I saw in the garden a flower-bed out of which arose a narrow ladder which reached to heaven. They who had been driven out were not allowed to mount it. I saw people ascending and descending to help upothers. I saw some apparently very distinguished people turned away, whilst others mounted the ladder which hung down from heaven. It was guarded by a youth with a drawn sword who repulsed the unworthy. "
我在花园里看到一个花坛,花坛里有一个通向天堂的狭窄的天梯。那些被赶出来的人是不允许攀爬天梯的。我看到有人在天梯上上下下帮助别人。我看到一些显然是很显赫的人被拒绝了,而另一些人则登上了从天上垂下来的梯子。梯子由一个拔剑的年轻人把守着,他击退了那些不配的人。」
The preceding vision referred to mixed marriages, from which Sister Emmerich endured lifelong torments. She used to lie for whole days a prey to violent cramps of the bowels, her arms extended in the form of a cross. She saw again in the Nuptial House the Lutheran cook and her project of marrying her illegitimate daughter to the young schoolboy who was now of age.
前面的异象指的是异教通婚,艾曼丽修女从中忍受了终生的折磨。她常常整天躺在床上,肠子剧烈的痉挛,她的手臂呈十字形伸展。她在婚房里再次看到了路德教会的厨师,以及她将把私生女嫁给那个已经成年的小男生的计划。
She beheld the clergy open to all sorts of attacks on the score of such marriages now so numerous, and she exerted herself to enlist the prayers of others in behalf of their members vacillating between right and wrong ; — all this she saw in pictures back as far as the Mosaic period, since the Church has never countenanced such unions excepting in cases of absolute necessity. She saw how detrimental they are to the Church, how they weaken her influence.
艾曼丽修女看到神职人员因为现在如此多的异教通婚而受到各种攻击,于是她竭力争取人们的祈祷,为了在对错之间摇摆不定的神职人员祈祷;所有这一切,她早在梅瑟时期的神视画面中看到过,因为圣教会从不允许这种结合,除非是在绝对必要的情况下。她看到异教通婚对圣教会是多么有害,它们是多么削弱教会的影响力。
" I saw Moses before reaching Mt. Sinai, separating entirely from the people and sending away some of the degenerate Israelites who had married among the pagans. They had chosen wives from among the Madianites, I think, and so lost their nationality. Their descendants had mingled with the Samaritans and these again with the Assyrians, and finally, had became heretics and idolators.
「我看到梅瑟在到达西乃山之前,完全与百姓分离,并且打发走了一些与异教徒通婚的堕落以色列人。我想,他们是从米德杨人中挑选妻子的,因此失去了族籍。他们的后裔与撒玛黎雅人混在一起,这些人又与亚述人混合,最后成了异端和偶像崇拜者。
I saw such marriages contracted out of necessity during the Babylonian Captivity; but they teemed with fatal consequences. I saw such unions tolerated in the infancy of the Church, on account of the state of the times and for the propagation of the faith. But never has the Church consented that the offspring should be reared out of her own fold, an event which happens only by violence.
我在巴比伦被掳期间,看到这种婚姻是出于需要而结合的。但它们充满了致命的后果。我看到这种结合在初期教会就被容忍了,这是由于时代的状况和信仰的传播。但教会从来没有同意过异教通婚的后代应在她的羊栈外抚养,这种情况除非通过暴力才会发生。
As soon as she was solidly established, the Church positively prohibited such marriages. I have seen whole countries from which the orthodox faith has entirely disappeared in consequence of them ; still more, I have seen that, if the new system of marriage and education succeeds, in less than a century affairs will be in a bad state in our own land."
一旦圣教会稳固的建立起来,教会就坚决禁止这种婚姻。我曾看到有些国家的正统信仰因异教通婚而完全消失;更何况,我还看到,如果新的婚姻和教育制度取代了传统的话,在不到一个世纪的时间里,我们本国的信仰状况就会陷入糟糕的境地。」