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Chapter 103

While I was at prayer, I saw how Blessed Denis addressed the Virgin Mary, saying: ”You are the Queen of Mercy. All mercy is given to you. You became Mother of God for the sake of our salvation, we who are wretched sinners. Therefore, have mercy on the kingdom of France, your France and mine. It is yours, because its inhabitants honor you in their measure. It is mine, because I am their patron saint and they trust in me. You see how many souls are in danger in every hour, how men's bodies are being struck down like beasts and, what is worse, how many souls are falling like snowflakes down to hell. Comfort them, then, and pray for them, for you are the Lady and Helper of all” The Mother of God answered: ”Appear before my Son, and let us hear - for the sake of this woman - what he will say in answer.”

Together with Blessed Denis and other saints, the Mother of God entreats her Son on behalf of France and because of the war between the two kings, who are compared to two ferocious beasts.

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The Mother speaks to her Son, saying: ”Blessed are you, my Son. It is written that I was called blessed because I bore you in my womb. You responded that a person is blessed who hears your words and keeps them. Son, I am she who kept your words in my heart and memory. Therefore, I recall to you the word you spoke in answer to Peter's question about forgiving a sinner up to seven times. You said that a sinner is to be forgiven up to seventy times seven times, meaning by this that you are ready to show mercy as often as a person humbles himself with a desire to improve.” The Son answered: ”I bear you witness that my words were as deeply rooted in you as the seed planted in fertile earth that gives fruit a hundredfold. Even so, do your virtuous deeds bear joyful fruit. So ask what you will!”

His Mother answered: ”Together with Denis and the other saints of yours whose bodies lie in the earth of the kingdom of France, though their souls are in heaven, I ask you: Have mercy on this kingdom! I speak figuratively for the sake of this woman who is present in spirit. I see, as it were, two most ferocious beasts, each of its own kind. The one beast is excessively greedy and will gobble up whatever it can get. The more it eats, the hungrier it gets, and its craving is never sated. The other beast strives to rise up above all the others. These beasts have three ugly traits. First, a horrible roar; second, they are full of perilous fire; third, each of them desires to gobble up the other's heart. One of them, with its teeth on the other's back, is trying to find an entrance to its heart by biting it to death. The other has its mouth against the other's breast and wants to get at its heart from there. The horrible roar of these beasts can be heard far away, and all the other beasts that come with mouths wide open will start burning with the fire from these two beasts and fall to their deaths. The beasts that come with their mouths shut will be stripped of their hides and go away naked.
These two beasts stand for the kingdoms of France and England. The one king is never sated, for he wages war out of greed. The other king is striving to rise above others. Hence, both are full of the fire of anger and greed. The roar of the beasts says this: 'Accept gold and worldly riches, and do not spare the blood of Christians!' Each beast desires the death of the other, and each is therefore seeking some place where it can injure the other. One of them is trying to injure it on the back, for he wants his unjust claim to be called just and the just claim of the other to be declared unjust. The second one is trying to injure the other's heart at its breast, because he knows he has a just cause and is therefore inflicting a lot of damage without caring about others' loss and misery and without showing any divine charity in his justice. He seeks an entrance through the breast, inasmuch as he has a more just claim to the kingdom, but he has pride and anger along with the justice of his claim. The other has a less just claim and is therefore burning with greed.
The other beasts that come with mouths wide open are those that come to them due to their own greed. Men who are kings in name but are really traitors fill their open mouths. They cast abundant money and gifts into their mouths and make them burn for warfare so that they fall to their deaths. Their property remains behind, but their bodies are received into the earth, and the devil's maggots chew away at their souls. Thus, these two kings are betraying many of the souls redeemed by my Son with his blood. The beasts that are stripped of their hides are those simple folk who are content with their possessions. They go to war in the intention and belief that justice is on their side and that they are waging a just war. They are stripped of their hides, that is, their bodies, through death, but their souls are received into heaven. Therefore, my Son, have mercy!”
The Son answered: ”Since you see all things in me, explain while this woman present is listening what just reason there is for these kings to be heard.” The Mother answered: ”I hear three voices. The first is that of these kings. One of them is thinking to himself thus: 'If I can get what is my own, I would not care about having what belongs to others, yet I am afraid of losing it all.' Because of this fear, namely, his fear of the world's reproach, he turns to me in prayer and says: 'Mary, pray for me!' The other king is thinking thus: 'Would that I were as I was before! I am weary.' So he, too, turns to me. The second voice is that of the common folk who pray to me every day for peace. The third voice is that of your elect who cry out and say: 'We do not weep over the bodies of the dead, nor the losses, nor the poverty, but over the fall of souls who are in constant danger. Therefore, our Lady, entreat your Son so that the souls may be saved!' For these reasons, my Son, have mercy on them!”
The Son answered: ”It is written that to him who knocks it shall be opened, and to him who calls it shall be answered, and to him who asks it shall be given. However, just as everyone who knocks is outside the door, so too these kings are outside the door, since they do not have me within them. All the same, for your sake, it will be opened to them who pray.”

Christ speaks to the bride about how peace should be established between the kings of France and England. If the kings do not heed it, they shall be punished severely.

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