Soul

See also: Heart, Co-redeemer, Victim Soul, Reparative Soul, Host, Victimal Gift.

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Creation of Man (detail), Michelangelo (1475-1564), Sistine Chapel, Rome

The word "Soul" comes from the Latin, anima, which originally designates the vital principle of animals, beings that possess within themselves their own principle of movement. Aristotle, and St. Thomas Aquinas following him, extend the notion of Soul to all living beings, thus distinguishing "animated" living beings and "inanimate" objects. If they use the generic term Soul, as the first principle of life, they however distinguish vegetative life, animal life, and spiritual life. In the Holy Scriptures, and in the language of faith of the Catholic Church, the usual spiritual sense of Soul is employed, as the principle of life and spiritual operations of Man:

Often, the term Soul in the Holy Scriptures denotes human life (cf. Mt 16:25-26; Jn 15:13) or the whole human person (cf. Acts 2:41). But it also designates what is most intimate in man (cf. Mt 26:38; Jn 12:27) and most valuable in him (cf. Mt 10:28; 2 Maccabees 6:30), that by which he is more particularly the image of God: "Soul" means the spiritual principle in man.

The nature of the Soul

The Catholic Church retained the definition of the Soul given by Aristotle: it is the form of the body, that is, the principle that allows the body to be properly living and human. The natural existence of the Soul is to be united to the body; the union of these two principles, matter and form, generates the substance or nature, which is called man.

The unity of Soul and body is so profound that the Soul must be considered as the "form" of the body (cf. Council of Vienna in 1312: DS 902); that is to say, it is thanks to the spiritual Soul that the body, made of matter, is a human and living body; spirit and matter are not two natures united in man, but their union forms a single nature.

The Soul can be distinguished from the spirit, which is an essential component of the human Soul. The human Soul indeed possesses powers: vegetative, sensitive, and spiritual. The Spirit is that most noble part of the Soul which is incorruptible and spiritual, producing the acts of thought, will, and love. Thus, biblical tradition also designates the spiritual Soul by the name Heart, because it is the source of properly personal acts.

He said to them, “What comes out of a man, that makes him unclean. From within, out of the Heart of man, come evil thoughts: perversities, misconduct, thefts, murders, adulteries, lusts, wickednesses, deceit, debauchery, envy, slanders, Pride and excess. All this evil comes from within, and makes a man unclean.”

These three terms are also found to designate the most intimate and personal part of man in the first commandment:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your Heart, with all your Soul, and with all your spirit. This is the great and first commandment.”

The incorruptibility of the Soul

The writings of Plato, some passages of which Jesus commented on to Maria Valtorta, and those of Aristotle show that the incorruptibility of the Soul is not a purely religious doctrine but was at the Heart of philosophers' concerns in the 5th century BC. According to Aristotle, this incorruptibility is mainly manifested through the fact that human intelligence is capable of abstracting universal concepts from singular material realities, and that it can reflect on its own act of intelligence, whereas no material organ can sense itself. The Catholic Church considers that the incorruptibility of the Soul is indeed a doctrine to which man can arrive by reason.

In Sacred Scripture, the incorruptibility of the Soul is part of the truths of faith, accessible from the Old Testament, for example when the prophet Samuel appeared to Saul at Endor, when his spirit was invoked by a witch. However, the faith in the resurrection of the dead was not universally held among Jews, as the Sadducees opposed the Pharisees on this point during the first century AD.. As for Jesus, he left no doubt regarding the incorruptibility of the Soul.

“Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the Soul.”

Likewise, the Christ taught repeatedly that there would be a final resurrection, followed by eternal life or eternal damnation according to each one's deeds.

And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

All these teachings are taken up by the Catholic Church, which has clarified them over the ages.

The Church teaches that each spiritual Soul is immediately created by God (cf. Pius XII, encyclical "Humani generis", 1950: DS 3896; SPF 8) – it is not "produced" by the parents –; it also teaches that it is immortal (cf. Lateran Council V in 1513: DS 1440): it does not perish upon separation from the body at death, and will reunite with the body at the final resurrection.

