The Vineyard of the Lord

All, at last, will come to work in the vineyard. I already see them; they arrive, numerous; here they are hastening forth. Come, to work, children! God wills that all of you work.

Sow, sow, and one day you will reap in abundance. Behold in the East that beautiful Sun; how it rises radiant and dazzling! It comes to warm you and to make the fruits of the vine grow. Come, children! the vintages will be splendid, and each one of you will come to drink the cup of the sacred wine of regeneration. It is the wine of the Lord, which will be poured out at the banquet of universal fraternity! There all the nations will be gathered into one and the same family and will sing praises to one and the same God. Arm yourselves, then, with the plow and the axe, if you wish to live eternally; tie up the vine-stocks, that they may not fall and may be kept upright, and their branches will rise to the sky. Some will be a hundred cubits high, and the Spirits of the ethereal worlds will come to press the grapes and to refresh themselves; the juice will be so powerful that it will give strength and courage to the weak. It will be the nourishing milk of children. Behold the vintage that is about to be made; it is already being made; the vessels are being prepared which are to contain the sacred liquor; bring near your lips, you who wish to taste, for that liquor will inebriate you with a celestial ecstasy, and you will see God in your dreams, while you wait for reality to follow upon the dream.

Children! that splendid vineyard which is to rise up toward God is Spiritism. Fervent adherents: it must be shown to be powerful and strong; and you, children, it is necessary that you help the strong to maintain it and to propagate it. Cut the shoots and plant them in another field; they will produce new vineyards and other shoots in all the countries of the world.

Yes, I tell you: at last, all the world will drink of the juice of the vine, and you will drink it in the kingdom of the Christ, with the celestial Father! Be, then, healthy and disposed, and do not lead an austere life. God does not ask you to live in austerity and privations; he does not ask that you cover yourselves with the hair-shirt: he wishes only that you live according to charity and the heart. He does not want mortifications that destroy the body; he wants each one to warm himself in his sun, and if he made some rays colder than others, it was to give all to understand how strong and powerful he is. No; do not cover yourselves with the hair-shirt; do not scourge your flesh with the blows of the discipline. To work in the vineyard one must be robust and powerful; man must have the vigor that God gave him. He did not create Humanity in order to transform it into a bastard and sallow race; he made it as a manifestation of his glory and of his power. You who wish to live the true life, you are in the ways of the Lord when you shall have given bread to the unfortunate, alms to the suffering, and your prayer to God. Then, when death shall close your eyelids, the angel of the Lord will proclaim your benefits, and your soul, borne on the white wings of charity, will rise up to God as beautiful and as pure as a lily opening in the morning under a springtime sun.

Pray, love, and do charity, my brothers. The vineyard is great, the field of the Lord is great. Come, come: God and the Christ call you, and I bless you.

Saint Augustine. n [1]

[v. Saint Augustine.]