to spend our lives boxing our own says Thomas very calmly. Perhaps he is not feeling well. Fruit and water, water and fruit... make tummies ache states Mary Salome who is among the women disciples. If he gets bread, water and fruit, he is lucky... They are so poor! says Matthew, who by his experience as tax collector is aware of all the financial situations in Capernaum. What is the matter with you, my little son? Is it sore here?... But you are not feverish... says Mary of Clopas who is kneeling beside the little child. Oh! Mother! He is just being naughty!... Can't you see it? You would spoil everybody. I did not spoil you, my dear Judas. But I loved you. And you did not realise, son, that I loved you to the extent of protecting you against the rigours of Alphaeus... That's true, Mother... I was wrong in reproaching you. No harm, son. But if you want to be an apostle, strive to have the heart of a mother for believers. They are like children, you know... and one must be patient and loving with them... Well said, Mary! says Jesus approvingly. We will end up by being taught by women grumbles Judas Iscariot. And perhaps even by pagan females...

Without any doubt. They will exceed you in many things, if you remain what you are, and you above all, Judas. You will certainly be surpassed by everybody, by little children, by beggars, by ignorant people, by women, by heathens... You could say that I will be the abortion of the world and You would be quicker replies Judas with a sneer. The others are coming back... and we had better leave, don't you think so? says Bartholomew to put an end to the scene, which is grievous for many, although in different ways. The crying of the little boy reaches its peak. Well, what is it that you want? What is the matter with you? shouts the Iscariot shaking the boy rudely to take him away from Jesus' knees, to which the child is clinging, and above all to give vent to his anger on the innocent boy. With You! With You!... Go away... and blows, blows... Ah!... Oh! poor child! It is true! Since his mother got married again, the children of her first husband... are like beggars... as if they were not born of her... She sends them about, like beggars and... oh! there is no bread for them... says the wife of the landlord and she seems to be well informed of facts and their protagonists. And she concludes: It would be a good thing if someone adopted the three forlorn sons... Don't tell Simon of Jonah, woman. You would get his mother-in-law to have a mortal hatred of you; she is very angry at him and at all of us. Even this morning she insulted Simon, Marjiam and me, as I was with them... says Matthew. I will not tell Simon... But that is the situation... And would you not take them? You have no children... says Jesus gazing at her... I... oh! I would like... But we are poor... and then... Thomas... He has nephews... and I also... and... and... And above all you do not want to help your neighbour... Woman, yesterday you criticised the Pharisees of Capernaum as being hard-hearted, you criticised your fellow-citizens for turning a deaf ear to My words... But in what are you behaving differently, having known Me for over two years?... The woman lowers her head teasing her dress with her fingers... But she does not speak one word in favour of the little child who is still crying. We are ready, Master shouts Peter who is arriving. Oh! to be poor!... And persecuted!... says Jesus with a sigh, raising His arms and shaking them in a gesture of discouragement... Son!... says Mary, Who has been silent so far, to comfort Him. And Her word is sufficient to console Him. Go ahead with the provisions. I am going with My Mother to the boy's house Jesus orders those who are arriving and those who are already with Him, and He sets out with His Mother, Who is carrying the child in Her arms... They go towards the country. What will You tell her, Son? Mother, what do You expect Me to tell a mother whose heart has no love even for the children who are the fruit of her womb? You are right... So? So... Let us pray, Mother.

They walk praying. An old woman asks them: Are You taking Alphaeus to Meroba? Tell her that it is time that she should take care of them. They can but become thieves... They are like locusts wherever they happen to go... I am indignant at her, not at those three poor wretches... Oh! How unfair death is! Could Jacob not have survived, and could she not have died? You should make her die, so... Woman, old as you are, are you not yet wise? And you say such words, while you may die any moment? In actual fact, you are as unfair as Meroba. Repent and sin no more. Forgive me, Master... It's her guilty behaviour that makes me talk nonsense... Yes, I forgive you. But never speak those words again, not even to yourself. You do not correct errors by cursing, but by loving. If Meroba died, would the fate of these children change? Perhaps the widower would get married again and he would have children of a third marriage and the boys would have a stepmother... Thus their destiny would be worse. That is true. I am old and foolish. Here is Meroba. She is cursing already... I leave You, Master. I do not want her to think that I have been talking to You about her. She is a viper... But her curiosity is stronger than her fear for the viper , and the little old woman, even if she moves away from Jesus and Mary, does not go far, instead she bends to root out on the roadside some grass, which a nearby fountain has moistened, in order to listen without being noticed. You are here? What have you done? Go home! You are always wandering about like stray animals, like dogs with no master, like... Like children with no mother. Woman, are you aware that it is an adverse testimony for a mother the fact that her little children are not always close to her skirt? It's because they are bad... No. I have been coming here these last thirty months. Previously, when Jacob was alive and during the first months of widowhood, it was not so. Then you got married again... and with the memory of your previous wedding, you lost also that of your children. But what is the difference between them and the one who is maturing in your womb? Did you not bear them as well? Did you not suckle them? Look at that dove over there... How tenderly it takes care of that little pigeon... And yet it is already sitting on other eggs... Look at that sheep. She no longer suckles the lamb of the previous litter because she is pregnant again. And yet see how she licks its little snout and she lets the lively little lamb bump against her side? Are you not replying to Me? Woman, do you pray the Lord? Of course I do. I am not a heathen... And how can you speak to the just Lord if you are unjust? And how can you go to the synagogue and listen to the rolls of parchment which speak of the love of God for His children, without feeling remorse in your heart? Why do you not speak, and your attitude is so arrogant? Because I did not ask for Your words... and I do not know why You have come to annoy me... My condition deserves respect... And does the condition of your soul not deserve any? Why do you not respect the rights of your soul? I know what you mean: that a fit of anger may risk the life of the unborn child... But do you not take care of the life of your

soul? It is more valuable than the unborn child's... You know that... Death may be the end of your state. And do you want to face that hour with an upset, sick unjust soul? My husband says that You are one to whom nobody should listen. I will not listen to You. Alphaeus, come... and she is about to go away amidst the screams of the little boy who knows that he is going to get a thrashing and does not want to leave Mary's arms. And Mary sighing tries to persuade the woman and says to her: I am a mother as well and I can understand so many things. And I am a woman... I can therefore pity women. You are going through a difficult period, are you not? You suffer but you are not good at suffering... you become embittered thus... Sister, listen. If I gave you little Alphaeus now, you would be unfair to him and to yourself. Leave him with me for a few days, oh! only a few days. You will see that when he is no longer with you, you will pine for him... because a son is such a dear thing, that when he is away from us, we feel poor, cold, with no light... But take him! Take him! I wish You would take the other two as well! But I don't know where they are... Yes, I will take him. Goodbye, woman. Come, Jesus. And Mary turns round quickly and goes away sobbing... Do not weep, Mother. Do not judge her, Son The two sentences are uttered simultaneously and then, with one thought only, their lips speak the same words: If they do not understand natural love, can they understand the love which is in the Gospel? and Son and Mother look at each other, over the little head of the innocent child who now relaxes confidently and happily in Mary's arms... We will have one disciple more than we foresaw, Mother. And he will enjoy days of peace... Have You seen, eh! She is as deaf as a door-post. I had warned You! And now? And later? Now there is peace. Later God grant there may be a pitiful heart... Why not yours, woman? A glass of water given out of love is taken into account in Heaven. But for those who love an innocent child for My sake... oh! what beatitude for those who love the little ones and save them from evil!... The little old woman remains pensive... and Jesus takes a short cut to the lake. When He arrives there, He takes the little boy from Mary's arms to let Her get into the boat more easily, and He lifts the child up as far as He can, to show him and He smiles brightly saying to those who are already in the boats: Look! This time our preaching will certainly be fruitful, because an innocent is with us and He walks with steady steps on the board although it sways, He goes into the boat and sits beside His Mother, while the boat moves away from the shore, steering at once south-east, towards Hippo. 448. At the Village before Hippo. 26th June 1946. Hippo is not on the shore of the lake, as I thought, when I saw some houses on the shore almost at the south-eastern end. I realise that from the words of the disciples. That group of houses, I would say, is the forefront of Hippo, which is farther back in the hinterland. Like Ostia with regard to Rome, or the

Lido with regard to Venice, it represents the outlet on the lake for the inland town which makes use of the lake routes for imports and exports, and also to shorten journeys from this area to the Galilean shores on the other side, and finally, as a place of amusement for the idle citizens of the town and for the supplies of fish procured by the many fishermen of the village. In the calm evening they land here, near a little natural port formed by the bed of a torrent at present dry, and where the sky-blue water of the lake comes in calmly for a few metres, as it is no longer driven back by the water of the torrent. On the shore there are large and small houses of fishermen, who toil the waters abounding in fish, and of market-gardeners, who cultivate a strip of rich moist ground, Which is irrigated by the nearby waters and stretches from the shore inland, more northwards than southwards, ending sharply at the beginning of the high cliff, which rises almost sheer from the lake. It is the same cliff from which the pigs of the miracle of the Gerasenes rushed into the lake. As it is evening, the inhabitants are on the terraces or in the kitchen gardens having supper. But as the kitchen gardens are surrounded by low hedges and the terraces by low walls, their inhabitants soon see the little flotilla of boats moor in the little harbour and many get up and go to meet those who have arrived, some out of curiosity, some because they know them. It's the boat of Simon of Jonah together with that of Zebedee. So it can be no one but the Rabbi Who has come here with His disciples declares a fisherman. Woman, take the child at once and follow me. Perhaps it is Him. He will cure him. The angel of God has brought Him to us a kitchen gardener orders his wife, whose face is tear-stained. As far as I am concerned, I believe. I remember that miracle very well! All those pigs! The pigs which extinguish with water the heat of the demons possessing them... The torture must have been dreadful, if the pigs, which are always so disdainful of cleanliness, threw themselves into the water... says a man who hastens there in support of the Master. Oh! You are right! It must have been real torture. I was there as well, and I remember. The bodies exhaled fumes, so did the waters. The lake became warmer than the water of Hamatha. And the wood and the grass across which they ran were burnt. I went there but I saw no change... a third man observes. No change! Well your eyes are covered with scales! Look! You can see it from here. See over there? Where the dry river-bed is? Look a little farther away and you will see whether... No! That devastation was brought about by the Roman soldiers when they were looking for that rogue in the cold nights of the month of Tebeth. They camped there and lit fires. And did they bum all the wood to light fires? Look how many trees are missing there! A wood! Two or three oak-trees! And is that nothing? No. But you know! As far as they are concerned, our property is of no account. They are the rulers and we the oppressed people. Ah! Until... the discussion moves from the supernatural to the political field. Who will take me to the Rabbi? Have mercy on a blind man! Where is He?

Tell me. I looked for Him in Jerusalem, at Nazareth, at Capernaum. Ha had always left before I arrived... Where is He? Oh! Have mercy on me! moans a man about forty years old groping about with a stick. Those whose legs or backs are struck abuse him, but no one feels pity for him and everybody knocks against him passing by, without stretching out a hand to guide him. The poor blind man stops, frightened and depressed... The Rabbi! The Rabbi! Ahc-Ahc, il il leee! (I am striving to reproduce... the word of a shrill cry of the women modulating it. But it is a cry, not a word! It resembles more the chirping of some birds than a human word.) He will bless our children! His word will startle the fruit which I have in my womb. Rejoice, my creature! The Saviour is speaking to you says a buxom wife caressing her swollen abdomen under her loose dress. Oh! Perhaps He will make mine prolific! It would be joy and peace between Elisha and me. I have been to all the places where they say that a woman becomes fertile. I drank the water of the well near Rachel's tomb and that of the stream in the grotto where His Mother gave birth to Him... I went to Hebron to take for three days the earth of the place where the Baptist was born... I fed on the fruit of Abraham's oak-tree and I wept invoking Abel where he was delivered and killed... I have tried all the holy things, all the miraculous things of Heaven and earth, as well as medicines, and doctors, and vows, and prayers, and offerings... but my womb has not opened to the seed, and Elisha can hardly put up with me and he finds it difficult not to hate me!!! Alas! moans an already withered woman. You are old now, Sella! Resign yourself! reply those women with pity mixed with slight contempt and evident triumphant mien - who pass by with their wombs swollen with maternity or with sucklings feeding at their flourishing mammae. No! Don't say that! He raised the dead! Will He not be able to give life to my womb? Make room! Make room! Make room for my sick mother shouts a young man who is holding the shafts of an improvised litter, which is held at the other end by a very depressed girl. On the litter is a woman, still young, but reduced to a yellowish skeleton. We will have to inform Him of Poor John and show Him where he is. He is the most unhappy of all, because he is a leper and he cannot go looking for the Master... says an authoritative old man. We are first! If He goes towards Hippo, we have no hope. The townspeople will take Him for themselves and we will be neglected as usual. But what is happening there? Why are the women shouting thus over there, on the shore? Because they are silly! No. They are shouts of joy. Let's run... The road is thronged with people moving towards the shore and the gravel-bed, where Jesus and His apostles have been blocked by the people who flocked there first. A miracle! A miracle! Eliza's son, who was given up by doctors, has been cured! The Rabbi cured him by putting some saliva in his throat. The Ahc-Ahc-il-il-leee of the women become more trilling and piercing, mingled with the loud hosannas of men.

Jesus is literally overwhelmed notwithstanding His height. The apostles do everything they can to make room for Him. Nothing doing! The women disciples with Mary in the middle of them are separated from the group of the apostles. The little boy is frightened and is crying in the arms of Mary of Alphaeus. And his weeping draws the attention of many people to the group of the women disciples, and there is the usual well-informed man who says: Oh! there is also the Mother of the Rabbi and the mothers of the disciples!... Which? Which are they? The Mother is the pale fair-haired one wearing a linen dress, and the others are the old ones, the one with the little boy and the one with a basket on her head. And who is the little boy? Her son, eh! Can't you hear him call her mummy? Whose son? The old woman's? Not possible! The young woman's. Can't you see that he wants to go to, her? No. The Rabbi has no brothers. I know that for certain. Jesus, moving with difficulty, manages to reach the litter on which is lying the sick woman carried by her children and He cures her. Meanwhile some women, who have overheard the conversation, curious as they are, go towards Mary. But one of them is not curious. She throws herself at Her feet saying: For the sake of Your maternity, have mercy on me. She is the barren woman. Mary bends and asks: What do you want, sister? To be a mother... A son!... Only one!... I am hated because I am barren. I believe that Your Son can do everything, but I have such a great faith in Him, that I think that as He was born of You, He made You as holy and powerful as He is. Now I beg You... for Your joys of mother I beg You: make me fertile. Touch me with Your hand and I will be happy... Your faith is great, woman. But faith is to be given to Him, Who is entitled to it: to God. Come, therefore, to My Jesus... and She takes her by the hand asking with graceful insistance to be allowed to pass until She reaches Jesus. The other women disciples follow Her in the wake which opens in the crowd and the women who had approached Mary do likewise and in the meantime they ask Mary of Alphaeus who is the little boy whom she is holding up above the crowds. A little boy who is no longer loved by his mother. He has come to the Rabbi seeking love... A little boy no longer loved by his mother!?! Have you heard, Susanna? Who is the hyena? Alas! And I am suffering agonies because I have none! Give him to me, give him to me, that a son may kiss me at least once!... and Sella, the barren woman, almost tears the little child from the arms of Mary of Alphaeus and she presses him to her heart, still trying to follow Mary, Who has become separated from her the moment that Sella left Mary's hand to take the child. Jesus, listen. There is a woman asking a grace. She is barren... Do not trouble the Master for her, woman. Her womb is dead says one who is not aware that he is speaking to the Mother of God. Then, embarrassed because of his mistake about which he is warned, he endeavours not to be noticed and to disappear while Jesus replies both to him and to the suppliant

woman saying: al am the Life. Woman, let it be done to you what you have asked and He lays His hand on Sella's head for a moment. Jesus! Son of David, have mercy on me! shouts the blind man mentioned previously. He has slowly arrived near the crowd and from the outskirts of it he cries his invocation. Jesus, Who had lowered His head to hear Sella's words of supplication, raises His head again and looks in the direction from which the voice of the blind man comes, syncopated like the cry of a shipwrecked person. What do you want Me to do for you? He shouts. That I may see. I am in darkness. I am the Light. I want it! Ah! I see! I can see again! Let me pass! That I may kiss the feet of my Lord! Master, You have cured everybody here. But there is a leper in a hut in the wood. He always begs us to take You to him... Let us go! Please! Let Me go. Do not hurt yourselves! I am here for everybody... Please, make room. You are hurting women and children. I am not leaving yet. I will be here tomorrow and I will be in this area for five days. You can follow Me, if you wish so... Jesus tries to discipline the crowd, to ensure that the citizens, in order to benefit by His visit, may not harm themselves. But the crowd is like an elastic substance which dilates then presses round Him once again, it is like an avalanche, which by natural law can but become more compact the more it descends, it is like particles of iron attracted by a magnet... Thus progress is slow, encumbered, difficult... They are all perspiring, the apostles are bawling, elbowing their way through the crowd, kicking shins at the same time... All efforts are vain! It takes them a quarter of an hour to cover ten metres. A woman about forty years old succeeds through sheer perseverance in making her way as far as Jesus and touches His elbow. What do you want, woman? That little boy... I heard about him... I am a widow and I have no children... Remember me. I am Sarah of Aphek, the widow of the mat vendor. Remember. My house is near the square of the red fountain. But I own also some vineyards and a wood. I can afford to assist those who are alone... and I would be happy... I will remember that, woman. May your pity be blessed. The village, which stretches more parallelly than vertically to the lake, is soon crossed and they find themselves in the peaceful silent country at twilight. However, it does not get dark, as the transition from daylight to moonlight is imperceptible. They go towards the ramifications of the high cliff, which farther south stretches out as far as the lake. On the cliff there are some grottoes, I do not know whether they are natural ones or dug on purpose in the rock; many have been walled up and whitewashed outside and are certainly sepulchres. Here we are! Let us stop in order not to be infected. We are close to the leper's hideout and this is the time when he comes to that rock to collect offerings. He was rich, You know? We remember him. And he was also good. But now he is a holy man. The more sorrow struck him, the more holy he became. We do not know how it happened. They say that it was brought about by some pilgrims to whom he gave hospitality. They were going to Jerusalem, so they said. They appeared to be sound, but they were certainly lepers. The

fact is that after they left, the wife and the servants first, then the children, finally he, became infected with leprosy. All of them. The first - and it was their hands that became infected - were those who had washed the feet and the clothes of the pilgrims, that is why we say that they must have been the cause of it all. The children: three, died soon. Then the wife, and she died more of grief than of disease... He... When the priest declared them all lepers, he bought this part of the mountain with his money which had now become useless and he had provisions stored there for himself and his family... including servants, together with hoes and picks... and he began to dig the sepulchres... and one by one he buried them all: his little children, then his wife, the servants... He is the only one left all alone, poor, because everything comes to an end, as time passes... and the situation has lasted fifteen years... And yet... never one complaint. He was a learned man: he repeats the Scriptures by heart. He repeats them to the stars, to herbs, to trees, to birds, he repeats them to us who have so much to learn from him, and he comforts our sorrows... he, wonder of wonders! comforts our sorrows. People come from Hippo and Gamala and even from Gherghesa and Aphek to hear him. When he heard of the miracle of the two men possessed... oh! he began to preach faith in You. Lord, if men greeted You with Your name of Messiah, if women greeted You as victor and king, if children know Your name and that You are the Holy One of Israel, that is due to the poor leper relates on behalf of everybody the old man who was the first to speak of John. Will You cure him? ask many. And are you asking Me? I have mercy on sinners, so what will I have for a just man? But is it perhaps he who is coming? Over there, among those bushes... It is certainly him. What wonderful sight You have, Lord! We can hear the rustling noise, but do not see anything... The rustling also stops. There is dead silence and expectation... Jesus is clearly visible, alone, a little ahead of the others, because He has gone forward as far as the rock on which some provisions have been laid; the others disappear in the dim light of some trees, mingling with trunks and bushes of the unbroken ground. Children also are silent, either because they have fallen asleep in their mothers' arms, or because they are frightened of the silence, of the sepulchres, of the bizarre shadows which the moon casts illuminating trees and rocks. But the leper must see, and see well, from his hiding-place. He must be able to see the tall solemn person of the Lord, handsome and all white in the white moonlight. The tired glances of the leper certainly meet Jesus' bright eyes. What language is spoken by those divine, wide eyes, as bright as stars? What language is uttered by the lips open in a smile of love? Above all, what does the heart of the Christ say? A mystery. One of the many mysteries between God and souls in their spiritual relationship. The leper certainly understands because he shouts: Here is the Lamb of God! Here is He Who has come to cure all the sorrows of the world! Jesus, blessed Messiah, our King and Saviour, have mercy on me! What do you want? How can you believe in the Unknown One and see in Him the Expected One? What am I for you? The Unknown... No. You are the Son of the living God. How do I know and see? I do not know. Here, within me, a voice has shouted: "Here is the Expected One! He has

come to reward your faith". Unknown? Yes. The face of God is not known to anybody. Thus You are the "Unknown One" in Your appearance. But You are the Known One because of Your Nature and Your Royalty. Jesus, Son of the Father, Word Incarnate and God like the Father. That is who You are, and I greet You and beg You, believing in You. And if I were not able to do anything and your faith were disappointed? I would say that that is the will of the Most High and I would continue to believe and love, always hoping in the Lord. Jesus turns to the crowds who are listening in suspense to the conversation and He says: I solemnly tell you that this man has the faith which shifts mountains. I solemnly tell you that true charity, faith and hope are tested more in sorrow than in joy, because the excess of joy is often the ruin of a spirit not yet perfected. It is easy to believe and be good when life is a placid succession of days all alike, even if not a pleasant one. But he who is able to persist in faith, hope and charity, also when diseases, poverty, death, misfortunes cause him to be left all alone, forlorn, avoided by everybody, and he does nothing but say: "Let that be done, which the Most High deems is useful to me", he truly not only deserves help from God, but, I tell you, his seat is ready in the Kingdom of Heaven and he will suffer no delay in expectation, because his justice has cancelled all debts of his past life. Man, I say to you: "Go in peace, as God is with you!". He turns round in saying so and stretches His arms out to the leper, with His gesture He almost draws him towards Himself, and when he is close at hand and clearly visible, He orders: I want it! Be cleansed!... and with her silvery beams the moon seems to cleanse and wipe away the pustules, the wounds, the nodules and the scabs of the horrible disease. The body recomposes its features and becomes sound. It is an old dignified man, ascetic in his leanness, who, as soon as he becomes aware of the miracle through the hosannas shouted by the crowd, bends to kiss the ground, as he cannot touch Jesus or any other man before the time prescribed by the Law. Stand up. They will bring you clean clothes so that you may present yourself to the priest. But always present yourself to your God in purity of spirit. Goodbye, man. Peace be with you! And Jesus joins the crowds and slowly goes back to the village to rest.

