16. Oh!
how many virgins shall she meet, how many shall she embrace and bring
to the Lord, and say: “She has been faithful to her
espousal, to my Son; she has kept her bridal couch with spotless
modesty.” How shall the Lord Himself commend them to His
Father, repeating again those words of His: “Holy Father,
these are they whom I have kept for Thee, on whom the Son of Man leant
His head and rested; I ask that where I am there they may be with
Me.” S. John xvii. 24. And if
they ought to benefit not themselves only, who lived not for themselves
alone, one virgin may redeem her parents, another her brothers.
“Holy Father, the world hath not known Me, but these have known
Me, and have willed not to know the world.” S. John xvii. 25.