The Soul's Rest

Cur plangimus quod immutare non possumus? Mortuus ad vitam praesentem revocari non valet; vivus ad mortuum pervenire poterit. Corpus quod tanta cura colimus, postmodum vermium esca erit. Anima itaque meritorum qualitate vel gaudebit, vel contristatur; et qualem sibi in paucis his diebus praeparabit habitationem, talem aeternis recipiet temporibus. Quapropter singulis momentis laborandum est pro requie animae, ut dum semper vivere debet, et semper beate et feliciter vivat. Alcuinus, Epistola LVIII, Ad Matrem de Morte Filii Source: Migne PL 100.227a-b

Why do we weep what we are not able to change? One is not able to recall the dead to the present life; the living was able to come to the dead. The body on which we expend so much care shall be food for worms. The soul by the value of its merits shall rejoice or lament; and as in these few days it prepares its habitation, so it shall receive in eternity. Thus every single moment we must labour for the soul's rest, that as it will always live, so always it might live blessed and happy. Alcuin of York, from Letter 58, To a Mother on the Death of a Son