449. Morning Sermon in the Village on the Lake. 27th June 1946. It is a cool morning when the people wait for Jesus to come out of a house in the lake village to begin His preaching. I think that the inhabitants slept very little that night, deeply moved as they were by the miracles which had been worked, by the joy of having the Master with them, by their desire not to waste one moment of His presence. They were late in going to sleep, because of the long talking in houses, recapitulating the events, examining whether their spirits were endowed with faith, hope and

charity, firm against every painful event, praised by the Master and proclaimed sure means to obtain grace from God in this and in the next life. And they woke early fearing that the Master might come out and go away early in the morning and they might not be present when He departed. Thus houses opened early to let their inhabitants go out into the streets, where, seeing that they were so many, practically all, and all prompted by the same thoughts, they said to one another: It is really the first time that one only thought has urged our hearts and united them and with fresh, kind, brotherly friendship, by mutual consent, they all set out towards the house where Jesus has been given hospitality and they crowded round it, noiselessly, waiting patiently and untiringly, quite decided to follow the Master, as soon as He comes out. And many market-gardeners have picked in their gardens the fruits still covered with dew and are protecting them from the rising sun, from dust and flies, by covering them with fresh vine-leaves or large fig-leaves, through the indentations of which peep red apples, which seem to have been painted by a miniaturist, and grapes like amber or onyx, or soft round figs of all kinds, some firmly closed within their skin delicately withered on the sweet pulp, some turgid and smooth as if they were covered with well-ironed silk and decorated with diamond drops at their lower ends, some open in a smile of their blond, rosy, deep red fibres, according to qualities. And some fishermen have brought some fish in small baskets, fish which they certainly caught during the night, sacrificing their sleep, because some are still alive and are gasping in their last painful aspirations and spasms of agony, while their panting and faint wriggling increase the silvery or delicately blue hues of their stomachs and backs, lying on a bed of grey-green leaves of willow-trees or poplars. The lake, in the meantime, has changed from the delicate milky hue which light bestows on waters at daybreak - a hue so pure, I would say so angelical, almost abstract, so calmly the water rests on the shingly shore, just murmuring delicately among the pebbles - to the resplendent, more human, I would say carnal hue of dawn, which tinges the water with red as the rosy clouds are reflected in the lake. And the lake becomes sky-blue in the pure light of dawn and begins to live again, to pulsate, with its wavelets which stir and run joyfully breaking into foam on the shore, then run back to dance with other wavelets, adorning the entire sheet of the lake with a light snow-white lace, thrown on the silky blue water, rippled by the morning breeze. Then the first ray of sunlight strikes the water over there, towards Tarichea, where it was so green-blue because of the woods which it reflected, and it assumes a golden hue and shines like a broken mirror struck by the sun, and the mirror expands incessantly, tinging with gold and topazes waters still blue, cancelling the rosy hues of the clouds reflected in the water, enveloping the keels of the last boats which are returning to port after fishing, as well as the keels of the first boats going out, while the sails, in the triumphal light of the risen sun, are as white as the wings of an angel against the blue of the sky and the green of the hills. Magnificent lake of Galilee which with its fruitful shores reminds me of our Lake Garda, and with its mystical peace Lake Trasimeno, gem of Palestine, worthy surroundings for most of the public life of Jesus! Jesus appears at the door of the hospitable house and He smiles, raising His arms to bless the patient citizens awaiting Him. Peace be with you all. Were you waiting for Me? Were you afraid that I might run away without

saying goodbye to you? I always keep My promises. I am with you today to evangelize you and I will remain with you as I promised, to bless your houses, your gardens and boats, so that each family may be sanctified, and your work may be sanctified as well. But, remember, My blessing is to be assisted by your good will in order to be fruitful. And you know which is the good will that must enliven a family so that the house sheltering it may be holy. The husband is to be the head, but not the despot, of the wife, of the children and of the servants, and at the same time he is to be the king, the true king in the biblical sense of word. Do you remember chapter eight of the first Book of the Kings? The elders of Israel gathered together and went to Ramah, where Samuel lived and they said to him: "Look, you are old and your children do not follow your ways. So give us a king to judge us, like the other nations". King, therefore, means judge, and he should be a just judge in order not to make his subjects unhappy here on the earth with wars, abuse of power, unfair heavy taxes, or in eternal life with a kingdom permissive of lasciviousness and vice. Woe to those kings who fail in their ministry, who turn a deaf ear to the voices of their subjects, who turn a blind eye to the evils of the nation, who become responsible for the sufferings of the people through alliances formed against justice for the only purpose of strengthening their power with the help of allies! But woe also to those fathers who fail in their duties, who are blind and deaf to the needs and faults of the members of their families, who are the cause of scandal or grief for it, who stoop to arrange worthless marriages by compromise, in order to enter into an alliance with rich powerful families, without considering that matrimony is intended, besides procreation, for the elevation and comfort of man and woman; it is a duty, a ministry, not a bargain, it is not sorrow, it is not debasement of either husband or wife. It is love, not hatred. The head of the family, therefore, must be just without excessive hardness or pretensions and without excessive compliance and weakness. But if you had to choose between the former excess and the latter, pick the latter, because God, with regard to it, may say to you: "Why were you so good?" and will not condemn you, because excess in kindness is already a punishment for man through the overbearing action which other people take the liberty of performing against good persons; whereas He would always reproach you for your hardness, which is lack of love for your closest neighbour. And the wife at home must be just with her husband, her children and servants. She must obey, respect, console and help her husband. She is to be obedient, providing her obedience does not imply consent to sin. The wife must be submissive but not degraded. Beware, o wives, that the first to judge you, after God, for certain guilty condescensions, are your very husbands, who persuade you to comply. They are not always desires of love, but they are also tests for your virtue. Even if he does not think about it at the moment, the day may come when the husband may say to himself: "My wife is very sensual" and thence he may begin to be suspicious of her fidelity. Be chaste in your conjugality. Behave in such a way that your chastity may impose on your husbands that reservedness which one has for pure things, and they may consider you as their equals, not as slaves or concubines kept only for "pleasure" and rejected when they are no longer liked. The virtuous wife, I would say the wife who also after conjugality retains that virginal "something" in attitude, in words, in her transports of love, can lead her husband to an elevation from

sensuality to sentiment, whereby the husband divests himself of lewdness and becomes really "one thing" with his wife, whom he treats with the same respect with which a man treats a part of himself, which is just, because the wife is "bone from his bones and flesh from his flesh" and no man ill-treats his bones or his flesh, on the contrary he loves them, and therefore husband and wife, like the first married couple, look at each other without seeing their sexual nakedness, but let them love each other because of their spirits, without degrading shame. Let the wife be patient and motherly with her husband. Let her consider him as the first of her children, because a woman is always a mother and man is always in need of a patient, prudent, affectionate, comforting mother. Blessed is the woman who knows how to be the companion and at the same time the mother of her husband to support him, and his daughter to be guided by him. A wife must be industrious. Work, while it does away with daydreams, is good for honesty and to one's purse as well. She should not torture her husband with foolish jealousies, which serve no purpose. Is the husband honest? A stupid jealousy, by driving him out of the house, exposes him to the danger of falling into the snares of a prostitute. Is he not honest and faithful? The fury of a jealous wife will not correct him, but her grave attitude, free from grudge and rudeness, her dignified and loving, still loving be behaviour, will make him ponder and return to reason. Learn how to win back your husbands, when a passion separates them from you, through your virtue, just as you conquered them in your youth through your beauty. And, to gain strength for such duty, and resist the grief which might make you unfair, love your children and consider their welfare. A woman has everything in her children: joy, a royal crown for the cheerful hours when she is really the queen of the house and of her husband, and a balm in sorrowful hours, when betrayal or other grievous experiences of married life scourge her forehead and above all pierce her heart with the thorns of her sad regality of martyr spouse. Are you so depressed as to wish to go back to your family, divorcing, or to find compensation in a false friend who craves for the female but feigns to feel pity for the heart of the betrayed wife? No, women, no! Your children, your innocent children, who are already upset and prematurely sad because of the domestic milieu, which is no longer serene or just, are entitled to their mother, to their father, to the comfort of a house, where, if one love has perished, the other remains vigilant to watch over them. Their innocent eyes look at you, they study you and they understand more than you think, and they mould their spirits according to what they see and understand. Never scandalise your innocent children, but take shelter in them, as in a bulwark of adamantine lilies, against the weakness of the flesh and the snares of snakes. And let the woman be a mother. The just mother who is the sister as well as the mother, who is the friend as well as the sister of her sons and daughters. And who, above all and in everything, is an example. She must watch over her sons and daughters, correcting them gently, supporting them, making them ponder, and all that without preferences; because the children were all born of the same seed and of the same womb and if it is natural that good children are well-liked, because of the joy they give, it is also fair that children who are not good should be loved as well, although with sorrowful love, bearing in mind that man must not be more severe than God, Who loves not only good people,

but also those who are not good, and He loves them to try and make them good, to give them means and time to become so, and He is patient until the death of man, reserving to Himself the right to become just Judge when man can no longer make amends. And let Me tell you now something which does not concern this subject, but is useful for you to bear in mind. Very often, too often, we hear people say that wicked persons are better off than good persons and that that is not fair. First of all I say to you: "Do not judge by appearances and by what you do not know". Appearances are often misleading and the judgement of God is not known on the Earth. You will become aware of it in the next life and you will see that the fleeting welfare of the wicked was granted as a means to attract them to Good and as a reward for the little good which even the most wicked man may do. But when you see things in the right light of future life, you will realise that the joyful time of the sinner was shorter than the life of a blade of grass, which began to grow in spring in the gravel-bed of a torrent, which dries up in summer, whereas one moment of glory in Heaven is greater than the most triumphant life any man ever lived, because of the joy which it confers on spirits who delight in it. Therefore, do not envy the prosperity of the wicked, but strive, through good will, to possess the eternal treasure of the just. And reverting to how the members of a family and the inhabitants of a house should be, so that My blessing may remain fruitful in it, I tell you, children, to be submissive to your parents, to be respectful and obedient, so that you may be so also with the Lord your God. Because if you do not learn to obey the simple orders of your fathers and mothers, whom you see, how will you be able to obey the commands of God, which are given to you in His name, but you neither see nor hear Him? And if you do not learn to believe that he who loves, as a father and a mother love, can but order good things, how can you believe that the things, which are related to you as commands of God, are good? God loves, you know? and is a Father. And just because He loves you and wants you to be with Him, dear children, He wants you to be good. And the first school where you learn to become so, is your family. You learn there to love and to obey and there begins for you the way that leads to Heaven. So be good, respectful, docile. Love your fathers also when they correct you, because they do so for your own good, and love your mothers if they restrain you from doing actions which by their experience they know are not good. Honour your parents and do not make them blush because of your wicked deeds. Pride is not a good thing, but there is a holy pride, the pride of saying: "I did not grieve my father or my mother". Such behaviour, which makes you enjoy their company while they are alive, is peace on the wound of their death, whereas the tears, which a son causes his parents to shed, scorch the heart of the wicked son like melted lead, and notwithstanding every effort to soothe the injury, it is painful, and all the more so when the parent's death prevents the son from making amends... Oh! children, be good, always, if you want God to love you. Lastly, holy is that house in which, through the justice of the masters, the servants also become just. Masters should remember that bad behaviour exacerbates and spoils servants, and the servants should bear in mind that their bad behaviour disgusts masters. Let each stay in his own place, but with a tie of love for the neighbour to fill the division existing between servants and masters. Then the house blessed by Me will keep its blessing and the Lord will dwell

in it. And likewise, My blessing and thus My protection will remain on boats, kitchen gardens, working and fishing implements, when you lead your lives as fishermen or market-gardeners working holily on days permitted and holily devoted to worshipping God on holy Sabbaths, and you do not cheat when selling or weighing, and you do not curse your work, neither do you make it the sovereign of your lives by preferring it to God. Because if work gives you a profit, God gives you Heaven. And now let us go and bless houses and boats and oars and kitchen gardens and hoes, then we will go and speak near the place where John is, before he goes to the priest. Because I will not come back here again, and it is fair that he should hear Me at least once. Take some bread, fish and fruit; we will take them into the wood and we will eat in the presence of the cured leper giving him the best bits, so that also his body may rejoice and he may feel that he is already a brother among the believers in the Lord. And Jesus sets out, followed by the people of the village and by other people who have come from nearby towns, where, during the night some inhabitants of this village perhaps went with the news that the Saviour is on this shore.

450. Near the Place of the Leper. Parable on the Ten Commandments. 29th June 1946. My Lord! shouts the ex-leper dropping on his knees as soon as he sees Jesus appear in the unbroken ground in front of the rocky place, where he has lived for so many years. Then, standing up, he shouts again: Why have You come back to me? To give you the viaticum of My word after that of your health. Viaticum is given to him who is about to depart, and in fact this evening I am leaving for my purification. But I am leaving to come back and join Your disciples, if You will accept Me. Lord, I no longer have home or relatives. I am too old to resume an activity in life. They will reinstate me in my property. But what will my house be like after fifteen years of neglect? What shall I find there? Perhaps dilapidated walls... I am a bird with no nest. Let me join the group which follows You. In any case... I no longer belong to myself, I belong to You for what You have given me, I do not belong any more to the world, which cast me away for such a long time, and quite rightly as I was unclean. Now, after becoming acquainted with You, I find that the world is impure and I want to flee from it and come to You. And I will not reject you. But I tell you that I would like you to stay in this area. Aera and Arbela have one of their sons who is a disciple and evangelizes there. I ask you to be such a disciple for Hippo, Gamala, Aphek and nearby villages. I will be going down to Judaea shortly and I will not come back to this area any more. But I want some evangelizers here. Your will makes every renouncement dear to me. I will do what You wish. I will begin as soon as purifications are over. I had made up my mind not to take care of my house any more. Now instead I will have it repaired, so that I can live in it and receive during winter the souls which are anxious to hear of You. And I will ask one of the disciples who has been following You for years,

to come with me, because if You want me to be a little master, I need to be taught by someone more learned than I am. And in spring I will go about like the others preaching Your Name. That is a good plan. God will help you to fulfil it. I have already begun it by burning everything I possessed: that is, my poor pallet and the utensils which I used, the clothes I wore until yesterday, everything that I had touched with my diseased body. The grotto in which I lived is black with the smoke of the fire which I lit in it to destroy and purify. Nobody will be infected going into it to take shelter in a stormy night. And then... (the man's voice becomes feeble, it almost breaks, his speech slows down...) and then... I had an old chest, by now falling to pieces... worm-eaten... it seemed that leprosy had corroded it as well... But to me... it was more valuable than the wealth of the world... It contained my dear things... mementoes of my mother... the wedding veil of my Anne... Ah! when I, so happy, took it off her the evening of our wedding and I contemplated her face, as beautiful and pure as lilies, who could have told me that a few years later I was to see it all covered with sores! And... the garments of my children... their toys... which their little hands had played with while they were able to hold... an object... and... oh! my grief is so deep... forgive my tears... It is so painful now that I have burned them for the sake of justice... without being able to kiss them any more... because they had belonged to lepers... I am unfair, Lord... I am showing You tears... But bear with me... I have destroyed the last memory of them... and now I am like a man lost in a desert... The man collapses weeping near the heap of ashes, the remembrance of his past... You are not lost, John, and you are not alone. I am with you. And your dear ones will soon be with Me, in Heaven, waiting for you. Those remains reminded you of them, disfigured by disease, or lovely and healthy before the calamity. Sorrowful remembrances all of them. Leave them among the ashes of the fire. Cancel them in My assurance that you will find them, happy and beautiful in the joy of Heaven. The past is dead, John. Do not mourn any more over it. Light does not delay to look at the darkness of the night, but it is happy to part from it and to shine climbing the sky behind the sun every morning. And the sun does not delay in the east, but it rises, springs and rushes until it shines high in the vault of heaven. Your night is over. Forget it. Rise with your spirit up there, where I, the Light, will lead you. Through sweet hope and beautiful faith, you will already find joy there, because your charity will be able to communicate with God and your beloved ones awaiting you. It is but a rapid climb... and you will soon be up there, with them. Life is a puff of air... eternity is the eternal present. You are right, Lord. You are comforting and teaching me how to overcome this hour with justice... But You are standing in the sun to be as close to me as You are allowed. Withdraw, Master. You have given me enough. The sun, already strong, might harm You. I have come to stay with you. We have all come for that. But you can move as well towards the trees and we will be near each other without any danger. The man obeys departing from the rock at the foot of which is the heap of ashes, his past, and he goes towards the spot, for which Jesus is making, where the apostles, deeply moved, are with the women and the people of the village and those who have come from other towns to hear the Master. Light the fires to cook the fish. We will share the food in a banquet of love

 orders Jesus. And while the apostles do so, He goes about under the trees which have grown in a disorderly way in this place, which everybody has shunned because of the presence of the leper. A thick wild tangle of trees unaware of pruning-knives or axes since they began to come up. People suffering or depressed are in the propitious shadow of the brushwood and they speak to Jesus of their distresses, and Jesus cures, advises or comforts, patiently and powerfully. Farther away, in a small meadow, the boy from Capernaum is playing with the children of the village and their joyful cries compete with the singing of many birds in the thick trees, while their many-coloured garments, waving while they run on the green grass, make them look like large butterflies fluttering from flower to flower. The food is ready and they call Jesus. He kindly asks a basket of a peasant who had brought some figs and grapes, and He fills it with bread, with the nicest fish, with tasty fruit, He adds His flask of water sweetened with honey, and He turns His steps towards the ex-leper. You will be left without a flask, Master says Bartholomew warning Him. He cannot give it back to You. And Jesus replies smiling: There is still so much water for the thirst of the Son of man! There is the water which the Father put into deep wells. And the Son of man can drink from His cupped hands, while they are still free... The day will come when I will have neither free hands nor water... not even the water of love to give refreshment to the Thirsty One... Now I have so much love around Me... and He goes on carrying with both hands the wide round low basket and laying it on the grass a few metres from John, to whom He says: Take and eat. It is the banquet of God. He then returns to His place. He offers and blesses the food and has it handed out to the people present who add what they had of their own. They all eat with relish and in peaceful joy, and Mary takes care of little Alphaeus with motherly love. When the meal is over, Jesus stands between the crowd and the ex-leper and He begins to speak, while mothers take in their laps the children satiated with food and tired of playing and they lull them to sleep, so that they may not disturb. Listen everybody. In a psalm David, the psalmist, asks: "Who will dwell in the Tabernacle of God? Who will rest on the mountain of God?". And he goes on to enumerate who will be the fortunate people and why they will be so. He says: "The man whose way of life is blameless and who does what is right. He who speaks the truth from his heart and does not plot deceit with his tongue, who does no wrong to his fellow, who does not listen to words discrediting his neighbour". And in a few lines, after describing those who will enter the dominions of God, he says what good these blessed souls do after having done no wrong. Here: "In his eyes the reprobate is nothing. He honours those who fear God. When he swears to his neighbour he stands by his pledge. He does not ask interest on loans, he will not be bribed to victimise the innocent". And he concludes: "The man who does all that will never waver". I solemnly tell you that the psalmist spoke the truth and I confirm with My wisdom that he who does such things will never waver. The first condition to enter the Kingdom of Heaven: "To live without fault". But can man, a weak creature, live without fault? The flesh, the world and

