THE VENERABLE DON BOSCO
His final paragraph sets the golden seal of love on this memorable letter: "I feel that I am leaving you and I foresee the day approaches when I must pay my tribute to death and descend into the grave. Should my presentiments be fulfilled and this letter be the last you receive from me, the fourth souvenir is: I recommend to your charity all the works which God has deigned to intrust to me during the last fifty years; the Christian education of youth, ecclesiastical vocations and foreign missions; I particularly recommend poor, desolate children to your care, who were always dear to my heart and who, I hope will be, through the merits of our Saviour Jesus Christ, my joy and crown in heaven. Now I invoke God's benediction on you; may He deign to pour His most precious blessings on you and yours; if my prayer is heard you will have happy lives, lives full of merit, crowned, on the day God has fixed, with the death of the just. For this end the Salesians and all pupils of our institutions unite their prayers daily with mine; and through the intercession of Our Lady, Help of Christians, and of St. Francis of Sales, we have a firm and sweet hope of being all united in eternal bliss. Have the charity to pray in your turn for me, who am, with the deepest gratitude, my well-beloved Co-operators,
Your humble and devoted servant,
Turin, December, 1887.
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