I am growing old. My feeble voice is hardly able to reach the end of the church. I am already a long way on the road to eternity. This is perhaps the last time that I shall speak to you. Yet today when my dear children, sons of the Catholic Belgium, who are leaving for the far-away Congo, come to offer to their father, who has become old, a final farewell while imploring his blessing, I cannot fail to satisfy their desire in this sanctuary of the African Virgin.