Letter XII. To the Same

Wishes of blessing for the New Year.

29th December, 1606. Behold this year, my dearest child, about to lose itself in the gulf in which all the preceding are swal-. lowed up. Oh! how desirable is eternity, at the price of these miserable and perishable vicissitudes! Let time flow, with which we ourselves flow away little by little, to be transformed into the glory of the children of God.

This is the last time I write to you this year, my dear child. Ah! what blessings I wish you, and with what ardour! It cannot be expressed. Alas! when I think how I have used God's time, I am in great fear lest he should not will to give me his eternity, since he does not will to give it save to those who use his time well.

I am three months without letters from you; but I know God is with you, that is enough for me; it is he that I wish you only. I write without leisure, for

Varieties Letters. 233 my room is full of people who draw me away; but my heart is solitary all the time, and full of desire to live for ever entirely for this holy love, which is the only object of this same heart of mine.

At any rate, during these sacred days a thousand desires have seized me to give you the glorious satisfaction you so much desire from my soul, as from your very own, by advancing solicitously towards holy perfection. To this you also aspire, and by this you respire, for the good of my heart, which in return wishes you for ever all the highest union with God which can be had here below. This is the only wish of him whom God has given you.