Canto XXXII of Paradise

The court of the Empyree. Ave Maria, gratia plena.

  Affetto al suo piacer, quel contemplante
libero officio di dottore assunse,
e cominciò queste parole sante:

  «La piaga che Maria richiuse e unse,
quella ch'è tanto bella da' suoi piedi
è colei che l'aperse e che la punse.

  Ne l'ordine che fanno i terzi sedi,
siede Rachel di sotto da costei
con Beatrice, sì come tu vedi.

  Sarra e Rebecca, Iudìt e colei
che fu bisava al cantor che per doglia
del fallo disse 'Miserere mei',

Infused by an extatic Joy, Therese began these holy words: 
"See Marie, with Her glance filled with pain, and the Lady repenting at Her feet, 
She is Eve, so beautiful, with whom, remember, you have sinned. 
Below Her are seated, Isis, the equal  of Marie, Lucie and Judith 
and between the two, Jeanne d'Arc, your  beloved bride. 

On the lower seat, see Rebecca, the Queen of  Sheba and Veronique, who still carries 
on Her breast the print of the extasiated face of Her divine Lover; at a lower degree, 
are sitting, Kundalini, Ruth, Catherine Tekakouita, Sara and Rachel. 
And still at a degree lower, see the Muses, the Sirens and Queen Guenievre, 
as well as the charitable Marie-Madeleine, the Lady of Camellias, 
the goddess Artemis with Her multiple breasts, 
Kumari, the splendid and maternal virgin, queen Hatshepchut, Lakshmi and Pandore. 
Then comes the Apsaras with their generous breasts; 
some lovers, Chimene, Galatee, Sapho, Cleopatre and also Juliette; 
some unquestionable beauties: the Graces and Aphrodite; some martyrs: Iphygenie and Sainte Cecile. 

You can see them quite as beautiful, aligned from degree to degree down to the lower degree, 
where are seated Jewish women with their black mane, then African girls with their very black skin, 
and Asian ones with an oblique glance, Geishas, similar to fragile flowers; 
and how many other Courtesans, who knew how to relieve the fury of the male, 
and also those from whom you knew how to recognize the virtue and deflowered with ease. 

Then, all around this beautiful assembly, sitted close to the ground, and looking towards Hers,
 males full with covetousness, laid out in circle, of whom, fathers of all the churches, 
convinced animists, repented apostates and prophets 
like Jesus and Mahomet and like Don Kichote, Dali, Saint-Felicien 
and other sanctified men, then disciples of Christ and the Buddha 
those who are tied up to God, Allah, Yahweh or Civa, then Cupid,
 Imeros, Orphee, and Romeo; some Satyrs; Adonis, Pygmalion and all the others. 

They are all ordered and laid out under the throne, according to eternal laws which take account of the favours 
given to the King, or which answer to the grace dispense by the King, in an order and under a social authority 
well established, so that there is no one who as the free will to move to another degree, to think or to act
 on his own account or its own way. The King, by whom this Paradise of Social Solidarity
  rests in such a love and such delights, handles the spirits, creates the souls and equips them, at His liking, 
of fictitious joyfulness and factitious grace, that no one will dare wishing some more. 

Here, it is enough for you to know it without seeking to understand further the reason of those Things.
 But I see that you doubts and that you keep silent." 

Then I looked at My Queen again, Her face was full with joy so that I was filled with admiration, 
and that nothing more offered such an image of God that I was then willing to present myself to Him. 
And a beautiful angel went down towards Her, and He spreads His long wings while singing: 


"Ave Maria, gratia plena."

The whole court repeated the canticle with an ardour such that they became more luminous. 

"Oh my very holy Sister! Tell me who is this angel 
who stares at Our Queen like that, with such an impassioned Love?"


And She answered to me:  
"Whom you see like that with all the grace of an angel or of a soul 
is call the Archangel Gabriel, and He is the Lover of Marie, who gave Her the palm on earth, 
while the son of God was occupied to carry the weight of your own flesh. 

But your extasy makes the time flee. Thus let us raise our eyes towards the First Love 
so that you penetrate, while looking towards Him, in all His splendour. 
But by taking your take-off, so that you do not move back, you must pray and obtain 
the grace from The One, who alone can come to your assistance. 
Follow Me then with Love, so that your heart seizes my words." 


And She suggested to me this oration: