the Holy Ghost proceeded from the
Father and the Son, it was, so to speak, between them, and yet the
whole formed only one God--but these things are indescribable.

All this was more an inward perception than a vision under distinct
forms, and it appeared to me that the Divine Will of our Lord withdrew
in some sort into the Eternal Father, in order to permit all those
sufferings which his human will besought his Father to spare him, to
weigh upon his humanity alone. I saw this at the time when the angels,
filled with compassion, were desiring to console Jesus, who, in fact,
was slightly relieved at that moment. Then all disappeared, and the
angels retired from our Lord, whose soul was about to sustain fresh
assaults.

When our Redeemer, on Mount Olivet, was pleased to experience and
overcome that violent repugnance of human nature to suffering and death
which constitutes a portion of all sufferings, the tempter was
permitted to do to him what he does to all men who desire to sacrifice
themselves in a holy cause. In the first portion of the agony, Satan
displayed before the eyes of our Lord the enormity of that debt of sin
which he was going to pay, and was even bold and malicious enough to
seek faults in the very works of our Saviour himself. In the second
agony, Jesus beheld, to its fullest extent and in all its bitterness,
the expiatory suffering which would be required to satisfy Divine
Justice. This was displayed to him by angels; for it belongs not to
Satan to show that expiation is possible, and the father of lies and
despair never exhibits the works of Divine Mercy before men. Jesus
having victoriously resisted all these assaults by his entire and
absolute submission to the will of his Heavenly Father, a succession of
new and terrifying visions were presented before his eyes, and that
feeling of doubt and anxiety which a man on the point of making some
great sacrifice always experiences, arose in the soul of our Lord, as
he asked himself the tremendous question: 'And what good will result from
this sacrifice?' Then a most awful picture of the future was displayed
before his eyes and overwhelmed his tender heart with anguish.

When God had created the first Adam, he cast a deep sleep upon him,
opened his side, and took one of his ribs, of which he made Eve, his
wife and the mother of all the living. Then he brought her to Adam, who
exclaimed: 'This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh... Wherefore
a