Satan, in continuous ferment of passions, inclinations and hatred squirt out their spray to stain souls, and if Heaven were open only to those who lived without fault ever since the age of reason, very few men would enter Heaven, just as very few are the men who arrive at death without experiencing more or less grave diseases during their lifetime. So? Are the children of God barred from Heaven? And will they have to say: "I have lost it" when an attack of Satan or a storm of the flesh causes them to fall and they see their souls stained? Will there be no more forgiveness for the sinners? Will nothing delete the stain which disfigures the spirit? Do not fear your God with unjust fear. He is a Father and a father always stretches out a hand to his wavering children, he offers help so that they may rise again, he comforts them with kind means so that their dejection may not degenerate into despair, but it may flourish into humility willing to make amends and thus become again pleasing to the Father. Now. The repentance of the sinner, the good will to make amends, both brought about by true love for the Lord, cleanse the stain of fault and make one worthy of divine forgiveness. And when He Who is speaking to you has completed His mission on the Earth, the most powerful absolution which the Christ will have achieved for you at the cost of His sacrifice, will be added to the absolutions of love, of repentance and of good will. With souls purer than those of new-born babies, much purer, because from the bosoms of those who believe in Me, rivers of living water will spring deterging also the original sin, the first cause of weakness in man, you will be able to aspire to Heaven, to the Kingdom of God, to His Tabernacles. Because the Grace which I am about to restore to you will help you to practise justice which, the more it is practised, the more it increases the right, that a faultless spirit gives you to enter the joy of the Kingdom of Heaven. Infants will enter Heaven and they will rejoice, because of the beatitude given to them gratuitously, as Heaven is joy. But also adults and old people will enter it, those who have lived, fought, won and who to the snow-white crown of Grace will add the many-coloured one of their holy deeds, of their victories over Satan, the world and the flesh, and great, very great will be their beatitude of winners, so great, that man cannot imagine it. How does one practise justice? How does one gain victory? Through honesty of words and deeds, through charity for one's neighbour. Acknowledging that God is God, not placing the idols of creatures, money, power in the place of the Most Holy God. By giving everybody the place to which they are entitled, without trying to give more or to give less than what is right. He who honours one because he is a friend or a mighty relative and serves him also in evil deeds, is not just. On the contrary, he who harms his neighbour because he has no hope of receiving any kind of profit from him and bears false witness against him on oath, or is bribed to testify against the innocent or to judge partially, not according to justice but according to the profit he may gain with his unfair judgement from the more powerful of the competitors, is not just and vain are his prayers and offers, because they are stained with injustice in the eyes of God. You can see that what I am telling you is the Decalogue. The word of the Rabbi is always the Decalogue. Because good, justice, glory consist in doing what the Decalogue teaches and orders us to do. There is no other doctrine. In days gone by it was given amid the flashes of lightning on Mount Sinai, now it is given in the refulgence of Mercy, but the Doctrine is the same. It does not change. It cannot change. Many in Israel will say, as an excuse, to justify their

lack in holiness, even after the passage of the Saviour on the Earth: "I did not have the possibility to follow and listen to Him". But their excuse is of no value. Because the Saviour did not come to impose a new Law, but to confirm the first, the only Law, nay, to reconfirm it in its holy plainness, in its perfect simplicity. To reconfirm with love and the promises of the assured love of God what previously was said with severity on one side and listened to with fear on the other. To make you understand properly what are the ten Commandments and how important it is to abide by them, I will now tell you a parable. The father of a family had two sons. He loved them both equally and wanted to be their benefactor impartially. This father, in addition to the house in which his sons lived, owned some property in which great treasures were hidden. The sons were aware of such treasures, but did not know the way to go there because the father, for reasons of his own, had not revealed the road which led there, and that had been the situation for many many years. But one day he called his sons and said: "The time has now come when you ought to know where the treasures are, which I laid aside for you, so that you may go there when I tell you. You had better know the road and the signals which I put on it, so that you may not go astray. So listen to me. The treasures are not in a plain where waters stagnate, where dog days scorch, where dust spoils everything, thorns and bramble suffocate, and where robbers can easily go and rob you. The treasures are on the top of that high rugged mountain. I put them on the top there and they are waiting for you up there. There is more than one path on the mountain, in actual fact there are many. But one only is the right one. Of the others some end up in precipices, some in caves with no exit, some in ditches full of muddy water, some in nests of vipers, some in craters of burning sulphur, some against insurmountable walls. The right road, instead is a difficult one, but it arrives at the top without any interruption of precipices or other obstacles. In order to enable you to recognise it, I placed along it, at regular intervals, ten stone monuments, on each of which is carved these three identification words: 'Love, obedience, victory'. Follow that path and you will reach the place of the treasure. I will come along another road, which is known to me alone and I will open the doors to you, so that you may be happy". The two sons said goodbye to the father who, as long as they could hear him, repeated: "Follow the path I told you. It's for your own good. Do not yield to the temptation to follow the others, even if they seem better to you. You would lose both the treasure and me...". They arrive at the foot of the mountain. The first monument was there, at the beginning of the path, which was in the middle of several paths radiating in different directions towards the mountain top. The two brothers began to climb the good path. At first it was very good, although there was not the least shade. From the sky the sun darted down on it, flooding it with light and heat. The white rock in which the path had been dug, the clear sky above them, the warm sun embracing their bodies: that is what the brothers saw and felt. But still animated by good will, by the remembrance of their father and by his advice, they climbed joyfully toward the top. Then the second monument... and later the third one. The path had become more and more difficult, solitary, warm. They could not even see the other paths with grass, trees or clear waters, and above all, where the slope was more gentle, because it was not so steep and the tracks were laid on ground and not on rocks.

"Our father wants us dead when we get there" said one of the sons on arriving at the fourth monument. And he began to slacken his pace. The other encouraged him to go on saying: "He loves us as his very own and even more because he saved the treasure for us in such a wonderful way. He dug this path in the rock and it takes one from the foot of the mountain to its top without any risk of getting lost. And he put these monuments to guide us. Just consider that, my brother! He did all that by himself, for our sake! To give it to us! To ensure that we arrive there without the possibility of mistakes and without any danger". They continued to walk. But the paths they had left down in the valley reappeared now and again close to the track in the rock and they did so more and more frequently as the cone of the mountain became narrower near the top. And how beautiful, shady and attractive they were!... "I think I will take one of those" said the discontented brother, when he arrived at the sixth monument. "It goes to the top as well". "You cannot be sure of that... You cannot see whether it goes up or down...". "There it is, up there!". "You do not know whether it is this one. In any case our father told us not to leave this good path...". The listless brother continued to climb against his will. At the seventh monument he said: "Oh! I am definitely going away". "Dont, brother!". They went on their way up the path, which was now very difficult, but the top was now close at hand... They arrived at the eighth monument and very close to it was the flowery path. "Oh! you can see that this one goes up as well, although not in a straight line!". "You dont know if it is the same one". "I do. I recognise it". "You are mistaken". "No. Im going". "Dont. Think of father, of the dangers, of the treasure". "They can all go to the dogs! What am I going to do with the treasure if I will be as good as dead when I get up there? Which danger is greater than this path? And which hatred is stronger than our father's, who fooled us with this track to let us die? Goodbye. I will arrive before you, and alive..." and he jumped on to the adjacent path, and disappeared with a joyful exclamation behind the tree trunks shading it. His brother went his way sadly... Oh! the last part of the track was really dreadful! The man was exhausted. He felt worn out with fatigue and heat! At the ninth monument he stopped panting, leaning against the carved stone and reading the engraved words mechanically. Nearby there was a shady path with water and flowers... "I almost... No! It is written there, and it was my father who wrote it: 'Love, obedience, victory'. I must believe in his love, in his truthfulness, and I must obey to show my love... Let us go... May love support me". He is now at the tenth monument Exhausted, burnt by the sun, he walked stooping, as if he were under a yoke... It was the loving holy yoke of faithfulness, which is love, obedience, strength, hope, justice, prudence, everything... Instead of leaning on the monument he sat down in the narrow

shade which it cast on the ground. He felt that he was dying... From the nearby path came the gurgle of streams and the smell of forests... "Father, help me with your spirit, in this temptation... help me to be faithful until the end!". From afar the joyful voice of his brother shouted: "Come, I will wait for you. Eden is here... Come...". "And if I went?..." and shouting loud: "Does it really go to the top? ". "Yes, come. There is a cool tunnel which takes one up. Come! I can already see the top beyond the tunnel, in the rock...". "Shall I go? Shall I not? Who will help me? I will go". He pushed his hands on the ground to help himself get up and while doing so he noticed that the engraved words were not as clear as those on the first monument. "At each monument the words were less distinct... as if my father, being exhausted, had found it difficult to engrave them. And... look!... Here also is the dark red mark, which has been visible as from the fifth monument... The only difference is that here it fills the hollow of each letter and it has overflowed, furrowing the rock as if it were dark tears, tears... of blood". With a finger he scratched a blotch as large as two hands. And the blotch crumbled into dust leaving uncovered and clear these words: "Thus I loved you. To the extent of shedding my blood to lead you to the Treasure". "Oh! oh! Father! And I was thinking of not obeying your order?! Forgive me, father. Forgive me". The son wept leaning on the rock, and the blood filling the words became fresh and as bright as a ruby, and the tears became food and drink and strength for the good son... He stood up... out of love he called his brother aloud... He wanted to tell him of his discovery... of their father's love, and say to him: "Come back". But no one replied... The young man resumed his way, almost on his knees on the hot rock, because his body was exhausted with fatigue, but his spirit was serene. There was the top... and his father. "Father!". "My beloved son!". The young man threw himself on his father's breast, his father embraced him and kissed him fondly. "Are you alone?". "Yes... But my brother will soon be here... ". "No. He will never arrive. He left the way of the ten commandments. He did not come back to it after the first warning disappointments. Do you want to see him? There he is. In the abyss of fire... He persisted in his error. I would have forgiven and awaited him if, after realising his mistake, he had retraced his steps and, although late, he had passed where love had passed first, suffering to the extent of shedding the best part of his blood, the dearest part of himself for you". "He did not know... ". "If he had looked with love at the words engraved in the ten monuments, he would have understood their true meaning. You read it as from the fifth monument and you called his attention to it when you said: 'Our father must have injured himself here!' and you read it in the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth... clearer and clearer, until by instinct you discovered what was under my blood. Do you know the name of that instinct? 'Your true union with me'. The fibres of your heart, blended with my fibres, startled and they said to you: 'You will have here the measure of how much your father loves you'. Now, since you

are affectionate, obedient, for ever victorious, take possession of the Treasure and of me". That is the parable. The ten monuments are the ten commandments. Your God engraved them and placed them on the path that takes to the eternal Treasure, and He suffered to lead you to that path. Do you suffer? God does, too. Do you have to force yourselves? God has, too. Do you know to what extent? Suffering to separate Himself from Himself and striving to know what it means to be a human being with all the miseries of mankind: to be born, to suffer from cold, starvation, fatigue, to suffer sarcasm, affronts, hatred, snares, and at the end to die, shedding all His Blood to give you the Treasure. God, Who descended to save you, suffers all that. God suffers that in Heaven, allowing Himself to suffer it. I solemnly tell you that no man, however laborious his path may be to reach Heaven, will ever follow a more laborious and sorrowful way than the one along which the Son of man has to go to come from Heaven to the Earth and from the Earth to the Sacrifice, to open the doors of the Treasure to you. On the tablets of the Law there is already My Blood. On the Way which I am tracing out for you there is My Blood. It is the gush of My Blood that opens the door of the Treasure. Your souls become pure and strong through the purification and nourishment of My Blood. But to prevent it from being shed in vain, you must follow the immutable way of the ten commandments. Let us rest now. At sunset I will go towards Hippo, John will go to be purified, and you will go home. May the peace of the Lord be with you.

INDEX vol 5 PREPARATION FOR THE PASSION 539. The Judaeans in Lazarus' House. 540. The Judaeans with Martha and Mary. 541. Martha Sends a Servant to Inform the Master. 542. Lazarus' Death. 543. The Servant of Bethany Informs Jesus of Martha's Message. 544. At Lazarus' Funeral. 545. Jesus Decides to Go to Lazarus. 546. Resurrection of Lazarus. * on line *

547. In Jerusalem and in the Temple after the Resurrection of Lazarus. 548. At Bethany after the Resurrection of Lazarus. 549. Going to Ephraim. 550. The First Day at Ephraim. 551. Jesus Respects the Precept of Love More Than the Sabbatic Law. 552. The Following Day at Ephraim. Parable on the Remembrance of Man's Eternal Destiny. 553. Jesus Explains to Peter the Mandate for Remitting Sins and Why Saints and 179 Innocents Suffer. 554. On a Sabbath at Ephraim Jesus Speaks in the Synagogue. 555. The Arrival of the Relatives of the Children with Many People of Shechem. 556. The Parable of the Drop That Excavates the Rock. 557. Pilgrims Arrive in Ephraim from the Decapolis. Manaen's Secret Mission. 558. The Secret Meeting with Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. 559. The Saphorim Samuel. 560. What People Say at Nazareth. 561. False Disciples Arrive in Shechem. At Ephraim Jesus Restores the Tongue to the Dumb Slave of Claudia Procula. 562. The Man of Jabneel. 563. Samuel, Judas of Kerioth and John. Parable of the Bees. 564. At Ephraim, before and after the Arrival of Jesus' Mother and of the Women Disciples with Lazarus. 565. Parable of the Tom Cloth and Miracle of the Woman in Childbed. Judas of Kerioth Is Caught Stealing. 566. Farewell to Ephraim. Going towards Shilo. 567. At Shiloh. First Parable on Advice. 568. At Lebonah. Second Parable on Advice. 569 Arrival at Shechem. 570. At Shechem. Third Parable on Advice. 571. Leaving for Enon. 572. At Enon. The Young Shepherd Benjamin. 573. Jesus Is Rejected by the Samaritans. With Judas of Kerioth. 574. The Rich Young Man. 575. The Third Prophecy of the Passion. The Request of Zebedee's sons. 576. Meeting with the Disciples Led by Manaen and Arrival at Jericho. 577. With Some Unknown Disciples. 180 578. Prophecy on Israel. Miracles Worked During the Journey from Jericho to Bethany. 579. Arrival at Bethany. 580. The Friday before the Entry into Jerusalem. Judas of Kerioth Impenitent. 581. The Friday before the Entry into Jerusalem. Farewell to the Women Disciples and the Encounter with an Unhappy Child. 582. The Sabbath before the Entry into Jerusalem. Parable of the Two Lamps and the Parable Applied to the Miracle on Shalem. 583. The Sabbath before the Entry into Jerusalem. Pilgrims and Judaeans at

Bethany. 584. The Sabbath before the Entry into Jerusalem. The Supper at Bethany. 585. Farewell to Lazarus. 586. Judas Goes to the Leaders of the Sanhedrin. 587. From Bethany to Jerusalem. 588. Jesus Enters into Jerusalem. 589. The Evening of Palm Sunday. 590. The Monday before Passover. The Cursed Fig-Tree and the Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen. 591. Monday Night before Passover. Teachings to the Apostles at Gethsemane. 592. The Tuesday Morning before Passover. The Questions of the Tribute to Caesar and of the Resurrection of the Dead. 593. The Tuesday Night before Passover. Other Teachings to the Apostles. 594. The Wednesday before Passover. From the Discussions with Scribes and Pharisees to the Eschatological Discourse. The Widow's Mite. 595. The Night of the Wednesday before Passover. Last Teachings to the Apostles. 596. The Thursday before Passover. Preparation for the Supper and Announcement of the Glorification through Death. 597. The Thursday Evening before Passover. Arrival at the Supper-Room and Farewell to the Mother. 598. The Passover Supper. THE PASSION 181 599. The Agony and the Arrest at Gethsemane. 600. The Various Trials. 601. Death of Judas of Kerioth. The Behaviour of Mary towards Judas Cancels Eve's Bearing towards Cain. 602. Other Teachings on the First Parents and on the Parallelism between Cain and Judas. 603. John Goes to Get Mary. 604. The Way of the Cross from the Praetorium to Calvary. 605. The Crucifixion. 606. The Burial of Jesus and the Spiritual Distress of Mary. 607. The Return to the Supper Room. 608. The Night of Good Friday. 609. The Redeeming Value of Jesus' and Mary's sufferings. John Is the Head of Lovers. 610. The Holy Saturday. 611. The Night of Holy Saturday. THE GLORIFICATION 612. The Morning of the Resurrection. 613. The Resurrection. 614. Jesus Appears to His Mother. 615. The Pious Women at the Sepulchre. 616. Comment on the Resurrection. 617. Jesus Appears to Lazarus. 618. Jesus Appears to Johanna of Chuza.

619. Jesus Appears to Joseph of Arimathea, to Nicodemus and to Manaen. 620. Jesus Appears to the Shepherds. 621. Jesus Appears to the Disciples of Emmaus. 622. Jesus Appears to the Other Friends. 182 623. Jesus Appears to the Ten Apostles. 624. The Incredulity of Thomas. Jesus' Warning to the "Thomases" of Today. 625. Jesus Appears to the Apostles with Thomas. Speech on Priesthood. 626. At Gethsemane with the Apostles. 627. The Apostles Go along the Way of the Cross. 628. Jesus Appears to Various People in Different Places. 629. Jesus Appears on the Shores of the Lake. The Mission Conferred to Peter. 630. Jesus Appears on Mount Tabor to the Apostles and to about Five Hundred Believers. 631. The Last Teachings before Ascension-Day. 632. The Supplementary Passover. 633. Farewell to His Mother before Ascension. 634. Farewell and Ascension of the Lord. 635. The Election of Matthias. 636. The Descent of the Holy Spirit. End of the Messianic Cycle. 637. Peter Celebrates the Eucharist in a Meeting of the First Christians. 638. The Blessed Virgin Takes up Her Abode at Gethsemane with John, Who Foretells Her Assumption. 639. The Blessed Virgin and John in the Places of the Passion. 640. The Two Shrouds of the Lord. 641. The Martyrdom of Stephen. Saul and Gamaliel. 642. Deposition of Stephen's Body. 643. Gamaliel Becomes a Christian. 644. Peter Converses with John. 645. The Blissful Passage of the Blessed Virgin. 646. The Assumption of Our Lady. 647. On the Passage, the Assumption and Royalty of the Blessed Virgin. 183

The Reasons for the Work. Farewell to the Work. His glory, I must not weigh my grief, but only hope in the celestial glory. Let us go and tell the apostles that Jonathan is the servant of the servants of the Christ.

641. The Martyrdom of Stephen. Saul and Gamaliel. 7th August 1944. The hall of the Sanhedrin, identical, both with regard to disposition and to people, to what it was in the night between Thursday and Friday, during Jesus' trial. The High Priest and the others are sitting on their seats. In the middle, in front of the High Priest, in the empty space where, during the trial Jesus was, there is now Stephen. He must have already spoken professing his faith and bearing witness to the true Nature of the Christ and to His Church, because the tumult is at its climax and in its violence it is similar to the one that raged against the Christ in the fatal night of the betrayal and deicide. Blows, curses, horrible oaths are hurled against the deacon Stephen who, under the brutal blows, staggers and totters while they savagely tug him here and there. But he keeps his calm and dignity, and even more. He is not only calm and dignified, but he is even blissful and almost ecstatic. Disregarding the spittles streaming down his face and the blood running from his nose, that has been violently struck, at a certain moment he raises his inspired face and his bright smiling eyes to stare at a vision known to him alone. He stretches his arms out crosswise, he raises them up as if he wished to embrace what he sees, then he falls on his knees exclaiming: Here, I can see the Heavens thrown open, and the Son of Man, Jesus, the Christ of God, Whom you have killed, standing at the right hand of God. Then the tumult loses even that least part that it still retained of humanity and legality and, with the fury of a pack of wolves, of jackals, of rabid wild beasts, they all hurl themselves on the deacon, they bite him, they trample on him, they grasp him, they raise him lifting him by his hair, they drag him, letting him drop again, while fury opposes fury, because in the rush those who try to drag the martyr outside are hindered by those who pull him in another direction to strike him and tread on him again. 2 Among the most furious ones there is a young short ugly looking man, named Saul. The fierceness of his face is indescribable. In a corner of the hall there is Gamaliel. He has never taken part in the brawl, neither has he ever addressed Stephen or any mighty person. His disgust for the unfair wild scene is manifest. In another corner there is Nicodemus, who is also disgusted and does not take part in the trial or in the brawl, and is looking at Gamaliel, whose countenance is clearer than any word. But suddenly, and precisely when he sees Stephen being lifted by his hair for the third time, Gamaliel envelops himself in his very wide mantle and he goes towards an exit in the opposite direction to that towards which the deacon is being dragged. His action does not pass unnoticed to Saul who shouts: Rabbi, are you going away? Gamaliel does not reply. Saul, fearing that Gamaliel has not understood that the question was made to him, repeats and specifies it: Rabbi Gamaliel, are you evading this judgement? Gamaliel turns round all of one piece and, looking furious, disgusted as he is, dignified and frigid, he replies only: Yes. But his yes is worth more than a long speech.
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Saul understands everything that that yes implies, and leaving the wild pack, he rushes towards Gamaliel. He reaches him, stops him, says to him: You are not going to tell me, o rabbi, that you disapprove of our condemnation. Gamaliel does not look at him, neither does he reply to him. Saul insists: That man is doubly guilty, as he denied the Law, following a Samaritan possessed by Beelzebub, and for doing so after being your disciple. Gamaliel continues to look away from him and to be silent. Saul then asks him: But are you perhaps, you as well, a follower of that criminal named Jesus? Gamaliel now speaks and says: I am not yet. But if He was what He said, and truly many things prove that He was, I pray God that I may become one. Horrible shouts Saul. There is nothing horrible. Every man has an intelligence to make use of it, and a freedom to apply it. So let everybody make use of it according to that freedom that God has given to every man and to that light that He has put in everybody's heart. The just, sooner or later, will use these two gifts of God, for Good purposes, and the wicked, for Evil purposes. And he goes away, directing his steps towards the court where the Treasury is, and he goes and leans against the same column against which Jesus spoke of the poor widow who gave the Treasury of the Temple everything she had: two farthings. 3 He has not been there long when Saul joins him again and places himself in front of him. The contrast between the two is very strong. Gamaliel is tall, of a noble bearing, handsome in his strong Semitic features, with a high forehead, with eyes which are very dark, intelligent, piercing, long and deeply sunken under his thick straight eyebrows, on the sides of his nose which is also straight, long and thin, and reminds one a little of Jesus' nose. Also his complexion, his thin-lipped mouth remind one of Jesus'. But Gamaliel's beard and moustache, once very dark, are now grizzled and longer. Saul instead is short, thickset, almost rickety, his legs are short and thick, a little apart at the knees, which are clearly visible because he has taken his mantle off and he has on only a short greyish tunic. His arms are short and brawny like his legs, his neck is short and thickset, supporting a big brown head with short rough hair, with rather protruding ears, snub nose, thick lips, with high big cheek-bones, bulging forehead, dark rather bulging eyes, neither mild nor kind, but very intelligent under his very arched, thick, ruffled eyelashes. His cheeks are covered with a very thick beard, as bristly as his hair, but cut short. Perhaps because of his very short neck he seems to be slightly hunchbacked or to have very round shoulders. He is silent for a moment, staring at Gamaliel. Then he says something to him in a low voice. Gamaliel replies to him in a clear loud voice: I do not approve of violence, for any reason whatsoever. You will never obtain my approval for any violent plan. I have told also all the Sanhedrin, in public, when Peter and the other apostles were arrested for the second time and brought before the Sanhedrin to be judged. And I repeat the same things: "If it is the plan and work of men, it will perish by itself; if it comes from God, it cannot be destroyed by men, on the contrary they may be struck by God". Bear that in mind. Are you the protector of these blasphemous followers of the Nazarene, you, the greatest rabbi in Israel?

