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"These five states are like five principal canals
which are filled with abundant tears of infinite
value, all of which give life if they are disciplined
in virtue, as I have said to you.
"You ask how their value can be infinite. I do not
say that in this life your tears can become infinite,
but I call them infinite, on account of the infinite
desire of your soul from which they proceed. I have
already told you how tears come from the heart, and
how the heart distributes them to the eye, having
gathered them in its own fiery desire. As, when green
wood is on the fire, the moisture it contains groans
on account of the heat, because the wood is green, so
does the heart, made green again by the renovation of
grace drawn into itself among its self-love which
dries up the soul, so that fiery desire and tears are
united.
"And inasmuch as desire is never ended, it is
never satisfied in this life, but the more the soul
loves the less she seems to herself to love. Thus is
holy desire, which is founded in love, exercised, and
with this desire the eye weeps. But when the soul is
separated from the body and has reached Me, her End,
she does not on that account abandon desire, so as to
no longer yearn for Me or love her neighbor, for love
has entered into her like a woman bearing the fruits
of all other virtues.
"It is true that suffering is over and ended, as I
have said to you, for the soul that desires Me
possesses Me in very truth, without any fear of ever
losing that which she has so long desired; but, in
this way, hunger is kept up, because those who are
hungry are satisfied, and as soon as they are
satisfied hunger again; in this way their satiety is
without disgust, and their hunger without suffering,
for, in Me, no perfection is wanting.
"Thus is your desire infinite, otherwise it would
be worth nothing, nor would any virtue of yours have
any life if you served Me with anything finite. For
I, who am the Infinite God, wish to be served by you
with infinite service, and the only infinite thing
you possess is the affection and desire of your
souls. In this sense I said that there were tears of
infinite value, and this is true as regards their
mode, of which I have spoken, namely, of the infinite
desire which is united to the tears.
"When the soul leaves the body the tears remain
behind, but the affection of love has drawn to itself
the fruit of the tears, and consumed it, as happens
in the case of the water in your furnace. The water
has not really been taken out of the furnace, but the
heat of the fire has consumed it and drawn it into
itself. Thus the soul, having arrived at tasting the
fire of My divine charity, and having passed from
this life in a state of love towards Me and her
neighbor, having further possessed that unitive love
which caused her tears to fall, does not cease to
offer Me her blessed desires, tearful indeed, though
without pain or physical weeping, for physical tears
have evaporated in the furnace, becoming tears of
fire of the Holy Spirit.
"You see then how tears are infinite, how, as
regards the tears shed in this life only, no tongue
can tell what different sorrows may cause them. I
have now told you the difference between four of
these states of tears."
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