But there is another form of sympathy which we crave and need which is just the communion of soul with soul.  We are not asking anything more or other than to show ourselves.  We are overwhelmed with the loneliness of life.  It comes upon us in the most crowded places, this sense of separation from all about us.  Oh, that I might flee away and be at rest, is our feeling.  It is here that we specially need our Lord.  Blessed are we if we have learned to find in Him the rest we need for our souls, if we have learned to open the door that leads always to Him; or, perhaps to knock appealingly at that door which He will never fail to open.  It is then that we find the joy of the invitation “Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.”

But Christ, the perfect Sympathiser, has associated others with Himself.  If we can go to him, so can others; the Way is open to all.  And those who go and are associated with Him are gathered into a family.  Here among those who have followed the interests which are ours, and have pursued the ends that we are pursuing, and cultivated the qualities which we value, we feel sure of that sympathetic understanding of life which we seek.  And especially among those members of the Body who have gone on to the end in fidelity to the ideals of the life which is hid with Christ in God shall we look for understanding and help.  It is from this point of view that the Communion of Saints will mean so much to us.  We value the strength of mutual support which inevitably grows out of associated life.  We cannot think of the saints of God as having passed beyond us into some place of rest where they are content to forget the problems of earth:  rather we are compelled to think of them as still actively sharing in those interests which are still the interests of their divine Head.  Until, Jesus Himself cease to think of us who are still in the Pilgrim Way, and cease to offer Himself on our behalf, we cannot think of any who are in Him as other than intensely interested in us of the earthly Church, or as doing other than helping by prayer for us that we with them may attain our end.  And especially shall we feel sure that at any moment of our lives we may turn to the Mother in confident expectancy of finding most helpful sympathy and most ready aid.  Her life to-day is a life of intercession, of intercession which has all the power of perfect understanding and perfect sympathy.  Let us learn to go to her; let us learn that as God is praised and honoured in His saints, as our Lord choses to work through those who are united to Him, so it is His will that great power of prayer shall be hers of whom He assumed our nature, that nature through which He still distributes the riches of His grace.

     As I lay upon a night,
     My thought was on a Lady bright
     That men callen Mary of might,
     Redemptoris Mater.

     To her came Gabriel so bright
     And said, “Hail, Mary, full of might,
     To be called thou art adight;”
     Redemptoris Mater.