Our Lord cut up another lamb which was carried to the holy women in one of the buildings of the court, where they were seated at table.  The Apostles ate some more vegetables and lettuce.  The countenance of our Divine Saviour bore an indescribable expression of serenity and recollection, greater than I had ever before seen.  He bade the Apostles forget all their cares.  The Blessed Virgin also, as she sat at table with the other women, looked most placid and calm.  When the other women came up, and took hold of her veil to make her turn round and speak to them, her every movement expressed the sweetest self-control and placidity of spirit.

At first Jesus conversed lovingly and calmly with his disciples, but after a while he became grave and sad:  ’Amen, amen, I say to you, that one of you is about to betray me:’  he said, he that dippeth his hand with me in the dish’ (Matt. 26:21.23).  Jesus was then distributing the lettuce, of which there was only one dish, to those Apostles who were by his side, and he had given Judas, who was nearly opposite to him, the office of distributing it to the others.  When Jesus spoke of a traitor, an expression which filled all the Apostles with fear, he said:  ‘he that dippeth his hand with me in the dish,’ which means:  ’one of the twelve who are eating and drinking with me—­one of those with whom I am eating bread.’  He did not plainly point out Judas to the others by these words; for to dip the hand in the same dish was an expression used to signify the most friendly and intimate intercourse.  He was desirous, however, to give a warning to Judas, who was then really dipping his hand in the dish with our Saviour, to distribute the lettuce.  Jesus continued to speak:  ‘The Son of Man indeed goeth,’ he said, ’as it is written of him:  but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man shall be betrayed:  It were better for him if that man had not been born.’

The Apostles were very much troubled, and each one of them exclaimed:  ‘Lord, is it I?’ for they were all perfectly aware that they did not entirely understand his words.  Peter leaned towards John, behind Jesus, and made him a sign to ask our Lord who the traitor was to be, for, having so often been reproved by our Lord, he trembled lest it should be himself who was referred to.  John was seated at the right hand of Jesus, and as all were leaning on their left arms, using the right to eat, his head was close to the bosom of Jesus.  He leaned then on his breast and said:  ‘Lord, who is it?’ I did not see Jesus say to him with his lips:  ‘He it is to whom I shall reach bread dipped.’  I do not know whether he whispered it to him, but John knew it, when Jesus having dipped the bread, which was covered with lettuce, gave it tenderly to Judas, who also asked:  ‘Is it I, Lord?’ Jesus looked at him with love, and answered him in general terms.  Among the Jews, to give bread dipped was a mark of friendship and confidence; Jesus on this occasion gave Judas the morsel, in order thus to warn him, without making known his guilt to the others.  But the heart of Judas burned with anger, and during the whole time of the repast, I saw a frightful little figure seated at his feet, and sometimes ascending to his heart.  I did not see John repeat to Peter what he had learned from Jesus, but he set his fears at rest by a look.