A Festal Letter Dimmed by Calamity

The divine feast of salvation has brought us the springs of God’s good gifts: the blessing of the cross, and the immortality that sprang from our Lord’s death, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, which promises the resurrection of us all. Since these are the gifts of the feast, and this is how it displays the generosity of divine grace, it has filled us with spiritual gladness. [a]

But surrounded as we are on every side by many great calamities, the brightness of the feast is dimmed, and lamentation and wailing are mixed with our singing of psalms. Such are the sorrows that sin gives birth to. It is sin that has filled our life with pangs; it is because of sin that death seems lovelier to us than life; it is because of sin that, when we picture that incorruptible judgment seat, we shudder even at the life to come. So may your piety pray that God’s loving-kindness may come upon us, and that this gloomy and terrible cloud may be scattered, and the sunshine quickly give us joy again.