219. К Картерии

If you fully knew what pleasure you give us by writing to us, and writing constantly, always sweetening your letters with the honey of your love, then you would use all means to be able to send us a letter every day. We even forget that we are in Kukuza, that we spend our lives in the wilderness - your letters and your sincere love bring us so much joy! And how much affection for us, how much tender care on your part is evident from the fact that you not only write to us, but also convinced my master, our dear brother Livanius, to get ready for the journey and come to us here? We are delighted, we triumph after this, because there is nothing more expensive than sincere love. You deign to ask that we maintain the same disposition that we showed towards your measure from the beginning. But we are unable to be content with this measure and with a feeling of lively pleasure we notice that our affection for you is increasing daily. We constantly think to ourselves about the nobility of your soul, about your straightforwardness, independence, devotion in love, sincerity and non-pretense, and these thoughts give us the greatest pleasure. We therefore ask you, do not doubt our love and do not grieve us for the fact that we are now returning back what was sent to us by your honesty. As for your zeal, we do not at all reject it, and in this regard we accepted everything that you sent, but since we currently do not feel any need, we decided that all this should remain safe with your nobility. If the need ever comes, you will see how boldly and trustingly we will write to you to send it to us. Thus we justify your own words. At the end of the letter you say: “show that you honor us with your trust and use ours as your property.” So, if you want, as you really want it, that we rely on you and use yours as our property, then send it to me when I write. By expressing the desire that this be sent to me when I want, and not when I do not need it, I am thus giving you the most obvious proof that I look at it precisely as my property. Show now your sincere love and your respect for us: give in to us on this and quickly send a letter with the news that this was not regrettable to you. Otherwise, you will plunge us into constant worry, and we will constantly think whether we have somehow saddened you, because we highly value your love and the calmness of your nobility. We apologized for a long time; Let me know how you accepted our apology. It is necessary to know your measure, that in relation to other persons who made us the same sendings and were also very sincerely disposed towards us, we did not at all need to resort to apologies and it was enough to simply send back what they sent; We apologize to your honesty, we ask you not to be offended by us, and we will constantly repeat this request until you notify us that you are not offended at all. When we receive such a notification, it will be twice, three times, many times more expensive for us than what was now sent, because it will be the most obvious evidence of the respect and respect that you have for us. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” You might be interested in: