PURGATORY

 

BY TORSTEN SCHWANKE

CANTO I.

This holy soul (namely, Karina of Paris)

Was still in the flesh when it was placed

In the purgatory

Of the purification of fiery love of God.

This fire scorched everything in that soul

And purified everything

That was still in a state to be purified.

This was to happen so that she could be led

Before the face of this sweet God immediately

On leaving this earthly life.

She understood, by means of this fire of love in her soul,

How it is with the souls of those believers

At the place of the purgatory,

Who are purified from that rust of the stains of sin,

From which they have not yet been purified in this earthly life.

And just as she herself was united

With this divine love in the fire of divine love

And was satisfied with all that was effected there in her soul,

Just so she understood the state of the souls

Who are in purgatory.

And she said: The souls who are in purgatory

Can have no other desire than this,

To be in that place of purification; and this because

Of the order of God, who has justly decreed it so.

These souls can no longer turn back upon themselves,

And cannot say, „I have committed such and such a sin

For which I deserve to be here“,

Nor can they say, „I wish I had not committed these sins,

So that I might now enter Paradise“;

Nor can they say, „That one“,

Nor can they say, „This one“.

„That one will get out of here quicker than I“;

Or, „I shall get out of here quicker than that one“;

Nor can they have any remembrance,

Good or bad, of themselves or of others.

But they have a very great satisfaction

In the arrangement of God,

In which He works all that pleases Him

And as long as it pleases Him.

That is why they can no longer think of themselves.

They only see the great goodness

And effectiveness of God,

Who shows so much mercy to man

In order to lead him to Himself,

So that they see neither pain nor happiness

That could happen to them in their actuality.

If they could see this,

They would not be in pure, pure love.

They cannot even see that they are

In those purgatorial sufferings because of their sins,

Nor can they hold such a vision in their spirit,

For that would be an active imperfection

Which can no longer exist in that place of purification,

For one can no longer actively sin there.

They only see the cause of their purgatory once,

When they leave this life;

After that they never see it again,

Because that would be a peculiarity in them.

And since they are in love

And can no longer turn away from it

Through their current guilt of sin,

They can no longer want or desire anything

But the pure will of pure love;

And since they are in the fire of purification,

They are in the divine order,

Which is pure love,

And they can no longer deviate from it in any way.

,

CANTO II

I do not believe that there is any contentment

That can be compared to that of a soul in Purgatory,

Except that contentment which the saints have in Paradise.

And every day this contentment grows

In these souls through God's corresponding influence;

This contentment grows because

Every day the obstacle to the corresponding

Divine influence diminishes.

The rust of sin is this obstacle;

The fire consumes the rust;

Thus the soul opens itself more and more

To the corresponding influence of God.

And as a covered object lying in the sun

Is not exposed to the irradiation of the sun,

Which is not the fault of the sun,

Which is always shining,

But the fault of the cover.

The less that thing is covered,

The more it is exposed to the sun,

And the more it is exposed to the sun.

It is, as it were, the covering

With which the souls in purgatory are covered.

It is consumed by the fire.

And the more it is consumed,

The more the soul can correspond

To the irradiation of the true sun,

Which is God.

But the more the rust of sin diminishes,

And the more it is uncovered

To the corresponding influence of God,

The more contentment in the soul in purgatory increases

The influence of God;

The one therefore increases,

The other decreases, until it is finished.

However, it is not the pain that is lacking,

It is the time for remaining

In that pain that is lacking.

As for the will, the souls in purgatory

Can never say that those pains are,

So much are they satisfied

With the disposition of God,

With which their will is united in pure love.

On the other hand, in contrast

To this satisfaction of the will thus united

With God's arrangement,

They nevertheless have a pain so intense

That no tongue could describe it

And no intellect could comprehend

Even the smallest spark of it;

This spark God has graciously shown me,

But I cannot describe it with my tongue.

And this vision, which the Lord granted me,

Has never faded from my mind.

I will say what I can say about it,

And it will be understood by him

Whom the Lord makes understand it.

CANTO III

The fundamental cause of all pain

And suffering is sin,

Original sin and personal present sin.

God created the soul pure,

Clean and free from every taint of sin

And with a sure, beatific instinct towards Him.

This urge is diminished by original sin.

If personal current sin is then added to this,

This urge decreases even more.

But the more this urge decreases in the soul,

The worse the soul becomes,

Because God can communicate less to it accordingly.

But because all good that can exist

Consists only in the participation in God,

Who communicates Himself

To the creatures accordingly,

And indeed to the creatures without reason

As He wills and has decreed,

They will never lack it,

But to the soul endowed

With reason more or less,

Depending on how God finds it cleansed

Of the obstacle of sin,

The following now results:

When a soul approaches the state

In which it was originally created

Pure and spotless by God,

Then that blissful urge is again released

And grows with such vehemence

And such ardour of love,

Which draws this soul towards its ultimate goal,

That it seems unbearable to it

To have to be hindered any further.

And since the souls in purgatory

Are without guilt of sin,

There is no obstacle between God and them

Apart from that pain

In which they are still held back,

As a result of which that urge towards God

Cannot yet attain its perfection.

And since they see with the greatest clarity

How much an obstacle means with God,

And see that this urge is held back

In accordance with the necessary law of justice,

A fire grows in them which is so fierce

That it is similar to that of hell,

Apart from the guilt.

In the damned this fire makes the will bad,

Since God does not communicate

His goodness to it accordingly.

Therefore, these souls remain in that will of despair

And wickedness which is against the will of God.

CANTO IV

From this we see what is obvious,

That the wrong will,

Directed against the will of God,

Is what constitutes the guilt of sin.

As long as this evil will in its perversity continues,

The guilt of sin continues.

And since those who are in hell have passed over

From this earthly life into the hereafter

With such an evil will,

Their guilt is not abated,

Nor can it be abated at all,

Because they can no longer change the will

With which they left this earthly life,

Namely with such an evil will.

That step of passing from this world into the hereafter

Solidifies the soul either in good or in evil,

Depending on where it is according

To its considered will, as it is written,

„Where I meet you,“ namely in the hour of death,

In the will to sin or in repentance of sin,

„There I will judge you.“

In this judgment there is no more forgiveness,

Ffor after death the free will is no longer changeable;

It is fixed in that in which it was

At the moment of death.

Those souls who are in hell

Were found at the moment of death

With the will to sin;

Thus they now carry guilt and punishment endlessly

Within themselves.

In this, the punishment is not even

As great as they deserved,

Yet the punishment they have to serve is endless.

The souls in purgatory, however,

Have only the punishment in themselves,

But not the guilt of sin,

Which has been redeemed in them through repentance.

Therefore their punishment is not endless,

But limited and finite,

And as far as time is concerned, as I said,

It becomes less and less. O misery above all misery,

which is all the greater the less it is

Heeded by human blindness!

I say that the punishment of the damned

Is not infinite in severity,

Because the sweet goodness of God

Sends the rays of its mercy even into hell;

The man who dies in mortal sin

Deserves in himself an infinite punishment

Which lasts for an infinitely long time.

But God, in His mercy,

Has only made the duration of the punishment infinite,

But limited the severity of the punishment.

Justly, God could have inflicted

A much more severe punishment

Than He actually inflicted.

Behold, how dangerous is the sin

That is done out of malice!

For man repents of it only with great difficulty;

And if he does not repent of it,

The guilt of sin remains forever,

And it lasts as long as man remains

In the will of the sin committed

Or the sin being committed.

CANTO V

But the souls in purgatory have their wills

Conformed to the will of God in everything.

Therefore, God acts upon their will,

Which is conformed to His goodness.

And therefore, as far as their will is concerned,

They are satisfied,

Since this will of theirs,

As far as the guilt of sin is concerned,

Is purified,

Both from original sin

And from personal actual sin.

As far as the guilt of sin is concerned,

These souls are so purified

That they are pure as when God created them,

For they passed over with repentance

For all their sins committed

And with the will to sin no more.

