List of points

How I would like — you told me — the young apostle, John, would take me into his confidence and give me advice: and encourage me to acquire purity of heart.

If you really would like it, tell him so: and you will feel encouraged, and you will receive advice.

The spotless purity of John's whole life makes him strong before the Cross. The other apostles fly from Golgotha: he, with the Mother of Christ, remains.

Don't forget that purity strengthens and invigorates the character.

How frankly you laughed when I advised you to put the years of your youth under the protection of Saint Raphael: 'so that he'll lead you, like young Tobias, to a holy marriage, with a girl who is good and pretty and rich', I told you, jokingly.

And then, how thoughtful you became!… when I went on to advise you to put yourself also under the patronage of that young apostle John; in case God were to ask more of you.

If I don't see you practise that fraternal spirit that I preach to you constantly, I shall remind you of those affectionate words of Saint John: 'My children, our love is not to be just words or mere talk, but something real and active'.

What amazes you seems natural to me— that God has sought you out in the practice of your profession!

That is how he sought the first, Peter and Andrew, James and John, beside their nets, and Matthew, sitting in the custom-house.

And — wonder of wonders! — Paul, in his eagerness to destroy the seed of the Christians.

'Non manifeste, sed quasi in occulto, quite privately, without drawing attention to himself': So Jesus goes up to the feast of Tabernacles. So will he go, on the way to Emmaus, with Cleophas and his companion. So is he seen, after his Resurrection, by Mary Magdalen.

And so will he appear — 'the disciples did not realise that it was Jesus' — at the miraculous catch of fishes, as Saint John tells us.

And more hidden still, through Love for men, is he in the Host.

Just as observant religious are eager to know how the first of their order or congregation lived, so as to have their model to follow you too, christian gentleman, should also seek to know and imitate the lives of the disciples of Jesus, who knew Peter and Paul and John, and all but witnessed the Death and Resurrection of the Master.