I am the protector of justice. And justice teaches us to be prudent and just in judging. I repeat it to you. If the thing comes from God, it will last, if not, it will fall by itself. But I do not want to stain my hands with blood that I do not know whether it deserves death. Is that how you, a Pharisee and doctor, speak? Are you not afraid of the Most High? More than you are. But I ponder. 4And I remember... You were only a little child, not yet a son of the Law, and I was already teaching in this Temple with the wisest rabbi of our days... and with others, wise, but not just. Within these walls our wisdom received a lesson that made us ponder for the rest of our lives. The eyes of the most wise and just man of our times closed on the recollection of that hour, and his mind on the study of those truths, heard from the lips of a child, who was revealing himself to men, particularly if just. My eyes have continued to watch and my mind to think, coordinating events and things... I have had the privilege of hearing the Most High speak through the mouth of a child, who later was a man just, wise, mighty, holy, and who was put to death, just because of these qualities of his. His words of that time have afterwards been confirmed by events that happened many years later, at the time mentioned by Daniel... Poor me, as I did not understand sooner! As I awaited the last terrible sign to believe, to understand! Poor people of Israel, who did not understand then and does not understand even now! The prophecy of Daniel and those of other prophets and of the Word of God continue, and will be fulfilled for Israel stubborn, blind, deaf, unjust, as it continues to persecute the Messiah in His servants! Damn! You are blaspheming! There will really be no salvation for the people of God, if the rabbis of Israel blaspheme and deny Jehovah, the true God, to exalt and believe in a false Messiah! I am not blaspheming, but all those are, who insulted the Nazarene and continue to despise Him, by scorning His followers. You, yes, you are blaspheming, because you hate Him, in Himself, and in His followers. But you were right when you said that there is no more salvation for Israel. Not because there are Israelites who have passed into His flock, but because Israel has struck Him to death. You fill me with horror! You are betraying the Law, the Temple! Denounce me, then, to the Sanhedrin, that I may share the lot of him who is about to be stoned. It will be the beginning and the happy conclusion of your mission. And I shall be forgiven, through this sacrifice of mine, for not having recognised and understood the God Who was passing, as Saviour and Master, among us, His children and His people. 5 Saul, with an angry gesture, goes away, rudely, to the court facing the hall of the Sanhedrin, the court in which the crowd is still shouting in exasperation against Stephen. In this court Saul joins the torturers who were waiting for him, and with the others he comes out of the Temple and then out of the town walls. Abuse, jeers continue to be shouted at, and blows to be dealt to the deacon, who already tired out and wounded, proceeds staggering towards the place of the execution. Outside the walls there is a stretch of waste land covered with stones, completely desert. When the executioners arrive there, they spread out forming a circle, leaving the condemned man all alone in the centre, with his torn garments and his body bleeding in many parts as a result of the wounds already

inflicted on it. They tear his garments off him before moving away from him. Stephen is left with a very short tunic. They all take their long garments off and remain with their tunics only, as short as the one worn by Saul, to whom they entrust their garments, as he does not take part in the lapidation, either because he has been upset by Gamaliel's words, or because he knows that he is not good at hitting the mark. The executioners pick up some large pebbles and some sharp stones, in which the place abounds, and they begin the lapidation. Stephen receives the first blows standing, and with a smile of forgiveness on his wounded lips which, a moment before the beginning of the lapidation, have shouted to Saul, intent on gathering the clothes of the lapidators: My friend, I will wait for you on the way of the Christ. To which Saul replied: Pig! Possessed! adding to the insults a mighty kick on the shin-bone of the deacon, who almost falls because of the blow and of the pain. After some blows with stones, that strike him from all directions, Stephen falls on his knees, supporting himself with his wounded hands, and certainly recollecting a remote episode, he whispers, touching his temple and his wounded forehead: As He foretold me! The crown... The rubies... O my Lord, Master, Jesus, receive my spirit! Another hail of blows on his already wounded head makes him collapse on the ground that becomes impregnated with his blood. While he lies on the stones, always under hails of more of them, on the point of breathing his last, he whispers: Lord... Father... forgive them... bear them no grudge for this sin of theirs... They do not know what... Death breaks the sentence on his lips, a last start makes him curl himself up, and he remains so. Dead. 6 The executioners approach him, they throw another volley of stones on him, and almost bury him under them. They then put their clothes on, and they go away back to the Temple, intoxicated with satanic zeal, to report what they have done. While they are speaking to the High Priest and other mighty people, Saul goes in search of Gamaliel. He does not find him at once. Inflamed with hatred against the Christians, he goes back to the Priests, he speaks to them, he convinces them to give him a parchment with the seal of the Temple, authorising him to persecute the Christians. The blood of Stephen must have made him as furious as a bull that sees red, or a generous wine given to an alcoholic. He is about to come out of the Temple when he sees Gamaliel under the Porch of the Gentiles. He goes to him. Perhaps he wants to begin a dispute or a justification. But Gamaliel goes across the court, he enters a hall and closes the door in the face of Saul, who, offended and furious, runs out of the Temple to persecute the Christians. -------------------------------7 [Jesus says:] I have shown Myself many times and to many people, also in extraordinary manifestations. But My manifestation did not produce the same effect in everybody. We can see how to each manifestation of Mine corresponds a sanctification of those who possessed the good will required of men to have Peace, Life, Justice. So, Grace worked in the shepherds for the thirty years of My concealed life,

then it flowered yielding a holy ear of corn when it was the time in which the good parted from the wicked to follow the Son of God, Who was passing along the ways of the world, uttering His cry of love to assemble the sheep of the eternal Flock, scattered and dispersed by Satan. Present among the crowds that followed Me, they were My messengers, because with their simple and convincing reports, they proclaimed the Christ saying: "It is He. We recognise Him. The lullabies of the angels descended upon His first wailing. And we were told by the angels that men of good will will have peace. Good will is the desire of Good and Truth. Let us follow Him! Follow Him! We shall all have the Peace promised by the Lord". Humble, ignorant, poor, My first messengers among men, rushed like sentries along the road of the King of Israel, of the King of the world. Faithful eyes, honest mouths, loving hearts, thuribles exhaling the perfume of their virtues to make less corrupt the air of the Earth around My Divine Person, that had become incarnate for them and for all men, and I found them even at the foot of the Cross, after blessing them with My eyes along the sanguinary road of Golgotha, the only ones, with very few more, who did not curse Me among the unrestrained crowd, but who loved, believed, still hoped, and looked at Me with compassionate eyes, thinking of the remote night of My Birth and weeping on the Innocent, Who slept His first sleep on an uncomfortable piece of wood, and His last one on an even more painful one. That because My manifestation to them, who were righteous souls, had sanctified them. And the same happened to the three Wise Men from the East, to Simeon and Anne in the Temple, to Andrew and John at the Jordan, and to Peter, James and John at Tabor, to Mary of Magdala at dawn on Easter Sunday, to the eleven when on the Mount of Olives, and even before that, at Bethany, they were forgiven their bewilderment... No, John, the pure apostle, did not need to be forgiven. He was the faithful ever loving hero. His most pure love, his purity of mind, of heart, of body, preserved him from all weakness. 8 Gamaliel, and with him Hillel, were not as simple as the shepherds, as holy as Simeon, as wise as the three Wise men. In him, and in his master and relative, there was the tangle of Pharisaic lianas to suffocate the light and the free expansion of the tree of faith. But in their being Pharisaic there was purity of intentions. They thought they were in the right and they wished to be so. They wished it by instinct, because they were just, and by intellect, because their spirits shouted out of discontent: "There are too many ashes mixed with this bread. Give us the bread of the real Truth". Gamaliel, however, was not so strong as to have the courage to break these Pharisaic lianas. His humanity enslaved him still too much, and with it, the considerations of human esteem, of personal danger, of family welfare. Because of all these things Gamaliel had not been able to understand "the God that was passing among His people", or to use ''that intelligence and that freedom'' that God has given every man so that he may use them for his own good. Only the sign awaited for so many years, the sign that had demolished and tortured him with never ending remorse, would provoke in him the recognition of the Christ and the change of his ancient thought, whereby, from the rabbi of error - as the scribes, Pharisees and the doctors had corrupted the essence and the spirit of the Law, suffocating the simple bright truth that had come from God under a large quantity of human precepts, which were often wrong, but always to their advantage - he would become a disciple of the divine Truth, after a long

struggle between his ancient ego and his present ego. In any case he had not been the only one to be uncertain in deciding and strong in acting. Also Joseph of Arimathea, and even more Nicodemus, did not trample on the Judaic customs and lianas at once and embrace the new Doctrine openly, so much so that they used to come to the Christ "secretly", out of fear of the Judaeans, or they used to meet with him by chance, and mainly in their country houses, or in Lazarus' house at Bethany, as they knew that it was safer and more feared by Christ's enemies, who were well aware of the protection of Rome for Theophilus' son. However, they were certainly always much more advanced in Good and braver, when compared to Gamaliel, to the extent that they dared to take the compassionate action on Good Friday. 9 Rabbi Gamaliel was less advanced. But you, who are reading, pay attention to the power of his upright intention. Through it, his very human justice, becomes tinged with a superhuman hue. Saul's instead, gets soiled with something demoniac, when the unchecked fury of evil compels him and his master Gamaliel to face the alternative choice between Good and Evil, justice and injustice. The tree of Good and Evil stands straight in front of every man to present its fruits of Evil to him, in the most alluring and attractive appearance, while among the foliage in a deceitful voice of a nightingale, the tempting Serpent hisses. It is up to man, a creature gifted with reason and with a soul given to him by God, to be able to distinguish and want the good fruit among the many, which are not good and cause damage and death to the spirit; and to pick that one, even if it is prickly and difficult to pick, bitter to taste and miserable looking. Its metamorphosis, by which it becomes so much smoother and softer to the touch, sweeter to the taste, more beautiful to the sight, takes place only when, through justice of spirit and reason, one chooses the good fruit and feeds on its juice, which is bitter but holy. Saul stretches out his greedy hands to the fruit of Evil, of hatred, of injustice, of crime, and he will stretch them out until he is struck with lightning, crushed, deprived of human sight, so that he may achieve the superhuman sight and may become not only just, but an apostle and confessor of Him, Whom he previously hated and persecuted in His servants. Gamaliel, breaking the persistent lianas of his humanity and of Hebraism, to let spring up and bloom the remote seed of light and justice, not only human but also superhuman, that My fourth epiphany, or manifestation, which is perhaps a word clearer and more comprehensible to you, had put in his heart, in his heart with upright intentions, the seed that he had preserved and defended with honest fondness and noble eagerness to see it spring up and bloom, stretches out his hands to the fruit of Good. His will and My Blood broke the hard husk of that remote seed, that he had preserved in his heart for dozens of years, in that heart of rock that split with the veil of the Temple and the earth of Jerusalem, and shouted its supreme desire to Me, Who could no longer hear him with human hearing, but I could hear him well with My divine spirit, when he was there, prostrated on the ground, at the foot of the cross. And under the sunny fire of the apostolic words and of the best disciples, and the shower of the blood of Stephen, the first martyr, that seed takes root, becomes a tree, blossoms and yields fruit. The new tree of his Christian Faith, which had come up where the tragedy of Good Friday had overthrown, uprooted and destroyed all the ancient trees and herbs.

The plant of his new Christian faith and of his new holiness has come up and grown before My eyes. Forgiven by Me, although guilty of not understanding Me previously, because of his justice that refused to take part in My condemnation or in Stephen's, his desire to become My follower, the son of the Truth, of the Light, is blessed also by the Father and by the Sanctifying Spirit, and from desire it becomes reality, without the need of powerful violent lightning, as was necessary for Saul on the Damascus road, for the arrogant man, who with no other means could have been subdued and led to Justice, to Charity, to Light, to Truth, and to the eternal glorious Life in Heaven.

642. Deposition of Stephen's Body. 8th August 1951. It is the dead of night, and a very dark night, because the moon has already set, when Mary comes out of the little house at Gethsemane with Peter, James of Alphaeus, John, Nicodemus and the Zealot. Because of the dark night, Lazarus, who is waiting for them in front of the house, at the beginning of the path that leads to the lower gate, lights an oil lamp, which he has fitted with a protection of thin sheets of alabaster or other transparent material. The light is faint, but when the lamp is held low towards the ground, as it is now, it always helps to see stones and obstacles that may be found on the way. Lazarus goes beside Mary, so that She, above all, may see clearly. John is on the other side and supports the Mother by the arm. The others are behind them, in a group. They go as far as the Kidron and proceed along it, so that they are half-hidden by the wild bushes that grow near its banks. Also the murmur of the water serves to conceal and confuse the noise of the sandals of the wayfarers. Going along the outer side of the walls all the time as far as the Gate closest to the Temple, and then proceeding into the barren desert area, they arrive at the place where Stephen was stoned. They direct their steps towards the pile of stones under which he is half buried, and they remove the stones until his poor body appears. It is by now deathly pale, both because of death and because of the blows it received during the lapidation, it is hard, stiff, all curled up as it was when he breathed his last. 2 Mary, Who has been mercifully kept away a few steps by John, frees Herself and runs towards that poor body, which is lacerated and covered with blood. Without worrying about the stains that the clotted blood leaves on Her dress, Mary, helped by James of Alphaeus and John, lays the body on a cloth stretched on the ground, in a spot devoid of stones, and with a linen cloth, that She dips in a small amphora handed to Her by the Zealot, She cleans, as best She can, the face of Stephen, She tidies his hair, trying to bring it round to his temples and wounded cheeks, in order to cover the horrible marks left by the stones. She cleans also the other parts of the body and She would also like to arrange them in a less tragical posture. But the chill of death, which had taken place many hours previously, allows that only partially. Also the men try, stronger as they are both physically and morally than Mary, Who looks once again like the Sorrowful Mother of Golgotha and of the Sepulchre. But they also
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have to resign themselves to leave him in the position they have succeeded in placing him after so many efforts. They dress him again with a clean long tunic, because his has been lost or stolen, in contempt, by the lapidators, and the short tunic they have left on him is all torn and stained with blood. Having done that, always in the faint light of the lamp that Lazarus holds very close to the poor body, they lift him and lay him on another clean cloth. Nicodemus picks up the first cloth, wet with the water used to wash the martyr and with the clotted blood, and places it under his mantle. John and James at the head, Peter and the Zealot at the feet, lift the cloth containing the body, and they set out on the way back, preceded by Lazarus and Mary. But they do not go back along the same way they came, on the contrary, going into the country and going round at the foot of the Mount of Olives, they reach the road that goes to Jericho and Bethany. 3 They stop there to rest and to speak. And Nicodemus, who having been present at Stephen's condemnation, although in a passive manner, and being one of the elders of the Judaeans, was more acquainted than the others with the decisions of the Sanhedrin, warns those present that the persecution against the Christians has been ordered and has broken-out, and that Stephen is only the first of a long list of names indicated as followers of the Christ. The first cry of all the apostles is: Let them do what they like! We will not change, either because of threats or out of prudence! But the more judicious ones among the people present, that is Lazarus and Nicodemus, point out to Peter and to James of Alphaeus that the Church has only few priests of the Christ, and that if the more important ones of them were killed, that is Peter the Pontiff and James the Bishop of Jerusalem, the Church would survive with difficulty. They remind also Peter that their Founder and Master had left Judaea for Samaria, in order not to be killed before He had formed them properly, and how He had advised His servants to follow His example until the shepherds are so many that one will not have to fear the dispersion of the believers because of the death of the shepherds. And they conclude saying: You ought to scatter as well through Judaea and Samaria. Get proselytes there, many more shepherds, and from there scatter through the Earth, so that, as He ordered you to do, all the peoples may become acquainted with the Gospel. 4 The apostles are perplexed. They look at Mary, as if they wanted to know Her opinion on the matter. And Mary, Who understands their looks, says: It is a good piece of advice. Take it. It is not cowardice, but prudence. He taught you: "Be as simple as doves and as prudent as snakes. I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Beware of men" James interrupts Her: Yes, Mother. But He also said: "But when they hand you over and you will be dragged before governors, do not worry about what you have to answer. It is not you who will be speaking, but the Spirit of the Father will be speaking for you and in you". And I am staying here. A disciple is to be like his Master. He died to give life to the Church. Every death of ours will be a stone added to the great new Temple, an increase in life for the great immortal body of the universal Church. Let them kill me, if they wish so. Living in Heaven I shall be happier, because I shall be beside my Brother, and even more powerful. I am not afraid of death. But of sin. By abandoning my place I seem to be imitating the gesture of Judas, the perfect betrayer. James of

Alphaeus will never commit that sin. If I have to fall, I will fall like a hero, at my place of action, where He wanted me to be. Mary replies to him: I will not pierce into your secrets with the Man-God. If that is what He inspires you with, do so. He alone, Who is God, is entitled to give orders. We are all only entitled to obey Him always, in everything, to do His Will. 5 Peter, less heroic, is chatting with the Zealot to hear his opinion on the matter. Lazarus, who is close to the two and hears them, suggests: Come to Bethany. It is close to Jerusalem and to the road to Samaria. The Christ left from there many a time to avoid His enemies... Nicodemus in turn suggests: Come to my country house. It is safe and close both to Bethany and to Jerusalem, and it is on the road that takes one to Ephraim, via Jericho. No, mine is better, as it is protected by Rome insists Lazarus. You are already hated too much, since Jesus raised you from the dead, asserting so, powerfully, His divine Nature. Consider that His destiny was decided just because of that. Watch that you do not decide yours Nicodemus replies to him. And what about my house? It is really Lazarus'. But they still call it mine says Simon Zealot. Mary intervenes saying: Let Me ponder, think, decide which is the best thing to do. God will not leave Me without His light. When I know, I will tell you. For the time being, come to Gethsemane with Me. Seat of all Wisdom, Mother of the Word and of the Light, You are always the Star that guides us safely. We obey You they all say together, as if the Holy Spirit had really spoken in their hearts and on their lips. They stand up from the grass on which they had sat at the edge of the road, and while Peter, James, Simon and John go with Mary towards Gethsemane, Lazarus and Nicodemus lift the cloth in which the body of Stephen is enveloped, and at the first light of dawn, they set out towards the Bethany and Jericho road. Where are they taking the martyr? A mistery.