On the basis of this repentance,

God immediately forgave the guilt of sin.

Thus only the rust and ugliness remained,

As they were caused by sin in the soul.

But they will now be purified from this

In the fire of the purification on the other side.

And since these souls are completely cleansed

Of all guilt of sin

And united with God according to will,

They see God clearly according

To the degree of knowledge God grants them;

And they see what is significant

About the enjoyment of God

And that the soul was created

Precisely for this purpose.

Thus they find themselves

In a very intimately uniting conformity with their God.

Because of this conformity,

The soul's urge towards God

Draws it so much towards Him

That no expressions, images or comparisons

Can be pointed out

That would be capable of explaining

This whole matter

As the spirit actually feels it

And comprehends it in its inner feeling.

CANTO Vl

Nevertheless, I will cite a parable

That presented itself to my spirit:

If there were but one bread in the whole world,

Which must satisfy the hunger of all creatures,

And if creatures were satisfied

By the mere sight of this bread,

And if man, while he is healthy,

Has the urge to eat, he would neither become ill

Nor die by not eating.

Who, as long as he is healthy,

Has the urge to eat,

Would neither fall ill

Nor die through not eating,

The hunger for this bread would nevertheless

Grow more and more in him,

Because this very urge is there in him;

And if he knows that only that bread can satisfy him,

And that in him, if he does not have this bread,

The hunger cannot be satisfied,

He would remain in unbearable torment.

But the closer the human being would come

To this bread without being able to see it,

The more the natural desire for it would burn in him,

Which through its urge is completely directed

Towards this bread

And in which its only satisfaction consists.

If he had the certainty

That he would never be allowed to see this bread,

He would at that moment have a perfect hell.

This consummated hell is now

The lot of the damned souls,

Who are deprived of all hope

Of ever beholding the true bread,

God, the true Saviour.

But the souls in purgatory have this hunger

Because they do not yet see this bread,

Through which alone they can be satisfied,

But they have the hope of seeing it one day

And of being completely satisfied by it.

Therefore, as long as the hunger

For this bread in them

Is not yet satisfied,

They are in painful agony and torment.

CANTO VII

Furthermore, I also see this quite clearly:

Just as the pure spiritual soul

Finds no other place for rest than only in God,

Since it was created for this purpose,

So there is no other place for that soul

Which is in the state of sin than only hell,

Because God has determined this place for it.

Therefore, at that moment

When the soul has been separated from the body,

It goes to the place appointed for it,

And that without having any other guide

Than only the nature of sin;

This results for the soul which,

At the moment of its separation from the body,

Is in the state of mortal sin.

And I say thus: If such a soul,

At that step from this world to the hereafter,

Were not met by that divine ordinance

Which comes from God's justice,

It would fall into a still more painful hell,

For it would then be outside that ordinance

Which partakes of the mercy of God,

By which it is decreed that the soul

Should not suffer so painful a punishment

As it would actually deserve.

Since these souls cannot find a place

More suitable and less painful for them,

They throw themselves down there

In accordance with God's decree, as has already been said,

Than in the place decreed for them.

And so it is with regard to the purgatory:

The soul separated from the body,

Which is not yet in that purity in which it was created,

Since it recognises the obstacle

It has within itself and therefore knows

That this obstacle can only be removed

By means of the purgatory,

Immediately throws itself

Into it voluntarily.

And if it did not find this divine order

Which has the effect of removing this obstacle in it,

Then a hell would arise for this soul

At that moment which would be far worse

Than this purgatory,

Since it would have to see

That it can never reach its goal,

Which is God Himself,

Because of the existing obstacle,

Whereas this goal is in fact God Himself.

Although this goal means so much that,

In comparison, purgatory, although it is similar to hell,

As I said, would nevertheless be like nothing.

CANTO VIII

I also assert this: I see how, on God's part,

Paradise no longer has a closed gate,

For whoever wants to enter really does enter,

For God is pure mercy

And stands with His arms stretched out towards us

To receive us into His glory.

But I also see that the divine essence

Is of such purity and sptlessness,

And far more than man can even imagine,

So that the soul, which would have

Such a minimal imperfection in itself

As the tiniest splinter is large,

Would throw itself as quickly as possible

Into a thousand hells,

So as not to appear in his presence

With this very minimal blemish.

But since she sees that purgatory is intended

To remove these blemishes,

She throws herself into it,

And it seems to her that she finds great mercy

In being able to free herself in this way

From the obstacle that exists in her.

Of what importance the purification in purgatory is,

No tongue can really describe

And no heart grasp except the fact

That purgatory is a similarly painful punishment as hell;

And yet I see at the same time

That the soul which feels such a blemish in itself

Would accept the torment of purgatory

As God's mercy in comparison

With that blemish which hinders it in its love.

It also seems to me that the painful punishment

Of those who are in purgatory

Consists more in seeing that the soul

Still has something in itself

Which displeases God

And which it has voluntarily committed

Against so great a goodness of God,

Than in any other pain

Which it has to suffer in purgatory.

And this, as I say, is because the soul

Is in the state of grace

And recognises the true significance

That belongs to the obstacle

Which does not yet allow it

To approach God.

CANTO IX

All these things hitherto spoken of,

As I have been assured of them in my mind,

As far as I can understand in this life,

Are so overwhelming

That every view of this life, every word,

Every feeling, every idea, every justice, every truth,

Seems to me to be more lie than truth.

I am rather bewildered than satisfied

By the words about it,

In the place of which I find no stronger ones,

And therefore I prefer to say no more.

All these things of which I have spoken

Are nothing in comparison with what I feel in my spirit,

Because I see such a great likeness

Of God to the soul

That when he sees it in that purity

In which he created it,

He gives it a certain attraction,

And casts such a uniting look of love upon it,

And binds it to himself

And draws it to himself in such a fire of love

That would suffice to dissolve the soul,

Which after all is immortal.

And this divine attraction causes the soul

To be so transformed into its God

That one could think it was nothing at all but God.

He constantly draws it to himself

And inflames it more and more

And does not let up until he has brought it

To that state of being from which it started,

That is, to that pure purity

In which it was created.

When the soul, by virtue of the inner vision,

Feels itself attracted to God

By such a great fire of love,

It melts completely in the ardour

Of this fiery love of its sweet God,

Which it feels flowing into its spirit.

When it then sees in that divine light

How God never ceases to draw it to Himself

And lovingly guide it to its total perfection

With so much care and circumspection,

And all this only out of pure love,

When therefore the soul sees this

And God shows it in His light

That it is in that obstacle due

To which it cannot yet follow this attraction

Of God's unifying love

Which He turns towards it;

And if the soul then also realises

What it means for it still to be held back

And not yet to be able to behold the divine light;

And if to this is added that urge in the soul

Which wants to be without obstacle

In order to be attracted by this unifying love,

Then I say that the realisation

Of all these aforementioned things

Is what produces that painful agony

Which souls suffer in purgatory.

It is not as if these souls were to attach

Any particular weight to their painful punishment,

Wven if it is exceedingly great;

It means much more to them

That they still find in themselves

That opposition to the Will of God,

Which they nevertheless clearly see inflamed

By that utmost sincere love towards them,

Which attracts them so strongly

With that unifying love-look

As if it had nothing else to do at all.

Therefore, if the soul were to find

Another purgatory above this one,

In which it could be freed even more quickly

From this obstacle,

It would immediately plunge into it

With the impetuosity

Of that love

Which establishes uniformity

Between God and the soul.

CANTO X

I also see that from that divine love

Towards the soul proceed

Certain rays and lightnings

Which are so fiery and penetrating

That it seems that they must destroy not only the body,

But also the soul, if that were possible.

These rays produce two effects in the soul:

One is that they purify,

The other that they destroy.

The more you melt gold,

The nobler it becomes;

You could melt it until every imperfection

In it was destroyed.

Fire is that power which produces this effect

In material things.

But the soul cannot be destroyed in gold,

But only in itself; and the more you purify it,

The more it is destroyed in itself;

And in God the soul remains purified.

