
THE LAMENT OF THE LOST PRIEST
LISTEN MY SON, TO THY LOST BROTHER PRIEST; BUT I WILL NOT SAY, HAVE MERCY ON HIM, FOR THY PITY CANNOT HELP HIM, SINCE OUT OF HELL THERE IS NO REDEMPTION.
LISTEN TO HIS CRY:
I am tormented in this flame. Why does he not say by this flame? because in addition to the pain of fire he endures another torment.
MARK HIS WORDS:.... Oh, fool that I was! I have spent my days in the way of sin and perdition. I have walked by dangerous paths; but the way of the Lord that I have pointed out to others I have not followed.
O wretched me! What have pride and the wealth that I laid up for myself availed me? The false treasures that I loved have as a shadow passed away.
Oh, thrice unhappy that I am! Never shall I see the face of my loving Father in heaven. That was to have been my home but I shall never reach it. I thirst and shall never drink; I hunger and shall never eat. Nothing remains to me for all eternity but strife and clamor and grief.
Woe to me! Woe to me! My lose is my own work, the fruit of my sins.
O my soul! who bewitched thee that thou didst not obey the commandments of thy God which thou taughest to others, that thou didst not respond to that grace that was ever knocking at thy door.
Often have I absolved the sins of others and my own are bound forever.
Often have I received and distributed to others the loving Lamb of God, and for myself changed him forever into an unplacable Judge.
Often have I rescued by the Holy Sacrifice the souls of the dead from the flames of purgatory and by that same Sacrifice I have buried my own in eternal flames.
Often have I deterred my people from sin by preaching to them the pains of the damned, and by my negligence and sins I have cast myself into those very flames.
Oh, that I had been wise! ..Oh, if I had but understood!..Oh, that I had provided for my last end! ..Woe is me! Woe is me!
Thou art just, O Lord, and thy judgements are right. There is nothing that Thou oughtst to have done for my salvation that Thou hast not done. ..My loss is my own doing.
LISTEN AGAIN MY SON....
Father Abraham, all ye glorious citizens of heaven, yo holy priests, I beseech you send someone to my brother priests who are still dwelling on earth, to warn them lest they also should come into this place of torments. ...If one went to them from the dead they would do penance.
What is the reply?.....If they will not hear Moses and the prophets neither would they believe one if he should rise again from the dead.
O my son! thou hast heard a terrible mystery. ..Such is the perversity of an evil priest that not even by a resurrection from the dead can he be led to penance and conversion.........
Did not the the chief priests and the scribes see Lazarus raised by Me from the dead? They certainly did....
Nevertheless, since they would not believe in My words and in My works, neither did they believe in Me at the sight of that man stepping forth from the tomb. ...On the contrary they became more enraged against Me. ..................
A bad priest certainly knows the truth, but he resists the warning of faith: he abounds in grace and he refuses to obey the movement of grace. ................
Fear therefore, My son; again I say to thee, fear lest thou shouldst ever become like unto him. .......
To-day if thou hearest the voice of the Lord harden not thy heart against it: ... see if the way of iniquity is in thee and, if so, immediately remove it from thee. .....
Arise and enter by the narrow way which alone leads to life.