Letter L. To a Superior or the Visitation

Considerations on the death of the Blessed Virgin.

My dearest Mother, — I was considering last evening, according to the weakness of my spiritual eyes, this Queen dying of a last attack of a fever dearer than all health — the fever of love, which, drying up her heart, at last inflames it, burns it and consumes it, in such way that it gives up its holy spirit, which goes straight away into the hands of her son. Ah! may this holy Virgin deign to make us live by her prayers in this holy love! May it be for ever the most unique object of our heart. May our union for ever give glory to the love of God, which bears the sacred name of Unitive!

I have the happiest of birthdays, my dearest mother, in having been born into this world on the day when the most holy Virgin, our Queen y appeared in heaven, in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety.* Thus we shall speak on Sunday, the day on which I was born, and which has this glory, that * Ps. xliv. 10.

it was during the octave of this great Assumption. Ah, God! dearest mother, how entirely would I hollow out our heart before this exalted Lady, that it may please her to fill it with that overflowing dew of Hermon, which distils on all sides from her holy plenitude of graces.

O how absolute and sovereign is the perfection of this dove, in comparison of which we are ravens! Ah! Amid the deluge of our miseries, I have wished that she should find the olive branch of holy love, of purity, of sweetness, of prayer — to carry it back in sign of peace to her dear dove-spouse, to her Noe. Vive Jesus, vive Marie, the support of my life! Amen.