When the gold is purified to 24 carats,

It will not be further consumed by the fire,

However much you may increase it,

For the fire cannot consume the gold,

Only the imperfection of the gold consumes it.

So does the divine fire in the soul.

God keeps it in the purifying fire

Until it has consumed every imperfection in it

And led it to perfection,

Each soul according to its own way.

And when the soul is thus purified,

It remains wholly in God,

Without being anything further for itself,

For the purification of the soul consists

In the divestment of us in us;

Our true being is indeed God,

Who leads the soul to the purification of 24 carats.

From then on, the soul is incapable of suffering,

Because there is nothing left in it

That could be consumed.

Even if the purified soul were to continue

To be held in the fire,

It would no longer be painful for it,

It would rather only be the fire of divine love,

Which for the soul no longer means anything other

Than eternal life.

The soul would now be free from all antagonism,

As is the case with souls

That have attained holiness,

And that already in this life,

Provided it would still be possible

At all in this state to remain in the body.

I do not believe that God

Would leave such souls on earth;

Only through great divine influence

Would it be possible.

CANTO Xl

The soul was created with the destiny

Of all the perfection of which it was capable.

It should have attained it by leading the life

It was destined to lead without staining itself with sin.

But when it had stained itself

With original sin and with personal sins of deed,

The soul lost its extra-natural

And supernatural gifts of grace and was now dead

And could only be brought back to life by God.

When the soul was then awakened to life again

By means of baptism,

The inclination to evil remained in it,

Which makes it inclined to personal actual sin

And leads to it if resistance is not made.

Through the personal actual sin, however,

The soul again falls prey to death.

But then God awakens it to life once more

Through a very special further grace.

For the soul would now remain so defiled

And turned in on itself that,

In order to bring it back to its first state,

All those divine activities are necessary without which the soul could never return to that first state.

state in which God created it.

Now, when the soul is on the way

To return to that first state,

The ardent urge to transform itself into God

Is so great in it that this brings about its purification.

Not as if the soul could envisage purification

As purification, but that urge in it,

Which is immensely ardent

And yet at the same time impeded,

Is precisely its purification.

It is this last act of love

That accomplishes this work

Without the cooperation of man.

For man would find so many hidden imperfections

In the soul that, if he could see them,

He would fall into despair.

But this last act of love consumes all imperfections.

And only then, when they are consumed,

Does God show them to the soul,

So that it may recognise the divine working

Which kindles in it that divine fire

By which all those imperfections are consumed

Which are still to be consumed.

CANTO XII

Know that what man thinks is perfection in himself

Is a defect before God.

With all that man does

Under the appearance of perfection,

However he sees, hears, understands,

Wills, or remembers it,

In all this he defiles himself.

For if an activity is to be perfect,

It must be wrought in us without us,

Which concerns the innermost motive;

And the activity of God

Must be in God without man.

This is the activity which God works

In that last stage of influence

On the soul through pure love from Himself alone.

This influence of God on the soul

Is so penetrating and ardent

That the body which encloses the soul

Seems to pass away;

It is as if the soul were in a mighty fire

And would never get any more rest until death.

But God's love,

Which overflows into the soul,

Gives it, as I see it, such contentment

As cannot be described at all.

This contentment, however, does not take a spark

Of the painful torment away

From the souls in purgatory.

It is precisely because love

Is still hindered in them

That the painful torment arises in them.

And this pain is all the more painful

The more perfect is the love

Of which God makes the soul capable.

Thus the souls in the purification

Of the purgatory have at the same time

The greatest satisfaction and and the greatest pain.

CANTO XIII

If souls could purify

And cleanse themselves

By means of repentance,

They would be cleansed of all their guilt of sin

In a single moment;

Such ardour of repentance would arise in them

Through that knowledge they have

Of the significance of that resistance

Which does not yet allow them

To become one with their ultimate goal,

With God, who is Love.

And this you should accept as certain:

Not even the smallest detail

Of the payment of the debt

Will be remitted to those souls,

Since this has been decreed by divine justice.

