Ozanam Letters: 0543

Letter 9543

To: Monsieur Soulacroix Paris, June 23, 1844

A letter that celebrates and recalls the third anniversary of his marriage

My good father,

Yesterday, a day of lessons for the faculty, I returned home very late and found so many pressing matters that it was impossible for me to write you. I therefore put off until the following day the joy of wishing you a happy feast. Your children from Paris unite with their brothers and sisters in Lyon and throw themselves into your arms, repeating these words of congratulations that we all speak as we wish you happiness. Three years ago at this same time you became one of us and [the approaching feast] of Saint John brings with it the anniversary of the day on which you gave me your beloved daughter. As I thank God for this blessing, how could I forget the good father that I have? Allow me to tell you that these three years have passed so rapidly and yet have been so wonderful that I find it impossible to imagine how I could have lived in any other way. This time has appeared to me to be centuries of happiness. And yet only one thing is eternal because it is of God, namely, love. Unless one finds in God this experience of Eternity, one cannot experience true, pure and holy love.