When is the Soul infused?

Jesus affirms that the Soul is infused only to the fetus and not the embryo, that is after eight weeks of conception, if we trust contemporary science, although Maria Valtorta does not specify. Man is at first only a carnal seed, then an animal embryo, not different from that of a sheep.

A surprising assertion, even if the Code of Canon Law states that the fetus (and not the embryo) can be baptized as only human persons can.

This thesis of primitive animality was defended by Aristotle and taken up by St. Thomas Aquinas, who placed the infusion of the divine Soul quite late in pregnancy (40 days, almost 6 weeks). One wonders: would abortion be licit before this date since the Soul is not present?

No, that is neither what St. Thomas Aquinas says, nor what the Church, Maria Valtorta, or even the Ethics Committee (France) say.

For this Committee, the embryo is a "potential human person." In other words, it already possesses this nature in the making. The embryo is already the fetus, which itself is already an infant. The state of development changes, but the unity of nature remains the same.

For the Church, the protection of life to be born extends from conception to birth. It emphasizes the "close link between the initial moment of existence and the action of God the Creator (Evangelium vitae, § 44)" and specifies that even though the Magisterium has not pronounced on the moment of Soul infusion, "the Church has always taught, and still teaches, that from the first moment of its existence the fruit of human generation must be guaranteed unconditional respect which is morally due to the human being in his totality and in his bodily and spiritual unity" (Ibid. § 60).

St. Thomas Aquinas says similarly: the immortal Soul is present with its potentialities, from conception:

The Soul pre-exists in the embryo; it is first nutritive, then sensitive, and finally intellectual.

This means that the Soul is immediately in potential, from the embryo stage. In doing so, it recapitulates Creation, the breath of God: this breath first becomes nutrition, a function common to all living beings, including plants; then, as soon as the embryo develops sufficiently, the breath becomes sensitivity, a property common to humans and animals; and at the intended stage of development, it becomes "intelligence," a function proper to humans, its immortal part made in the image and likeness of God. This recapitulation of the creative breath is not coexistence but unity, as the Church observes and proclaims in the union of Soul and body. St. Thomas Aquinas explains it:

The embryo has at first only a sensitive Soul. This disappears, and a more perfect Soul succeeds it, which is both sensitive and intellectual.

Jesus, in Maria Valtorta, summarizes this teaching in his inaugural discourse at "Beautiful Water" at the start of his life with the Apostles. He emphasizes that at the end of this gestation lies the sublime destiny of the sons of God:

At first, man is only a seed that develops, a seed of flesh instead of gluten or marrow as is that of wheat or fruits. At first, it is only an animal forming an animal embryo, not different from that which now grows in the womb of this sheep. But, from the moment this incorporeal part enters this human conception, which is nevertheless the most powerful in its incorporeality that elevates it, then the animal embryo not only exists with the beating of its heart but "lives" according to the Creative Thought and becomes man, created in the image and likeness of God, son of God, future citizen of Heaven.

Life and "death" of the Soul

Jesus, in Maria Valtorta, announces that the Soul passes through three phases of creation:

The first is the creation proper to all men. The second is a new creation, proper to the just. The third is the perfection, proper to the saints.

This statement is surprising at first because we have only one life and we are only one being. But upon closer examination, the marvel lies in the depth of this affirmation. Indeed, if the immortal Soul of all men is created by God, Baptism is a new creation or more exactly a regeneration as sons of God, says the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It opens the door of the Spirit to us, frees us from sin, making us members of Christ and participants in the mission of the Church. It is the new birth of which Jesus speaks to Nicodemus:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when old? Can he enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

In this case, what would be the third phase of "creation" reserved for the saints? Two hypotheses arise, but these are only our conjectures:

Either it is the purified Soul delivered from its body, conditions to access Paradise.

Or it is co-redemption. Indeed, it unites to Christ those who decide to follow him on the Cross, in his imitation and his footsteps. This is expressed by Saint Paul in this foundational phrase of the Victim Souls:

With Christ I am crucified. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

We know, by the testimony of mystics, that this moment of union is marked by transverberation, the moment when the Fire of pure love pierces the Heart. A moment that sometimes endures by the mark of visible or invisible stigmata. Saint Paul testifies of this again:

I bear about in my body the marks (stigmata) of the suffering of Jesus.-

Perhaps the "one hundred and forty-four thousand" who accompany the Lamb everywhere.

