The Dialogue

How we are all labourers of God in the vineyard of the Holy Church ; and how each man has his own vine ; and how we all must be united in the Son of God, the True Vine.

AT this point the Eternal Truth proceeded to show her that, though He had created us without ourselves, He would not save us without ourselves. Wherefore He wishes us to use our free will by our own unfettered choice, passing our time in the exercise of true virtues, and so continuing from point to point. The Eternal Truth added, "You must all walk across this Bridge, seeking the glory and praise of My Name in the salvation of souls, enduring with patient suffering your many fatigues, following the footsteps of this sweet and amorous Word ; for in no other way can you arrive at Me, and you are My labourers, set to work in the vineyard of the Holy Church. You labour in the universal body of the Christian religion, placed there by My Grace, having received from Me the light of Holy Baptism, which

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has incorporated you into the mystical body of Holy Church, at the hands of My ministers, whom I have placed to labour at your side. You are placed in the universal body of the Church, and they are placed in her mystical body to feed your souls, ministering to you the Blood in the Sacraments which you receive from the Church, their task being to extract the thorns of mortal sin, and to plant in you the seed of grace. They are my labourers in the vine of your soul, grafted upon the vine of the Holy Church. And every rational creature has her own vine, that is the vine of her soul ; she labours this vine by means of her will and free choice in time, that is to say, while she lives, but when the time is past she can do no more work, neither good nor evil, but only while she lives can she till the vine in which I have placed her.

" And she has received such strength for this labour of her soul that neither the devil nor any other creature can take it from her without her consent ; for she was strengthened in the reception of Holy Baptism, and there was given her then a pruning-knife with the blades of love of virtue and hatred of sin, through which very same love, and hatred of sin, My only-begotten Son died, giving you His Blood by which you have life in Holy Baptism. So you have the knife which you should use, by your own free choice, while you have the time, to cut out the thorns of mortal sins and plant the virtues, because in no other way could you receive the fruit of the Blood from the ministers labouring at My orders in the Holy Church, of whom I say that they remove mortal sin from the vine of the soul and give her grace, showing forth the Blood in the Sacraments which are ordained in the Church. It is necessary, therefore, that you should first wash yourselves with true contrition of heart, and hatred of sin, and love of virtue ; then, indeed, you will receive the fruit of the Blood, but in no other way will you be able to receive it, unless you dispose yourselves for your part, as good branches united to the vine of My only-begotten Son Who said : ( ' I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman, and you are the branches" And this, indeed, is the truth, that I am the Husbandman, for

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everything that has being has proceeded and proceeds from Me. My power is inestimable, for by it, I govern the whole universe, and nothing was ever made or governed without Me. I am the Husbandman who planted the true Vine of My only-begotten Son in the earth of your humanity, so that you, being branches joined to the Vine, may bring forth fruit. But he who does not bring forth the fruit of holy actions will be cut off from the Vine, and will wither away. For, being separated from the Vine, he loses the life of grace and is cast into eternal fire, even as the branch which brings forth no fruit is cut off from the Vine and burnt, being good for nothing else. Such as these, who are cut off for their offences, and die in the guilt of mortal sin, the Divine Justice casts into the eternal fire, since they are good for nothing else. These have not laboured their own vine, but, on the contrary, have destroyed it, and not only their own but that of their neighbour ; and yet it seems to them that they have planted a good strong plant of virtue, but it has not sprung from the seed of grace, which they received with the light of Holy Baptism, sharing the Blood of My Son which was the wine produced by this true Vine. But they have taken that seed and have cast it as food to beasts, that is to divers and many sinners, and so they have trampled it under the feet of their own disordinate lust, and have ruined themselves and their neighbours ; but My servants do not so, and you should imitate them, that is, you should remain calmly united to the true Vine, and then you will bring forth much fruit, because you will participate in the sap thereof. And, remaining thus in My Word, you will remain in Me, because He and I are together one thing. Remaining in Him, you will follow His teaching, and follow ing His teachihg, you will participate in the very substance of His Divine Word, that is, you will participate in My Eternal Deity, joined to your humanity, leading you on by a Divine love which intoxicates the soul, and therefore I said that you share the substance of the Vine.

64 THE DIALOGUE OF ST. CATHERINE