Comfort for those who Mourn

The great and sad mistake of many people

among them even pious persons, is to imagine that

those whom death has taken leave us.  They do not

leave us.  They remain! – Where are they?

In darkness?  Oh, no!  It is we

who are in darkness.  We do not see them, but they see us.

Their eyes, radiant with glory, are fixed upon our eyes

full of tears.  Oh, infinite consolation!

Though invisible to us, our dear dead are not absent.

I have often reflected upon the surest comfort for those who

mourn.  It is this:  a firm faith in the real and continual

presence of our loved ones;  It is the clear and penetrating

conviction that death has not destroyed them,

Nor carried them away.  They are not even absent, but living

near to us,  Transfigured: having lost in their glorious

change no delicacy of their souls,

No tenderness of their hearts, nor especial preference

in their affection;

On the contrary, having in depth and fervor of devotion

grown larger a hundredfold.

Death is for the good, a translation into light, into power

into love.

Those who on earth were only ordinary Christians

become perfect;

those who were beautiful become Good

those who were good become sublime.