Sunday, 29th.
Very beautiful, Enrico, was the impetuosity with which you flung
yourself on your mother's heart on your return from your lesson of
religion. Yes, your master said grand and consoling things to you.
God threw you in each other's arms; he will never part you. When I
die, when your father dies, we shall not speak to each other these
despairing words, "Mamma, papa, Enrico, I shall never see you
again!" We shall see each other again in another life, where he who
has suffered much in this life will receive compensation; where he
who has loved much on earth will find again the souls whom he has
loved, in a world without sin, without sorrow, and without death.
But we must all render ourselves worthy of that other life.
Reflect, my son. Every good action of yours, every impulse of
affection for those who love you, every courteous act towards your
companions, every noble thought of yours, is like a leap towards
that other world. And every misfortune, also, serves to raise you
towards that world; every sorrow, for every sorrow is the expiation
of a sin, every tear blots out a stain. Make it your rule to become
better and more loving every day than the day before. Say every
morning, "To-day I will do something for which my conscience will
praise me, and with which my father will be satisfied; something
which will render me beloved by such or such a comrade, by my
teacher, by my brother, or by others." And beseech God to give you
the strength to put your resolution into practice. "Lord, I wish to
be good, noble, courageous, gentle, sincere; help me; grant that
every night, when my mother gives me her last kiss, I may be able
to say to her, 'You kiss this night a nobler and more worthy boy
than you kissed last night.'" Keep always in your thoughts that
other superhuman and blessed Enrico which you may be after this
life. And pray. You cannot imagine the sweetness that you
experience,--how much better a mother feels when she sees her child
with hands clasped in prayer. When I behold you praying, it seems
impossible to me that there should not be some one there gazing at
you and listening to you. Then I believe more firmly that there is
a supreme goodness and an infinite pity; I love you more, I work
with more ardor, I endure with more force, I forgive with all my
heart, and I think of death with serenity. O great and good God!
To hear once more, after death, the voice of my mother, to meet my
children again, to see my Enrico once more, my Enrico, blessed and
immortal, and to clasp him in an embrace which shall nevermore be
loosed, nevermore, nevermore to all eternity! Oh, pray! let us
pray, let us love each other, let us be good, let us bear this
celestial hope in our hearts and souls, my adored child!