643. Gamaliel Becomes a Christian. 1st November 1951. Some years must have gone by, because John seems to be in full manhood, more sturdily built, with a more mature appearance, while his fair hair, beard and moustache are of a much darker colour. Mary, Who is spinning, while John is tidying up the kitchen of the little house at Gethsemane, the walls of which have been recently whitewashed, while wooden items have been painted - stools, door, a cabinet that serves also as a shelf for the lamp - does not appear at all changed. Her aspect is fresh and serene. All traces left on Her face by the sorrow for the death of Her Son, for His return to Heaven, for the first persecutions against the Christians, have disappeared. Time has not engraved its traces on that kind face. And age has not had the power to alter its fresh pure beauty.
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The lamp, lit on the shelf, casts its flickering light on the small industrious hands of Mary, on the snow-white wool wound round the distaff, on the thin thread, on the twirling spindle, on Her golden hair gathered in a thick knot on the nape of Her neck. Through the open door a very limpid moon-beam penetrates into the kitchen, laying a kind of silver strip from the threshold to the feet of the stool on which Mary is sitting, so that Her feet are illuminated by the moon-beam, and Her hands and head by the reddish light of the lamp. Outside, on the olive-trees surrounding the house of Gethsemane, some nightingales are singing their songs of love. They suddenly become silent, as if they were frightened, and after a few moments, the shuffling of steps can be heard, and it becomes closer and closer, until it stops on the threshold of the kitchen, at the same time making the white lunar strip disappear, that previously silvered the coarse dark bricks of the floor. 2 Mary raises Her head and looks towards the door. John, in turn, looks towards the door and an oh! full of wonder is uttered by their lips, while, with one movement only they both rush towards the door, on the threshold of which Gamaliel has appeared and stopped. A very old Gamaliel by now, ghastly, so thin is he in his white garments, which the moon, shining on him from behind, makes almost phosphorescent. A Gamaliel crushed, overwhelmed by events, by his remorse, by so many things, even more than by age. You here, rabbi? Come in! Come! And peace be with you John says to him, as he is in front of him and very close to him, while Mary is a few steps behind. If you will guide me... I am blind... replies the old rabbi, in a voice that is trembling more because of secret tears, than because of his age. John, dumbfounded, asks, with emotion and compassion in his voice: Blind?! Since when? Oh!... Since long ago! My sight began to grow weaker immediately after... after... Yes. After I did not recognise the true Light that had come to enlighten men, until the earthquake tore the veil of the Temple and shook the mighty walls, as He had said. Really a double veil, that covered the Holy of the Holies of the Temple and the even truer Holy of Holies, the Word of the Father, His eternal Only-Begotten, concealed by the veil of a most pure human flesh, that only His Passion and His glorious Resurrection revealed to the most dull-minded people, and to me first of all, for what He really was: the Christ, the Messiah, the Immanuel. Since that moment darkness began to descend upon my eyes, becoming thicker and thicker. A just punishment for me. For some time I have been completely blind. 3And I have come... John interrupts him asking him: Perhaps to ask a miracle? Yes. A great miracle. I am asking it of the Mother of the true God. Gamaliel, I do not have the power that My Son had. He was able to give life and sight to blind eyes, word to dumb people, movement to those who were paralysed. But not I Mary replies to him. And She continues: But come here, near the table, and sit down. You are tired and old, rabbi. Do not tire yourself any more and pitifully, with John, She leads him towards the table and makes him sit on a stool. Gamaliel, before leaving Her hand free, kisses it with veneration, then he says to Her: I am not asking of You, Mary, the miracle to see once again. No. I

am not asking this material thing. What I ask of You, o Blessed amongst all women, is the sight of an eagle for my spirit, so that I may see all the Truth. I do not ask of You the light for my blind eyes, but the supernatural divine true light that is wisdom, truth, life, for my soul and my heart torn by and exhausted with the remorse that gives me no rest. I have no desire to see with my eyes this Hebrew world, so... Yes. So stubbornly rebellious to God, Who has been and is so compassionate towards it, as we really did not deserve that He should be. On the contrary I am glad that I do not have to see it any more, and that my blindness has exempted me from all engagements with the Temple and with the Sanhedrin, who have been so unfair to Your Son and to His followers. What I wish to see, with my mind, my heart, my spirit, is He, Jesus. To see Him in me, in my spirit, to see Him spiritually, as You certainly, o Holy Mother of God, and John, so pure, and James, as long as he lived, and the others, for support in their grave and hampered ministry, see Him. To see Him in order to love Him with my whole self, and through this love, be able to make amends for my sins, and be forgiven by Him, to have the eternal Life, that I failed to deserve... He bends his head on his arms that are folded on the table and he weeps. 4 Mary lays Her hand on his head shaken by sobs and replies to him: No, you have not failed to deserve to have eternal Life! Those who repent their past errors are forgiven everything by the Saviour. He would have forgiven even His betrayer, if he had repented his horrible sin. And the sin of Judas of Kerioth is immense as compared with yours. Consider. Judas was the apostle received by the Christ, instructed by the Christ, loved by the Christ more than anyone else, if one considers that, although He knew everything about him, Christ did not reject him from the group of His Apostles, on the contrary, up to the very last moment, He resorted to every expedient, so that they might not understand who he was and what he was planning. My Son was the Truth itself, and for no reason whatsoever did He ever lie. But when He saw the other eleven be suspicious and they asked Him questions about the Iscariot, without lying, He was able to divert their suspicious and not reply to their questions, ordering them not to be inquisitive, out of prudence and out of charity for a brother. Your fault is by far smaller. And what is more, it cannot even be called a fault. Yours is not incredulity, on the contrary it is excess of faith. You believed so much in the twelve-year-old Boy Who spoke to you in the Temple that, obstinately, but with upright intention, based on your absolute faith in that Boy, on Whose lips you had heard words of infinite wisdom, you awaited the sign to believe in Him and see the Messiah in Him. God forgives those who have such a strong loyal faith. Even more He forgives whoever, although still in doubt about the true Nature of a man, unjustly accused, does not want to take part in his condemnation, which he feels is unjust. Your spiritual seeing the Truth has been growing and growing since you left the Sanhedrin in order not to agree to that sacrilegious deed. And it increased even more when, being in the Temple, you saw the fulfilment of the sign, so longed for, that marked the beginning of the Christian era. It increased further when at the foot of the cross of My Son, already cold and dead, you prayed with those mighty anguished words. It has become almost perfect every time that, either with your words, or by withdrawing aside, you defended the servants of My Son or you refused to take part in the condemnation of the first martyrs. Believe Me, Gamaliel, every act of sorrow, of justice, of love of yours, has increased your spiritual sight in you.

All that is still not enough! See, I had the rare grace of becoming acquainted with Your Son as from His first public manifestation, when He came of age. I should have seen since then! I should have understood! I was blind and foolish... I did not see and I did not understand. Neither then, nor in other occasions, when I had the grace of approaching Him, by that time a Man and Master, and I heard His ever more just and powerful words. I was stubbornly awaiting the human sign, the shaken stones... And I did not see that everything in Him was a sure sign! And I did not see that He was the corner Stone predicted by the Prophets, the Stone that was already shaking the world, all the Hebrew and Gentile world; the Stone that shook the stones of hearts with His Word, with His prodigies! I did not see on Him the clear sign of His Father in everything He did or said! How can He forgive so much stubborness? Gamaliel, can you believe that I, Who am the Seat of Wisdom, the Full of Grace, Who, both because of the Wisdom Who took Flesh in Me, and of the Grace He gave Me, have the fullness of knowledge of supernatural matters, can give you good advice? Oh! of course I believe it! Just because I believe that that is what You are, I have come to You to receive light. You, Daughter, Mother, Spouse of God, Who certainly since Your conception filled You with His sapiential lights, can but show me the way that I must take to have peace, to find the truth, to conquer the true Life. I am so aware of my errors, so crushed by my spiritual misery, that I am in need of help to dare to go to God. What you consider a hindrance is instead a wing to elevate you to God. You have demolished yourself, you have humiliated yourself, you were a mighty mountain, you have made yourself a deep valley. Bear in mind that humility is like a fertilizer of the most arid soil, to prepare it to give plants and rich crops. It is a step to climb. Even more, it is a ladder to ascend to God, Who, upon seeing a humble man, calls him to Himself to exalt him, to inflame him with His Love, and enlighten him with his lights, so that he may see. That is why I say to you that you already are in the Light, on the right Way, towards the true Life of the children of God. 6 But in order to receive the Grace I must enter the Church, receive Baptism that cleanses us from sin and makes us once again the adoptive sons of God. I am not against that. On the contrary! I have destroyed the son of the Law in myself, I can no longer esteem and love the Temple. But I do not want to be nothing. So I must rebuild the new man and the new faith on the ruins of my past. But I think that apostles and disciples are mistrustful and prejudiced against me, the great stubborn rabbi... John interrupts him saying: You are wrong, Gamaliel. I am the first who loves you and I should mark the day, on which I could call you a lamb of the flock of Christ, as a day of an extremely great grace. I should not be His disciple if I did not put into practice the teachings of the Christ. And He ordered us to have love and understanding for everybody, and especially for the weaker people, the sick, those who have been misled. He ordered us to follow His examples. And we saw that He was always full of love for repentant sinners, for prodigal sons returning to the Father, or for lost sheep. From the Magdalene to the Samaritan woman, from Aglae to the highwayman, how many He redeemed through mercy! He would have forgiven even Judas his supreme crime, if he had repented. He had forgiven him so many times! I alone know how much He loved him, although He was aware of every action of his. Come
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with me. I will make you a son of God and a brother of the Christ Saviour. You are not the Pontiff. Peter is the Pontiff. And will Peter be good to me? He is, I know, quite different from you. He was. But since he has realised how weak he was, to the point of being a coward and a denier of his Master, he no longer is what he was, and he has mercy on everybody. Then take me to him at once. I am old and I have delayed too long. I felt that I was too unworthy, and I was afraid that all the servants of Jesus judged me in the same manner. Now that Mary's words and yours have comforted me, I want to enter the Flock of the Master at once, before my old heart, crushed by so many things, stops. Lead me there, because I dismissed the servant who brought me here, so that he might not hear anything. He will come back at the first hour. But I shall be already far away then. And in two ways. From this house and from the Temple. For ever. First I, a rebel son, will go to the house of the Father, I, a lost sheep, to the true Fold of the eternal Shepherd. Then I will go back to my far away house, to die there in peace and in the grace of God. 7 With a spontaneous impulse Mary embraces him saying: May God give you peace. Peace and eternal glory, because you have deserved them by showing your real thoughts to the mighty leaders of Israel, without fearing their reactions. May God be always with you. May God give you His blessing. Gamaliel searches for Her hands again. He takes them in his own and kisses them, he kneels down begging Her to lay those blessed hands on his old tired head. Mary satisfies him. She does even more. She traces the sign of the cross on his bent head. Then, with John, She helps him to stand up, She takes him to the door and remains looking at him go away, led by John, towards the true Life: a man, humanly finished, but supernaturally re-created.

644. Peter Converses with John. 4th November 1951. Peter and John are on the terrace of Simon's house, which is all lit up by the moon at her summit. They are speaking in low voices, pointing towards Lazarus' house, which is all closed and silent. They speak for a long time, walking backwards and forwards on the terrace. Then, for I wonder which reason, the discussion becomes more animated, and their voices, previously subdued, become higher in tone and very clear. Peter, striking the parapet with his fist, exclaims: But do you not understand that we must act so? I am speaking to you in God's name, so listen to me and do not be obstinate. It is better to act as I say. Not out of cowardice and fear, but to avoid a total destruction, which would be deleterious to the Church of Christ. They now watch every move of ours. I noticed that, and Nicodemus has confirmed that I am right. Why could we not remain at Bethany? Just for that reason. Why is it not more prudent to stay in this house, or in Nicodemus', or in Nike's, or in Anastasica's? Always for the same reason. To prevent the Church from dying, because of the death of its leaders. The Master assured us many a time that not even hell will be able to exterminate it and prevail against it John replies to him.
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That is true. And hell will not prevail, as it did not prevail against the Christ. But men will. As they prevailed against the Man-God, Who defeated Satan, but was not able to gain a victory over men. Because He did not want to win. He had to redeem, and so he had to die. And of that death. But if He had wanted to defeat them! How many times He avoided the snares of all kinds they set for Him! Snares will be laid also for the Church, but it will not perish completely, providing we shall have so much prudence, as to prevent the present leaders from being exterminated, before many more Priests of His, of all ranks, are created by us, His first ones, and prepared for their ministry. Do not deceive yourself, John! Pharisees, scribes, priests and members of the Sanhedrin, are doing everything to kill the shepherds, so that the flock may be dispersed. The flock which is still weak and fearful. Above all, this flock in Palestine. We must not leave it without shepherds, until many lambs, in turn, become shepherds. You have seen how many have already been killed. 2Think of what a large part of the world is awaiting us! His order was clear: Go and evangelize all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe what I ordered you". And on the shore of the lake, for three times He ordered me to pasture His sheep and His lambs, and He prophesied that only when I am old I will be tied and led to confess the Christ with my blood and my life. And quite far from here! If I have understood one of His speeches properly, before Lazarus' death, I have to go to Rome and found there the immortal Church. And did He Himself not judge that it was right to withdraw to Ephraim, because His evangelization had not yet been accomplished? And only at the right moment He came back to Judaea to be arrested and crucified. Let us imitate Him. No one can certainly say that Lazarus, Mary and Martha were fearful people. And yet, you can see that, although with deep sorrow, they have gone away from here, to take His divine Word elsewhere, as here it would have been suffocated by the Judaeans. I, chosen by Him as His Pontiff, have decided. And with me the others, apostles and disciples, have equally decided. We will scatter. Some will go to Samaria, and some towards the great sea, and some towards Phoenicia, pushing on and on, to Syria, to the islands, to Greece, to the Roman Empire. If in these places here, darnel and Judaean poison make the fields and the vineyards of the Lord sterile, let us go elsewhere and sow other seeds in other fields and vineyards, so that there may be not only a harvest, but it may be a rich one. If in these places the hatred of the Jews poisons the waters and infects them, so that I, a fisher of souls, and my brothers cannot catch souls for the Lord, let us go to other waters. We have to be prudent and shrewd at the same time. Believe me, John. 3 You are right. But I was insisting because of Mary. I cannot, I must not leave Her. We should both suffer too much. And it would be an evil deed, on my side... John replies to him. You will stay. And She will stay, because it would be absurd to tear Her away from here... And Mary would never agree to it. I will join you later. When She is no longer on the Earth. You will come. You are young... You have still a long time to live. And Mary a very short one. Why? Is She ill, suffering, weak, perhaps?

Oh! no! Time and sorrows have had no power over Her. She is always young, in appearance and in spirit. Serene, even more, I should say blissful. Then why do you say... Because I realise that Her flourishing in beauty and joy is the sign that She feels already close at hand Her reunion with Her Son. I mean a total reunion. Because the spiritual one has never ceased. I will not lift the veils on the mysteries of God. But I am sure that She sees Her Son daily, in His glorious appearance. And that is Her beatitude. I think that in contemplating Him, Her spirit is enlightened and is able to know all the future, as God knows it. Also Her own. She is still on the Earth with Her body, but I could almost say, without fear of mistaking, that Her spirit is almost always in Heaven. Such is Her union with God that I do not think that I speak a sacrilegious word saying that God is in Her, as when She carried Him in Her womb. Even more. As the Word was united to Her to become Jesus Christ, so now She is so united to the Christ as to be a second Christ, as to have taken on a new humanity, that of Jesus Himself. If what I say is heresy, may God let me know my error and forgive me for it. She lives in love. This fire of love inflames Her, nourishes Her, enlightens Her, and that fire of love will also abduct Her from us, at the destined moment, without any pain for Her, without decomposition for Her body... We alone will be grieved... I in particular... We shall no longer have our Teacher, our Guide, our Comforter... And I shall be really all alone... And John, whose voice was already trembling striving to repress his tears, is seized with a fit of heart-rending sobbing, such as he never experienced before, not even at the foot of the Cross or in the Sepulchre. 4 Peter also, although more calmly, begins to weep and in a tearful voice he implores John to inform him, if he can, so that he may be present at Her passage or at least, at Her burial. I will do so, if I can. But I doubt it very much. Something within me tells me that as it happened to Elijah who was abducted by a celestial whirlwind on a chariot of fire, so it will happen to Her. I shall not have time to become aware of Her imminent passage that She will already be in Heaven with Her soul. But Her body at least will remain here. Also the Master's remained. And He was God! It was necessary for Him that it should be so. But not for Her. With His Resurrection He had to give the lie to the Judaean slanders, with His apparitions He had to convince the world, that had become doubtful, and even negatory, because of His death on the Cross. But She does not need that. If, however, I can do so, I will let you know. Goodbye, Peter, my Pontiff and my Brother in the Christ. I am going back to Her, as She is certainly waiting for me. God be with you. And with you. And tell Mary to pray for me and to forgive me once again for my cowardice in the night of the Trial, a memory that I cannot cancel from my heart, and gives me no peace... and tears stream down the cheeks of Peter, who concludes: May She be a Mother to me. A Mother of love for Her miserable prodigal son... I need not tell Her. She loves you more than a mother by blood. She loves you as the Mother of God, and with the love of the Mother of God. If She was ready to forgive Judas, whose sin was incommensurable, consider whether She has forgiven you! Peace to you, brother, I am going. And I will follow you, if you allow me. I want to see Her once again.

Come. I know which road to take to go to Gethsemane, without being seen. 5 They set out and walk quickly and in silence towards Jerusalem, but passing along the upper road, that arrives at the Mount of Olives on the side farthest from town. When they arrive it is already daybreak. They go into Gethsemane, and descend towards the little house. Mary, Who is on the terrace, sees them coming and, uttering a cry of joy, She goes down to meet them. Peter really falls at Her feet, with his face on the ground, saying to Her: Mother, forgive me! For what? Have you perhaps sinned in anything? He Who reveals everything to Me, has only revealed to Me that you are His worthy successor in the Faith. I have always found you to be a just man, even if at times impulsive. So what have I to forgive you? Peter weeps and is silent. John explains: Peter cannot set his mind at rest for having denied Jesus, in the Court of the Temple. That is a thing of the past and it has been cancelled, Peter. Has Jesus perhaps reproached you? Oh! no! Was He less loving to you than previously? No. Not really. On the contrary!... And does that not tell you how He, and I with Him, have, understood you and forgiven you? That is true. I am always the same fool. Then go and be at peace. I tell you that we shall all be together, you, ?, the other apostles and deacons, all in Heaven, near the Man-God. For what is given to Me, I bless you and as She did with Gamaliel, Mary lays Her hands on the head of Peter and traces a sign of the cross on it. Peter bends to kiss Her feet, he then stands up, much more serene than before, and still in the company of John, he goes back to the upper gate, passes it, and goes away, while John, after closing that entrance, goes back to Mary.

645. The Blissful Passage of the Blessed Virgin. 21st November 1951. Mary, in Her solitary little room, on the high terrace, all dressed in white linen, both in the dress that covers Her body, and in the mantle that, fastened at the nape of Her neck, falls down Her back, and in the very thin veil that hangs from Her head, is arranging Her garments and Jesus', which She has always kept. She picks the best ones. And they are few. Of Her own She takes the dress and the mantle She had on Calvary; of Her Son's, a linen tunic that Jesus used to wear on summer days, and the mantle that was found at Gethsemane, still stained with the blood He shed with the bloody perspiration of that dreadful hour. After folding these garments carefully and kissing Jesus' mantle stained with blood, She goes towards the chest, in which for years have been gathered and kept the relics of the Last Supper and of the Passion. She gathers all these
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things in one compartment, the upper one, and She lays the clothes in the lower one. She is closing the chest when John, who had gone up to the terrace silently and had looked in to see what Mary was doing, perhaps worried because of Her long absence from the kitchen, as She had gone upstairs to spend the morning hours, makes Her turn round suddenly by asking Her: What are You doing, Mother? I have put straight what is to be kept. All the souvenirs... Everything that is witness to His infinite love and sorrow. Why, Mother, do You reopen the wounds of Your heart by looking again at these sad things? You are pale and Your hand is trembling... So You suffer seeing them John says to Her, approaching Her, as if he were afraid that, wan and trembling as She is, She might feel ill and fall on the floor. Oh! that is not why I am wan and I am trembling. It is not because they reopen My wounds... They, in fact, have never been closed completely. And yet peace and joy are in Me, and they have never been so complete as they are now. Never as now? I do not understand... The sight of those things, full of cruel memories, awakens in me the anguish of those hours. And I am only a disciple. You are the Mother... And you mean that as such I should suffer more. And from a human point of view, you are right. But it is not so. 2I am accustomed to enduring the sorrow of being separated from Him. It was always sorrowful, because His presence and closeness were My Paradise on Earth. But I always suffered them willingly and serenely, because every action of His was wanted by His Father, it was obedience to the divine Will, and so I accepted it, because I also have always obeyed the will and plans of God for Me. Every time Jesus left Me, I suffered. Certainly. I felt lonely. Only God has measured in its most real intensity My sorrow when He, a boy, left Me secretly, for the dispute with the doctors of the Temple. And yet, with the exception of the fair question that I, His mother, asked Him, as He had left Me in that manner, I did not say anything else to Him. Likewise I did not hold Him back when He left Me to become the Master... and I was already a widow, and therefore all alone, in a town that, with the exception of a few people, did not love Me. And I showed no surprise at His reply at the banquet in Cana. He was doing the will of His Father. And I was leaving Him free to do it. I could dare make a suggestion or a request. A suggestion for His disciples, a request for some poor wretch. But more than that, no. I suffered every time He left Me to go into the world, hostile to Him and so sinful that to live in it was a great suffering to Him. But how much joy every time He came back to Me! It was really so intense that it recompensed Me seventy times seven for the sorrow of the separation. The sorrow of the separation following from His Death was heart-rending, but with which words could I describe the joy I felt when He, risen from the dead, appeared to Me? Immense was the pain of the separation, which would end only when My earthly life would be completed, when He ascended to His Father. 3I am now rejoicing, immense is My joy as immense was My pain, because I feel that My life is completed. I have done what I had to do. I have completed My earthly mission. The other one, the celestial one, will have no end. God has left Me on the Earth until I also, like My Jesus, have accomplished everything of what I had to do. And I have in Me that secret joy, the only drop of balm in His

extreme tortures full of bitterness, that Jesus had when He was able to say: "Everything is accomplished". Joy in Jesus? At that moment? Yes, John. A joy incomprehensible to men. But comprehensible to the spirits that already live in the light of God and see the deep things hidden under the veils that the Eternal spreads over His secrets as King, thanks to that Light. I, so distressed, so upset by those events, associated with Him, My Son, in the abandonment of the Father, did not understand then. The Light was extinguished for the whole world in that hour, for the whole world that had not wanted to receive it. And also for Me. Not as a just punishment, but because, as I had to be the Co-Redeemer, I also had to suffer the anguish of the abandonment of divine comforts, the darkness, the desolation, the temptation of Satan of not making Me believe any longer that what He had said was possible, everything that He also suffered, in His spirit, from Thursday to Friday. But later I understood. When the Light, that had risen for ever, appeared to Me, I understood. Everything. Also the secret extreme joy of the Christ, when He was able to say: "I have accomplished everything that the Father wanted Me to accomplish. I have filled the measure of divine charity by loving the Father even unto the sacrifice of Myself, by loving men even unto dying for them. I have accomplished everything that I had to accomplish. I am dying happily in My spirit, although lacerated in My innocent flesh". I also have accomplished everything that, ab aeterno, was written I should accomplish. From the generation of the Redeemer, to the help given to you, His priests, for your perfect formation. 4The Church is now formed and strong. The Holy Spirit enlightens it, the blood of the first martyrs cement it and multiply it, My assistance has cooperated in making It a holy organism, that the love towards God and the brothers nourishes and fortifies more and more, and in which hatred, ill-feelings, envy, slander, wicked plants of Satan, take no root. God is pleased with that, and He wants you to know that from My lips, as He wants Me to tell you to continue to grow in love in order to grow in perfection, and so also in number of Christians and in power of doctrine. Because the doctrine of Jesus is the doctrine of love. Because the life of Jesus, and also Mine, have always been guided and urged by love. We rejected nobody, we forgave everybody. One only we did not forgive, because he, already a servant to the Hatred, did not want our love that had no limits. Jesus in His last farewell before His death, gave you the commandment to love one another. And He also gave you the measure of the love that you had to have for one another, saying: "Love one another as I have loved you. From this it will be known that you are My disciples". The Church in order to live and grow, needs charity. Charity above all in its ministers. If you did not love one another with all your strength, and likewise you did not love your brothers in the Lord, the Church would become sterile. And difficult and scanty would be the restoration and the superrestoration of men to their rank of children of the Most High and coheirs to the Kingdom of Heaven, because God would cease helping you in your mission. God is love. Every action of His has been an action of love. From creation to the Incarnation. From this to the Redemption. And from this to the foundation of the Church. And finally from this to the celestial Jerusalem, that will assemble all the just so that they may rejoice in the Lord. 5I am telling you these things, because you are the Apostle of love and you can understand them better than the others...

