nk that
life has dispensed us many blessings, and that one of the last, and the
greatest, is that we have been able to communicate with each other and
to feel our union? There are many unfortunate people here who do not
know where their wives and children are, who have been for three months
isolated from all. You see that we are still among the lucky ones.

Dear mother, less than ever ought we to despair, for never shall we be
more truly convinced that all this agitation and delirium of mankind's
are nothing in view of the share of eternity which each one carries
within himself, and that all these monstrosities will end in a better
future. This war is a kind of cataclysm which succeeds to the old
physical upheavals of our globe; but have you not noticed that, in the
midst of all this, a little of our soul is gone from us, and that we
have lost something of our conviction of a Higher Order? Our sufferings
come from our small human patience taking the same direction as our
desires, noble though they may be. But as soon as we set ourselves to
question things in order to discover their true harmony, we find rest
unto our souls. How do we know that this violence and disorder are not
leading the universal destinies towards a final good?

Dear mother, still cherishing the firmest and most human hope, I send my
deepest love to you and to my beloved grandmother.

Send also all my love to our friends who are in trouble. Help them to
bear everything: two crosses are less heavy to carry than one. And
confidence in our eternal joy.

_October 15, 7 o'clock._

I have received your card of the 1st. What joy it gives me that we
should be at last in touch with each other. Certainly, our thoughts have
never been apart. You tell me of Marthe's misfortune, and I am happy
that you can be useful to her. Dear mother, that is the task that
belongs to us both: to be useful at the present moment without reference
to the moment that is to follow.

Yes, indeed, I feel deeply with you that I have a mission in life. But
one must act in each instant as though that mission was having immediate
fulfilment. Do not let us keep back one single small corner of our
hearts for our small hopes. We must attain to this--that no catastrophe
whatsoever shall have power to cripple our lives, to interrupt them, to
set them out of tune. That is the finest work, and it is the work of
this moment. The rest, that future which we must not question--you will
see,