The Book of Heaven
—Unofficial Version—

September 14, 1901

The beginning and the end of our actions must be the love of God.

After going through various days of privation, today, as I was about to do my meditation, my mind was distracted in something else, and by means of light I comprehended that in going out of the body, the soul enters into God; but since God is most pure love, only when the soul is a complex of love - then does she enter into God. In fact, God receives no one into Himself if she is not completely similar to Him, and on finding her similar, He receives her and shares all of His qualities with her. So, we shall be in God beyond the Heavens, just as we are inside our rooms here. Now, it seemed to me that this could be done also during the course of our lives, so as to spare the fire of Purgatory the toil, and ourselves the pain, and therefore be introduced immediately, with no interruption, into our highest Good, God. It seemed to me that the nourishment of fire is wood, and the sign to be sure that the wood is reduced to fire is that it no longer produces smoke. Now, the beginning and the end of all our actions must be the fire of the love of God; the wood which must nourish this fire is the crosses, the mortifications; the smoke that rises in the midst of wood and fire is the passions, the inclinations which often peep out. So, the sign that everything is consumed into fire within us is that our passions remain in their place, and we no longer feel inclination toward all that does not regard God. It seems that, with this, we will pass freely, with no obstacle, to dwell inside our God, and we will come to enjoy, even here below, paradise in advance.