John interrupts Her saying: Also the others love and love one another. Yes. But you are preeminently the Loving One. Each of you had his peculiarity, as, after all, is the case of every creature. You, among the twelve, were always love, pure and supernatural love. Perhaps, no, certainly because you are so pure, you are so loving. Peter, instead, was always the man, the genuine impetuous man. His brother, Andrew, was as silent and timid as the other was not. James, your brother, was the impulsive one, so much so that Jesus called him the son of thunder. The other James, Jesus' brother, the just and heroical one. Judas of Alphaeus, his brother, the noble and loyal one, always. The Davidic extraction was obvious in him. Philip and Bartholomew were the traditionalists. Simon Zealot, the prudent one. Thomas, the peaceful one. Matthew, the humble one, who mindful of his past, strove to be unnoticed. And Judas of Kerioth, alas! the black sheep of the flock of Christ, the snake warmed by His love, was the satanic liar, always. But you, who are all love, can understand better and can become the voice of love for all the others, for those who are far away, to give them this last piece of My advice. You will tell them that they are to love one another and everybody, also their persecutors, in order to be one thing with God, as I was, so as to deserve to be elected spouse of the Eternal Love, in order to conceive the Christ. I gave Myself to God without limit, although I understood at once how much sorrow would come to Me for that. The prophets were present in My mind, and the divine light made their words very clear to Me. So from My first "fiat" to the Angel I knew that I was consecrating Myself to the greatest sorrow a mother can suffer. But nothing placed a limit to My love, because I know that it is, for those who make use of it, strength, light, magnet that attracts upwards, fire that purifies and beautifies what it burns, transforming and transhumanising those caught in its embrace. 6 Yes. Love is really a flame. The flame, that although it destroys what is perishable, be it a wreck, some rubble, a poor wretch, makes a purified spirit of it, worthy of Heaven. How many wrecks, how many men stained, corroded, worn out you will find on your ways of evangelizers! Do not despise any of them. On the contrary, love them, so that they may reach love and be saved. Infuse love into them. Many a time man becomes wicked, because no one ever loved him or loved him badly. Do love them, so that the Holy Spirit, after the purification, may come to dwell again in those temples, that many things made empty and filthy. God, to create man, did not take an angel or choice materials. He took some mud, the most worthless material. Then infusing His breath into it, that is, His love again, He elevated the worthless material to the sublime rank of adoptive son of God. My Son, on His way, found many wrecks of men who had fallen into filth. He never trampled on them despisingly. On the contrary He gathered them and received them and He changed them into chosen souls of Heaven. Always bear that in your minds. And do as He did. Remember everything, the actions and the words of My Son. Remember His kind parables. Live them, that is, put them into practice. And write them, so that they may remain for future generations, to the end of time, and they may always serve as a guide for men of good will, to achieve life and eternal glory. You will certainly not be able to repeat all the bright words of the Eternal Word of Life and Truth. But write as many of them as you can. The Spirit of God, Who descended upon Me so that I might give the Saviour to the world, and Who descended also upon you a first and a second time, will help you to remember, and when you speak to the crowds, in order to convert them to the

true God. You will continue that spiritual maternity that I began on Calvary to give many children to the Lord. And the same Spirit, speaking in the recreated children of the Lord, will fortify them so that it will be pleasant for them to die among tortures, to suffer exile and persecutions, to confess their love to Christ and join Him in Heaven, as Stephen and James, My James, have already done, and others as well... 7When you are the only one left, save this chest... John, growing pale and becoming upset, even more than he blanched since Mary said that She felt that Her mission was accomplished, interrupts Her exclaiming and asking: Mother! Why do You say that? Are You not well? No. I am well. Do You want to leave me, then? No. I shall be with you until I am on the Earth. But, My dear John, prepare yourself to be alone. Then You are not well, and You want to conceal it from me!... No, believe Me. I have never felt so strong, at peace, joyful, as I do now. But I have such a jubilation, such a fullness of supernatural life, that... Yes, that I think that I shall not be able to endure it while continuing to live. I am not eternal, on the other hand. You must understand that. My spirit is eternal. My body is not. And it is subject, like the flesh of every man, to death. No! No! Don't say that. You cannot, you must not die! Your immaculate body cannot die like that of a sinner! You are wrong, John. My Son died! And I shall die as well. I shall not suffer the disease, the agony, the pang of death. But as far as dying is concerned, I shall die. In any case, bear in mind, son, that if I have a desire, all Mine and only Mine, and that lasts since He left Me, it is just this one. This is My first, mighty desire, entirely Mine. I can even say: My first will. Everything else in My life was nothing but the consent of My will to the divine will. The will of God, put in My heart of a little girl by God Himself, the will to be a virgin. His will: My marriage with Joseph. His will: My virginal divine Maternity. Everything in My life was done by the will of God and by My obedience to His will. But this desire, of wanting to join Jesus, is a will entirely Mine. To leave the Earth for Heaven, to be with Him for ever and continuously! My desire of so many years! And now I feel it is on the point of becoming reality. 8Do not be so upset, John! Listen instead to My last wishes. When My body, deprived of the vital spirit, will lie in peace, do not subject Me to the customary embalmment of the Hebrews. Because I am no longer a Jewess, but a Christian, the first Christian, if one considers the situation properly, because I was the first to have Christ, Flesh and Blood, in Me, because I was His first disciple, because I was Co-Redeemer with Him and His continuator here, among you, His servants. No living being, with the exception of My father and mother, and those who assisted at My birth, has seen My body. You often call Me: "The living Ark that contained the divine Word". Now you know that the Ark can be seen only by the High Priest. You are a priest, and much holier and purer than the Pontiff of the Temple. But I want only the Eternal Pontiff to see My body at the right time. So, do not touch Me. In any case, see? I have already purified Myself, and I have put on a clean dress, the dress of the eternal wedding... 9But why are you weeping, John? Because the storm of sorrow is stirring up in me. I know that I am about to lose You. How shall I be able to live without You? I feel my heart being torn to pieces at this thought! I shall not be able to stand this grief!

You will stand it. God will help you to live, and for a long time, as He helped Me. Because, if He had not helped Me, on Golgotha and on the Mount of Olives, when Jesus died and ascended, I would have died, as Isaac died. He will help you to live and to remember what I have told you before, for the welfare of everybody. Oh! I will remember. Everything. And I will do what You wish, also for Your body. I understand as well that the Hebrew rites no longer serve for You, a Christian, and for You, the Most Pure Mother, Who, I am sure, will not be subjected to the corruption of the flesh. Your body, deified as no other mortal body, both because You have been exempted from the Sin of Origin, and even more because in addition to being the full of Grace, You contained in You Grace itself, the Word, whereby You are His most true relic, Your body cannot experience the decomposition, the rottenness of all dead flesh. This will be the last miracle of God on You, in You. And you will be preserved as You are... Do not weep, then! exclaims Mary looking at the upset face of the apostle, all washed by his tears. And She adds: If I am preserved as I am, you will not lose Me. So, do not worry! I shall lose You just the same, even if You remain incorrupt. I feel it. And I feel as if I were caught in a hurricane of sorrow. A hurricane that breaks me and knocks me down. You were everything for me, particularly since my relatives died, and the other brothers, both by blood and by mission, are far away, also beloved Marjiam, whom Peter has taken with him. I shall now be left alone, and in the strongest storm! and John falls at Her feet, weeping even more bitterly. 10 Mary bends over him, She lays Her hand on his head shaken by sobs and She says to him: No. Not so. Why are you grieving Me? You were so strong under the Cross, and it was an incomparable scene of horror, both because of the cruelty of His martyrdom and of the satanic hatred of the people! And you were so strong in comforting Him and Me, then! And today, or rather, this Sabbath evening, so serene and calm, and in front of Me Who am rejoicing for an imminent happiness of which I have a premonitory feeling, you are so upset?! Calm yourself. Imitate, even more, join what is around us and in Me. Everything is peaceful. Be at peace as well. Only the olive-trees, with their gentle rustling, break the absolute calm of this hour. But this gentle noise is so pleasant, that it sounds like the flight of angels around the house. And they are, perhaps, really here. Because angels, one or many, have always been near Me, when I have been in a special moment of My life. They were at Nazareth, when the Spirit of God made My virginal womb prolific. And they were with Joseph, when he was upset and uncertain about My state and how to behave with Me. And at Bethlehem a first and a second time, when Jesus was born, and when we had to flee to Egypt. And in Egypt when they ordered us to come back to Palestine. And - if not to Me, because the King of the angels Himself had come to Me, as soon as He had risen - and angels appeared to the pious women at the dawn of the first day after the Sabbath and gave them the order to tell you and Peter what you had to do. Angels and light always at the decisive moments of My life and of Jesus'. Light and ardour of love that, descending from the Throne of God to Me, His maid, and ascending from My heart to God, My King and Lord, united Me to God and Him to me, so that what was written that was to be accomplished, should be accomplished, and also to create a veil of light spread over the secrets of God, so that Satan and his servants should not be aware of

the accomplishment of the sublime mystery of the Incarnation, before the right time. Also this evening I feel the angels around Me, although I do not see them. And I feel a Light, an unsustainable light, grow within Me, like the light that enveloped Me when I conceived the Christ, when I gave Him to the world. A light that comes from an impetuosity of love more powerful than usual. Through a similar power of love, I snatched the Word from Heaven before time, so that He might become the Man and the Redeemer. Through a similar power of love, as the one that assails Me this evening, I hope that Heaven will abduct Me and carry Me where I long to go with My spirit to sing My imperishable "Magnificat" to God, for the things He has done to Me, His maid, with the people of the saints and the choruses of the angels, for ever and ever. 11 Probably not only with Your spirit. And the Earth will reply to You, and with its peoples and nations will glorify and honour and love You until the end of the world, as rightly Tobias predicted of You, although covertly, because You are really the One Who carried the Lord in Herself, and not the Holy of Holies. You have given God, by Yourself, as much love as all the High Priests and all the others of the Temple have not given Him throughout ages. Ardent most pure love. Because of that God will make You Most blessed. And He will satisfy My only wish, the only thing I want. Because love, when it is so complete as to be almost perfect, as the love of My Son and God, achieves everything, even what, according to human opinion, would seem impossible to achieve. Remember that, John. And inform also your brothers of that. Men will fight against you so much! All kinds of obstacles will make you be afraid of defeat, massacres by persecutors and defections of Christians of... Iscariotic morality will dishearten your spirits. Be not afraid. Love, and be not afraid. In proportion to how you love, God will help you and will make you triumph over everything and everybody. Everything can be achieved, if one becomes a seraph. Then the soul, this wonderful eternal thing, which is the very breath of God, infused by Him into us, hurls itself towards Heaven, falls like a flame at the foot of the Divine Throne, speaks and is listened to by God, and obtains from the Almighty what it wants. If men knew how to love as is prescribed by the ancient Law, and how My Son loved and taught people to love, they would obtain everything. I love thus. That is why I feel that I shall cease to be on the Earth, I through excess of love, as He died through excess of sorrow. Well! The measure of My capacity of loving is full. My soul and My body are no longer able to contain it. Love overflows from it, it submerges Me and raises Me at the same time towards Heaven, towards God, My Son. And His voice says to Me: "Come! Come out! Ascend to our Throne and to our Trine embrace!" The Earth, what surrounds Me, disappears in the bright light that comes to Me from Heaven! Noises are drowned by this celestial voice! My moment for the divine embrace has come, My dear John! 12 John, who had calmed down a little, although still somewhat upset, listening to Mary, and who at the last part of Her speech was looking at Her ecstatically, and almost enraptured as well, as pale in his face as Mary, Whose pallor, however, changes into a very white light, rushes towards Her to support Her, and in the meantime he exclaims: You are like Jesus when He became transfigured on Tabor! Your flesh is shining like the moon, Your garments are as bright as a diamond sheet placed before a very white flame! You are no longer human, Mother! The heaviness and opacity of the flesh has disappeared! You are light! But You are not Jesus, He, being God, besides being Man, could

stand also by Himself, there, upon Tabor, as He did here, on the Mount of Olives, when He ascended. You cannot. You cannot stand. Come. I will help You to lay Your tired blessed body on Your little bed. Rest. And he lovingly leads Her towards the poor bed, on which Mary lies, without taking off even Her mantle. Folding Her arms across Her breast, closing Her eyelids on Her kind eyes, bright with love, She says to John who is bent over Her: I am in God. And God is in Me. While I contemplate Him and feel His embrace, say the psalms, and any other pages of the Scriptures becoming Me, particularly in this hour. The Spirit of Wisdom will point them out to you. Then say the prayer of My Son, repeat the words of the announcing Archangel and of Elizabeth to Me, and My hymn of praise... I will follow you with what I still have of Myself on the Earth... John, struggling against the tears that rise from his heart, striving to control the emotion that upsets him, in his beautiful voice, which, as years have gone by, has become very like Jesus' - which Mary notices with a smile, saying: I seem to have My Jesus beside Me! - intones psalm one hundred and eighteen, which he says almost entirely, then the first three verses of psalm fourty-one, the first eight of psalm thirty-eight, psalm twenty-two and psalm one. He then says the Our Father, the words of Gabriel and Elizabeth, the canticle of Tobias, the twenty-fourth chapter of Ecclesiasticus, from verse eleven to fourty-six. Lastly he intones the "Magnificat". But when he arrives at verse nine, he notices that Mary does not breathe any more, although She is still natural in Her posture and appearance, smiling, peaceful, as if She had not noticed that life had stopped. John, with a heart-rending cry throws himself on the floor against the edge of the bed, and calls and calls Mary. He cannot convince himself that She is no longer able to reply to him, that Her body is now deprived of the vital soul. But he has to surrender to evidence! He bends over Her face, still fixed in an expression of supernatural joy, and tears stream copiously from his eyes on that sweet face, on those pure hands so gently folded on Her breast. It is the only washing that Mary's body had: the tears of the Apostle of love and of Her son of adoption by Jesus' will. 13 When the first transport of sorrow is over, John, remembering Mary's wish, picks up the edges of Her wide linen mantle, which were hanging from the sides of the little bed, and those of the veil, which were also hanging from the pillow, and he spreads the former over Her body, and the latter on Her head. Mary is now like a statue of white marble, laid on the cover of a sarcophagus. John contemplates Her at some length, and more tears fall from his eyes as he does so. Then he rearranges the room, removing all superfluous furniture. He leaves only the bed, the little table against the wall and he places the chest with the relics on it, a stool, that he places between the door leading to the terrace and the bed on which Mary is lying, and a shelf, on which there is a lamp that John lights, as it is beginning to get dark. Then he hurries down to Gethsemane, to pick as many flowers as he can, and some branches of olive-trees, with olives already on them. He goes back up to the little room, and in the light of the lamp he arranges the flowers and the branches around Mary's body, as if it were in the centre of a huge wreath. While doing so, he speaks to the body on the bed, as if Mary could still hear

him. He says: You have always been the lily of the valley, the sweet rose, the beautiful olive-tree, the fruit-bearing vineyard, the holy ear of wheat. You have given us Your perfumes, and the Oil of Life, and the Wine of the strong, and the Bread that preserves the spirits from death, for those who worthily feed on it. These flowers look lovely here around You, as they are simple and pure like You, adorned with thorns like You and peaceful like You. Now let us put this lamp closer. So, near your bed, that it may watch over You and keep me company while I watch You, while awaiting for at least one of the miracles that I am expecting and for whose fulfillment I pray. The first one is that, according to his wish, Peter, and the others, whom I will get Nicodemus' servant to inform, may see You once again. The second one is that You, as in everything You had the same lot as Your Son, may wake up, like Him, within the third day, in order not to leave me an orphan twice. The third is that God may give me peace, if what I hope may happen to You, as it happened to Lazarus, who was not like You, should not take place. But why should it not happen? Jairus' daughter, the young man from Nain, Theophilus' son, came back to life... It is true that then the Master acted... But He is with You, even if not in a manifest way. And You did not die of a disease like those who were raised by the deed of Christ. But are You really dead? Dead as every man dies? No. I feel it is not so. Your spirit is no longer in You, in Your body, and in that respect we could say it is death. But by the way Your passage took place, I think that Yours is only a temporary separation of Your soul, without sin and full of grace, from Your most pure and virginal body. It must be so! It is so! How and when the reunion will take place and life will come back to You, I do not know. But I am so certain of this that I will remain here, beside You, until God, either with His word, or with His action, will show me the truth on Your destiny. John, who has finished arranging everything, sits on the stool, placing the lamp on the floor, near the little bed; and he contemplates the body lying on it, praying.

