Letter VI. To a Religious Sister. on the Birth of the Infant J

You may think, my dear daughter, how my soul which loves yours extremely, fancies always that it can write to you, for truly I have a very great pleasure when my soul can entertain itself with yours. But these great feasts impose silence upon us inasmuch as they them-

selves ring with divine words, which tell us of the mystery which they represent. Indeed I know not what to say in presence of this divine Infant, for he speaks no word from his heart, full of fondness for ours, he reveals not himself except by lamentations, tears, and sweet looks: his sacred Mother is almost always silent, and marvelling at what is said to him. Oh! what great things does this silence speak to me! It teaches me to make mental prayer; it teaches me the loving fervour of a heart filled with affection, which cherishes these sweet thoughts while fearing to lose their sweetness if it utter them.

Meantime keep near this Mother, and do not leave her for a single moment, while she starts from Naza reth and goes to Bethlehem; while without eagerness but not without ardent movements of the soul she awaits the outcoming of the beautiful bird of Paradise. My dear daughter, you will see her, this fair Lady, this blessed daughter of Sion, Mother of the King of glory though she is, going about to beg hospitality in Bethlehem, and with no sort of shame, but glorying in this grace and blessed necessity.

I promise you that in this midnight Mass, in which it will seem to me that I shall see a crib on the altar, and the sweet Babe with his two eyes filling with tears more precious than pearls, I will offer him to God his Father with his Mother's approval, and will ask him for you, that he may ever be the heart of your heart and the sole Beloved of your soul. 0 my daughter, tightly clasp this divine Infant in your arms, and give him that milk of humility and cordial sweetness which is his food. Ah! how sweet this mystery is! Your St. Bernard's first rapture was by the vision of it, and

LET. vn.] Letters for Various Festivals. 411 by this means his heart and his mouth became full of the milk of the holy Virgin and the tears of this sweet little Infant. Salute your little cousin from me, and likewise salute one another. As soon as you see the august little Infant born in your soul, tell him earnestly that I sacrifice to him my soul with yours eternally. Amen.