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The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.Anne Catherine Emmerich48We will give one more example of her spiritual exertions. One morning she gave her friend a littlebag containing some rye-flour and eggs, and pointed out to him a small house where a poor woman,who was in a consumption, was living with her husband and two little children. He was to tell herto boil and take them, as when boiled they would be good for her chest. The friend, on entering thecottage, took the bag from under his cloak, when the poor mother, who, flushed with fever, waslying on a mattress between her half-naked children, fixed her bright eyes upon him, and holdingout her thin hands, exclaimed: ‘O, sir, it must be God or Sister Emmerich who sends you to me!You are bringing me some rye-flour and eggs.’ Here the poor woman, overcome by her feelings,burst into tears, and then began to cough so violently that she had to make a sign to her husbandto speak for her. He said that the previous night Gertrude had been much disturbed, and had talkeda great deal in her sleep, and that on awaking she had told him her dream in these words: ‘I thoughtthat I was standing at the door with you, when the holy nun came out of the door of the next house,and I told you to look at her. She stopped in front of us, and said to me: “Ah, Gertrude, you lookvery ill; I will send you some rye-flour and eggs, which will relieve your chest.” Then I awoke.’Such was the simple tale of the poor man; he and his wife both eagerly expressed their gratitude,and the bearer of Anne Catherine’s alms left the house much overcome. He did not tell her anythingof this when he saw her, but a few days after, she sent him again to the same place with a similarpresent, and he then asked her how it was she knew that poor woman? ‘You know,’ she replied,‘that I pray every evening for all those who suffer; I should like to go and relieve them, and Igenerally dream that I am going from one abode of suffering to another, and that I assist them tothe best of my power. In this way I went in my dream to that poor woman’s house; she was standingat the door with her husband, and I said to her: “Ah, Gertrude, you look very ill; I will send yousome rye-flour and eggs, which will relieve your chest.” And this I did through you, the nextmorning.’ Both persons had remained in their beds, and dreamed the same thing, and the dreamcame true. St. Augustin, in his City of God, book xviii., c. 18, relates a similar thing of twophilosophers, who visited each other in a dream, and explained some passages of Plato, bothremaining asleep in their own houses.These sufferings, and this peculiar species of active labour, were like a single ray of light, whichenlightened her whole life. Infinite was the number of spiritual labours and sympathetic sufferingswhich came from all parts and entered into her heart—that heart so burning with love of JesusChrist. Like St. Catherine of Sienna and some other ecstatics, she often felt the most profoundfeeling of conviction that our Saviour had taken her heart out of her bosom, and placed his ownthere instead for a time.49The following fragment will give some idea of the mysterious symbolism by which she was interiorlydirected. During a portion of the year 1820 she performed many labours in spirit, for several differentparishes; her prayers being represented under the figure of most severe labour in a vineyard. Whatwe have above related concerning the nettles is of the same character.On the 6th of September her heavenly guide said to her: ‘“ You weeded, dug around, tied, andpruned the vine; you ground down the weeds so that they could never spring up any more; and thenyou went away joyfully and rested from your prayers. Prepare now to labour hard from the feastof the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin to that of St. Michael; the grapes are ripening and must be26
The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.Anne Catherine Emmerich5051well watched.” Then he led me,’ she continued, ‘to the vineyard of St. Liboire, and showed me thevines at which I had worked. My labour had been successful, for the grapes were getting theircolour and growing large, and in some parts the red juice was running down on the ground fromthem. My guide said to me: “When the virtues of the good begin to shine forth in public, they haveto combat bravely, to be oppressed, to be tempted, and to suffer persecution. A hedge must beplanted around the vineyard in order that the ripe grapes may not be destroyed by thieves and wildbeasts, i.e. by temptation and persecution.” He then showed me how to build a wall by heaping upstones, and to raise a thick hedge of thorns all around. As my hands bled from such severe labour,God, in order to give me strength, permitted me to see the mysterious signification of the vine, andof several other fruit trees. Jesus Christ is the true Vine, who is to take root and grow in us; alluseless wood must be cut away, in order not to waste the sap, which is to become the wine, and inthe Most Blessed Sacrament the Blood of Christ. The pruning of the vine has to be done accordingto certain rules which were made known to me. This pruning is, in a spiritual sense, the cutting offwhatever is useless, penance and mortification, that so the true Vine may grow in us, and bringforth fruit. in the place of corrupt nature, which only bean wood and leaves. The pruning is doneaccording to fixed rules, for it is only required that certain useless shoots should be cut off in man,and to lop off more would be to mutilate in a guilty manner. No pruning should ever be done uponthe stock which has been planted in humankind through the Blessed Virgin, and is to remain in itfor ever. The true Vine unites heaven to earth, the Divinity to humanity; and it is the human partthat is to be pruned, that so the divine alone may grow. I saw so many other things relating to thevine that a book as large as the Bible could not contain them. One day, when I was suffering acutepain in my chest, I besought our Lord with groans not to give me a burthen above my strength tobear; and then my Heavenly Spouse appeared, and said to me, . . . “I have laid thee on my nuptialcouch, which is a couch of suffering; I have given thee suffering and expiation for thy bridalgarments and jewels. Thou must suffer, but I will not forsake thee; thou art fastened to the Vine,and thou wilt not be lost.” Then I was consoled for all my sufferings. It was likewise explained tome why in ray visions relating to the feasts of the family of Jesus, such, for instance, as those ofSt. Anne, St. Joachim, St. Joseph, &c., I always saw the Church of the festival under the figure ofa shoot of the vine. The same was the case on the festivals of St. Francis of Assissium, St. Catherineof Sienna, and of all the saints who have had the stigmas.‘The signification of my sufferings in all my limbs was explained to me in the following vision: Isaw a gigantic human body in a horrible state of mutilation, and raised upwards towards the sky.There were no 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 aide was black, gangrened, and as it were half eaten away. I suffered as thoughit had been my own body that was in this state, and then my guide said to me, “This is the body ofthe Church, the body of all men and thine also.” Then, pointing to each wound, he showed me atthe same time some part of the world; I saw an infinite number of men and nations separated fromthe Church, all in their own peculiar way, and I felt pain as exquisite from this separation as if theyhad 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 membercall upon another, and suffer in order to cure and unite it once more to the body? When those partswhich are most closely united to the body detach themselves, it is as though the flesh were torn27
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