The Book of Heaven
—Unofficial Version—

April 29, 1904

The Divine Life manifests Itself in creatures through words, through works and through sufferings, but what manifests It more clearly are the sufferings.

Continuing in my usual state, I found myself surrounded by three virgins, who took me and wanted to crucify me on a cross by sheer force; but since I did not see blessed Jesus, fearing, I resisted them.  On seeing my resistance, they told me:  “Dearest sister, do not fear that our Spouse is not here; allow us to begin to crucify you, for the Lord, drawn by the virtue of sufferings, will come.  We are coming from Heaven, and since we have seen most grave evils about to happen in Europe, we have come to make you suffer so that at least they might be milder.”  In the meantime they pierced my hands and feet through with the nails, but with such cruelty of pain, that I felt I was dying.  Now, while I was suffering, blessed Jesus came, and looking at me with severe eyes, He told me:  “Who commanded you to put yourself in these sufferings?  Of what use are you to Me, then?  To make Me unable even to be free to do what I want, and to be a continuous hindrance to my Justice?”  In my interior I said:  ‘What does He want from me?  Neither did I want this; they have been the ones who induced me, and He gets upset with me.’  But I could not speak because of the bitterness of the pain.  On seeing the severity of Our Lord, those virgins made me suffer more, pulling the nails out and then driving them in again; and they brought me closer to Him, showing Him my sufferings.  The more I suffered, the more it seemed that the Lord was appeased; and when they saw Him more appeased, and almost moved by my suffering, they left me and went away, leaving me alone with Our Lord.  Then He Himself assisted me and sustained me; and in seeing me suffer, to cheer me He told me:  “My daughter, my Life manifests Itself in the creatures through words, through works and through sufferings, but what manifests It more clearly are the sufferings.”

In the meantime the confessor came to call me to obedience, but partly because of the sufferings, partly because the Lord would not leave me, I was unable to obey.  So I lamented to my Jesus, telling Him:  ‘Lord, how come the confessor is here at this hour?  Why did he have to come right now?’  And He:  “My daughter, let him be with us for a while, and also participate in my graces.  When one frequents a house continuously, he participates in its crying and in its laughter, in its poverty and in its riches.  The same for the confessor.  Has he not participated in your mortifications and privations?  Now he participates in my presence.”  And it seemed that He communicated divine fortitude to him, telling him:  “The Life of God in the soul is Hope, and the more you hope, the more Divine Life you contain within yourself.  And since Divine Life contains power, wisdom, fortitude, love…, the soul feels herself as though being watered by as many streams for as many as are the divine virtues, and so the Divine Life keeps growing within you.  But if you do not hope – both in spiritual things… and, through the spiritual, the corporal too will participate – the Divine Life will be gradually consumed until It is completely extinguished.  Therefore, hope – hope always.” 

Then, I was just barely able to receive Communion, and afterwards I found myself outside of myself, and I saw three men in the shape of three untamed horses, raging throughout Europe, making a great bloody slaughter.  It seemed that they wanted to ensnare most of Europe in fierce wars, as though inside a net.  All were trembling at the sight of those incarnate devils, and many were destroyed by them.