Visions of Sister Hadewijch

Eit was on a Sunday in the octave In the Christian calendar, an octave is the eight-day period of celebration following a major feast day. before Pentecost, that the Body of our Lord A reference to the Eucharist or Holy Communion. was brought to me secretly at my bedside. At that time, I felt such a great longing within my spirit that I could no longer endure being among so many people, and so I had slipped away. The longing that tormented my soul was this: to be one in the enjoyment of God. Indeed, I was still immature and inexperienced, and I had not yet performed sufficient penance Acts of religious discipline or prayer to show repentance for sins., nor had I prepared myself properly to be received into such a great honor as that which was then to happen to me, and which still shines within me today.

But when I had received our Lord, He received me. He drew all my senses upward, away from the memory of foreign and earthly things, so that He might enjoy them in unity. It was as if I were carried away to a wide, flowery meadow, which was called: the Field of Perfect Virtue. And upon it stood trees; I was led toward them. And their names were made known to me, as well as the nature of their names.

The first tree had a decayed root, which was crumbly on the surface but made of hard heartwood heartwood: the dense, inner part of a tree trunk, which provides structural support at its core. And upon the root grew a very lovely, beautiful flower; it sat only loosely, so that when a storm came, it fell off and withered. And he who led me was one of the angels from the highest throne, to whom nothing is unknown. And on this very day...