In "The Gospel as It Was Revealed to Me"

Who has a Soul? What is the Soul?

• Each place has its Soul, that is the Spirit for which it was built; the Temple should have the Soul of prayer, of holiness.
• What is the Soul? - It is what makes man a God and not an animal. Vice and sin kill it, and when it is dead, man becomes a repulsive animal.
• The Soul distinguishes man from animal.
• —The Soul, that divine essence created by God for each man. It is our companion during our life, but it survives existence. —And where is it? —In the depths of the self. Being divine, it had to be in the most sacred sanctuary. One can say of it — and I say clearly "she", not "it", because she is not a thing, but a true being deserving of all respect — that she is not contained, but she contains.
• But what is the Soul? And where does it come from? The Soul is the spiritual essence of man. It is she who, created in perfect age, invests, accompanies, animates all the life of the flesh and continues to live when the flesh is no more, for she is immortal like the one who created her: God. Since there is only one God, there are no Souls of pagans or Souls of non-pagans created by different Gods. There is only one force that creates Souls: that of the Creator, our God, unique, powerful, holy, good, having no passion but love, perfect charity, all spiritual; as I used, to be understood by these Romans, the term charity, I specify: entirely moral charity. For the idea of spirit is not understood by these children who know nothing of holy terms.
• The Soul is the true nobility of man.
• The thought of the Creator God, who gave the Soul to man, was that all human Souls gather in one place: Heaven.
• Where does the Soul come from? Every human Soul? From God. Who is God? The very intelligent, very powerful, perfect Spirit. This admirable thing that is the Soul, a thing created by God to give man his image and likeness as an indisputable sign of his very Holy Fatherhood, results from the very qualities of the One who created it.
• Souls! They are the most varied.
• Man possesses within him a Soul, an impalpable thing but which is what makes him alive, a thing that does not die.
• The Soul is not thought, man. The Soul is the Spirit, the immaterial principle of life, the impalpable but true principle that animates the whole man and lasts after man. That is why it is said to be immortal. It is such a sublime thing that thought, even the most powerful, is nothing in comparison. Thought has an end, but the Soul, although it has a beginning, has no end.
• In plants and seeds, it (the Vital part) is not eternal, created for each species on the first day that trees and wheat were created. In man, it is eternal, resembling its Creator, created every time for each new man conceived. But it is through it that matter lives. That is why I say that only by the Soul does man live. Not only does he live here, but beyond. He lives by his Soul.

Role of the Soul

• How many truths your Soul would tell you if you knew how to converse with her.
• In the Heart of man, there is a point that keeps the memory of the Face of God, a point particularly chosen that is our "Holy of Holies" from which come holy inspirations and holy resolutions.
• The Soul and the body: in its nostalgia, it is hungry for the True God whose memory it keeps - The Soul passes through three phases. The first is the creation proper to all men. The second is a new creation, proper to the just. The third is the perfection, proper to the saints.
• To give you a Soul is to give you a treasure.
• And then? Don't you know that the Soul always has activity in the life beyond? Holy, if it is holy. Bad, if it is bad.
• The Soul knows, at least vaguely, how much time it is given. A trifle of time compared with eternity.
• The work of the vineyard applied to the work of the Soul: "Man entrusts his vineyard to the one who works it: free will; and he begins to cultivate it." Plain of Esdraelon, June/July of the 3rd year.
• In the loving Soul dwells God who works greatly.
• The Soul has no Age. And indeed I tell you that the childlike Soul, because it is without malice, is for the ability to understand God, more adult than that of a sinful old man.

