The Book of Heaven
—Unofficial Version—

July 16, 1901

The beginning of evil in man. Distance between the love of Jesus and the human love. In order to enter into Heaven, the soul must be completely transformed in Jesus.

After various days of privation, this morning He deigned to come, transporting me outside of myself. Now, as I was before blessed Jesus, I could see many people, and the evil of the present generation. My adorable Jesus looked at them with compassion, and turning to me, told me: "My daughter, do you want to know where the evil of man began? The beginning of it is that as soon as he knows himself - that is, as soon as he begins to acquire reason – man says to himself: ‘I am something.’ And believing themselves to be something, they move away from Me, they do not trust Me, who am the All, and they draw all their confidence and strength from themselves. From this it happens that they even lose every good beginning, and by losing the good beginning, what will the end be? Imagine, yourself, my daughter. Moreover, by moving away from Me, who contain every good, what good can man hope for, since he is a sea of evil? Without Me everything is corruption, misery, and without a shadow of true good. This is the present society."

On hearing this, I felt such affliction that I am unable to express it; but Jesus, wanting to cheer me, transported me somewhere else, and as I found myself alone with my beloved Jesus, I said to Him: ‘Tell me, do You love me?’ And He: "Yes." And I: ‘I am not content with "yes" alone, but I would like it to be explained better how much You love me." And He: "My love for you is so great that not only has it no beginning, but it will have no end. In these few words you can comprehend how great, strong, constant, is my love for you." I considered all this for a little, and I could see an abyss of distance between my love and His. All confused, I said: ‘Lord, what a difference between my love and Yours. Not only does mine have a beginning, but as for the past, I see some voids in my soul of not having loved You.’ And Jesus, all compassion for me, told me: "My beloved, there cannot be conformity between the love of the Creator and that of the creature; however, today I want to tell you something which will be of great consolation for you and which you have never understood: know that each soul, during the whole course of her life, is obliged to love Me constantly, with no interval; and if she does not love Me always, she leaves as many voids in her soul for as many days, hours or minutes in which she has neglected to love Me. But no one will be able to enter Heaven if he has not filled these voids; and one will only be able to fill them by loving Me twice as much for the rest of his life; and if he does not arrive at doing this, he will fill them by dint of fire in Purgatory. Now, when you are deprived of Me, the privation of the beloved makes love double, and by this, you come to fill the voids that there are present in your soul."

After this, I said to Him: ‘My sweet Good, let me come with You to Heaven, and if You do not want it forever, at least for a little while. O please, I pray You, make me content!’ And He told me: "Don’t you know that in order to enter that blessed dwelling the soul must be completely transformed in Me, in such a way that she must appear as another Christ? Otherwise, what impression would you make in the midst of the other Blessed? You yourself would be ashamed of being with them." And I: ‘It is true that I am very dissimilar to You, but if You want You can render me similar.’ So, to content me, He enclosed me completely within Himself, in such a way that I could no longer see myself, but Jesus Christ; and in this way we rose toward Heaven. As we reached a certain point, we found ourselves before an indescribable light. Before that light one experienced new life, unusual joy, never before felt. How happy I felt! Even more, it seemed to me that I was in the fullness of all happinesses. Now, as we advanced before that light, I felt such concern; I would have liked to praise Him, to thank Him, but not knowing what to say, I recited three Glory Be’s, and Jesus responded along. But as soon as I finished, like a flash I found myself in the miserable prison of my body. Ah, Lord, how come - so little has my happiness lasted? It seems that the clay of this body of mine is too hard, as it takes so much to be shattered, and it prevents my soul from moving out of this miserable earth. But I hope that some vehement blow may cause it to be not only shattered, but pulverized. Then, since I would no longer have a home to be able to stay here, You will have compassion for me, and will receive me forever in the celestial dwelling.