Lord." But this grace he only received through Mary, for it was in her arms that he found the Saviour. Hence, he who desires to find Jesus, will not find Him otherwise than by Mary. Let us then go to this Divine Mother, if we wish to find Jesus, and let us go with great confidence. Mary told her servant Prudenziana Zagnoni that, every year, on this day of her purification, a great grace would be bestowed upon some sinner. Who knows but one of us may be the favoured sinner of this day? If our sins are great, the power of Mary is greater. The Son can deny nothing to such a Mother,' says Saint Bernard. If Jesus is irritated against us, Mary immediately appeases Him. Plutarch relates, that Antipater wrote a long letter to Alexander the Great, filled with accusations against his mother Olympia. Having read the letter Alexander said, 'Antipater does not know that a single tear of my mother suffices to cancel six hundred letters of accusation.'3 We also may imagine, that Jesus thus answers the accusations presented against us by the devil, when Mary prays for us: Does not Lucifer know that a prayer of my Mother in favour of a sinner suffices to make me forget all accusations of offences committed against me?' The following example is a proof of this.

EXAMPLE.

This example is not recorded in any book, but was told me by a priest, a friend of mine, as having happened to himself. This priest was hearing confessions in a church (to compromise no one I do not mention the name of the place, though the penitent gave him leave to publish the fact), when a young man stood before him, who seemed to wish, but at the same time to fear to go to confession. The Father, after looking at him several times, at length called him, and asked him if he wished to confess. He

1 Et responsum acceperat a Spiritu Sancto, non visurum se mortem, nisi prius videret Christum Domini.-Luc. ii, 26.

2 Exaudiet utique Matrem Filius.-Serm. de Aquæd.

3 Ignorare Antipatrum sexcentas epistolas una deleri matris lacrymula. Plut. in Alex.

replied that he did; but as his confession was likely to be very long, he begged to be taken to a private room. The penitent there began by saying, that he was a foreigner, and of noble birth, but who had led such a life that he did not believe it possible that God would pardon him. Besides the other innumerable shameful crimes and murders he had committed, he said, that having entirely despaired of salvation, he committed sins, no longer from inclination, but expressly to outrage God, out of the hatred he bore Him. He said, amongst other things, that he wore a crucifix, and that he beat it out of disrespect, and that, that very morning, only a short time before, he had communicated sacrilegiously, and for what purpose? It was, that he might trample the sacred particle under his feet. And he had indeed already received it, and had only been prevented from executing his horrible design by the people who would have seen him. He then consigned the sacred particle in a piece of paper to the confessor. Having done this, he said, that, passing before the church he had felt himself strongly impelled to enter it; that unable to resist, he had done so. After entering, he was seized with great remorse of conscience, and at the same time a sort of confused and irresolute desire to confess his sins; and hence the reason for which he stood before the confessional; · but while standing there, his confusion and diffidence were so great, that he endeavoured to go away, but it seemed to him as if some one held him there by force. In the mean time,' he said, 'Father, you called me, and now I am here making my confession, and I know not how.' The Father then asked him if he ever practised any devotion during the time, meaning towards the Blessed Virgin; for such conversions only come through the powerful hands of Mary. 'None Father,-devotions, indeed! I looked on myself as damned.' 'But reflect again,' said the Father. 'Father I did nothing,' he repeated. But putting his hand to his breast to uncover it, he remembered that he wore the scapular of Mary's dolours. 'Ah, my son,' said the confessor; dost thou not see it is our Blessed Lady who

has obtained thee so extraordinary a grace? And know,' he added, 'that to her this church is dedicated.' On hearing this the young man was moved, and began to grieve, and at the same time to weep; then, continuing the confession of his sins, his compunction increased to such a degree, that with a loud sob he fell fainting at the Father's feet. When he had been restored to consciousness, he finished his confession, and the Father with the greatest consolation absolved him, and sent him back to his own country entirely contrite, and resolved to change his life, having his full permission to preach, and publish everywhere the great mercy that Mary had shown him.

PRAYER.