Life and death of the Soul

• Know that the Soul can die before the body and that you can carry, without knowing it, a rotting Soul within you. The death of a Soul is so insensible! It is like the death of a flower.
• First, man is only an animal forming an animal embryo not different from that which now grows in the womb of this sheep. But, from the moment this incorporeal part enters this human conception, which is nevertheless the most powerful in its incorporeality that elevates it, then the animal embryo not only exists with the beating of its Heart but "lives" according to the Creative Thought and becomes a man, created in the image and likeness of God, son of God, future citizen of Heaven.
• Survival of the Soul.
• The Soul is visible in all that differentiates man from brute.
• The Soul is not a brute. The embryo is. It is so true that the Soul is given only when the fetus is already formed.
• Do you not know that Souls rise more easily than bodies and that the word of pity and love that says: "My sister, get up, for your good" often works the miracle?
• The reconstruction of Jerusalem and the Temple at the time of Ezra and Nehemiah compared to the reconstruction of Souls by Christ. The materials are in the precepts of the Lord. It is not fear that saves. Love, on the contrary, is constructive.
• The price of a Soul is such that it is worth suffering any humiliation to obtain this Soul.
• God does Good all that He does. When He frees a Soul (by death) – this is not obvious to men whose intelligence is relative – when He frees a Soul, He always does it for a greater Good, of the Soul itself and of those united to it.
• Truly I say to you that for Me it is easier to heal a deformed body than a deformed Soul.
• In the eternal thought, the Soul, the Spirit, is the thing that reigns in man, in the created animal called: man. [...] Its mission is to make the creature called man a king of the great eternal kingdom, to make the creature called man a God beyond life, a "living" in the dwelling of the most sublime, unique God; it was created queen, and with the authority and destiny of a queen.
• The Soul, created by God, is the same for all, endowed with the same properties, the same gifts from God. Between the Soul of John, I mean the Baptist, and yours (Judas), there was no difference when they were infused into the flesh.
• No one should be tempted to arrive at the death of the Spirit saying: "The Most High will restore my Soul’s life." Do not tempt the Lord your God. It is up to you to come to Life. There is no more time to wait. The Vineyard is going to be harvested and pressed. Prepare your spirit for the Wine of Grace which will be given to you.

In other works by Maria Valtorta

The Notebooks of 1943

• Catechesis of June 6: Grace is to possess in you the light, strength, wisdom of God. In other words, to have the intellectual resemblance with God, which is the unique and incomparable sign of your filiation to God.
  Without Grace, you would be simply animal creatures, evolved enough to be provided with reason and a Soul, but a soul at the earthly level, able to evolve in the contingencies of earthly life, but unable to rise to the regions of spiritual life. Therefore, not much more than brutes, whose conduct is regulated only by instinct, and indeed, very often they excel you in their conduct.
• Catechesis of June 6: If a Soul knew how to preserve itself as it is after Baptism and after Confirmation, that is, at the moment when it is literally soaked with Grace, that Soul would be barely less than God. Let that tell you everything.
  You are amazed at the stories of the wonders of my saints. But, dear one, there is nothing to be amazed at. My saints possessed Grace; they were therefore Gods, because Grace deifies. Did I not say myself in my Gospel that mine would do the same wonders as I? But to be mine, one must live my life, that is, the life of Grace.
• Catechesis of June 9: When I find a trusting Soul, I open my Heart and lock it inside. Do you think anything really bad can happen to you if you are locked in my Heart? Even Hell cannot harm you as long as you remain there. And you will remain there as long as you are pure, loving, trusting, faithful.”
• Catechesis of June 12: When a Soul truly loves, Love takes the place of everything. She is like a little child in the arms of her mother who feeds her, dresses her, puts her to sleep, washes her, takes her for a walk or puts her in her cradle for her good. Love is the mystical nurse who raises Souls destined for Heaven.
• Catechesis of July 10: Too often, fathers and mothers do not reflect on the fact that they become custodians and guardians of a prodigy of the Creator God. Too often parents do not think that, in this flesh engendered by human flesh and blood, there is a Soul created by God, which must be formed in a doctrine of spirituality and truth to be worthily handed over to God. Every child is a talent that the Lord has entrusted to one of his servants.
• Catechesis of July 15: The more particular designs I have over a Soul, the more I work.
• Catechesis of July 17: When a Soul not only refuses the operation of God, but harbors hatred towards the Father and brothers and sisters, our work completely disappears and Satan, the Master of sin, settles in this tangle of disordered passions.
• Catechesis of July 21: The price and value of a Soul are such that the treasures of the earth are not enough to buy it. The Blood of a God is needed. Mine.
• Catechesis of August 7: The sepulcher is a place where the mortal habit returns to its nature of dust, freeing the spirit while waiting for the hour when that which was created will reform to enter glory or damnation with the perfection of the creation God made for the human being, that is, the union of a spirit with a flesh. An immortal spirit like God, its Creator and Father; mortal flesh formed like a terrestrial animal, king of the earth, heir of Heaven, but who too often prefers the earth to Heaven, "animal," not because he has a Soul [anima], but because he lives no less and sometimes more like a brute than animals in the strict sense.
• Catechesis of September 20: Only he who has a child’s Soul will enter my Kingdom, and I reveal the secrets of the king only to the little ones.
• Catechesis of October 12: Oh! Splendor of the Soul after baptismal washing! If you could see its luminous brightness, you would see something that would delight your feelings. The lily is opaque and the pearl gray in the view of the Soul enveloped in baptismal light. […] You always remember the rights of the flesh, a thing that dies and which can become, in its time, an inhabitant of the palaces of Heaven only by living as a servant of the spirit, and not as its master. You worry about the aesthetics of your appearance, your health; you fret about prolonging as long as possible your life on earth. But you do not worry about your Soul...
• Catechesis of November 10: The kingdom of Heaven, I said, belongs to those who make themselves like children. But you will have a foretaste of this blessed kingdom even on earth if you come to the Father with a Soul renewed in innocence, since God loves children.
• Catechesis of November 14: Sometimes it is enough to look at a Soul with a look of true love to win it. Often Souls are not as bad as you think. They are disgusted, they are sick, they are ashamed.
• Catechesis of November 21: Being ‘alive’ does not mean being of this world: it means being in the Lord. It means possessing Grace and having the right to Heaven. He who breathes, eats and sleeps with a dead Soul is not alive: he is already a rotting carcass about to fall like a rotten fig on the branch, in the pit whose bottom is hell. He who has 'Life', even if he is dying in the flesh, is alive.
• Catechesis of December 2: O cruel ones, who even destroy the work of God and kill the Temple of your body, in which dwells a dead Soul, and the Temple of God, since in Churches, the faithful and the ministers ‘alive’ are all too scarce! What use are your rites performed with a dead Soul? Do you not remember that to God you must offer living, perfect, first-class hosts?

The Notebooks of 1944

• Catechesis of May 25: I see that the Father creates Souls, out of love for the Son to whom he wants to give an ever larger number of Disciples. Oh! How beautiful! They come out from the Father like sparks, like petals of light, like globular jewels; in fact, I am not capable of describing them. It is a continuous outpouring of new Souls... They are beautiful, joyful to descend to enter a body out of obedience to their Author. How beautiful they are when they come out of God! Since I am in paradise, I do not see, I cannot see, at what moment original sin stains them.
  Out of zeal for his Father, the Son ceaselessly receives and judges those who, at the end of their life, return to the Origin to be judged there. I do not see these Souls. By changes in Jesus' expression, I understand whether they are judged with joy, mercy, or inexorability. What a glow his smile has when a saint presents himself! What a light of sad mercy when he has to separate from a Soul who must purify before entering the Kingdom! What a flash of offense and painful wrath when he must reject a rebel for eternity!
• Catechesis of May 31: When you saw eternal paradise (May 25), you wondered why newly formed Souls had different color shades.
  In reality, these spiritual sparks that animate have no color. This sensible variation of colors was shown to you so that your senses could understand it, your attention notice it and ask you for the reason. But it was only meant to make you ask this question: "Why such differences if the Source is one?"
  […] Just as the Creator provides all this, he provides order concerning humanity. His intelligence thinks it is necessary for the good of the earth that there be so many thinkers, so many scientists, so many warriors, so many workers and, concerning temperaments, so many daring, gentle, active, contemplative, and so on.
  Souls cease to animate a body and return to God to follow the destiny according to their merits. God creates new Souls to maintain the number of creatures to populate the earth. That is the first operation of divine order. The second is to create, according to observed needs, one particular category in greater number than another, so that the whole race is harmonious and one serves the other as the teeth of a gear serve the neighboring gear, thus enabling the giant machine to operate without friction or damage.
  Thus God acts. If you obeyed him respecting this order, all would progress. But you rebel.
• Catechesis of June 15: I say to those who always allow themselves to make observations on my words, to study theology if they do not understand them. They correspond to what theology teaches.
  As for this phrase, which will surely disturb them: "The Soul is essence issued from God", let them think that the Soul is "a breath infused by God".

Autobiography

• Page 78. I believe every Soul is comparable to the Virgin before the Annunciation. Each Soul is indeed called to form Christ, just as a young bride will form her creature. The conception of Christ in us happens when we say our: "Behold the servant of the Lord." Before that exists only the invitation from the Lord, carried by his angel, by his inspiration. But the event only happens when a Soul, in a thrill of love, responds with her fiat: “Yes, I want it.” Then the Spirit descends to overshadow the generous and loving Soul, he descends with his Fire, with his light, with his gifts, and the conception is engaged. Christ incarnates in us, not of course, I know it well, as in Mary, but he incarnates and is born spiritually, grows, forms and informs us of Himself, and the more he grows, the smaller the Soul becomes, to make room only for Him alone, until comes the hour of the greatest perfection accorded to this Soul, when it gains access to the light itself, becoming one with Christ, so much has He grown in her, that He has annulled everything that remained of the loving creature, leaving only Him alone, the Spouse.
• Page 96. On the contrary, the love of God sometimes acts unknown to me, while it works inside my Soul which, from the moment it conceived Christ, by spiritual adhesion to his desire of love, has never ceased to act and operate in love.
• Page 103. I believe this was the best method, indeed the only one to follow on this delicate matter that is the life of the Soul. Prayer and penance to obtain light for darkened Hearts, but nothing more.
• Page 104. …but without having to reflect on the fact that this Good, which we felt growing in us, came from this sun (of Faith) which gradually soaked us and became the blood of our Soul, the flesh of our spirit. But precisely because it was so, this slow and patient work left a lasting trace in us.
• Page 130. It is thus that it happens to me, that leaning over my Soul, mystical vessel into which in those days celestial rains poured, I am no longer able to recognize the different effluences, which were sometimes violent and heroic, sometimes soft and healing, sometimes intoxicating like wine, or soothing like balm... No, I only feel the persistent fragrance, which no human wind, however violent, has ever been able to erase, and which is the very scent of God, of our God, of our Lord Jesus.
• Page 132. To remit faults belongs only to God. Only faith in God saves lost Souls; it is not in man's power to give forgiveness and Peace.
• Page 135. Divine contacts between the Soul and God must always be respected as a sacred thing.
• Page 171. But it is quite different to accept a dream for what it is, that is, as a supernatural warning. During sleep, which puts our matter to sleep, the Soul, which remains eternally awake, is free and not distracted, but attentive to voices it may receive from other worlds that we ignore. Sacred history is full of examples.
• Page 215. For the cross is the bridal bed of the Soul with Christ, just as, according to Ruysbroeck, suffering is the bridal garment of Christ.
• Page 225. this keeps us in holy humility, which is the necessary virtue for God to work in our Soul… Love finally disposes our Soul to an ever greater attitude of humility, serenity, gratitude, and trust.
• Page 235. while I felt all the dearest ties breaking in me, I approached ever closer to my God, still a little timidly because I did not know how far a Soul can dare on the path of love and confidence. And my Master gave me through this book a great push. Do not be scandalized, my Father, if I tell you it was a book on the index. It was Il Santo by Fogazzaro.
• Page 269. I had loved twice. The first time with the ardor of my youthful years and in this case I also knew the fever of the flesh. Then I loved again, but more with my Soul than with my flesh. And precisely because it belonged to the love of the better part, it gave me Ecstasies and Good joys more noble and durable than the first. Purely human love is destined for a short life, even if it was very ardent in its fleeting moment, while the love in which the Soul participates with the body, where the attraction of the spirit joins that of the body, the love of friendship is more resilient and even deception does not kill it.
• Page 276. There are pages of light in the life of Souls that one would prefer to leave read only to God who wrote them within.
• Page 282. Ah! if Souls could understand how useful it is for them to surrender to divine action!
• Page 294. For a generous Soul, sacrifice is no longer effort and suffering no longer torment. For a generous Soul lives in a special climate and lighting, which give sacrifice and suffering an aspect they do not have in the eyes of the timid. Everything loses its human value for a victim Soul and everything acquires a superhuman weight.
  Health or sickness, success, or failure of particular work, joy and suffering are indifferent to her from the human point of view and are pleasing only if by this she can obtain a supernatural Good. And indeed, only one thing worries a generous Soul; she is afraid not to suffer.
  This is where the reversal of values lies. For a common man, the fear of suffering, only fear is already a source of terror. For a generous Soul, the fear of not suffering enough is cause for worries and instant cries to God to grant the joy of suffering. All her task here below sums up in her desire not to do what is pleasant to her, but to God. And if for that it is necessary to suffer, blessed be therefore suffering!
• Page 319. If you knew what it costs me to speak of such intimate things. These are nuptial tendernesses occurred between my Soul and Christ, in the secret of the most sacred bed!
• Page 320. I have come to feel good only when I feel that God is constantly drawing from me in confession poor Souls whom I will know only in heaven. And my well only fills thanks to more and more sufferings. The more I suffer and the more I feel filled and the more the good God can draw from me, and draw to irrigate the languishing Souls.
• Page 328. Souls and the world are always saved by the sacrifice of those who are more generous.
• Page 344. Souls have no Age. They are eternal like God.
• Page 350. Preachers are necessary. And they must have excellent physical condition, otherwise they will not be able to preach the Gospel! But preachers must be supported by penances: a radio cannot be turned on without electricity. Those who do penance, the Souls offered as holocaust form... the power outlet that plugs God's electricity into the Soul of his public crier and those who hear him. The example is not very nice, but it is accurate.
• Page 351. We are Marys and you, the priestly Souls, you are the Marthas of Jesus.
• Page 352. A suffering that comes from God, however harsh and biting it may be, is always accompanied by the Peace of the Soul. It is a sign that never fails.
• […] In the body there is the Soul and in the Soul there is the spirit.
• Page 353. When a Soul is in culpable inertia it does not realize at all if God is present or absent.

In fundamental Christian texts

In the Bible

• "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the Soul; rather fear him who can destroy soul and body in hell."
• "Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your Soul."

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church

The human Soul

• : Also the intuition of the natural law inscribed by God in our Souls.
• : All men are composed similarly of a material body and a spiritual Soul.
• : Definitions of the Soul and body.
• : Consequences of original sin for the Soul and humanity.
• : The resurrection of the body points to the eternal life of the Soul and that our mortal bodies will come to life again.
• : The particular judgment opens a differentiated destiny for the Souls.
• : Immediate eternal hell for Souls in mortal sin.
• : The final Judgment and the fate of Souls.

The Soul of Christ

• § 466 et seq.: The true God and true man Christ. Foundations and characteristics.
• § 625 et seq.: The Soul of Christ separated from the body by death and united in his Resurrection.
• § 650: The divine person of Christ remained united to his Soul and his body separated by death.
• § 1042: Man, body and Soul, and the universe will reach their perfection in Christ.
• § 1378: Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

First part of the Bible from the book of Genesis until before the coming of Jesus Christ. Parallel

Authority in matters of faith and morals exercised over the Catholic faithful by the pope and all bishops in communion with the pope.

In a Christian sense, study concerning God and divine things in the light of Revelation.

Voluntary acceptance by man of the will of God. Ex: The fiat of Mary at the Annunciation and the mystery of the Incarnation. (From Latin fiat "let it be done")