Summary

Pages 17 through 19 — This letter is dated April 16, 1942. For reasons that are never revealed to the reader, Weil says that she will be seeing Father Perrin in person in a week for the last time, after which she will be “leaving.” She states that she does not wish to leave and that it will be difficult for her, but staying would be an exercise of individual, personal will on her part, and this she must avoid. She feels impelled to leave by a force that she cannot identify. It seems to her to be more than just mere emotion, so she has abandoned herself to it. She hopes that this abandonment will bring her close to the haven, i.e., the Cross of Christ. She compares herself to the good thief that was executed alongside Christ and states that...