Thursday 24 October 1878

I am happy to see my army of soldiers again contra diabolum. Although in Latin, even Cottini can understand it! And I have so many things to tell you, this being the first time I am speaking to you after the holidays, but for now I only want to tell you a dream. You know that we dream when we are asleep and that we don't have to put much faith in them; but if it is not wrong not to believe, sometimes there is nothing wrong either with believing them and they can also instruct us, like this one for example.

I was at Lanzo for the first of the retreats and I was sleeping, as I said, when I had this dream. I found myself in a place and did not know where it was, but I was close to a town where there was a garden and near this garden was a very large meadow. I was in the company of some friends who invited me to come into the garden. I came in and saw a huge number of lambs gambolling, running, and prancing around like they do. Then a gate opened onto the field and the lambs scampered out to graze. But many did not want to go out. They stayed in the garden and went around nibbling some grass here and there and grazed that way, though there was not as much grass there as there was outside where the larger group had gone.

“I want to see what the lambs outside are doing”. We went out and we saw them peacefully grazing; and then. almost immediately, the sky darkened, there was lightning and thunder and a storm was brewing. “What will happen to these lambs if they are caught in the storm?” I was saying; “let's bring them in and save them”. And I started calling them. Me on one side, my companions on the other, we tried shepherding them back into the garden, but they did not want to know about it. We chased them here we chased them there; ah but they had faster legs than us. Then it began to spit, then rain but I couldn't get them in. One or two though came into the garden, but all the others, and there was a lot of them, stayed out in the meadow. “Well, if they don't want to come, bad luck for them; meanwhile, we'll go back in”. And we went back into the garden.

There was a fountain there on which were written in red letters: Fons signatus, sealed fountain.⁴ It was covered. And then it opened, the water shot up, and made a rainbow, but shaped like this arch. We and the lambs in the garden with us got under it and the rain and hail couldn't reach us. “But what is this?” I was asking my friends; “and what about those poor lambs outside?”

“You will see”, they answered. “Look at the foreheads of these lambs. What do you see?” I looked and on the forehead of each lamb was written the name of a boy at the Oratory.

“What is this?”

“You will see, you will see”.

Meanwhile I couldn't hold back any longer and wanted to run out and see what the poor lambs left outside were doing.

“I will pick up the ones that were killed and send them straight to the Oratory”, I was thinking. I got wet as well and I saw those poor little lambs collapsed on the ground struggling to limp into the garden but they couldn't walk. I opened the gate but all their efforts were useless. The rain and hail had so battered them and they were a pitiful sight as it continued to do so. One was hit on the head, another on the face, another on the ears, another the legs, others elsewhere. The storm had ceased meanwhile.

“Look”, those near me said, “at the foreheads of these lambs”. I looked and on the forehead of each lamb was written the name of a boy at the Oratory.

“But”, I said, “I know the boy by this name and to me he seems like a little lamb”. “You will see, you will see”.

Then a golden jar with a silver cover was presented to me, and I was told: “Dip your hands into this ointment and touch the lambs' injuries with your hand. They will recover”. I began calling them:

“Baa! Baa!”

Nothing. Nothing happened. I tried approaching one and it ran away.

“It doesn't want to, so bad luck for him!” I went to another and it ran away. And this useless game went on.

I finally reached one whose eyes were hanging out of its sockets, so badly had it been struck, poor thing. I touched it with my hand and it recovered and went into the garden. Many others were no longer afraid and allowed themselves to be touched and healed, and went into the garden. But there were still many left, mostly the worst off, and it was impossible to approach them.

“If they don't want to be healed, then that's their problem; but I don't know what I can do to get them back into the garden”.

“Let them go”, one of the friends with me said, “they will come, they will come”.

“We will see”.

I put the jar back where it was before and returned to the garden. It had all changed, and at the entrance I read: Oratory. As soon as I went in, the lambs who did not want to come entered by sneaking in and were playing hide and seek; not even then could I approach any of them. There were a few of them unwilling to be given the ointment which then turned into poison for them and instead of healing them made their injuries worse.

“Look, do you see that standard?”

“Yes, I see it. I was reading this word in huge letters: Holidays”.

“So, this is the result of the holidays”, one who was with me explained, because I was already beside myself with grief. “Your boys go out to pasture with good will, but then come the storms, the temptations; then the rain which is the devil's assaults; then comes the hail when they fall into sin. Some go to confession and are healed, but others either don't make a good confession or don't go at all. Keep it in mind and never tire of telling your boys that holidays are like a devastating storm for their souls”.

I was looking at the lambs and I saw terrible injuries on some; I was looking for a way to heal them when, as I said, I was sleeping and Fr Scappini made a noise in the room next to me while getting up and I awoke.

This is the dream, and although just a dream, just the same it has a meaning that will not do harm to anyone who puts his faith in it. And I can tell you that I noted some names amongst the lambs in the dream and comparing these with the boys, I saw that these behave just like it happened in the dream. However things are, during this novena for All Saints we should respond to God's loving kindness. He wants to show us mercy and through a good confession purge the wounds on our conscience. We then should all agree to fight the devil and with God's help we will be victorious and receive the crown of victory in Heaven.