This is how it looks from God's side.

On the part of the soul, however,

It is the case that it can no longer make

Any free decision of will

And that it can no longer see anything other

Than what God wants;

It does not even want to see anything else,

For it is so determined.

And if alms were made to the souls

Of those people who are still in the world,

In order to shorten their time of purification,

They can no longer turn with affect to see that,

But they leave it to God,

Which is paid for in His way.

If they could still turn to that,

It would be a being of their own,

Which would deprive them of the sight of the divine will;

But that would be hell.

CANTO XIV

Thus, in the purification of the purgatory,

The aforementioned souls stand unmoved

In the face of all that God gives them

In joyful satisfaction

Or in painful chastisement.

They can never turn back on themselves,

So much is their will inwardly transformed

Into the will of God;

His order satisfies them.

And if such a soul, which still had an hour

Of purification ahead of it,

Were already transferred into the vision of God,

It would suffer a greater torment

Than that of ten fires.

For it could not yet endure

That supreme justice

And purest goodness

Which is God;

It would also be improper on God's part.

But for that soul it would be quite unbearable

If it had to see that God had not yet been fully satisfied,

Even if only so much as the slightest twitch

Of the eyelash were lacking

For sufficient purification.

In order to get rid of this last stain of rust,

The soul would rather go to a thousand hells,

If it had the choice, than to appear in the presence of God

Not yet completely cleansed and purified.

CANTO XV

When I saw these things in the divine light,

I felt the desire to utter such a tremendous cry

That all men on this earth would be horrified,

For I would say to them: O merciful ones,

Who allow yourselves to be so dazzled in this world

That you make no provision

Whatsoever for such a tremendously significant

And important necessity as you will one day find?

You all keep yourselves covered

By the hope of God's mercy,

Which you say is so great.

But do you not see that God's great goodness

Will bring you to judgment

Because you have acted against His will?

Precisely His goodness should oblige you

To do everything He wants

And should not awaken in you the hope

Of being allowed to do evil with impunity.

For even God's justice

Cannot be eliminated; it must one day

Be fully satisfied in some way.

Do not count on saying, „I will confess

And then gain a plenary indulgence,

And so at that decisive moment I shall be cleansed

Of all my sins and then surely saved.“

Consider that such confession and repentance

As are necessary for gaining a plenary indulgence

Are so difficult to accomplish that, if you knew this,

You would tremble with fear

And be more certain of not being able to gain all this

Than of still being able to gain it.

CANTO XVI

I see those souls who are in the painful chastisement

Of purification in Purgatory

With the insight of two inner processes:

The first insight is that they gladly suffer

That painful chastisement.

Yes, it even seems to them that God is showing them

Great mercy in comparison

With what they have deserved,

Especially since they now understand what God means.

For if God's goodness

Had not tempered his justice with his mercy,

Since his mercy made satisfaction for justice

With the blood of Jesus Christ,

A single mortal sin would merit eternal hell

A thousand times over.

Therefore they see that great mercy

Has been shown to them;

They therefore gladly suffer

The painful chastisement of purgatory,

And they do not wish to renounce

A single quantum of it,

Because it seems to them that they justly deserve it,

And that it is so well ordered;

They cannot therefore complain of God either,

And it is, so far as the will is concerned,

As if they were already in eternal life.

The other process is a certain satisfaction

With God's arrangement.

You see, this arrangement of God is decreed

By His love and mercy towards souls.

God impresses these two insights

On those souls in an instant;

And since they are in the state of grace,

They grasp the same as they are,

According to their capacity.

Therefore, these two insights

Give them a great satisfaction which they never lack,

But rather which constantly grows in them

Through the ever-increasing approach to God.

However, the souls do not recognise

Both processes in and through themselves

But in God; they focus their attention on Him

Far more than on the painful torment

They suffer because they hold Him

In the highest esteem.

For any knowledge, however slight,

That one can have of God

Surpasses any pain or joy that can seize a human being.

