The open well in the heart of Jesus Christ / be our source and constant refreshment!

An ornate decorative drop cap 'E' features the letter intertwined with thick acanthus leaf foliage and scrollwork.Honorable / Greatly Respected Gentlemen / in the love of JESUS Christ / and in the unity of his humanity / high friends and brothers: It is pure joy for me / and a refreshment of my soul / that I now hear from many places / how the precious tree of Christ our salvation, which had been covered by the carnal Antichrist / is beginning to turn green again from the root / through all the gates of darkness and the wrath of GOD / in the midst of the prison of Babylon. I rejoice much more in his budding growth / his grace / and loveliness / his power and virtue / because I also find myself to be a small branch on the same tree / that it is so sweet and full of joy / and I see this with great astonishment / that He / as if in the midst of the night / begins to grow with beautiful little branches: yes, lilies and flowers grow in the midst of winter.

2. Is it not against all external reason / that an old / devastated / broken house / which always awaits the storm wind / if he casts it into a heap / begins to become New again? and presents its first youth / as if it had never grown old: We see the first form of this tree / how it was in its youth / and how its age and youth are one form / power / and virtue: is that not a great wonder?

3. We became blind in our first mother / who bore us all / and are now becoming sighted again in our old age, when we are at the end, in the mother's womb: We became mute / and lost our mother tongue / and now find it again in our old age / so that we recognize our mother in it / and can speak with her in her language. Should we not rightly be greatly astonished / that we were in our mother / and did not recognize her? and thus have been blind in her for a long time / and are now becoming sighted in old age.