From Paris, April 20, 1919 – Good Friday
Dear Marg,
I did receive your card of Tuesday, and it seems to me that I could not have picked a better day to answer it than this. In writing to you, I am bringing my thoughts closer to yours, under the most vivid influence here below (that of NS. dying), – and it so happens that my letter will reach you, I hope, on Easter morning. I want to believe that that morning there will be sunshine and peace in your heart, whatever the external circumstances – the peace that is born of trust in the One who has conquered death, that is to say, who is able to turn any diminution suffered by us into an increase of life in Him. You were sure, weren’t you, that I would share your concern, when I heard that you found Robert at a worse time. I would like Easter to be better in this respect too, and to dispel (as far as possible) any unpleasant impressions for Robert and for you. You see, Marg, the deeper I feel my affection for you, the more I desire to see you firmly, deeply, fixed in God alone. I see so clearly that neither you nor I, less than anyone else, can be happy otherwise. During these holy days, I am less collected than I would like to be. Paris is a bad place to isolate yourself. All the same, I was struck by the insistence with which the Church repeats this word at every turn ” Christus factus est obediens usque ad mortem crucis [Christ was obedient up to the cross of death] “ .  Obviously, this is the precise and profound meaning of the cross: obedience, submission to the law of life. To work patiently until death, – and to accept everything, lovingly, including death: this is the essence of Christianity. – More than ever, let go, believe me, of all useless regrets for the past, and all vague worries about the future. Only worry about being obedient to God,  and measure, day by day, according to his will. In half an hour, I will go to hear a piece of singing at St-Germain-l’Auxerrois. Afterwards, I will do a Way of the Cross. I will think, at this moment that we are two before NS., who abandon us once more in Him, so that He leads us where He  wants. […]
Very much your own. Pierre

From Paissy, April 5, 1917 – Holy Saturday
Dear Marg.
 […] My holy week was really quite distracted, and I reproach myself for not having known how to put, in the atmosphere of labor and sorrow in which So many men move around me, all the spirit of renunciation and compassion that it should have been so easy with a little faith, to draw from these anniversaries of the Passion. It is always difficult to give supernatural realities, in our soul, a consistency that allows them to counterbalance the weight of palpable realities! Thinking yesterday, Good Friday, of the small number of poilus, among the anthill that works here, who thought of offering to God their multiple sufferings, suffering of the mud, suffering of the danger, suffering of the unknown and of the wounds…, I said to myself that perhaps God, so that all this mass is sanctified and used, is satisfied with the offering and the conscious sacrifice of some more enlightened souls, – by which all ferments. Pray that I will be one of them, as much as NS wants me to be. […]
Good to you. Pierre