Vigils Reading – St Aloysius Gonzaga

A LETTER FROM

ST ALOYSIUS GONZAGA

TO HIS MOTHER

◊◊◊

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.