Letter 8: There is no need for me to call on the spells of the spirit to treat your grief once more.

To Eugraphia. There is no need for me to call on the spells of the spirit to treat your grief once more. The mere remembrance of the sufferings that won our salvation is enough to quench distress, even at its worst. Those sufferings were endured for all of us. Our Lord did not defeat death in order to grant victory to a single body, but to raise all of us together through that one body, and to make our hope of resurrection certain and sure. And if even now, when the holy celebrations are bringing you so much refreshment of soul, you find you cannot overcome your sorrow — then I ask you, my honored friend, to read the very words of the marriage contract at the point where, after the mention of the dowry, it speaks of the end of the union. Marriage enters the world preceded by the acknowledgment of death. Because we know that human beings are mortal, and caring for the peace of those who survive, it is our custom to lay down provisions for what comes after, and no one hesitates at the mention of death before the joining together in life. We knew this before the wedding; we have lived with this expectation every day since. Why, then, take it as something unbearable? The union must be broken either by the husband's death or by the wife's departure. This is the course of life. You know, my excellent friend, both God's will and human nature. Shake off your grief, then, and wait for the fulfillment of the hope we all share.

Letter 8