26. Why speak of the troubles of nursing,
training, and marrying? These are the miseries of those who are
fortunate. A mother has heirs, but it increases her
sorrows. For we must not speak of adversity, lest the minds of
the holiest parents tremble. Consider, my sister, how hard it
must be to bear what one must not speak of. And this is in this
present age. But the days shall come when they shall say:
“Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never
bare.” S. Luke xxiii. 29. For
the daughters of this age are conceived, and conceive; but the daughter
of the kingdom refrains from wedded pleasure, and the pleasure of the
flesh, that she may be holy in body and in spirit.