How virtues are accomplished by means of our neighbour, and
how it is that virtues differ to such an extent in creatures.

"I have told you how all sins are accomplished by means of
your neighbour, through the principles which I exposed to you, that
is, because men are deprived of the affection of love, which gives
light to every virtue. In the same way self-love, which destroys
charity and affection towards the neighbour, is the principle and
foundation of every evil. All scandals, hatred, cruelty, and every
sort of trouble proceed from this perverse root of self-love,
which has poisoned the entire world, and weakened the mystical
body of the Holy Church, and the universal body of the believers
in the Christian religion; and, therefore, I said to you, that it
was in the neighbour, that is to say in the love of him, that all
virtues were founded; and, truly indeed did I say to you, that
charity gives life to all the virtues, because no virtue can be
obtained without charity, which is the pure love of Me.
"Wherefore, when the soul knows herself, as we have said
above, she finds humility and hatred of her own sensual passion,
for she learns the perverse law, which is bound up in her members,
and which ever fights against the spirit. And, therefore, arising
with hatred of her own sensuality, crushing it under the heel of
reason, with great earnestness, she discovers in herself the
bounty of My goodness, through the many benefits which she has
received from Me, all of which she considers again in herself. She
attributes to Me, through humility, the knowledge which she has
obtained of herself, knowing that, by My grace, I have drawn her
out of darkness and lifted her up into the light of true
knowledge. When she has recognised My goodness, she loves it
without any medium, and yet at the same time with a medium, that
is to say, without the medium of herself or of any advantage
accruing to herself, and with the medium of virtue, which she has
conceived through love of Me, because she sees that, in no other
way, can she become grateful and acceptable to Me, but by
conceiving, hatred of sin and love of virtue; and, when she has
thus conceived by the affection of love, she immediately is
delivered of fruit for her neighbour, because, in no other way, can
she act out the truth she has conceived in herself, but, loving Me
in truth, in the same truth she serves her neighbour.
"And it cannot be otherwise, because love of Me and of her
neighbour are one and the same thing, and, so far as the soul loves
Me, she loves her neighbour, because love towards him issues from
Me. This is the means which I have given you, that you may
exercise and prove your virtue therewith; because, inasmuch as you
can do Me no profit, you should do it to your neighbour. This
proves that you possess Me by grace in your soul, producing much
fruit for your neighbour and making prayers to Me, seeking with
sweet and amorous desire My honour and the salvation of souls. The
soul, enamoured of My truth, never ceases to serve the whole world
in general, and more or less in a particular case according to the
disposition of the recipient and the ardent desire of the donor,
as I have shown above, when I declared to you that the endurance
of suffering alone, without desire, was not sufficient to punish a
fault.
"When she has discovered the advantage of this unitive love
in Me, by means of which, she truly loves herself, extending her
desire for the salvation of the whole world, thus coming to the
aid of its neediness, she strives, inasmuch as she has done good
to herself by the conception of virtue, from which she has drawn
the life of grace, to fix her eye on the needs of her neighbour in
particular. Wherefore, when she has discovered, through the
affection of love, the state of all rational creatures in general,
she helps those who are at hand, according to the various graces
which I have entrusted to her to administer; one she helps with
doctrine, that is, with words, giving sincere counsel without any
respect of persons, another with the example of a good life, and
this indeed all give to their neighbour, the edification of a holy
and honourable life. These are the virtues, and many others, too
many to enumerate, which are brought forth in the love of the
neighbour; but, although I have given them in such a different way,
that is to say not all to one, but to one, one virtue, and to
another, another, it so happens that it is impossible to have one,
without having them all, because all the virtues are bound
together. Wherefore, learn, that, in many cases I give one virtue,
to be as it were the chief of the others, that is to say, to one I
will give principally love, to another justice, to another
humility, to one a lively faith, to another prudence or
temperance, or patience, to another fortitude. These, and many
other virtues, I place, indifferently, in the souls of many
creatures; it happens, therefore, that the particular one so
placed in the soul becomes the principal object of its virtue; the
soul disposing herself, for her chief conversation, to this rather
than to other virtues, and, by the effect of this virtue, the soul
draws to herself all the other virtues, which, as has been said,
are all bound together in the affection of love; and so with many
gifts and graces of virtue, and not only in the case of spiritual
things but also of temporal. I use the word temporal for the
things necessary to the physical life of man; all these I have
given indifferently, and I have not placed them all in one soul,
in order that man should, perforce, have material for love of his
fellow. I could easily have created men possessed of all that they
should need both for body and soul, but I wish that one should
have need of the other, and that they should be My ministers to
administer the graces and the gifts that they have received from
Me. Whether man will or no, he cannot help making an act of love.
It is true, however, that that act, unless made through love of
Me, profits him nothing so far as grace is concerned. See then,
that I have made men My ministers, and placed them in diverse
stations and various ranks, in order that they may make use of the
virtue of love.
"Wherefore, I show you that in My house are many mansions,
and that I wish for no other thing than love, for in the love of
Me is fulfilled and completed the love of the neighbour, and the
law observed. For he, only, can be of use in his state of life,
who is bound to Me with this love."


