Letter 105. To a Widowed Religious

Who was Expecting to Hear of Her Child’s Death,

My Dearest Mother,

You must await the result of this illness as meekly as you can, with a full resolution to conform to God's Will in your loss, if indeed we may call a temporary absence loss, when it is to be replaced by an eternal presence.

How blessed is the heart which can love and accept

God^s Will in every event! Oh, if once our hearts were thoroughly fixed on that holy and happy eternity, we should be ready to say to all we love best, “ Go, dear fnends, go to that Eternal Father at the moment in which He calls you; we shall follow soon/' And forasmuch as time is given us but for that end, and the world is intended to people Heaven; when we go thither we shall have accomplished the puipose for which we were created.

Oh! Mother, let us leave our children to the Mercy of that God Who gave His Son for very mercy's sake. Let us offer our children's lives to Him, since He gave up His Son's Life for us. We must, indeed, keep our eyes fixed on His Heavenly Providence, and acquiesce in all He sends with a humble heart. We must be firm and stedfast before the Cross, and even on the Cross, if it is God's Pleasure to nail us there. “ Blessed are the crucified, for they shall be glorified." Of a truth, my dear Mother, our portion in this world is the Cross; in the next world it will be Eternal Glory.

Dear Mother, I wish you most earnestly all perfection, and I have every hope and belief in our Sovereign Lord and His Holy Mother that “ your life will be hid with Christ in God." May He bless you, and stamp the Eternal Sign of His Pure Love upon your heart. Let us strive in all humility to be like the Saints, and to spread abroad the precious incense of charity. May God kindle His Holy Love within us, so that all else may be as nought to us. May our Dear Lord be the Abiding Rest of both our souls and bodies. My daily lesson is not to do my own will; rather to do that which I do not will. Be at peace within His Arms for ever.

C713.3 CIX.