Letter 72. To a Lady, Who Had Lost her Only Son

Knowing your sorrow, my dear daughter, my soul has been touched in proportion to the sincere love for you with which God has inspired me. I can see you, very grievously afflicted, a poor mother losing her only and most dear son. Nevertheless, I doubt not but that you are well assured that this parting is not for long, inasmuch as we are all travelling fast towards the country where your son has already arrived, as we hope, and rests within the Arms of God's Mercy. And it is your duty thus to soften, as far as may be, the bitterness of your natural grief But I hardly need say this to you, my dear daughter. You have so long striven to serve God, and have so diligently studied in the school of the Cross, that you will not only accept this sorrow patiently, but gladly and lovingly too, I am certain; remembering Him Who bore His Cross even to the death, and her who had like you an Only Son, (and such a Son as none else ever had,) Whom she saw dying on the Cross, her heart full of grief, her eyes running down with tears, yet with a most tender, holy grief, for her grief was the salvation of the world. \Vell, my dear daughter, you have given up the most precious possession you had. Bless the Name of the Lord, Who gave it and has taken it away. He will be more to you than many children. As for me, I have prayed earnestly for the departed soul, and will continue to do so by reason of the love I bear your soul, which may our Lord of His Eternal Goodness ever fill with heavenly blessings.

I am, my dear daughter, wholly yours, &c

1:466.] LXXV.