Письмо XXII. Авксентию

If you, having boldly trusted the Spirit, decided - because you feel an inextricable love for them, which does not need anything for its renewal - to neglect writing letters to friends, then I praise such a law and approve of you for the fact that you have entrusted the treasure of love to Him, in Whom is its beginning and completion. If, despising the decent friendly custom, you do not undertake to write due to sluggish procrastination, then I will constantly, on the contrary, blame you, not knowing how to respect friends who are absorbed in great concerns about worldly things. If you do not write for one of these two reasons, [353] accept from those who are absent and graciously grant to those who are absent an interview in a letter, as nature itself teaches - or, rather, as God inspired nature. After all, the serene memory is stimulated and the dormant one is awakened by the word depicted in letters, so that it is as if you are seeing and stroking the faces of friends; and because of this, love for them, like an extinguished fire, flares up again from a small spark. You might be interested in: