Originally from here.
Some words updated into modern English. –J. B.
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She desired many times that her head might be smitten off with an axe upon a block for the love of our Lord Jesus. Then said our Lord Jesus in her mind: “I thank you, daughter, that you would die for My love; for as often as you think so, you shall have the same reward in heaven, as if you suffered the same death, and yet there shall be no man to slay you.
“I assure you in your mind, if it were possible for Me to suffer pain again, as I have done before, Me were never to suffer as much pain as ever I did for your soul alone, rather than you should depart from Me everlastingly.
“Daughter, you may no better please God, than to think continually in His love.”
Then she asked our Lord Jesus Christ, how she should best love Him. And our Lord said: “Have mind of your wickedness, and think on My goodness.
“Daughter, if you wear the habergeon or the hair, fasting bread and water, and if you said every day an Our Father, you will not please Me so well as you do when you are in silence, and let Me to speak in your soul.
“Daughter, for to bid many beads, it is good to them that cannot better do, and yet it is not perfect. But it is a good way toward perfection. For I tell you, daughter, they that be great fasters, and great doers of penance, they would that it should be holden the best life. And they that give them unto many devotions, they would have that the best life. And those that give much alms, they would that it were holden the best life. And I have often told you, daughter, that thinking, weeping, and high contemplation is the best life in earth, and you will have more merit in heaven for one year thinking in your mind than for a hundred years of praying with your mouth; and yet you will not believe Me, for you will bid many beads.
“Daughter, if you knew how sweet your love is to Me, you would never do another thing but love Me with all thine heart.
“Daughter, if you will be high with Me in heaven, keep Me always in your mind as much as you can, and forget not Me at your meat; but think always that I sit in thine heart and know every thought that is therein, both good and bad.
“Daughter, I have suffered many pains for your love; therefore you have great reason to love Me right well, for I have bought your love full dear.”
“Dear Lord,” she said, “I pray You, let me never have other joy in earth, but mourning and weeping for Your love; for me thinketh, Lord, though I were in hell, if I might weep there and mourn for Your love as I do here, hell should not annoy me, but it should be a manner of heaven. For Your love puts away all manner of dread of our ghostly enemy; for I had rather be there, as long as You would, and please You, than to be in this world and displease You; therefore, good Lord, as You wilt, so may it be.”
She had great wonder that our Lord would become man, and suffer so grievous pains, for her that was so unkind a creature to Him. And then, with great weeping, she asked our Lord Jesus how she might best please Him; and He answered to her soul, saying: “Daughter, have mind of your wickedness, and think on My goodness.” Then she prayed many times and often these words: “Lord, for Your great goodness, have mercy on my great wickedness, as certainly as I was never so wicked as You are good, nor never may be though I would; for You are so good, that You may no better be; and, therefore, it is great wonder that ever any man should be departed from You without end.”
When she saw the Crucifix, or if she saw a man had a wound, or a beast, or if a man beat a child before her, or smote a horse or another beast with a whip, if she might see it or hear it, she thought she saw our Lord beaten or wounded, like as she saw in the man or in the beast.
The more she increased in love and in devotion, the more she increased in sorrow and contrition, in lowliness and meekness, and in holy dread of our Lord Jesus, and in knowledge of her own frailty. So that if she saw any creature be punished or sharply chastised, she would think that she had been more worthy to be chastised than that creature was, for her unkindness against God. Then would she weep for her own sin, and for compassion of that creature.
Our Lord said to her: “In nothing that you do or say, daughter, you may no better please God than believe that He loveth you. For, if it were possible that I might weep with you, I would weep with you for the compassion that I have of you.”
Our merciful Lord Jesus Christ drew this creature unto His love, and to the mind of His passion, that she might not endure to behold a leper, or another sick man, especially if he had any wounds appearing on him. So she wept as if she had seen our Lord Jesus with His wounds bleeding; and so she did, in the sight of the soul; for, through the beholding of the sick man, her mind was all ravished in to our Lord Jesus, that she had great mourning and sorrowing that she might not kiss the leper when she met them in the way, for the love of our Lord: which was all contrary to her disposition in the years of her youth and prosperity, for then she abhorred them most.
Our Lord said: “Daughter, you have desired in your mind to have many priests in the town of Lynn, that might sing and read night and day for to serve Me, worship Me, and praise Me, and thank Me for the goodness that I have done to you in earth; and therefore, daughter, I promise you that you will have reward in heaven for the good wills and good desires, as if you had done them in reality.
“Daughter, you will have a great reward with Me in heaven, for your good service and your good deeds that you have done in your mind, as if you had done the same with your bodily wits outwardly.
“And, daughter, I thank you for the charity that you have to all fornicating men and women; for you pray for them and weep for them many a tear, desiring that I should deliver them out of sin, and be as gracious to them as I was to Mary Magdalene, that they might have as much grace to love Me as Mary Magdalene had; and with this condition you would that each one of them should have twenty pounds a year to love and praise Me; and, daughter, this great charity which you have for them in your prayer pleases Me right well. And, daughter, also I thank you for the charity which you have in your prayer, when you pray for all Jews and Muslims, and all heathen people that they should come to Christian faith, that My name might be magnified in them. Furthermore, daughter, I thank you for the general charity that you have to all people that be now in this world, and to all those that are to come unto the world’s end; that you would be hacked as small as flesh to the pot for their love, so that I would by your death save them all from damnation, if it pleased Me. And, therefore, daughter, for all these good wills and desires, you will have full reward in heaven, believe it right well and doubt never a bit.”
She said: “Good Lord, I would be laid naked on a tormenting hurdle for Your love, all men to wonder on me and to cast filth and dirt on me, and be drawn from town to town every day of my life, if You were pleased thereby, and no man’s soul hindered. Your will be fulfilled and not mine.”
“Daughter,” He said, “as oftentimes as you sayest or think: Worshipped be all the holy places in Jerusalem, where Christ suffered bitter pain and passion in: you will have the same pardon as if you were there with your bodily presence, both to yourself and to all those that you will give to.
“The same pardon that was granted you aforetime, it was confirmed on Saint Nicholas day, that is to say, full forgiveness; and it is not only granted to you, but also to all those that believe, and to all those that shall believe unto the world’s end, that God loveth you, and shall thank God for you. If they will forsake their sin, and be in full will no more to turn again to it, but be sorry and heavy for that they have done, and will be repentant, they shall have the same pardon that is granted to yourself; and that is all the pardon that is in Jerusalem, as was granted you when you were at Racheness.”
That day that she suffered no tribulation for our Lord’s sake, she was not merry nor glad, as that day when she suffered tribulation.
Our Lord Jesus said unto her: “Patience is of more worth than doing miracles. Daughter, it is more of a pleasure to Me that you suffer despites, scorns, shames, reproofs, wrongs, and diseases, than if thine head were stricken off three times a day every day in seven years.”
“Lord,” she said, “for Your great pain have mercy on my little pain.”
When she was in great trouble, our Lord said: “Daughter, I have to comfort you, for now you have the right way to heaven. By this way came I and all My disciples; for now you will know even more what sorrow and shame I suffered for your love, and you will have the more compassion when you think on My passion.”
“O my dear worthy Lord,” said she, “these graces You should shew to religious men and to priests.”
Our Lord said to her again: “Nay, nay, daughter, for that I love best that they love not, and that is shames, reproofs, scorns, and despites of the people; and therefore they shall not have this grace; for, daughter, he that dreads the shames of this world may not perfectly love God.”
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