How virtues are proved and fortified by their contraries.

"Up to the present, I have taught you how a man may serve his
neighbour, and manifest, by that service, the love which he has
towards Me.
"Now I wish to tell you further, that a man proves his
patience on his neighbour, when he receives injuries from him.
"Similarly, he proves his humility on a proud man, his faith
on an infidel, his true hope on one who despairs, his justice on
the unjust, his kindness on the cruel, his gentleness and
benignity on the irascible. Good men produce and prove all their
virtues on their neighbour, just as perverse men all their vices;
thus, if you consider well, humility is proved on pride in this
way. The humble man extinguishes pride, because a proud man can do
no harm to a humble one; neither can the infidelity of a wicked
man, who neither loves Me, nor hopes in Me, when brought forth
against one who is faithful to Me, do him any harm; his infidelity
does not diminish the faith or the hope of him who has conceived
his faith and hope through love of Me, it rather fortifies it, and
proves it in the love he feels for his neighbour. For, he sees that
the infidel is unfaithful, because he is without hope in Me, and
in My servant, because he does not love Me, placing his faith and
hope rather in his own sensuality, which is all that he loves. My
faithful servant does not leave him because he does not faithfully
love Me, or because he does not constantly seek, with hope in Me,
for his salvation, inasmuch as he sees clearly the causes of his
infidelity and lack of hope. The virtue of faith is proved in
these and other ways. Wherefore, to those, who need the proof of
it, My servant proves his faith in himself and in his neighbour,
and so, justice is not diminished by the wicked man's injustice,
but is rather proved, that is to say, the justice of a just man.
Similarly, the virtues of patience, benignity, and kindness
manifest themselves in a time of wrath by the same sweet patience
in My servants, and envy, vexation, and hatred demonstrate their
love, and hunger and desire for the salvation of souls. I say,
also, to you, that, not only is virtue proved in those who render
good for evil, but, that many times a good man gives back fiery
coals of love, which dispel the hatred and rancour of heart of the
angry, and so from hatred often comes benevolence, and that this
is by virtue of the love and perfect patience which is in him, who
sustains the anger of the wicked, bearing and supporting his
defects. If you will observe the virtues of fortitude and
perseverance, these virtues are proved by the long endurance of
the injuries and detractions of wicked men, who, whether by
injuries or by flattery, constantly endeavour to turn a man aside
from following the road and the doctrine of truth. Wherefore, in
all these things, the virtue of fortitude conceived within the
soul, perseveres with strength, and, in addition proves itself
externally upon the neighbour, as I have said to you; and, if
fortitude were not able to make that good proof of itself, being
tested by many contrarieties, it would not be a serious virtue
founded in truth."