646. The Assumption of Our Lady. 8th December 1951. How many days have gone by? It is difficult to ascertain it. If one judges by the flowers that form a crown around the dead body, one should say that only a few hours have gone by. But if one judges by the olive branches on which the fresh flowers are lying, branches with leaves already withered, and by the other withered flowers lying like relies on the cover of the chest, one must conclude that some days have by now gone by. But Mary's body is exactly the same as it was when She breathed Her last. There is no trace of death on Her face or on Her little hands. There is no unpleasant smell in the room. On the contrary an undefinable scent like that of incense, of lilies, of roses, of lilies of the valley, of mountain herbs, all mixed together, hangs in the air of the room. John, who I wonder for how many days has been awake, has fallen asleep, overcome by tiredness, sitting on the stool, his shoulders leaning against the wall, near the open door that leads to the terrace. The light of the lamp, which from the floor shines upwards on him, allows one to see his tired face, which is
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also very pale, except around his eyes, red with weeping. It must be already dawn, because in its faint light the terrace and the olive-trees surrounding the house are visible, a light that becomes stronger and stronger and that, penetrating through the door, makes more distinct also the objects in the room, of which, being far from the little lamp, it was previously possible to catch only a glimpse. 2 All of a sudden a strong light fills the room, a silvery light, shaded with blue, almost phosphoric, and it becomes more and more intense, making the light of dawn and of the lamp vanish. A light like the one that flooded the Grotto in Bethlehem at the moment of the divine Nativity. Then in this paradisiac light, angelic creatures show themselves, a light even brighter in the already strong light that appeared first. As it already happened when the angels appeared to the shepherds, a dance of sparks of all shades bursts forth from their gently moved wings, which emit a harmonious murmur, as sweet as if it were played by a harp. The angelic creatures place themselves around the little bed, they bend over it, they lift the immobile body, and flapping their wings more vigorously, which increases the sound existing previously, through a passage opened miraculously in the roof, as miraculously Jesus' Sepulchre was opened, they go away, taking with them the body of their Queen, a Most Holy Body, it is true, but not yet glorified, and therefore still subject to the laws of matter, to which the Christ was not subject, because He was already glorified when He rose from the dead. The sound made by the angelic wings increases and it is now as powerful as the sound of an organ. 3 John, who, although still asleep, had moved twice or three times on his stool, as if he had been disturbed by the strong light and by the sound of the angelic wings, awakes completely because of that powerful sound and because of a strong current of air that, descending from the opened roof and going out through the open door, forms a vortex that shakes the covers of the bed, by now empty, and John's garments, blowing out the lamp and closing the door with a loud bang. The apostle looks around, still half asleep, to realise what is happening. He notices that the bed is empty and that the roof is open. He understands that a wonderful event has taken place. He runs out on the terrace, and as if by spiritual instinct, or by a heavenly call, he raises his head, shading his eyes from the sun, in order to see, without being prevented from doing so by the rising sun. And he sees. He sees the body of Mary, still deprived of life, and completely identical to that of a person asleep, that ascends higher and higher, supported by the angelic group. As a last gesture of farewell, a hem of the mantle and of the veil are agitated, probably by the wind caused by the rapid assumption and by the movement of the angelic wings; and some flowers, the ones that John had placed and renewed round the body of Mary, and that have certainly remained among the folds of the garments, rain on the terrace and on the ground of Gethsemane, while the mighty hosanna of the angelic group moves farther and farther away and thus becomes fainter. John continues to stare at that body that rises towards Heaven and, certainly through a prodigy granted to him by God, to comfort him and to reward him for his love for his adoptive Mother, he distinctly sees Mary, enveloped now in the beams of the sun that has risen, come out of the ecstasy

that had separated Her soul from Her body, become alive, stand on Her feet, as She also now enjoys the gifts typical of bodies already glorified. John looks and looks. The miracle granted to him by God enables him, against all natural laws, to see Mary as She is now, while She rapidly ascends towards Heaven, surrounded, but no longer helped to ascend, by the angels singing hosannas. And John is enraptured by that vision of beauty that no pen of man, or human word, or work of artist will be ever able to describe or reproduce, because it is of indescribable beauty. John, still leaning against the low wall of the terrace, continues to stare at that splendid shining form of God - because Mary can really be said to be so, formed in a unique manner by God, Who wanted Her immaculate, so that She might be the form for the Word Incarnate - while it ascends higher and higher. And the God-Love grants a last supreme prodigy to His perfect loving disciple: to see the meeting of the Most Holy Mother with Her Most Holy Son, Who splendid and shining as well, handsome with indescribable beauty, descends rapidly from Heaven, arrives at His Mother, presses Her to His heart, and together, more refulgent than two major planets, returns with Her whence He came. 4 John's vision is over. He lowers his head. On his tired face are visible both his sorrow for the loss of Mary and his joy for Her glorious destiny. But by now joy exceeds sorrow. He says: Thanks, my God! Thanks! I foresaw that this would happen. And I wanted to be awake, in order not to lose any episode of Her Assumption. But I had not slept for three days now! Sleep, tiredness, joined to sorrow, overcame and defeated me just when Her Assumption was imminent... But perhaps You wanted that Yourself, o God, so that I should not upset that moment and I should not suffer too much... Yes. You certainly wanted it, as now You wanted me to see what, without a miracle of Yours, I could not have seen. You have granted me to see Her again, although already so far, already glorified and glorious, as if She were close to me. And to see Jesus again! Oh! most happy, unhoped for and not to be hoped for vision! O gift of the gifts of Jesus-God to His John! Supreme Grace! To see my Master and Lord again! To see Him near His Mother! He like a sun, She like a moon, both most splendid, because they were glorious and happy to be reunited for ever! What will Paradise be like now that You both shine in it, You major planets of the heavenly Jerusalem? What is the jubilation of the angelic choruses and of the saints? It is such the joy that the vision of the Mother with Her Son has given me, a thing that cancels every pain of His, every pain of theirs, even more, also mine ceases, and peace takes over in me. Of the three miracles that I had asked of God, two have been accomplished. I have seen life come back to Mary, and I feel peace come back to me. All anguish of mine ends, because I have seen You reunited in glory. Thanks for that, o God. And thanks for having made it possible for me to see, even for a most holy creature, but still human, what is the lot of saints, what it will be after the last judgement, and the resurrection of the bodies, and their rejoining, their fusion with their spirits, that have ascended to Heaven at the moment of their death. I did not need to see to believe. Because I have always firmly believed every word of the Master. But many will doubt that, after ages and thousands of years, the flesh, that has become dust, can become a living body. I shall be able to tell them, swearing on the most sublime things, that not only the Christ became alive again, by His own divine power, but that

also His Mother, three days after Her death, if death it can be called, came to life again, and with Her flesh joined to Her soul took up Her eternal abode in Heaven, beside Her Son. I shall be able to say: "Believe, o Christians, in the resurrection of bodies, at the end of time, and in the eternal life of souls and bodies, a blissful life of saints, horrible for unrepentant guilty people. Believe and live as saints, as Jesus and Mary lived, in order to have their same lot. I have seen their bodies ascend to Heaven. I can bear witness to that. Live as just people, so that one day you may be in the new eternal world, in body and soul, near Jesus-sun, and near Mary the Star of all stars". Thank You again, o God! 5 And now let us put together what is left of Her. The flowers that fell from Her garments, the olive branches left on the bed, and let us keep them. They will serve... Yes, they will serve to assist and comfort my brothers, whom I have awaited in vain. Sooner or later I will find them... He picks up the petals of the flowers that had been shed in falling, he goes back into the room, holding them in a fold of his tunic. He then looks more carefully at the opening in the roof and exclaims: Another miracle! And another wonderful proportion in the prodigies of the lives of Jesus and Mary! He, God, rose by Himself, and by His own will He overturned the stone of His Sepulchre, and only with His own power He ascended to Heaven. By Himself. Mary, the Most Holy Mother, but a daughter of man, by means of angelic help had the passage opened for Her assumption to Heaven, and always through angelic help She ascended there. In the Christ the spirit came back to animate His Body while it was still on the Earth, because it had to be so, to silence His enemies, and to confirm all His followers in their faith. In Mary the spirit came back when Her most holy body was already at the threshold of Paradise, because there was no other need for Her. Perfect power of the Infinite Wisdom of God!... John now gathers in a piece of cloth the flowers and branches that were still on the little bed, he adds to them those that he had gathered outside, and lays them all on the cover of the chest. He then opens it and puts the little pillow of Mary and the coverlet of the little bed into it; he goes down into the kitchen, he collects other utensils used by Her - the spindle and distaff and Her kitchenware - and adds them to the other things. 6 He closes the chest and sits on the stool exclaiming: Now everything is accomplished also for me! Now I can go freely wherever the Spirit of God will lead me. I can go! And sow the Divine Word that the Master gave me so that I may give it to men. And teach Love. Teach them so that they may believe in Love and in its power. Let them know what the God-Love has done for men. His Sacrifice and His perpetual Sacrament and Rite, by means of which, until the end of time, we shall be able to be united to Jesus Christ in the Eucharist and renew the Rite and the Sacrifice as He ordered us to do. All the gifts of the perfect Love! Make them love the Love, so that they may believe in Him, as we believed and believe. Sow the Love so that the harvest and the catch may be abundant for the Lord. Love achieves everything, Mary told me in Her last conversation with me, whom She justly defined, in the Apostolic College, the one who loves, the preeminent loving one, the antithesis of the Iscariot, who was hatred, as Peter was impetuousness, and Andrew meekness, the sons of Alphaeus holiness and wisdom joined to nobility of manners, and so forth. I, the loving disciple, now that I no longer have the Master and the Mother to love on the Earth, will go and spread love among the nations. Love will be my

weapon and my doctrine. And be means of it I will defeat the demon, heathenism and will conquer many souls. I will thus continue Jesus and Mary, Who were perfect love on the Earth.

647. On the Passage, the Assumption and Royalty of the Blessed Virgin. 18th April 1948. [Mary says:] Did I die? Yes, if you call death the separation of the choice part of the spirit from the body. No, if by death you understand the separation of the vivifying soul from the body, the corruption of the flesh no longer vivified by the soul, and before that, the lugubrious sepulchre, and before all these things, the pangs of death. How did I die, or better, how did I pass from the Earth to Heaven, first with My immortal part, then with the perishable one? As it was fair for Her Who did not become acquainted with the stain of sin. 2 That evening, the Sabbatic rest had already begun, I was speaking to John. About Jesus and His things. The evening hour was full of peace. The Sabbath had abated all noises of human works. And the hour was abating every voice of man and bird. Only the olivetrees around the house were rustling in the evening breeze, and a flight of angels seemed to graze the walls of the solitary house. We were speaking of Jesus, of the Father, of the Kingdom of Heaven. To speak of Love and of the Kingdom of Love, is to become lit with the living fire, consuming the bonds of matter to let the spirit free for its mystic flights. And if the fire is contained within the limits fixed by God to preserve creatures on the Earth, at His service, it is possible to live and burn, finding in the ardour not the consumption, but the completion of life. But when God removes the limits and gives freedom to the divine Fire to assail and attract the spirit to Itself without any measure, then the spirit, replying in turn without measure to the Love, detaches itself from matter and flies where the Love urges and invites it. And it is the end of the exile and the return to the Fatherland. That evening, the incontainable ardour, the measureless vitality of My spirit was joined by a sweet languor, by a mysterious sensation that matter was moving away from what surrounded it, as if My body, tired, were falling asleep, whilst My intellect, even livelier in its reasoning, was sinking, into the divine brightness. John, the loving prudent witness of every action of Mine, since he had become My adoptive son, according to the will of My Only-Begotten Son, kindly convinced Me to rest on the little bed and he watched Me praying. The last sound I heard on the Earth was the murmur of the words of John, the virgin apostle. They were for Me like a lullaby of a mother near a cradle. And they accompanied My spirit in its last ecstasy, too sublime to be describe. They accompanied Me as far as Heaven. 3 John, the only witness of this sweet mystery, arranged Me by himself, enveloping Me in My white mantle, without changing My dress or veil, without any washing or embalming. The spirit of John, as is evident from his words of the second episode of this cycle that goes from the Pentecost to My Assumption,
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already knew that I would not decay, and it taught the Apostle what to do. And he, chaste, loving, prudent with regard to the mysteries of God and his remote companions, decided to keep the secret and to wait for the other servants of God, so that they could see Me again, and draw comfort and assistance from that sight for the pains and hardships of their mission. He waited, as if he were certain of their coming. But the decree of God was different. Good as always for the Favourite. Just as usual for all the believers. He made the eyes of the former heavy with sleep, so that he might be spared the torture of seeing also My body abducted from him. He presented the believers with a further truth that would encourage them to believe in the resurrection of the flesh, in the reward of an eternal blissful life granted to the just, in the most mighty and pleasant truths of the New Testament: My Immaculate Conception, My Divine virginal Maternity, in the divine and human Nature of My Son, true God and true Man, born not by human will but through divine nuptials and divine seed laid in My womb, and lastly, that they might believe that in Heaven there is My Heart of the Mother of all men, palpitating with anxious love for everybody, just people and sinners, eager to have you all with It in the blessed Fatherland for ever. 4 When I was taken out of the little house by the angels, had My spirit already come back to Me? No. My spirit was not to descend again on the Earth. It was, adoring, before the Throne of God. But when the Earth, the exile, the time and the place of the separation from My One and Trine Lord were left for ever, My spirit came back to shine in the centre of My soul, drawing the flesh from its sleep. So it is just to say that I ascended to Heaven in body and soul, not through My own capability, as it happened for Jesus, but through angelic help. I awoke from that mysterious and mystic sleep, I rose, I flew finally, because by now My flesh had achieved the perfection of glorified bodies. And I loved. I loved My Son, Whom I found again, and My Lord, One and Trine, I loved Him as is the destiny of all the eternal living beings. -------------------------------5th January 1944. [Jesus says:] When Her last hour came, like a tired lily that, after exhaling all its scents, bends under the stars and closes its snow-white calyx, Mary, My Mother, lay on Her little bed and closed Her eyes on everything surrounding Her, to collect Her thoughts in a last serene contemplation of God. Bending over Her rest, the angel of Mary was anxiously waiting for the climax of the ecstasy to separate that spirit from the flesh, for the time decreed by God, and to separate it for ever from the Earth, while the sweet inviting command of God was already descending from Heaven. John, an earthly angel, bent, in his turn, over that mysterious rest, was watching the Mother Who was about to leave him. And when he saw that She had breathed Her last, he continued to watch Her, so that, not violated by profane curious eyes, She should remain, even beyond death, the Immaculate Spouse and Mother of God, so placid and beautiful in Her sleep. 6 A tradition says that only flowers were found in the urn of Mary, when it was opened by Thomas. It is a sheer legend. No sepulchre swallowed the corpse of Mary, because there never was a corpse of Mary, according to human sense, because Mary did not die as whoever lived dies.
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By divine decree, She was only separated from Her spirit, and Her most holy flesh once again joined the spirit that had preceded it. By inverting the habitual laws, according to which an ecstasy ends when the rapture ceases, that is, when the spirit returns to its normal state, it was Mary's body that went to join the spirit, after a long rest on the funereal bed. Everything is possible to God. I came out of the Sepulchre with no other help than My own power. Mary came to Me, to God, to Heaven, without experiencing the sepulchre with its horror of lugubrious rottenness. It is one of the most refulgent miracles of God. Not the only one, really, if we remember Enoch and Elijah who, being dear to the Lord, were abducted from the Earth, without experiencing death, and translated elsewhere, to a place known only to God and to the celestial inhabitants of Heaven. They were just, but always nothing as compared with My Mother, inferior, in holiness, only to God. That is why there are no relies of the body or of the sepulchre of Mary. Because Mary had no sepulchre, and Her body was brought to Heaven. -------------------------------8th and 15th July 1944. [Mary says:] The conception of My Son was an ecstasy. A greater ecstasy to give birth to Him. The ecstasy of ecstasies My passage from the Earth to Heaven. Only during the Passion no ecstasy made My cruel suffering endurable. The house, from which I was abducted to Heaven, was one of the countless generosities of Lazarus, for Jesus and His Mother. The little house of Gethsemane, near the place of His Ascension. It is useless to look for its remains. In the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, it was devastated, and its ruins were scattered in the course of ages. -------------------------------18th December 1943.
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[Mary says:] As the birth of My Son was an ecstasy to Me, and from the rapture in God that seized Me in that hour, I came to Myself and to the Earth with My Child in My arms, so My improperly called "death" was a rapture in God. Relying on the promise I had received on the bright morning of Pentecost, I thought that the approaching of the last coming of the Love, to abduct Me with Him, should manifest itself with an increase of the fire of love that always burnt in Me. And I was not wrong. As far as I was concerned, the more time passed, the more My desire to blend with the Eternal Love increased. I was urged by the desire to join My Son and by the certainty that I could never do so much for men as when I was at the foot of the Throne of God, praying and operating on their behalf. And with a motion more and more inflamed and rapid, I used to cry to Heaven with all the strength of My soul: "Come, Lord Jesus! Come, Eternal Love!". 9 The Eucharist, that was for Me like dew for a parched flower, was indeed life, but the more time passed the more it became insufficient to satisfy the irrepressible eagerness of My heart. It was no longer sufficient for Me to receive My Divine Creature in Me and carry Him within Me in the Sacred Species, as I had carried Him in My virginal body. My whole self wanted the God One and Trine, but not under the veils chosen by My Jesus to hide the ineffable mystery
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of the Faith, but as He was, is, and will be in the centre of Heaven. My Son Himself, in His Eucharistic transports, inflamed Me with embraces of infinite desire, and every time He came to Me, with the power of His love, He almost eradicated My soul at first, then He remained calling Me with infinite fondness: "Mother!", and I felt that He was anxious to have Me with Him. 10 I longed for nothing else. Even the desire to protect the newborn Church was no longer in Me, in the last days of My mortal life. Everything was cancelled by the desire to possess God, as I was convinced that one can do everything when one possesses Him. Endeavour, o Christians, to arrive at such total love. Let all earthly things be of no value. Aim only at God. When you are rich in this poverty of desire, which is an immeasurable wealth, God will bend over your spirits, to teach them first, to take them later, and you will ascend with them to the Father, to the Son, to the Holy Spirit, to know them and love them for the blessed eternity and to possess their riches of graces for your brothers. Men are never so active for their brothers as when they are no longer among them, but they are lights reunited to the Divine Light. 11 The approach of the Eternal Love had the sign that I expected. Everything became devoid of light and colour, voice and presence in the brightness and the Voice that, descending from Heaven, open to My spiritual sight, were coming down upon Me to take My soul. People say that I would have rejoiced at being assisted, in that hour, by My Son. But My sweet Jesus was indeed present with the Father when the Love, that is the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Eternal Trinity, kissed Me for the third time in My life, with a kiss so powerfully divine that My soul exhaled, becoming lost in contemplation, like a drop of dew absorbed by the sun in the calyx of a lily. And I ascended with My spirit singing hosannas to the feet of the Three, Whom I had always worshipped. Then, at the right moment, like a pearl in a setting of fire, assisted at first, then followed by the procession of the angelic spirits who had come to assist Me in My eternal celestial birth, expected by My Jesus even before the threshold of Heaven, and on its threshold by My just earthly spouse, by the Kings and Patriarchs of My stock, by the first saints and martyrs, I entered as Queen, after so much grief and so much humility of the poor maid of God, into the kingdom of infinite delight. And Heaven closed again on the joy of having Me, of having its Queen, Whose flesh, the only one among all mortal flesh, was acquainted with glorification before the final resurrection and the last judgement. -------------------------------1st May 1946. [Jesus says:] There is difference between the separation of the soul from the body, through real death, and the temporary separation of the spirit from the body and from the vivifying soul, through ecstasy or contemplative rapture. While the separation of the soul from the body brings about death, the ecstatic contemplation, that is, the temporary flight of the spirit outside the barriers of senses and matter, does not bring about death. And that because the soul does not become completely detached and separated from the body, but it does so only through its better part, that plunges into the fire of contemplation.
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All men, as long as they live, have a soul within themselves, dead or alive as it may be, through sin or justice; but only the deep loving souls of God arrive at real contemplation. This proves that the soul, that keeps the body alive while it is united to it and this peculiarity applies to all men in the same way - has in itself a more noble part: the soul of the soul, or spirit of the spirit, which in just people is very strong, whereas in those who cease to love God and His Law, even if only through their tepidness and venial sins, it becomes weak, depriving the person of the capability to contemplate and know God and His eternal truths, as far as a human creature can do so, according to the degree of perfection achieved. The more a creature loves and serves God with all its strength and power, the more the nobler part of its spirit increases its capacity to know, to contemplate and penetrate the eternal truths. 14 Man, gifted with a rational soul, is a capacity that God fills with Himself. As Mary, after the Christ, was the most holy of all creatures, She was a capacity so full of God, of His graces, charity and mercy, as to overflow on the brothers in Christ of all ages and until the end of time. She passed away submerged by the waves of love. Now, in Heaven, where She has become an ocean of love, She overflows Her waves of charity on Her sons faithful to Her and also on Her prodigal ones, for their universal salvation, as She is the universal Mother of all men. -------------------------------December 1943.
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[Mary says:] My humility could not allow Me to think that so much glory was reserved for Me in Heaven. In My mind there was the almost certainty that My human flesh, made holy by carrying God, would not have experienced decay, because God is Life, and when He sates and fills a creature with Himself, this action of His is like an aroma that preserves from the corruption of death. I had remained not only immaculate, not only I had been united to God with a chaste prolific embrace, but I was sated, even as far as My innermost recesses, with the emanations of the Divinity concealed in My womb and intent on being veiled with mortal flesh. But that the kindness of the Eternal Father had reserved for His maid the joy of feeling again the touch of My Son's hand on My body, His embrace, His kiss, and of hearing again His voice with My ears, of seeing His face with My eyes, I could not think that this would be granted to Me, neither did I wish it. It would have been sufficient if these beatitudes had been granted to My spirit, and that would have filled My ego with blissful happiness. But, in witness of His first creative thought concerning man, whom He, the Creator, had destined to live, passing away without death, from the earthly Paradise to the celestial one, in the eternal Kingdom, God wanted Me, the Immaculate, in Heaven, in body and soul, as soon as My earthly life ended. I am the certain witness of what God had thought and wanted for man: an innocent life and unaware of sin, a placid passage from this life to eternal Life, whereby, like one who passes over the threshold of a house to enter a palace, man with his complete being, made of a material body and a spiritual soul, would pass from the Earth to Paradise, increasing the perfection of his ego, given to him by God, with the complete perfection, both of the body and of the
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spirit, which was, in the divine mind, destined to every creature who had remained faithful to God and to Grace. Man would have reached this perfection in the full light that is in Heaven and fills it, coming from God, the eternal Sun Who illuminates it. 16 God placed Me, elevated in body and soul to the glory of Heaven, before the Patriarchs, the Prophets, the Saints, the Angels and the Martyrs and He said: "Here is the perfect work of the Creator. This is what I created in My truer image and likeness among all the sons of man, the fruit of a divine creative masterpiece, the wonder of the Universe that sees closed in one only being the divine, in the eternal spirit like God and like Him spiritual, intelligent, free, holy, and the material creature in the most holy and innocent body, to which every other living being, in the three kingdoms of creation, is compelled to bow. This is the witness of My love for man, for whom I wanted a perfect organism and a blissful destiny of eternal life in My Kingdom. This is the witness that I have forgiven man whom, by will of the Trine Love, I granted to be reinstated and recreated in My eyes. This is the mystic stone of comparison, this is the link of junction between man and God, it is She Who takes the times back to the early days and gives My divine Eyes the joy of contemplating an Eve as I had created her, and now made even more beautiful and holy, because She is the Mother of My Word, and because She is the Martyr of the greatest forgiveness. For Her Immaculate Heart that never knew any stain, not even the lightest, I open the treasures of Heaven, and for Her head, that never knew pride, I make a wreath of My brightness and I crown Her, because She is most holy to Me, so that She may be your Queen". There are no tears in Heaven. But in place of the joyful tears, that the spirits would have shed, if they were granted to weep - the liquid that trickles squeezed by an emotion - there was, after these divine words, a sparkling of lights, a changing of splendours into more vivid splendours, a burning of charitable fires in a more ardent fire, an unsurpassable and indescribable playing of celestial harmonies, which were joined by the voice of My Son, in praise of God the Father and of His Maid for ever blissful. The Reasons for the Work. Farewell to the Work. [28th April 1947.] Jesus says: The reasons that have induced Me to enlighten and dictate episodes and words of Mine to little John are, in addition to the joy of communicating an exact knowledge of Me to this loving victim-soul, manifold. But the moving spirit of all of them is My love for the Church, both teaching and militant, and My desire to help souls in their ascent towards perfection. The knowledge of Me helps to ascend. My Word is Life. I mention the main ones: I. The reasons mentioned in dictation dated 18th January 1947 and which little John will put here integrally. This is the most important reason because you are perishing and I want to save you. The most profound reason for the gift of this work is that in the present time, when modernism, condemned by My holy Vicar Pius X, becomes corrupted in more and more harmful doctrines, the Church, represented by My Vicar, may have further material to fight against those who deny:

