fingers or toes on the hands and feet, the body was covered with
frightful wounds, some of which were fresh and bleeding, others covered
with dead flesh or turned into excrescences. The whole of one side was
black, gangrened, and as it were half eaten away. I suffered as though
it had been my own body that was in this state, and then my guide said
to me "This is the body of the Church, the body of all men and thine also."
Then, pointing to each wound, he showed me at the same time some part
of the world; I saw an infinite number of men and nations separated
from the Church, all in their own peculiar way, and I felt pain as
exquisite from this separation as if they had been torn from my body.
Then my guide said to me: "Let thy sufferings teach thee a lesson, and
offer them to God in union with those of Jesus for all who are
separated. Should not one member call upon another, and suffer in order
to cure and unite it once more to the body? When those parts which are
most closely united to the body detach themselves, it is as though the
flesh were torn from around the heart." In my ignorance, I thought that
he was speaking of those brethren who are not in communion with us, but
my guide added: "Who are our brethren? It is not our blood relations who
are the nearest to our hearts, but those who are our brethren in the
blood of Christ--the children of the Church who fall away." He showed me
that the black and gangrened side of the body would soon be cured; that
the putrefied flesh which had collected around the wounds represented
heretics who divide one from the other in proportion as they increase;
that the dead flesh was the figure of all who are spiritually dead, and
who are void of any feeling; and that the ossified parts represented
obstinate and hardened heretics. I saw and felt in this manner every
wound and its signification. The body reached up to heaven. It was the
body of the Bride of Christ, and most painful to behold. I wept
bitterly, but feeling at once deeply grieved and strengthened by sorrow
and compassion, I began again to labour with all my strength.'