Letter XXVI. To a Bernardine Sister, his . Cousin. on the Feasts of All Saints and All Souls

WE must bear with this inconvenience of the love of our relations, who think there is no comparison be tween the satisfaction of being with them, and that

LET. XXVIIL] Letters for Various Festivals. 443 which is found in the course of God's service. So be in mental solitude, my dear cousin, my daughter, since you cannot be in real solitude. All is sweet to the sweet, and all is holy to the holy. You know in what manner one is to resist all these little attacks of impatience, vexation, and the rest.

Bless God, my dear daughter, for these little trials which occur to you in order to try your fidelity. Hear Mass in your heart when you cannot hear it elsewhere, and adore the Holy Sacrament.

As to the great feasts which are approaching, you have nothing further to do after your Office and ser vices save to keep your spirit in the heavenly Jerusalem, amid those glorious streets which you will ever see resounding with God's praises. Behold that variety of Saints, and ask of them how they got there; and you will learn that the Apostles arrived thither chiefly by love, the Martyrs by constancy, the Doctors by meditation, the Confessors by mortification, the Virgins by purity of heart, and all in general by humility. On the day of the Departed you will enter into Purgatory, and will see those souls full of hope, who will exhort you to advance in piety all you can, in order that at your departure you may be the less kept back from going to heaven. Good night, my dear daughter.