Blessed Are They That Mourn - neues Buch

CONTENTS the Rev. Herbert Thurston, S.J. ix I Valiant Ones 1 quot II The Sign of the Son of Man 13 III Cheerful Givers 25 quot quot Blessed are they that Mourn 31 IV V Uncovenanted Mercies 36 VI Some More Valiant Ones 40 VII Rachel 47 VIII At Bethany IX Why Wonderful 7 X Afterwards 60 XI quot quot Plentiful Redemption 66 XII Joy, Praise, Song, the Life of Heaven 70 XIII Peace quot XIV Women Receive Their Dead Raised to 75 quot Life XV The Reunions of Heaven 1 80 84 XVI The Reunions of Heaven - PREFACE THERE arc many, it is to be feared, in these evil times who find the text, quotBlessed are they that mourn, quotto be a hard saying, an utteranee against which weak human nature protests and re volts. Anguish of heart, when allied with action in a noble cause, or even with any form of profitable endurance, has itsown compensations but the mere role of the mourner, whose suffering helps not, and the intensity of whose pain transcends immeasurably any outward manifestations consistent with selfrespect, is apt to overwhelm the spirit and to crush it to earth. Too often the poor sufferer hugs her sorrow almost selfishly as a precious souvenir, or as though it were indeed the phantom of him whom she has lost. Shakespeare, who has sounded the depths of all human emotion, paints for us an un forgettable picture of a mother s bereavement in quot KINGJOHN. You are as fond of grief as of your son, quot protests King Philip to the distraught Constance. To which she answers quotGrief tilk the room up of my absent child, Lie.-, in his bed, walks up and down with me, Puts on his prettv looks, repeats his words, Remembers me of all his gracious parts, Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form, Thenhave 1 reason to be fond of ncf.quot It is Mother Mary Loyola s kindly purpose in the pages which follow to offer her tribute of deepest and most respectful sympathy to the many wives, mothers, daughters, sisters or betrothed whose cup of sorrow has been filled brim-full by the terrible happenings of the war. But she gives them more than barren sympathy, she provides substantial comfort, as well as help to guide their thoughts heavenward to the one and only source of consola tion. quotHe talks to me that never had a son, quot was the stricken mother s answer when Pandulph bade her moderate her grief. It was an apt retort and