But although the knowledge of God

Surpasses chastisement and joy,

It does not take away a spark from the souls

In purgatory, whether of contentment

Or of painful chastisement.

CANTO XVII

The kind of purification that I see

In the souls in purgatory

I also feel in my soul,

Especially in the last two years.

Every day I see and feel it even more clearly,

For I see my soul dwelling in this body

As in a purgatory which is like that purgatory.

This happens only to the extent

That the body can bear it without dying,

But constantly growing and growing

Until it is so far that it nevertheless dies.

I see my spirit alienated from all those spiritual things

That could still give it refreshment,

Namely happiness, joy and consolation.

My spirit can no longer taste any spiritual thing,

Neither in the will, nor in the intellect,

Nor in the memory, whereupon it could say:

I delight more in this thing than in that.

My innermost being has become ,

So immovable and so besieged

That all those things which refresh the spiritual

And bodily life are gradually all taken from it.

The spirit has within itself the impulse

To free itself from everything

That could be an obstacle to its perfection,

And it does so with such cruelty

That it would endure being transferred to hell

In order to reach its goal.

Therefore he removes everything

That could refresh the inner man

And besieges him so carefully

That not even the smallest splinter

Could get through without being noticed

And detested by him.

As far as the external human being is concerned,

Since the spirit does not agree with him,

He too remains so besieged

That he can no longer find anything on this earth

Which could still delight him

In accordance with human instinct.

He has no other consolation than God,

Who does all this out of love and great mercy

In order to satisfy His justice.

This insight gives the soul great satisfaction and peace.

But this satisfaction does not, however,

Lessen the painful torment,

Nor does it lessen the siege.

Such great torment, however,

Might be done to him

That he would like to get away

From this divine arrangement;

He does not separate himself

From the prison or even try to get out

Until God has done all that is necessary.

I find my satisfaction in the fact

That God‘s satisfaction is made;

I could not find a more painful chastisement than this,

To get out of God's ordinance,

So much do I acknowledge it t

To be just and full of mercy.

And she says: All these things I see and touch,

But I don't know how to find words to express

What I want to say.

What I have said I feel inwardly,

Spiritually working within me.

The prison in which I feel I am is the world;

The fetters are the body.

But the soul in the state of grace

Recognises what it means to be deprived of it

Or to be held back by some obstacle,

So that it cannot yet reach its goal.

This causes the soul great painful torment,

Especially since it is of a delicate nature

And received such dignity from God by grace

That it has become like Him

Through participation in His divine nature,

That is, He wants it to be one with Himself

Through participation in His goodness.

And as it is impossible for God

To be struck by any painful chastisement,

So it also happens to the souls

Who draw near to him:

The more they draw near to him,

The more they receive of his proper nature.

Therefore, the delay which the soul experiences

Is the cause of its painful chastisement;

This delay and this painful chastisement

Disfigure the soul in that peculiarity

Which is inherent in it by nature.

Graciously they have been shown to it;

And as it cannot have them,

But is capable of them,

It remains in painful chastisement,

Wwhich is as great as its reverence for God.

But this reverence is all the greater

The more she recognises and appreciates Him.

The more it is without sin,

The more it recognises and appreciates him,

Most of all when the soul is wholly gathered in God;

It then has no more hindrance

And recognises him without error.

And as the man who would rather be killed

Than offend God,

Though dying causes him a painful torment,

Yet the enlightenment through God

Gives him a zeal which makes him esteem

The glory of God more highly than bodily death,

So the soul which recognises the ordinance of God

Wsteems this divine ordinance

More than all inward and outward torments,

However terrible they may be.

For God, for whom it does all this,

Transcends all that can be conceived and felt.

Since the occupation with God,

Which He bestows on the soul,

However small it may be, completely engrosses it,

So that it can no longer respect anything else,

It loses all selfhood

And it no longer sees and speaks and knows

Either harm or pain in itself;

Yet it recognises all this, as already said,

In a moment, namely, At its departure from this world.

Finally, in the end, we understand

That God destroys all that is of man

And that purgatory purifies and cleanses the soul.