You command, and it is my wish, that I attend both the new rites and the customary observances of a twofold dedication. But I fear that this may hold us back, which held the authorities longer. Yet pray that an effect equal to the desire may follow. Unless perhaps you reckon that feast the more costly which grows warm in your spirits while the larder is still cold. Wherefore, although you say you have asked but few, although you rejoice to be relieved by the loosening of the court-gathering, yet if any opportunity of hastening over comes to me, you will invite even the unwilling who happen to arrive. God will provide viands for the multitude of your guests. There the food of the poor shall be heaped up, the jar of oil and the pitcher of meal enduring. There, if there be even five loaves, let it suffice to have provided a pair of fish.
And this, faithful after these proofs of miracles, I promise: that since Christ will by no means fail the gathering of His poor, the more thousands of peoples you shall have gathered, the more baskets you shall carry back. But with regard to our son who, as you write, seeks a worthy mutual reconciliation, be you the surety, that if he desires to act with a peaceful vow, I too act with a friendly one; if he demands that discord be removed, I desire that concord be confirmed. Yet a man of my order, whom it becomes neither to be deceived nor to deceive, about to trust a catholic senator, let him not begin to become secure merely for this, that he may end up being found incautious.