Chapter 139
A person, who was watching in vigil, not sleeping but persevering in prayer, was carried off in spirit. At that moment, all the strength of her body seemed to fail, but her heart was inflamed and felt the exultation of burning love. Her soul was consoled, while her spirit was comforted with divine strength, and her whole conscience was filled with spiritual understanding.
The following vision occurred to this person. She heard a sweet-sounding voice speaking to her as follows: ”I am she who gave birth to God's Son, true God, Jesus Christ. I told you some things previously that were to be announced to Pope Urban. Now I am giving you a message to send to Pope Gregory. However, in order that it may be better understood, I will tell you it by means of a parable. If a loving mother saw her own beloved son lying naked and cold on the ground, having no strength to raise himself up, but, from a longing for her motherly attention and milk, wailing and weeping with mournful sounds, she would then quickly run to her son with tender love and compassion and lift him up off the ground with her kind, motherly hands, caressing him gently and warming him soothingly with the motherly warmth of her bosom, and she would feed him sweetly with the milk of her breasts.
This is how I, the Mother of mercy, will treat Pope Gregory, if he would only return to Rome and Italy with a mind to stay there and with the good shepherd's intention of bewailing with sighful tears the eternal loss and damnation of the souls of the sheep entrusted to him, and if he would decide to renew the state of the church with humility and due pastoral charity.
Then, indeed, like a loving mother, I will lift him up off the ground as a cold and naked son, that is, I will take him and his whole heart away from all the earthly desire and worldly love that go against God's will, and I shall warm him sweetly with motherly warmth, that is, with the love in my bosom. I will fill him with my milk, that is, with my prayer, which is like milk. O, how countless are those who are sustained and sweetly sated with the milk of my prayer! I will sate him with the milk of the prayers I pray for him to my Lord and God, who is my Son, so that he may deign to share and unite his Holy Spirit with the inner blood of the heart of Pope Gregory. He will then be sated with a true and perfect satiety to such an extent that he will no longer want to live for anything else in this world than to add to God's glory with all his might.
See, I have now shown him the motherly love with which I will treat him, if he obeys, because it is God's will, and transfers his see to Rome with humility. Now again, in order that he may not later use ignorance as an excuse, I caution him with a mother's love and tell him what will follow if he is not obedient to what has been said. Without a doubt, he will feel the rod of justice, that is, the anger of my Son. His life will be cut short, and he will be called to God's judgment. No might of worldly lords will then help him, nor will the wisdom and knowledge of medical doctors avail him, nor will the fresh air of his native country do him any good for the prolongation of his life.”
This means that if he comes to Rome and does not carry out the aforesaid things, his life will be cut short, and medical doctors will not do him any good nor will he return to Avignon where the air of his native country might be of benefit to him. Rather, he will die.
Note the following four instructions to the pope: that he should come to Rome with humility, that he should have a mind to stay, that he should bewail the perdition of souls, that he should try to renew the church, etc. If he does not do all these things, his life will be cut short, as stated above after the words ”Now again.” Thus, it is not enough for the pope merely to come to Rome, but he must carry out all four of the instructions above. Here follows the second vision brought by his Lordship De Nola to the same Pope Gregory XI.
Chapter 140
Praise and service to God for all his love, honor to the most holy and dear Virgin Mary, his Mother, for the compassion she shows to all those whom her Son has redeemed with his precious blood! Holy Father, it happened to a person well known to you that, while she continued in a vigil of prayer, she felt her heart to be all aflame through the fire of divine charity and the visitation of the Holy Spirit.
This person heard a voice saying to her: ”Hear, you who see spiritual visions, and speak what you are now taught, and write the words you now hear to the Roman pontiff Gregory. I who now speak to you am the one whom it pleased God to choose as his Mother, and so he took his human body from my flesh. My Son did a great work of mercy for Pope Gregory when he had me explain to you his most holy will, which I intimated more fully to him when it was transmitted to him in the earlier revelation. This work was done more because of the prayers and tears of God's friends than of any earlier merit on his part.
The devil, his enemy, and I fought a great battle over him. I admonished the same Pope Gregory in the other letter to hasten with humility and divine charity to Rome or Italy and there establish his See and altogether to remain there until his death. However, the devil and the pope's other advisors counseled him to delay and to stay on in the regions where he is as yet, being motivated by earthly affections and the mundane delight and solace of his natural relatives and friends. So the devil now has a greater right and opportunity to tempt him, since he chose to obey the advice of the devil and his worldly friends rather than God's and my own will.
It is true that the pope wants to be ascertained of God's will still further. Therefore, it is right that his desire be fulfilled. He shall know it with certainty to be God's will that he himself should come without any delay to Italy or Rome, and that he should make his way and altogether hasten to come with such speed that he arrives personally in the city or in the province of Italy by next March or as soon as possible, by April at the latest, that is, if he still wants me for his mother. If he disobeys this, let him truly know that he shall never again enjoy any such consolation - any other visitation or revelation from me - in this world but shall, after his death, make an answer before the court of divine justice as to why he refused to obey God's commands. If he does obey, however, then I will fulfill what I promised in the revelation that was originally delivered to him.
I also inform the pope that there will never be a peace in France so stable and serene that its inhabitants can enjoy complete security and concord until the people of that kingdom placate God my Son by means of great works of piety and humility, having hitherto provoked him to anger and indignation at their many immoral deeds and offenses. Accordingly, he must understand that the journey of those squires from the iniquitous societies of iniquitous men, which they intend to make to the Holy Sepulcher of my Son, is no more pleasing to my Son, the true God, than the gold that the people of Israel cast into the fire out of which the devil welded the molten calf, and this is because of their pride and greed. If they intend to go to the famous Sepulcher, it is more for the sake of pride and greed for money than for the love and honor of God.” At these words, the vision faded.
God's Mother later gave me the following additional message: ”Tell my bishop, the hermit, to close and seal the letter. He should then make another copy of it later on another piece of paper and show this unsealed copy to the abbot, the papal nuncio, and to Count de Nola, so that they may read it and know its contents. Once they have read it, he should give them the closed and sealed letter to send to Pope Gregory without delay. However, he should not give the unsealed letter to them. Instead, I want him to tear it up and shred it to pieces before their eyes. Just as the one letter will be torn into many small pieces, so too, if the pope does not come to Italy at the appointed time and year, the lands of the church, which now obey him in united obedience and submission, will be divided in many parts at the hands of tyrants.
Know most assuredly that, by the increase of this very pope's trials, he will not only hear but also see with his own eyes that what I say is true. Not even with all the authority of his hand will he be able to return those lands of the church to their earlier state of obedience and peace. What I am telling you now is not to be said or written to that abbot, for the seed lies hidden in the earth until it brings forth grain.”
A revelation for the same pope given to the bride in Naples when she had returned from Jerusalem. She did not send this revelation to the pope, because no divine command was given to her.
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