this work

Sisters and brothers, the moment of our life is upon us.

Some among us believe that it is already too late, that we can do nothing but bide our time: the enemy is too powerful, his position too strong; if we try to fight him, we will only waste what little we have in a hopeless cause — worst of all, we will draw his attention to this refuge — and he will fall upon us and annihilate the last place in the world that is safe from him.

For others among us, this inaction is unbearable. To you I say, you are right to be angry, and your impatience is natural: it is the proper response to injustice.

But remember what the Remnant say: Anger destroys everything. If we give in to our rage now, we may be able to strike a blow against the enemy, perhaps injure him, even in time overcome and destroy him. But in doing so, I believe, we will become the enemy.

We are the Remnant now, and we must survive: continuance of the race depends upon us — you must feel this, or you would not be here tonight. And if we are to survive, first and most of all we must be wise about ourselves. Bank the coals of your rage, dear ones, use it to fire your resolve to continue, and to prevail.

To prevail, I say, not merely to survive. Our cause may seem hopeless, but it will not always be so, if we are wise. However, even being wise is not enough: we must be wily. There are many ways in which we can interfere with our enemy's enterprise, hobble his steps, spoil his designs. It is not possible at present to openly oppose him — violence against him will only strengthen him against us. Our goal should be to weaken him with many little snags, delayings, deflections — none so serious as to raise an alarm, but which, taken together, will distract and addle him so that he starts acting against himself, which will aid our designs.

Success has made him mad; neither reason nor compassion can reach him now — his triumph over his own people is complete, or so he thinks. But his exulting in public clearly shows how much he fears losing what he brags he has won. Such madness matched with such power is an awful thing: great suffering will follow.

All people, everywhere, are profoundly threatened. We must take every action in our power to preserve the race, even if it does not wish to be saved.

To that end, a group of us will leave this shelter tonight, likely never to return, in order to carry out some of those acts of interference and resistance I just mentioned. They are under their own command, and bear with them no instructions from anyone who remains behind. I do not know where they are going, what they will do, nor even who all of them are. They will not report to me or to anyone here. This silence and irrevocable separation is for the protection of us all. We send with them our deepest love and encouragement, and will remember them daily in our meditations and prayers.

While they risk their lives for us and for the rest of the race, we will continue to provision this refuge and, most important, welcome the stranger, according to our mission. Together we will prevail, if not in our own persons, then in the persons of those who come after us, for whom we do our work. We will prevail, I say: WE, because there is no one else, and WILL, because we must.

I bless you all for being with me now, to continue this work.