the supernaturalness of dogmas; the divinity of the Christ; the Truth of the Christ God and Man, real and perfect both in the faith and in the history that has been handed down on Him (Gospel, Acts of the Apostles, Apostolic Letters, tradition); the doctrine of Paul and John and of the councils of Nicaea, Ephesus and Chalcedon, as My true doctrine verbally taught by Me; My unlimited science, as it is divine and perfect; the divine origin of the dogmas of the Sacraments of the Church One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic; the universality and continuity, until the end of time, of the Gospel given by Me and for all men; the perfect nature, from the beginning, of My doctrine that has not been formed, as it is, through successive transformations, but was given as it is: the Doctrine of the Christ, of the time of Grace, of the Kingdom of Heaven and of the Kingdom of God in you, divine, perfect, immutable. The Gospel for all those thirsting for God. To the red dragon with seven heads, ten horns and seven diadems on its head, which with its tail drags a third of the stars from the sky and drops them and I solemnly tell you that they drop even lower than the earth - and persecutes the Woman; to the beasts of the sea and of the earth that many, too many worship, allured as they are by their appearance and prodigies, I ask you to oppose My Angel flying in the middle of the sky, holding the Eternal Gospel well open, also at the Pages so far closed, so that men, through its light, may be saved from the coils of the huge serpent with seven jaws, that wants to drown them in its darkness, and upon My return I may find again faith and charity in the hearts of those who persevere, and they may be more numerous than the work of Satan and of men allow one to hope they may be. II. To rouse a keen love for the Gospel and for everything pertaining to the Christ in Priests and in laymen. First of all, renewed love for My Mother, in Whose prayers lies the secret of the salvation of the world. She, My Mother, is the Conqueress of the cursed Dragon. Assist Her power by means of your renewed love for Her and of your renewed faith and knowledge of what pertains to Her. Mary has given the Saviour to the world. The world will receive salvation again from Her. III. To give spiritual masters and directors assistance in their ministry, by studying the different souls of the world in which I lived and the different methods used by Me to save them. Because it would be foolish to have only one method with all the souls. The way to attract to Perfection a just person who spontaneously tends to it, is different from that to be used with a believer in sin, and from that to be used with a Gentile. You have many of them also among you, if you succeed in judging, as your Master did, as Gentiles the poor people who have replaced the true God with the idols of power and arrogance, or of gold, or of lust, or with the idol of the pride of their knowledge. And different is the method to be used to save modernproselytes, that is those who have accepted the Christian idea, but not the Christian citizenship, as they belong to separated Churches. No one is to be despised, and these lost sheep less than everyone. Love them and try to lead them back to the Only Fold, so that the desire of the Shepherd Jesus may be fulfilled. Some people, when reading this Work, will object: "It does not appear from

the Gospel that Jesus was in touch with Romans and Greeks, and consequently we reject these pages". How many things do not appear from the Gospel, or can just be detected behind thick curtains of silence, drawn by the Evangelists on episodes, of which they did not approve, because of their unbreakable Jewish frame of mind! Do you think that you know everything I did? I solemnly tell you that not even after reading and accepting this illustration of My public life will you know everything about Me. I would have killed My little John, in the fatigue of reporting all the days of My ministry and all the actions performed on each day, if I had made him acquainted with everything so that he might transmit everything to you! "Then there are other things done by Jesus, which, if written one by one, I think that the world would not be able to contain the books that should be written" says John. Apart from the hyperbole, I solemnly tell you that if all My single actions had to be written, all My particular lessons, My penances and prayers to save a soul, it would have taken the halls of one of your libraries, and one of the largest, to contain the books speaking of Me. And I also solemnly tell you that it would be much more advantageous for you to burn so much useless dusty poisonous science, to make room for My books, than to know so little of Me and worship so much that press that is almost always soiled with lust and heresy. IV. To reinstate in their truth the figures of the Son of Man and of Mary, true children of Adam by flesh and blood, but of an innocent Adam. The children of the Man were to be like us, if our First Parents had not depreciated their perfect humanity - in the sense of man, that is of a creature in which there is the double nature, spiritual, in the image and likeness of God, and the material nature - as you know they did. Perfect senses, that is, subject to reason even in their great efficiency. In the senses I include both the moral and the corporal ones. Therefore total and perfect love both for Her spouse, to whom She is not attached by sensuality, but only by a tie of spiritual love, and for Her Son. Most loved. Loved with all the perfection of a perfect woman for the child born of Her. That is how Eve should have loved: like Mary: that is, not for what physical enjoyment her son was, but because that son was the son of the Creator and out of obedience accomplished to His order to multiply the human race. And loved with all the ardour of a perfect believer who knows that that Son of Hers is not figuratively but really the Son of God. To those who consider Mary's love for Jesus too affectionate, I say that they should consider who Mary was: the Woman without sin and therefore without fault in Her love towards God, towards Her relatives, towards Her spouse, towards Her Son, towards Her neighbour; they should consider what the Mother saw in Me besides seeing the Son of Her womb, and finally that they should consider the nationality of Mary. Hebrew race, eastern race, and times very remote from the present ones. So the explanation of certain verbal amplifications, that may seem exaggerated to you, ensues from these elements. The eastern and Hebrew styles are flowery and pompous also when commonly spoken. All the writings of that time and of that race prove it, and in the course of ages the eastern style has not changed very much. As twenty centuries later you have to examine these pages, when the wickedness of life has killed so much love, would you expect Me to give you a Mary of Nazareth similar to the arid superficial woman of your days? Mary is what She is, and the sweet, pure, loving Girl of Israel, the Spouse of God, the

Virgin Mother of God cannot be changed into an excessively morbidly exalted woman, or into a glacially selfish one of your days. And I tell those, who consider Jesus' love for Mary too affectionate, to consider that in Jesus there was God, and that God One and Trine received His consolation by loving Mary, Who requited Him for the sorrow of the whole human race, and was the means by which God could glory again in His Creation that gives citizens to His Heavens. And finally, let them consider that every love becomes guilty when, and only when it causes disorder, that is, when it goes against the Will of God and the duty to be fulfilled. Now consider: did Mary's love do that? Did My love do that? Did She keep Me, through selfish love, from doing all the Will of God? Through a disorderly love for My Mother, did I perhaps repudiate My mission? No. Both loves had but one desire: to accomplish the Will of God for the salvation of the world. And the Mother said all the farewells to Her Son, and the Son said all the farewells to His Mother, handing the Son to the cross of His public teaching and to the Cross of Calvary, handing the Mother to solitude and torture, so that She might be the Co-Redeemer, without taking into account our humanity that felt lacerated and our hearts that were broken with grief. Is that weakness? Is it sentimentalism? It is perfect love, o men, who do not know how to love and who no longer understand love and its voices! And the purpose of this Work is also to clarify certain points that a number of circumstances has covered with darkness and they thus form dark zones in the brightness of the evangelic picture and points that seem a rupture and are only obscured points, between one episode and another, indecipherable points, and the ability to decipher them is the key to correctly understand certain situations that had arisen and certain strong manners that I had to have, so contrasting with My continuous exhortations to forgive, to be meek and humble, a certain rigidity towards obstinate, inconvertible opponents. You all ought to remember that God, after using all His mercy, for the sake of His own honour, can say also "Enough" to those who, as He is good, think it is right to take advantage of His forbearance and tempt Him. God is not to be derided. It is an old wise saying. V. To have an exact knowledge of the complexity and duration of My long passion, that culminates in the sanguinary Passion accomplished in few hours, that had consumed Me in a daily torture that lasted for years and years, and that had increased more and more, and with the passion of My Mother, Whose heart was pierced by the sword of sorrow for the same length of time. And urge you, through this knowledge, to love us more. VI. To show the power of My Word and its different effects according to whether the person receiving it belonged to the group of men of good will, or to that of those who had a sensual will, which is never righteous. The Apostles and Judas. Here are the two opposed examples. The former, very imperfect, rough, ignorant, violent, but with good will. Judas, learned more than most of them, refined by living in the capital and in the Temple, but of evil will. Watch the evolution of the former in Good, their ascent. Watch the evolution of the latter in Evil, and his descent. This evolution in perfection of the Eleven good ones should be watched above all by those who, through a visual mental fault, are accustomed to perverting the nature of the reality of saints, making of the man who reaches holiness by means of a hard, very hard struggle against heavy obscure powers, an

unnatural being without incentives and emotions, and therefore without merits. Because merit is really consequent on the victory over disorderly passions and temptations, a victory achieved through love for God and to attain the final aim: to enjoy God for ever. It should be watched by those who claim that a conversion should come only from God. God gives the means to be converted, but He does not do violence to the will of man, and if man does not want to be converted, in vain he has what serves other people to become converted. Let those who examine the situation consider the manifold effects of My Word not only on the human man, but also on the spiritual man. Not only on the spiritual man, but also on the human man. My Word, when it is received with good will, transforms both, leading to external and internal perfection. The apostles who through their ignorance and My humility treated the Son of Man with excessive familiarity - a good master among them, nothing more, a humble and patient master with whom it was permissible to take liberties at times excessive; but it was not irreverence on their part: it was ignorance, and it is to be excused - the apostles quarrelsome with one another, selfish, jealous of their love and of Mine, impatient with the people, somewhat proud of being "the Apostles", eager for stupendous capacities, which point them out to the crowds as gifted with an extraordinary power, slowly but continuously change into new men, bridling their passions first to imitate Me and make Me happy, then, as they became more and more acquainted with My true Ego, changing manners and love so much as to see Me, love Me and treat Me as the divine Lord. At the end of My life on the Earth, are they still perhaps the superficial merry companions of the early times? Are they, above all after the Resurrection, the friends who treat the Son of Man as a Friend? No, they are not. They are the ministers of the King, first. They are the priests of God, later. They are completely different and completely transformed. This should be considered by those who will find the apostles' nature, which was as it is described, strong, and will judge it unnatural. I was not a difficult doctor and a proud king, I was not a master who judges other men unworthy of him. I was indulgent to people. I wanted to form using raw materials, and fill empty vases with all kinds of perfections, proving that God can do everything, He can raise a son of Abraham from a stone, a son of God, and from a nonentity a master to confuse masters proud of their science, which has very often lost the scent of Mine. VII. Finally: to make you acquainted with the mystery of Judas, that mystery which is the fall of a spirit that God had favoured in an extraordinary manner. A mystery that is repeated too often and is the wound that aches in the Heart of your Jesus. To let you know how people fall changing from servants and sons of God into demons and deicides, who kill the God in them by killing Grace, so that such knowledge may prevent you from setting foot on the paths from which one falls into the Abyss, and it may teach you how to behave when trying to hold back the imprudent lambs that push on towards the abyss. Apply your intelligence to study the horrible and yet common figure of Judas, a complex in which are agitated like snakes all the capital vices that you find and have to fight in this or that person. It is the most important lesson to be learned by you, because it is the one that will be more useful to you in your ministry of spiritual masters and directors. How many people, in every state of life, imitate Judas giving themselves to Satan and meeting eternal death!

Seven reasons, as seven are the parts: I. The Hidden Life (from the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary to the death of Saint Joseph). II. The first year of the Public Life. III. The second year of the Public Life. IV. The third year of the Public Life. V. Preparation for the Passion (from Tebeth to Nisan, that is from the agony of Lazarus to the supper at Bethany). VI. The Passion (from the farewell to Lazarus to My Burial and following days until dawn on Easter Sunday). VII. From the Resurrection to Pentecost. This division of the parts is to be kept as indicated above, because it is the right one. And now? What do you say to your Master? You are not speaking to Me. But you are speaking in your hearts, and only if you may be able to do so, you speak to little John. But in neither of these two cases you speak with the justice that I should like to see in you. Because you speak to little John to grieve him, trampling on the charity for the Christian sister and the instrument of God. I truly tell you once again that to be an instrument of Mine is not a placid joy: it is continuous fatigue and effort, it is sorrow in everything, because the world gives the disciples of the Master what it gave the Master: sorrow; and at least priests, and in particular confreres, ought to help these little martyrs who proceed under their crosses... And because in your hearts, speaking to yourselves, you utter a complaint of pride, of envy, of incredulity and other things. But I will give you a reply to your complaints and to your scandalised surprise. In the evening of the Last Supper, I said to the Eleven who loved Me: "When the Comforter comes, He will remind you of everything I told you". When I spoke I always bore in mind, in addition to those who were present, all those who would be My disciples in spirit, and with truth and a will to want. The Holy Spirit, Who already with His Grace instils the faculty of remembering God into you, freeing souls from the hebetude of the Original Sin and relieving them of the obscurities that, because of the sad inheritance of Adam, envelop the brightness of the spirits created by God to enjoy His sight and spiritual knowledge, completes His work of Master by "reminding" the hearts of those who are led by Him and who are the children of God, of what I said, and which constitutes the Gospel. To remind here means to enlighten the spirit of it. Because it is nothing to remember the words of the Gospel if its spirit is not understood. And the spirit of the Gospel, which is love, can be made understood by the Love, that is, by the Holy Spirit, Who, as He has been the true Writer of the Gospel, is also its only Commentator, because only the Author of a work knows the spirit of it and understands it, even if he does not succeed in making its readers understand it. But where a human author fails, because every human perfection is rich in deficiencies, the Most Perfect and Wise Spirit succeeds. So only the Holy Spirit, the author of the Gospel, is also He Who remembers and comments and completes it in the inmost parts of the souls of God's children. "The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send you in My Name, will teach you everything, will remind you of everything I told you". (John, 14:26). "When that Spirit of Truth comes, He will teach you all the truth: because He

will not speak by Himself, but will say everything He has heard and will announce you the future. He will glorify Me, because He will take what is Mine and will announce it to you. Everything the Father has is Mine; that is why I said that He will receive what is Mine and will announce it to you". (John 16:13-14-15). Then if you object that, as the Holy Spirit is the true Author of the Gospel, one fails to understand why He did not remember what is mentioned in this work and what John makes one understand did happen, in the last words that close his Gospel, I reply to you that the thoughts of God are different from those of men, and are always just and not liable to criticism. Further: if you object that the revelation was closed with the last Apostle, and there was nothing further to add, because the same Apostle says in Revelation: "If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him every plague mentioned in the book" (22:18) and that can be understood for all the Revelation, the last completion of which is the Revelation by John, I reply to you that with this work no addition was made to revelation, but only the gaps, brought about by natural causes and by supernatural will, were filled in. And if I wanted to take pleasure in restoring the picture of My Divine Charity, as a restorer of mosaics does replacing the tesserae damaged or missing, reinstating the mosaic in its complete beauty, and I have decided to do it in this century in which Mankind is hurling itself towards the Abyss of darkness and horror, can you forbid Me from doing so? Can you perhaps say that you do not need it, you whose spirits are dull, weak, deaf to the lights, voices and invitations from Above? You ought really to bless Me for increasing with new lights the light that you have and that is no longer sufficient for you "to see" your Saviour. To see the Way, the Truth and the Life, and feel that spiritual emotion of the just of My time rise in you, attaining through this knowledge a renewal of your spirits in love, that would be your salvation, because it is an ascent towards perfection. I do not say that you are "dead", but sleeping, drowsy. Like plants during their winter sleep. The divine Sun gives you its refulgence. Awake and bless the Sun that gives itself, receive it with joy so that It may warm you, from the surface to deep inside you, it may rouse you and cover you with flowers and fruits. Rise. Come to My Gift. "Take and eat. Take and drink" I said to the apostles. "If you only knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you: 'give me a drink', you would have been the one to ask, and he would have given you living water" I said to the Samaritan woman. I say that also now: to doctors and to Samaritans as well. Because both extreme classes need it, and also those need it, who are between the two extremes. The former not to be underfed and deprived of strength also with regard to themselves, and of supernatural nourishment for those who languish with lack of knowledge of God, of the God-Man, of the Master and Saviour. The latter because souls need living water, when they perish far away from the springs. Those in the middle, between the former and the latter, the great mass of those who are not big sinners, and also of those who are static in not making any progress, through laziness, tepidness, because of a wrong concept of holiness, those who are scrupulous of not being damned, of being observant, of becoming entangled in a labyrinth of superficial practices, but dare not take a step on the steep, very steep road of heroism, so that from this work they may receive the initial incentive to come out of that immobility and set out on the heroic way.

I tell you these words. I offer you this food and this drink of living water. My Word is Life. And I want you in the Life, with Me. And I multiply My word to counterbalance the miasmata of Satan as they destroy the vital strength of the spirit. Do not reject Me. I am anxious to give Myself to you, because I love you. And My anxiety is inextinguishable. I ardently wish to communicate Myself to you to make you ready for the banquet of the celestial nuptials. And you need Me in order not to languish, to dress yourselves with dresses adorned for the Wedding of the Lamb, for the great feast of God after overcoming the affliction in this desert full of snares, of brambles and snakes, which is the Earth, to pass through flames without suffering damage, to tread on reptiles and have to take poisons without dying, as you have Me in you. And I also say to you: "Take, do take this work and 'do not seal it', but read it and have it read 'because the time is close' " (John, Revelation, 22:10) "and let those who are holy become holier" (ib. 22:11). May the grace of your Lord Jesus Christ be with all those who in this book see an approach of Mine and urge it to be accomplished, to their defence, with the cry of Love: "Come, Lord Jesus!". And to me in particular then Jesus says: As introduction to the Work you will put the first chapter of the Gospel by John, from verse one to eighteen inclusive, integrally, as it is written. John wrote those words, as you have written all those related in the Work, from dictation of the Spirit of God. There is nothing to be added or to be taken away, as there was nothing to be added or taken away from the prayer of the Our Father and from My prayer after the Last Supper. Every word of these points is a divine gem and is not to be touched. There is only one thing to be done with regard to these points: ardently pray the Holy Spirit that He may enlighten them to you in all their beauty and wisdom. When you arrive at the point where My public life begins, you will copy the first chapter of John, also integrally, from verse nineteen to verse twenty-eight inclusive and the third chapter of Luke from verse three to verse eighteen inclusive, one after the other, as if they were only one chapter. There is all the Precursor, an ascetic of few words and hard discipline, and there is nothing else to be said. Then you will put My Baptism and you will go on as I told you from time to time. And your fatigue is over. Now love remains and the reward to be enjoyed. My soul, and what should I say to you? With your spirit lost in Me you ask Me: "And now, Lord, what will You do with me, Your servant?" I could say: "I will break the clay vase to extract its essence and take it where I am". And it would be the joy of both. But I need you for a short while, and a little more, here, to exhale your perfumes which are still the scent of the Christ dwelling in you. So I will say to you as I said to John: "If I want you to stay until I come to get you, what does it matter to you to remain?" Peace to you, My little untiring voice. Peace to you. Peace and blessings. The Master says to you: "Thanks". The Lord says to you: "May you be blessed". Jesus, your Jesus, says to you: "I will always be with you because it is pleasant to Me to be with those who love Me". My peace, little John. Come and rest on My Chest. And with these words also the suggestions for the drawing up of the work have come to an end and the last explanations have been given.

Viareggio, 28th April, 1947. Maria Valtorta