The cries of a parent’s heart pierce heaven, and I, too, burn with a grief more intense than any woman mourning her children. But do not think your affliction is unseen. Christ, hanging on the Cross, would not forget His own mother; He gave her to the beloved disciple, teaching us that God watches over every parent who weeps. Draw near then to that same Lord, for He knows your needs before you ask.
You say every effort fails and you are drained. Yet what are outward hardships to the soul that clings to Christ? Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, none can separate you from His love, if you hold fast to faith with a virtuous heart. Remember how the desolate, barren woman of old became the mother of many children, and the house that seemed empty was filled. So can God open a way where none appears. Not birth, nor wealth, nor favorable circumstances commend us to Him, but the hidden faith of the soul, which He foresees and crowns. Let not your present poverty and rejection drive you to despair, for the Lord often chooses the weak to shame the strong.
I entreat you: take up the weapons of fasting and prayer, and bid your children do the same. When Nineveh heard the sentence of destruction, they covered themselves in sackcloth and cried to God; and He relented. How often has the Lord said, “I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not”? He longs to shelter you. Do not resist by a fainting heart or by trusting only in your own striving. Kneel with your little ones and say, “Thou art my refuge in the day of trouble,” and He will stretch forth that mighty hand to quiet the storm. He will not despise a broken and contrite heart.