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Chapter 38

The Son speaks: ”Why do happy dreams lift you up so much? And why do sad dreams depress you so? Did I not tell you that the devil is envious and can accomplish no more without God's permission than a piece of straw beneath your feet? I also told you that he is the father and inventor of lies and that he mixes some truth in with all his falsehoods. I tell you, accordingly, that the devil never sleeps but goes around looking for an occasion to ensnare you.

You must therefore be careful so that the devil does not deceive you, using his subtle knowledge to discover your inner states by means of your outer movements. Sometimes he induces happy moods into your heart to make you feel empty joy; at other times he gives you sad ones to make you omit in your sorrow the good deeds that you could do and to make you sad and wretched before anything sad has occurred.
Sometimes the devil also puts a great many falsehoods into the kind of deluded heart that desires worldly esteem and so deceives many people, such as false prophets. This happens to people who love other things more than God. This is why it happens that a lot of truth is found in the midst of a great many false words, for the devil could never deceive anyone if he did not mix some truth in with the falsehood, as was clear in the case of the man you saw in a seizure. Although he was confessing that there is one God, his indecent gestures and strange words showed that the devil was possessing him and dwelling in him.
Now, however, you might ask: Why do I permit the devil to lie? I answer: I have permitted and do permit this due to the sins of the people and of the priests who have wanted to know things that God did not want them to know, who desired success in areas where God saw that it was not beneficial to their salvation. Thus, it is because of sins that God permits many things to occur that would not occur if humankind had not abused grace and reason. Those prophets who longed for nothing but God and did not wish to speak God's words except for God's sake, these did not fall victims to deception but spoke and loved the words of truth.
Yet, as not all dreams should be welcomed, so not all dreams should be rejected, since God sometimes reveals good things in dreams, including the hour of their death to bad people in order that they might repent of their sins.
Sometimes he also reveals good things to good people in order that they might make greater progress toward God. So, whenever and as often as such things occur to you, do not lay them to heart but ponder them and study them with your wise spiritual friends, or else dismiss them and shut them out of your heart as if you had not seen them, because people who delight in such things are very often fooled and become disturbed. So, be firm in your faith in the Holy Trinity, love God with your whole heart, be obedient in failure as well as in success, do not think yourself better than anyone but tremble even when you do good, do not trust your own sense more than others but entrust your entire will to God, ready to do everything God wants. Then you will not need to be afraid of dreams. If they are happy dreams, do not trust or desire them without considering God's glory in them; if they are sad, do not be saddened but place yourself entirely in God's hands.”
The Mother says then: ”I am the Mother of mercy. I get the clothes ready for my daughter while she sleeps; I get food ready for my daughter while she gets dressed; I get a crown and every good reward ready for my daughter while she is working.”

The Mother's words to the Son about the bride, and Christ's answer to his Mother. Then the Mother's words about what is meant by the lion and the lamb, and about how God permits some things to happen because of human ingratitude and impatience that otherwise would not happen to them.

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The Mother speaks to her Son Jesus, saying: ”Our daughter is like a lamb that puts its head in the lion's mouth.” The Son answers her: ”It is better for the lamb to put its head in the lion's mouth and become one flesh and one blood with the lion than that the lamb should suck blood from the lion's flesh and make the lion angry and then the lamb, whose food is hay, would get sick. Yet, my dear Mother, since you bore all wisdom and the fullness of all intelligence in your womb, get her to understand the meaning of the lion and of the lamb.”

The Mother answers: ”Blessed are you, my Son, who, while remaining eternally with the Father, came down to me, yet never separating yourself from the Father. It is you who are the lion of Judah's tribe. You are the lamb without stain whom John pointed out with his finger. A person puts her head into the lion's mouth when she entrusts her whole will to God and has no intention of carrying out her own will, even if she is able, unless she knows that it is pleasing to you.
A person sucks the lion's blood when she becomes impatient with the plan of your justice, wishing and striving to obtain other things than those that you have decided for her, or when she wants to live in a state of life other than that the one that is pleasing to you and beneficial for herself. God is not pleased with such desires but rather provoked to anger. Just as the lamb feeds on hay, so too a person should be satisfied with humble conditions and a lowly state in life. It is because of human ingratitude and impatience that God allows many things to occur for the salvation of humankind that would not happen if people were more patient.

Therefore, my daughter, give your will to God. If sometimes you feel less patient, begin all over again through penance, for penance works like a good washerwoman does on stains, and contrition is like a good bleacher.”

Christ's words to the bride explaining the meaning of a Christian death and in what way a person dies well or badly, and about how the friends of God should not be troubled if they see God's servants dying a harsh bodily death.

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