Vigils Reading – St Aloysius Gonzaga

FROM A LETTER TO HIS MOTHER

by St Aloysius Gonzaga4 ◊◊◊

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