Lulu (234 Páginas) As Profecias e Revelações de Santa Brígida da Suécia
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- How an unknown girl was seen sitting beside her.
- How the aunt found Bridget praying at night.
- How she saw the devil.
- How she came to marriage and how she lived in her marriage.
- How she prayed and how a prayer was poured into her.
- About confession.
How she saw Christ crucified.Round about her tenth year, on a certain occasion she heard a sermon preached in church about the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. The following night she saw, in a dream, Christ as if he had been crucified in that same hour, and he said to her: ”In such a way was I wounded.” And she thought that this had happened at that hour and answered in her sleep: ”O Lord, who has done this to you?” Jesus Christ answered: 'Those who scorn me and neglect my love: they have done this to me.” Then she came to herself; and from that day, she felt such affection for the passion of Christ that she could rarely recall the memory of it without tears.
Moreover, on a day in her twelfth year, she was intent upon some handiwork involving silk and gold in the company of other girls of her own age; and she felt much anxiety of soul because she could not do her work as she wished. Then her maternal aunt - a very devout and praiseworthy lady into whose keeping Bridget had come after her mother's death - walked into the house and saw an unknown maiden sitting beside Bridget and doing that same piece of work with her. And since, at her entrance, that unknown girl had disappeared, the aunt then asked Bridget who the girl was that had been working with her. Bridget answered that she had seen no one. Her aunt, however, inspected the work and found that it was so finely done that anyone looking at it would be given to understand that it was not the work of a girl of such a tender age but was something divine. Therefore this lady herself used to hold it in regard among her relics as something from God.
One night, the aforesaid aunt secretly entered the bedroom of the maidens and found Bridget kneeling naked before her bed and praying with tears. The aunt, suspicious of maidenly levity, ordered someone to bring a switch. But when she had begun to extend the switch to strike Bridget, at once it broke into tiny pieces so that the said aunt, seeing this, wondered greatly and said: ”What have you done, Bridget? Have the women taught you some fallacious prayers?” The maiden answered with tears: ”No, my lady; but I arose from bed to praise him whose custom is ever to help me.” And her aunt said: ”Who is he?” To which the maiden said: ”The Crucified One whom I saw.” And because of this, from that day her aunt began to love and venerate her more fervently.
Not long after, when Bridget was wide awake and playing with girls, she saw the devil, as it were, having a hundred hands and feet and most deformed in every way. Thoroughly terrified, she ran to her bed, where the devil appeared to her again and said to her: ”I can do nothing unless the Crucified were to permit.” Since the women had seen and were asking what it was that had befallen her and why she was so thoroughly terrified, she answered: ”A certain heartache seized upon me.” And those women asked nothing more of her. But after some years, her aunt came and heard from her the whole truth and instructed her to cover her visions in silence and to be of good hope and to love God intimately and to beware of all levity.
In the meantime, Lady Bridget was betrothed to a rich young man, a noble and prudent knight who was called Lord Ulf of Ulvåsa, prince of Närke. Between them they had so very honorable a marriage that both spouses lived in virginity for one year, devoutly asking God that if they ought to come together he, the Creator of all, would from them create an offspring that would be at his service. She truly loved God and was most highly wary of herself so that no one might speak badly of her and that she might not give occasion for anyone to disparage her. Therefore she fled levities and places or persons for which she could be branded; and she had in her company honest handmaids and well-mannered companions. Indeed, together with the members of her household, she was intent upon work for divine worship or for the welfare of her neighbors.
In truth, the bride of Christ was so very fervent in prayer and tears that when her husband was away, she passed almost whole nights in vigil and did not spare her body many genuflexions and cruel disciplining. In fact, some time passed during which she constantly kept asking God in her prayers that some suitable manner of praying might be poured into her. One day, in a wonderful manner, she was elevated in mind; and then there was poured into her a most beautiful prayer concerning the passion of Christ and concerning the life and the praise of the most Blessed Virgin Mary. She kept this prayer in her memory so that afterward she might read it every day. And so one time when blessed Mary appeared to her afterward, she said: ”I merited that prayer for you; therefore when you read it, you will be visited with the consolation of my Son.”
She continuously frequented confession; and for her confessor, she had a very expert and devout master of theology, called Master Matthias, who wrote an excellent gloss on the whole Bible and composed many volumes of books. And it was he who composed the prologue for the books of the Heavenly Revelations of the aforesaid Lady Bridget; and it was him that she obeyed in all her difficulties. wherefore, this same confessor used to say familiarly to his friends: ”In Lady Bridget, it is a sign of some future grace that she so laments light matters as others lament things very serious and that she leaves nothing in her words or behavior unexamined.”
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