Example 4 - LISBETH.

— A suffering Spirit registers herself under the name of Lisbeth.

Would you give us some information regarding your position, as well as the cause of your sufferings? — A. Be humble of heart, submissive to the will of God, patient in trial, charitable toward the poor, consoler of the weak, sensitive to all sufferings, and you will not suffer the tortures that I endure bitterly.

You seem to feel the faults arising from contrary conduct… Should repentance bring you relief? — A. No; repentance is useless when produced only by suffering.

Profitable repentance has as its basis the sorrow of having offended God, and entails the ardent desire for a reparation.

I cannot yet do so much, unfortunately. Commend me to the prayers of all who take interest in the sufferings of others, for I have need of them.”

This teaching is a great truth; sometimes suffering provokes a cry of repentance that is less than sincere, that is not the expression of regret for the practice of evil, seeing that, if the Spirit ceased to suffer, it would not hesitate to begin it again.

This is why repentance does not always bring about the immediate liberation of the Spirit; it predisposes it to that, however, that is all; 6 it must, moreover, prove the sincerity and firmness of the resolution, by means of new trials reparative of the evil practiced.

By meditating carefully on all the examples we cite, one will find in the words of the Spirits, even the most inferior ones, profound teachings, acquainting us with the most intimate particulars of the spiritual life.

The superficial man may see in these examples no more than picturesque narratives; but the serious and reflective man will find in them an abundant source of study.

I will do what you wish. Could you give me some particulars of your last corporeal existence? Thence perhaps a useful teaching may come to us, and thus you will render your repentance profitable.

(The Spirit hesitates in the answer, not only to this question, but to some of those that follow.)

A. I had a birth of elevated condition. I possessed all that men judge to be the source of happiness.

Rich, I became egotistical; beautiful, I was vain, insensitive, hypocritical; noble, I was ambitious.

I trod down with my power those who did not grovel at my feet, and oppressed still more those who placed themselves beneath them, forgetful that the wrath of the Lord also crushes, sooner or later, the proudest brows.

In what epoch did you live? — A. A hundred and fifty years ago, in Prussia.

Since then have you made no progress as a Spirit? — A. No; matter always revolted, and you cannot gauge the influence it still exerts over me, despite the separation from the body.

Pride shackles us with bronze chains, whose links more and more compress the wretch who mortgages his heart to it.

Pride, hydra of a hundred heads renewing themselves incessantly, modulating envenomed hisses that come to seem celestial harmony!

Pride — that multiform demon that molds itself to all the aberrations of the Spirit, that hides itself in all the recesses of the heart; that penetrates the veins; that absorbs and drags into the darkness of eternal Gehenna. Oh! yes… eternal!

Probably, the Spirit says she has made no progress, because her situation is always painful; the manner in which she describes pride and deplores its consequences is, incontestably, a progress; 6 certainly, when incarnate and even right after death, she could not have reasoned thus.

She understands the evil, which is already something, and the courage and the resolve to avoid it will come to her later.

God is too good to condemn his children to eternal penalties. Trust in his mercy. — A. They say this may have an end, but where and when? For a long time I have sought it and I see only suffering, always, always, always!”

How did you come here today? — A. Led by a Spirit who accompanies me many times. 2 — Since when do you see that Spirit? — A. Not for a long time. 3 — And since when have you had consciousness of the faults you committed? — A. (After long reflection.) Yes, you are right: it was from then on that I began to see it.

Do you now understand the relation existing between repentance and the help rendered by your protector? Take as the origin of that support the love of God, whose end will be his infinite forgiveness and mercy. — A. Oh! how I would wish it to be so. 2 — I believe I can promise it in the name, indeed most sacred, of him who was never deaf to the voice of his afflicted children. Ask from the heart and you will be heard. — A. I cannot; I am afraid.

Let us pray together, He will hear us. (After the prayer.) Are you still there? — A. Yes. Thank you! Do not forget me.

Come and register yourself here every day. — A. Yes, yes, I will always come.

— The guide of the medium: — Never forget the teachings you draw from the sufferings of your protected ones and notably from their causes, seeing that they are a lesson that profits all toward preserving themselves from the same dangers and from identical chastisements.

Purify your hearts, be humble, love and help one another without ever forgetting the source of all graces, an inexhaustible source at which all may slake their thirst at will, a source of living water that quenches thirst and nourishes equally, a source of life and eternal bliss.

Go to it, my friends, and drink with faith. Plunge into it your vessels, which will come out of its waves laden with blessings; warn your brothers of the dangers into which they may fall.

Spread abroad the blessings of the Lord, which reproduce themselves incessantly; and the more you propagate them, the more they will multiply. The task is in your hands, for, by saying to your brothers: there are the dangers, there the reefs; come with us in order to avoid them; imitate us who give the example; thus you will spread the blessings of the Lord over those who hear you.

Blessed be your efforts. The Lord loves pure hearts: strive to merit his love.

Saint Paulin.