voeding 4

O, how high and sublime... 

is the flight of the soul who exercises herself in Faith. 

It seems to me that by exercising herself in Faith, the soul acts like those timid little birds which, for fear of being caught by hunters, or of some other snare [valstrik], establish their dwelling at the top of the trees, or in high places. 

Then, when they are forced to take food, they descend, take the food, and immediately fly back into their dwelling. And some of them, more cautious, take the food and don’t even eat it on the ground, but in order to be safer, they carry it up to the top of the trees, and there they swallow it.

In the same way, the soul who lives of Faith is so timid with earthly things, that for fear of being snared, she doesn’t so much as glance at them. Her dwelling is up high—that is, above all the things of the earth. 

But especially in the wounds of Jesus Christ. 

And from within those blessed rooms, she moans, cries, prays and suffers... 

together with her Spouse Jesus over the condition and the misery in which mankind lies. 

While she lives inside those holes of the wounds of Jesus, the Lord gives her a particle of His virtues, and the soul feels those virtues within herself as if they were her own. However, she realizes that even though she sees them as her own, the possession of them is given to her, for they have been communicated by the Lord...

Now, just as this soul abhors sin... 

she also feels compassion for others... 

and prays for those whom she sees walking on the path of the precipice [afgrond]. 

She unites herself with Jesus Christ...

and offers herself as victim in order to placate [tevreden stellen] divine justice... 

and to spare creatures the deserved chastisements. 

And if the sacrifice of her life were necessary...

O, how gladly she would make it... 

for the salvation of one soul alone!

[28.2.1899]