broke, my captive soul was freed from its bonds; but as me I for only too short a space of time."
"Mother," I rejoined, "how long did your soul remain separated from your body?' She answered me: "Persons who witnessed my death, say that I remained four hours without returning to life. A great many persons came to offer consolations to Mother and my family, but my soul had entered into eternity and indulged no thoughts of time."
I said: "What did you see, mother, during that time, and why did your soul return into the body. I beseech you do not conceal aught of this from me." She answered: "Know, father, that my soul entered into an unknown world, and beheld the glory of the just and the chastisement of sinners. But here also memory fails, and the poverty of language prohibits a full description of these things. I tell you however what I can; be assured therefore, that I saw the divine Essence, and for this I suffer so much in remaining enchained in this body. Were I not retained for the love of God and love of the neighbor, I should die of grief. My great consolation is to suffer, because I am aware that by suffering, I shall obtain a more perfect view of God. Hence tribulations, far from being painful to my soul, are on the contrary its delight. I saw the torments of Hell and those of purgatory; no words can describe them. Had poor mortals the faintest idea of them, they would suffer a thousand deaths rather than undergo the least of their torments during a single day. I saw in particular those punished who sin in the married state, by not observing the laws it imposes, and seeking in it naught but sensual pleasures. " And as I inquired why this sin, which was not worse than others, still received so rude a chastisement, she told me:
