The Book of Heaven
—Unofficial Version—

June 2, 1910

The soul must die to everything in order to rise again, more beautiful.

As I was feeling very bad and as if everything was over, I was lamenting to Jesus about this total abandonment by Him, and Jesus told me: "My daughter, these are divine ways – to die and to rise again continuously. See, nature itself is subject to these deaths and to these risings: the flower is born and dies - but to rise again more beautiful; while if it never died, it would grow old, it would lose the liveliness of its complexion, the fragrance of its scent… And here is also the simile with my Being, which is ever old and ever new. The seed is sowed under the earth, as though buried so as to make it die; and in fact it dies, to the point of being pulverized, but then it rises again, more beautiful – even more, multiplied; and so with all the rest. If this happens in the natural order, much more in the spiritual order must the soul be subject to these deaths and to these risings, such that while it seems that she has triumphed over everything and abounds in fervor, in graces, in union with Me, in virtues, and that she has acquired as many new lives in everything, I hide Myself and it seems that everything dies around her. I give strokes of a true master, helping to make everything die for her; and when it appears to Me that everything has died for her, like sun, I come out – I unveil Myself, and with Me everything rises again, more beautiful, more vigorous, more faithful, more grateful, more humble, in such a way that, if there was anything human, death has destroyed it, making everything rise again to new life."