How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Page)
Quote #7
When she saw them coming, at once in her soul she beheld our Lord coming with his apostles, and she was so ravished into contemplation with sweetness and devotion, that she could not stand until they came, as courtesy demanded, but leaned against a pillar in the church [...]. (I.49.155).
Kempe reacts to a greeting from the Abbot of Leicester Abbey and his friars. Seeing them as Christ and his disciples is a way of saying that these are good and truly holy men. It's also a way of continually signifying that Christ's journey on earth continues through the lives of modern-day disciples.
Quote #8
On Holy Thursday, as the said creature went in procession with other people, she saw in her soul our Lady, St. Mary Magdalene, and the twelve apostles. And then she beheld with her spiritual eye how our Lady took her leave of her blessed son, Jesus, how he kissed her and all his apostles, and also his true lover, Mary Magdalene. (I.73.214)
Kempe often springboards into an alternate timeline through participation in memorial services, like the one that is performed on Holy Thursday (the Thursday before Easter). Sometimes, she constructs this reality from what she knows of scripture. But in other cases, like this one, she imagines what must have happened between Christ and his followers, based on her own emotional responses to such sorrow.
Quote #9
And then, on the same Sunday, when the priest took the staff of the cross and smote on the church door, the door was opened to him [...] Then she thought that our Lord spoke to the devil and opened hell's gates, confounding him and all his host [...]. (I.78.227)
Kempe is describing a ritual in which the priest symbolically knocks on the door of heaven (that's the church) and is admitted by Christ (the clerics on the other side of the door). But this opening of a literal door signals to Kempe a different kind of opening and ushers her into a totally different experience. Instead, she sees Christ harrowing hell, freeing all the righteous souls that have been hanging out there since the beginning of time.