O Holy Mother of God, and my Mother Mary, thou wast so deeply interested in my salvation, as to offer to death the dearest object of thy heart, thy beloved Jesus! Since, then, thou didst so much desire to see me saved, it is right that after God, I should place all my hopes in thee. O yes, most Blessed Virgin, I do indeed entirely confide in thee. Ah, by the merit of the great sacrifice which thou didst offer this day to God, the sacrifice of the life of thy Son, entreat Him to have pity on my poor soul, for which this Immaculate Lamb did not refuse to die on the cross.

I could desire, O my Queen, to offer my poor heart to God on this day, in imitation of thee; but I fear that, seeing it so sordid and loathsome, He may refuse it. But if thou offerest it to Him, He will not reject it. He always is pleased with, and accepts the offerings presented to Him by your most pure hands. To thee, then, O Mary, do I this day present myself, miserable as I am : to thee do I give myself without reserve. Do thou offer me as thy servant, together with Jesus, to the Eternal Father, and beseech Him, by the merits of thy Son, and for thy sake, to accept me, and take me as His own. Ah, my sweetest Mother, for the love of thy sacrificed Son,

help me always, and at all times, and abandon me not. Never permit me to lose by my sins this most amiable Redeemer, whom on this day thou didst offer with such bitter grief, to the cruel death of the cross. Remind Him that I am thy servant, that in thee I have placed all my hope; say, in fine, that thou willest my salvation, and He will certainly graciously hear thee.

DISCOURSE VII.

ON THE ASSUMPTION OF MARY.

On this day the Church celebrates, in honour of Mary, two solemn festivals; the first is that of her happy passage from this world; the second, that of her glorious Assumption into Heaven.

IN

'N the present discourse we shall speak of her happy passage from this world, and in the next of her glorious Assumption.

How precious was the death of Mary!

1. On account of the special graces that attended it. 2. On account of the manner in which it took place.

Death being the punishment of sin, it would seem that the Divine Mother, all holy, and exempt as she was from its slightest stain, should also have been exempt from death, and from encountering the misfortunes to which the children of Adam, infected by the poison of sin, are subject. But God was pleased that Mary should, in all things, resemble Jesus; and as the Son died, it was becoming that the Mother should also die; because, moreover, He wished to give the just an example of the precious death prepared for them, He willed that even the most Blessed Virgin should die, but by a sweet and happy death. Let us, therefore,

now consider how precious was Mary's death. First, on account of the special favours by which it was accompanied. Second, on account of the manner in which it took place

First Point. There are three things which render death bitter: attachment to the world, remorse of sin, and the uncertainty of salvation. The death of Mary was entirely free from these causes of bitterness, and was accompanied by three special graces, which rendered it precious and joyful. She died as she had lived, entirely detached from the things of the world; she died in the most perfect peace; she died in the certainty of eternal glory.

2

And in the first place, there can be no doubt that attachment to earthly things renders the death of the worldly bitter and miserable, as the Holy Ghost says: "O death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that hath peace in his possessions!" But because the Saints die detached from the things of the world, their death is not bitter, but sweet, lovely, and precious; that is to say, as Saint Bernard remarks, worth purchasing at any price, however great. "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." Who are they who, being already dead, die? They are those happy souls who pass into eternity already detached, and so to say dead to all affection for terrestrial things; and who, like Saint Francis of Assisium, found in God alone all their happiness, and with Him could say, My God and my all.'s But what soul was ever more detached from earthly goods, and more united to God than the beautiful soul of Mary? She was detached from her parents; for at the age of three years, when children are most attached to them, and stand in the greatest need of their assistance, Mary, with the greatest intrepidity, left them, and went to shut herself up in the temple, to attend to God alone. She was detached from riches, contenting herself to live always poor, and supporting herself with the labour of her own hands. She was detached 10 mors quam amara est memoria tua homini pacem habenti in substantiis suis. Eccl, xli, 1.

2 Beati mortui qui Domino moriuntur,-Apoc. xiv, 13.

Deus meus et omnia.