and as purely in return. Our charity will be mutual, and,
therefore, our intercourse with the blessed will produce joys and
pleasures second only to the unspeakable happiness of the Beatific
Vision. Meditate well, Christian soul, on these exquisite delights.
Think what an unspeakable pleasure that mutual and perfect charity
must be to the inhabitants of heaven. That feature alone would almost
change for any one of us this cold world into a heaven.

Suppose you could say, with truth, "Every one of my acquaintances
loves me with the purest charity; and every stranger who is
introduced to me, loves me immediately with the purest affection. I
have no enemies; no, not one. No one is ever envious or jealous of
me; no one ever says an unkind word of me, nor has any one even an
unkind thought of me. All seem to take a singular pleasure in
speaking well of me, and in doing me all manner of kind services;
and, in return, I sincerely love all, and take a singular delight
in doing good to all." Surely, such language never was spoken by any
one in this world of imperfection. If, therefore, you could speak it
with truth, you would have reached a blessedness which neither our
Blessed Lord nor any of his saints ever reached on earth. Every one
would look upon you, and with reason, as the most highly-favored
person that ever lived in this world.

Now, this is precisely the blessedness which awaits us in our
heavenly home. There we shall love every one with the most perfect
charity, and every one will return our love. There we shall have no
enemies; no one to think uncharitably of us; no one to criticize our
sayings and conduct; no one to spread reports injurious to our
character; no one to put an unfavorable construction upon our most
innocent actions. "God is charity," and as "we shall be like Him
because we shall see him as he is," it follows that we, too, shall
possess that divine charity, in a far higher degree than is
attainable here below. Our social intercourse with the blessed will,
therefore, ever be the source of the purest and sweetest joy.

6. Besides the things already enumerated, there is one more which is
to be the source of still greater joy. And what may that be? It is
the meeting, in heaven, of them whom we loved so well here, because
they were bound to us by the sacred ties of kindred, or of true
friendship. It is the meeting of parent and child, of husband and
wife, of brother and sister, of relatives and friends