Grace and peace in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior, Amen
My dearly beloved Mother! I have received my brother James’s letter concerning your illness. Of course this grieves me deeply, especially because I cannot be with you in person, as I certainly would like to be. Yet I am coming to you personally through this letter, and I, together with all the members of my family, shall certainly not be absent from you in spirit.
I trust that you have long since been abundantly instructed, without any help from me, that (God be praised) you have taken [God’s] comforting Word into [your heart], and that you are adequately provided with preachers and comforters. Nevertheless I shall do my part too and, according to my duty, acknowledge myself to be your child, and you to be my mother, as our common God and creator has made us and bound us to each other with mutual ties, so that I shall in this way increase the number of your comforters. (Luther’s Works, v. 50, p.18)