While the angels have tongues of gold and fiery hearts, we stutter and are lukewarm. However, let us do what we can; this is the reason for helping one another, for praying for others, for mutual love that will grow ever more, for we are weak and need to lean on each other so that we can follow our Lord Jesus on the painful path He has laid out for us: “Take up your cross and follow me.”
I attach a little flower that I picked for you when I prayed for you in the catacombs at the tomb of Saint Cecilia on her feast day: may this flower from the martyr, just like mine (I picked one for myself too), remind you of how this saint suffered and that we should wish to suffer ourselves. This is our advantage over the angels! If they weren't in a state of perfect bliss, they would surely envy us that we are allowed to suffer for our Lord Jesus and with Him!
(Charles de Foucauld /1858–1916/, letter to a Trappist monk, November 29, 1896)
