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Chapter 34

“It seemed to me that I saw some people standing around getting ropes ready, while some were standing and getting horses ready, and others were busy forging tongs or constructing a gallows. While I was looking at all this, a maiden appeared who seemed to be troubled. She asked if I understood it all. When I answered that I did not understand, she said: ”All this that you see is the spiritual punishment being prepared for the soul of that man whom you know. The ropes are for tying to the horse that will drag his soul. The tongs are for tearing his nose, eyes, ears, and lips off. The gallows is for hanging him.”

Since I was upset over this, the maiden told me: ”Do not be upset. There is still time. If he wants, he will be able to break the ropes, knock down the horses, melt the tongs like wax, and remove the gallows. Moreover, he can obtain such an ardent love of God that these symbols of punishments will become for him the highest marks of honor, so much so that the ropes that were to bind him in contempt will be turned into belts of gold for him. Instead of the horses that were to drag him across the plains, angels will be sent to escort him into the presence of God. Instead of the tongs with which he was to be terribly mutilated, his nostrils will be filled with a fine fragrance and his mouth with a fine taste, his eyes with the loveliest of sights, his ears with the most delightful of melodies.”
EXPLANATION
This man was a marshal of the king. He came to Rome with so much humility and contrition that he would frequently go around the stations with bared head, praying to God and getting others to pray that he would not return to his country if that meant a relapse into his former sins. God heard his petition. When he left Rome and came to Montefiascone, he fell ill and died there.
Another revelation also concerns him: ”Daughter, see what God's mercy accomplishes, what a good intention accomplishes. This soul was in the jaws of the lion, but his good intention snatched him away from the lion's teeth, and he is now on the way to the homeland, and he will partake of all the goods that occur in the church of God.”

The bride's words to Jesus Christ about her desire for the salvation of souls, and the answer given her through the Holy Spirit, namely that people's excesses and superfluity in food and drink are an obstacle to the visitations of the Holy Spirit given to them.

137.