During a great religious solemnity a noble woman said to her two children: "Oh, if I too could go today to church and worship Almighty God, together with the people gathered there! But the town is too far and we cannot make use of the carriage because we have had to sell our horses."
The two children soon pulled the carriage to the open and offered to take their mother to the church which was some distance from the town. When the townspeople saw the two boys pulling the carriage, they were moved to tears for the devotion of the woman and the love of the two children, for their mother, and from the town gate to the church they spread flowers and fresh, green branches on the way, singing joyfully: "Glory be to the happy mother and to her noble children!"
Accompanied by the joyous shouts of the people, the children reached the church.
The devout mother, weeping, knelt at the foot of the altar and prayed from the depth of her heart: "Good Lord, bless my children and grant them whatever You hold more worthy."
The two brothers took their mother back home and at night went to sleep in joy and gladness. The following morning, when the noble woman wet to their room to awake them, she found them beautiful and radiant as two angles, sleeping their eternal rest. The mother, seeing her two beloved children dead, was at first deeply depressed, but then she said: "My good Lord, You have answered my prayer. Now I realize that a peaceful and holy death is what we can best desire. My two sons are now in Your sight. This world was too poor to reward their filial love; this is why You have taken them to You to heaven." I worship Thee, sweet will of God!
And all Thy ways adore;
And every day I live I seem
To love Thee more and more. |
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The Devout Mother and Her Children