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Vigils Reading – St Aloysius Gonzaga
June 21
FROM A LETTER TO HIS MOTHER
by St Aloysius Gonzaga6
◊◊◊
Your letter found me lingering still in this region of the dead, but now I
must rouse myself to make my way to heaven at last and to praise God for ever
in the land of the living; indeed I had hoped that before this time my journey
there would have been over. If charity, as St. Paul says, means to weep with
those who weep and rejoice with those who are glad, then, dearest mother, you
shall rejoice exceedingly that God in His grace and His love for you is showing
me the path to true happiness, and assuring me that I shall never lose Him.
The divine goodness…is a fathomless and shoreless ocean, and I confess
that when I plunge my mind into thought of this it is carried away by the
immensity and feels quite lost and bewildered there. In return for my short and
feeble labors, God is calling me to eternal rest; His voice from heaven invites me
to the infinite bliss I have sought so languidly, and promises me this reward for
the tears I have so seldom shed.
Take care above all things…not to insult God’s boundless loving kindness;
you should certainly do this if you mourned as dead one living face to face with
God, one whose prayers can bring you in your troubles more powerful aid than
they ever could on earth. And our parting will not be for long; we shall see each
other again in heaven; we shall be united with our Savior; there we shall praise
him with heart and soul, sing his mercies forever, and enjoy eternal happiness.
When He takes away what He has once lent us, His purpose is to store our
treasure elsewhere more safely and bestow on us those very blessings that we
ourselves would most choose to have.
I write all this with the one desire that you and all <the> family may
consider my departure a joy and favor and that you especially may speed with a
mother’s blessing my passage across the waters till I reach the shore to which
all blessings belong. I write the more willingly because I have no clearer way of
expressing the love and respect I owe you as your son.
6 The Liturgy of the Hours – vol. III – Catholic Book Publishing Co – New York – 1975 – pg 1475.13