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From The Works of the Rt. Rev. Charles C. Grafton (Volume 7),
edited by B. Talbot Rogers, New York: Longmans, Green, 1914, pp.

164-165

TO ONE IN GREAT SORROW

BISHOP'S HOUSE,
FOND DU LAC, WISCONSIN, April 9, 1900

MY DEAR DAUGHTER IN CHRIST:

Your double loss is indeed a grievous one. But it is not because God in any way desires to afflict you. He grieves with your grief and for you, and if it were better for the dear ones who have passed, and for His wise purposes, would not so afflict you or any of us. I love to think He never desires to give pain, but allows it for some good purpose. Our parents and friends and relatives pass from us into His merciful care. While we grieve, those on the other side welcome them with joy. We say, she is gone; they say, she is come. We say she is dead; they say, another child is born. As about our cradles love prepares a welcome, so when thither we appear, our needs, are they not provided for by the welcome of those we love? If we think of them, we shall not wish aught different for their sakes. If aught should grieve them in reference to ourselves, it is unwillingness to yield up our loved ones to His keeping. By our conformity to His will we send a flash of Joy to their hearts. For do they not rejoice in Him at every submission we make and at every act of our faith? And can we not make this known to Him by means of the Blessed Sacrament? For Him whom we receive is the Living Bond between us and them. So every act of loving submission and acceptance of His dear will, and bright, brave, loving acts of union with us, pass through Him to them, and His heart is the medium of communication. So we flash to them, by our faith and love, the signal that all is well with us and they rejoice in our acceptance of the Blessed will; we gladden them by our loving resignation, and He, making it known to them, wipes all tears from their eyes. May our dear Lord be thus to you a comfort as He becomes your message Bearer to those you love. So will death rather unite than separate us from those within the veil.

With my blessing, your father in Christ,
C. C. FOND DU LAC.

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