The Dialogue

Of the fruit of the second and third kinds of tears.

" IT now falls to Me to speak of the fruit, received by those, who are beginning to rise from guilt, through fear of punish ment, and to acquire grace. Some there are who abandon the death of mortal sin through fear of the penalty. This is a very general vocation, as has been said. What fruit does such a one receive ? This fruit, that he begins to empty the house of his soul of impurity, cleansing his free will with fear of punishment. When he has purified his soul of her guilt, he receives peace of conscience, and begins to dispose the affection of his soul, and to open the eye of his intellect, to examine his house, in which formerly, before it was empty, he could see and discern nothing but the stench of various sins. He begins to receive consolation, for the worm of conscience remains in peace, waiting, as it were, to feast on the food of virtue. As a man who has cured his stomach, and purged it of its humours, directs his appetite to food, so he waits until the hand of free-will prepares the table for him, with love of the food of virtue, after which preparation he expects to eat. And thus in truth, by exercising his soul in the first fear, and emptying his affection of all sins, he receives the second fruit, that is, the second state of tears, in which the soul, endued by the affection of love, begins to furnish the house of virtue, and the soul, although still imperfect, (we will suppose she has just risen from fear), receives consolation and delight, because her love has received pleasure from My Truth. And, through the delight and consolation which he finds in Me, he begins to love Me very sweetly, feeling the sweetness of My con solation, and that of creatures through Me. Thus, exercising

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love, who has entered into him in the house of his soul, as soon as fear has purified it, he begins to receive the fruits of My Divine Goodness.

" Wherefore, after love has entered the house of his soul to possess it, he begins to taste many, various and divers fruits of consolation. And, persevering, he at last receives the fruit of laying the table, when his soul has passed from fear to the love of virtue, having arrived at the third kind of tears. So he lays the table of the holy Cross in his heart and in his soul ; this is the table that he lays, because thereon he finds the fruit of the sweet and amorous Word declaring the honour of Me, His Father and your salvation, for which was opened My only-begotten Son's Body, giving Himself to you in food : then he begins to eat in honour of Me, and for the salvation of souls, with hatred and dis pleasure of sin. What fruit does the soul receive from this third state of tears ? I tell thee. She receives a certain strength founded on a holy hatred of her own sensuality, with a pleasant fruit of true humility and patience, which bears every scandal, and saves the soul from all suffering, cutting out self-will, from which arises all suffering, with the knife of hate. (It is only the sensual will that is scan dalised at persecutions, or at the loss of spiritual or temporal consolations, as I have before told thee, and thus comes to impatience.) The will being dead, the soul begins to taste, with tearful and sweet desire, the fruit of the tears of sweet patience.

" Oh, fruit of great sweetness, how sweet art thou to him who tastes thee in bitterness, though he please Me and taste My sweetness !

" In time of injury thou receivest peace, for, if thou art on the stormy sea, and perilous winds buffet, with great waves, the bark of the soul, thou remainest peaceful and tranquil, without any evil, covering the boat with the sweet eternal will of God, whence thou hast received thy robe of true and burning charity, into which water cannot enter. This Patience is indeed, My dearest daughter, a very queen standing on the rock of fortitude. She conquers, and is never conquered ; she does not stand alone, but is accom-

200 THE DIALOGUE OF ST. CATHERINE

panied by Perseverance. She is the marrow of Charity, she it is who shews whether the garment of Charity be the nuptial garment or not ; for if it be torn by imperfection, at once the contrary effect of impatience is proved.

" All virtues can at one time or other hide, appearing to be perfect when they are imperfect, but to thee, oh Patience, they cannot be hid. For, if this sweet Patience, the marrow of Charity, be in the soul, she proves that all the virtues are living and perfect, and, if she be not there, she shows that all the virtues are imperfect and have not yet attained to the table of the holy Cross, where Patience is conceived in self-knowledge and in knowledge of My goodness to the soul, and brought forth by means of holy hatred and anointed with true humility. To this Patience is not denied the food of My honour, and the salvation of souls, indeed, she eats of it continually, and this is the truth. Gaze, dearest daughter, on the sweet and glorious martyrs who, by their endurance, ate the food of souls. Their death gave life, they raised the dead, and dissipated the darkness of mortal sin. The world, with all its grandeurs, and kings, with all their power, could not defend themselves as they did by virtue of the queen, sweet Patience. This virtue stands like a lantern on a pole. This is the glorious fruit given by tears, when a man has arrived at love of his neighbour, eating the slain and immaculate Lamb, My only-begotten Son, with painful and anxious desire, and with intolerable pain at the offence done to Me, his Creator, not an afflictive pain, because love slays with true patience all fear and self-love which can give pain, but a consolatory suffering, for My offence alone, and the loss of the neighbour, founded in charity, which sorrow fattens the soul, rejoicing in herself, for she has in her sorrow a demonstrative proof that I am present in her by grace."

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