The Book of Heaven
—Unofficial Version—

July 16, 1900

Chastisements serve the good of creatures.

This morning my adorable Jesus was not coming.  After much waiting He came and told me:  “My daughter, the best thing for you is to commend yourself to Me and to my Will, so that, by commending yourself to Me, since I am peace, even if you saw Me send chastisements you would remain at peace, without feeling any disturbance.”  And I:  ‘Ah, Lord, You always get there – to chastisements.  Placate Yourself once and for all, and no more scourges.  Besides, I cannot commend myself to your Will in this regard.’  And He added:  “I cannot placate Myself.  What would you say if you saw someone naked who, instead of covering his nakedness, paid attention to adorning himself with trinkets, leaving the parts most necessary exposed to nakedness?”  And I:  ‘I would be horrified at seeing him, and I would certainly blame him.’  And He:  “Well then, such are souls.  Completely naked, they have no more virtues to cover them, therefore it is necessary that I beat them, scourge them, deprive them, so as to make them come back to their senses and realize the nakedness of their souls, for this is more necessary than the body.  And if I did not do this, I would be paying attention to trinkets, like the person you blamed, which are the things that refer to the body, and I would not be paying attention to the most essential thing - the soul, which they have reduced to being so monstrous as to no longer be recognizable.”

After this, it seemed He had a little rope in His hand, and passing it behind my neck He bound me, and then bound His neck to that same rope.  He did the same to the heart and the hands, and by this, He seemed to bind me completely to His Will.  Having done this, He disappeared.