Revelations of St. Bridget of Sweden

She saw in spirit a ladder fixed firmly in the earth, the top of which was touching heaven. At its top in heaven she saw the Lord Jesus Christ sitting on a wonderful throne like a Judge in the act of judgment. At his feet stood the Virgin Mary, and surrounding the throne was a countless host of angels and a vast multitude of saints.

Lady Birgitta saw a certain monk midway up the ladder, a man whom she recognized and who was still alive, a learned scholar in the science of theology but full of guile and devilish wickedness. With his most impatient and agitated bearing he seemed more like a devil than a humble monk.

For the lady could see all the inner thoughts and feelings of the monk's heart and how he disclosed them to Christ the Judge seated on the throne through his uncontrolled and agitated way of questioning, as follows below.

Lady Birgitta then saw and heard in spirit how Christ the Judge, with a meek and gentle bearing, responded to those questions briefly one by one with utmost wisdom, and how the Virgin Mary, our Lady, spoke a few words now and then to Lady Birgitta, as this book will explain below in greater detail.

In that one moment Lady Birgitta received this whole book in her mind in one and the same revelation. As she was now approaching the castle, her servants took hold of the horse's bridle and then began to shake her gently and to waken her, as it were, from her rapture. When she came to herself again, she felt terribly sad over the loss of such divine sweetness.

The Book of Questions remained thus effectively fixed in her heart and memory, as though it had all been carved on a marble tablet. She wrote it down in her own language straightaway, and then her confessor translated it into the literary language, just as he had been accustomed to translating the other books of revelations.

The First Interrogation

I saw a throne in heaven on which sat the Lord Jesus Christ as Judge. At his feet sat the Virgin Mary. Surrounding the throne was a host of angels and a countless multitude of saints. A certain monk, a great scholar of theology, stood high up on a rung of a ladder that was fixed in the earth and whose top reached up to heaven. With an impatient and agitated bearing, as though full of wickedness and guile, he put questions to the Judge:

First question. "O Judge, I ask you: You gave me a mouth. May I not say what I please?"

Second question. "You gave me eyes. May I not look at what I like with them?"

Third question. "You gave me ears. Why should I not listen to what I please with them?"

Fourth question. "You gave me hands. Why should I not do what I want with them?"

Fifth question. "You gave me feet. Why should I not walk where I wish with them?"

Christ's answer to the first question. Seated on the throne, the Judge, whose bearing was meek and gentle, answered him, saying: "Friend, I gave you a mouth in order rationally to speak words beneficial to your soul and body as well as words for my glory."

Answer to the second question. "Second, I gave you eyes that you might see the evils you must flee and the healthfull things you must preserve."

Answer to the third question. "Third, I gave you ears that you might hear that which pertains to truth and goodness."

Answer to the fourth question. "Fourth, I gave you hands that you might use them to do that which is necessary for the body but not harmful for the soul."

Answer to the fifth question. "Fifth, I gave you feet that you might leave behind the love of the world and go toward your soul's rest and love and toward me, your Creator and Redeemer."

The Second Interrogation

First question. Again the monk appeared on his ladder as before, saying: "O Christ the Judge, you bore the most painful suffering by your own free will. Why then should I not possess honor and be proud in the world?"

Second question. "You gave me temporal goods. Why then should I not own what I want?"

Third question. "Why did you give me the limbs of my body, if I may not move and exercise them at will?"

Fourth question. "Why did you give law and justice if not for seeking revenge?"

Fifth question. "You let us have quiet and rest, but why did you arrange for us to experience weariness and tribulation?"

Answer to the first question. The Judge answered: "Friend, human pride is so long endured as to exalt humility and show forth my goodness. And since pride was not created by me but invented by the devil, it must be shunned, because it leads to hell. But humility must be kept, because it leads to heaven. I, God, taught this by my word and example."

Answer to the second question. "I have given and conceded temporal goods to people in order that they might make rational use of them and exchange created goods for something uncreated, that is, for me, their Lord and Creator, by praising and honoring me for my good creation and by not living in accordance with the desires of the flesh."

Answer to the third question. "A person is given the limbs of the body in order that the soul might see in them a certain likeness of the virtues and so that they might be the soul's instruments for duty and virtue."

Answer to the fourth question. "Justice and law were indeed established by me so that they might be fulfilled with supernatural charity and compassion and so that godly unity and harmony might be cemented among humans."

Answer to the fifth question. "I gave people bodily rest and quiet in order to strengthen the weakness of the flesh and to endow the soul with fortitude and virtue. But because the flesh sometimes grows thoughtlessly insolent, one must cheerfully endure tribulations and all other such corrective measures."