The Book of Heaven
—Unofficial Version—

November 8, 1900

Obedience gives back to the soul her original state.

Continuing with His usual delays in coming, I was feeling all the weight of His privation, when, all of a sudden, He came and, I don’t know why, He posed me this interrogative: "Would you be able to tell Me why obedience is so glorified, and receives such honor as to imprint the divine Image in the soul?" All confused, I did not know what to answer, but through an intellectual light which He sent to me, blessed Jesus answered Himself; but since it was through light, not words, I don’t have the terms to express it. However, obedience wants me to try if I can manage to write it. I believe I will say big nonsense, and will write things which do not go together, but I place all my faith in obedience, especially since these are things that regard her directly, and I begin to try:

It seemed He was saying to me: "Obedience is so glorified because she has the virtue of unveiling the human passions from their very roots. She destroys in the soul everything which is earthly and material, and to her great honor she gives back to the soul her original state – that is, the way she was created by God in her original justice, before being cast out of the terrestrial Eden. And in this sublime state, the soul feels strongly drawn to everything that is good; she feels all that is good, holy and perfect as inborn within herself, and greatest horror at even the shadow of evil. With this happy nature, received from the most experienced hand of obedience, the soul no longer finds difficulty in executing the commands received; more so, since the one who commands must always command what is good. And here is how obedience knows how to imprint well the divine Image; not only this, but she changes the human nature into divine, because just as God is good, holy and most perfect, and tends to all that is good and greatly hates evil, so does obedience have the virtue of divinizing the human nature, and of making it acquire the divine qualities. And the more the soul lets herself be handled by this most experienced hand, the more of the divine she acquires, destroying her own being. This is why she is so glorified and honored; so much so, that I Myself submitted to her and was honored and glorified by this; and through her I gave back honor and glory to all my children, which they had lost because of disobedience."

This is more or less what I have been able to manifest; the rest I feel within my mind, but I lack the words, because the height of the concept of this virtue is such, that my poor human language is unable to adapt itself with words…