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he beheld a crucifix on the bed, all covered with wounds. The image cast a look of compassion on him, and exclaimed, ungrateful wretch! Is it not enough that I have died once for thee! Wilt thou again take my life? Be it so. Raise thy hand,--strike!' Filled with confusion, poor Ernest began to weep, and sobbing, said, 'Behold me, Lord' since thou showest me such mercy, I will return to thee.' Immediately he left the inn, to return to his monastery, there to do penance for his crimes; but on the road he was taken by the ministers of justice, was led before the judge, and acknowledged all the murders he had committed. He was sentenced to be hung, without having even the time given him to go to confession. He recommended himself to Mary, and was thrown from the ladder; but the Blessed Virgin preserved his life, and she herself loosened the rope, and then addressed him, saying, ‘Go, return to thy monastery, do penance, and when thou seest a paper in my hands, announcing the pardon of thy sins, prepare for death. Ernest returned, related all to his abbot, and did great penance. After many years, he saw the paper in the hands of Mary, which announced his pardon; he immediately prepared for death, and in a most holy manner breathed forth his soul.

FRAYER.

O my sovereign Queen and worthy mother of my God, most holy Mary: I, seeing myself, as I do, so despicable, and loaded with so many sins, ought not to presume to call thee Mother, or even to approach thee; yet I will not allow my miseries to deprive me of the consolation and confidence that I feel in calling thee Mother; I know well that I deserve that thou shouldst reject me; but I beseech thee to remember all that thy son Jesus has endured for me, and then reject me if thou canst. I am a wretched sinner, who, more than all others, have despised the infinite majesty of God: but the evil is done. To thee have I recourse; thou canst help me: my Mother, help me. Say not that thou canst not do so; for I know that

thou art all powerful, and that thou obtainest whatever thou desirest of God; and if thou sayest that thou wilt not help me, tell me at least to whom I can apply in this my so great misfortune. Either pity me, will I say, with the devout St. Anselm, 'O, my Jesus, and forgive me, or do thou pity me, my mother Mary, by interceding for me, or at least tell me to whom I can have recourse, who is more compassionate, or in whom I can have greater confidence than in thee.'1 Oh, no; neither on earth, nor in heaven, can I find any one who has more compassion for the miserable, or who is better able to assist me, than thou canst, O Mary. Thou, O Jesus, art my Father, and thou, Mary, art my Mother. You both love the most miserable, and go seeking them in order to save them. I deserve hell and am the most miserable of all. But you need not seek me, nor do I presume to ask so much. I now present myself before you with a certain hope that I shall not be abandoned. Behold me at your feet; my Jesus, forgive me; my Mother Mary, help me.

1 Aut miseremini miseri, tu parcendo, tu interveniendo; aut ostendite, ad quos tutius fugiam misericordiores: et monstrate, in quibus certius confidam potentiores?-In Depr. L. ad B. V.

CHAPTER II.

OUR LIFE, OUR SWEETNESS.

SECTION I.-Mary is our Life, because she obtains us the Pardon of our Sins.

O understand why the holy Church makes us call Mary our life, we must know, that as the soul gives life to the body, so does Divine grace give life to the soul; for a soul without grace has the name of being alive, but is in truth dead, as it was said of one in the Apocalypse, “Thou hast the name of being alive, and thou art dead."1 Mary then, in obtaining this grace for sinners by her intercession, thus restores them to life. See how the Church makes her speak, applying to her the following words of Proverbs: "They that in the morning early watch for me, shall find me.' ." They who are diligent in having recourse to me in the morning, that is, as soon as they can, will most certainly find me. In the Septuagint, the words "shall find me" are rendered" shall find grace." So that to have recourse to Mary is the same thing as to find the grace of God. A little further on she says, "He that shall find me, shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord." "3 'Listen,' exclaims St. Bonaventure on these words, 'listen, all you who desire the kingdom of God; honour the most Blessed Virgin Mary, and you will find life and eternal salvation.' 4

St. Bernardine of Sienna says, that if God did not destroy man after his first sin, it was on account of his

1 Nomen habes quod vivas, et mortuus es.-Apoc. iii, 1.

2 Qui mane vigilant ad me, invenient me.-Prov. viii, 17.

3 Qui me invenerit, inveniet vitam, et hauriet salutem a Domino.-Prov. viii, 35. 4 Audite... qui ingredi cupitis regnum Dei: Virginem Mariam honorate, et invenietis vitam et salutem perpetuam.--Ia Ps. xlviii, B. V.

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singular love for this holy Virgin, who was destined to be born of this race. And the Saint adds, 'that he has no doubt but that all the mercies granted by God under the old dispensation were granted only in consideration of this most Blessed Lady.' Hence St. Bernard was right in exhorting us to seek for grace, and to seek it by Mary ;' 2 meaning, that if we have had the misfortune to lose the grace of God, we should seek to recover it, but we should do so by Mary, for though we may have lost it, she has found it; and hence the Saint calls her the finder of grace The angel Gabriel expressly declared this for our consolation, when he saluted the Blessed Virgin, saying "Fear not Mary; thou hast found grace."4 But if Mary had never been deprived of grace, how could the archangel say that she had then found it? A thing may be found by a person who did not previously possess it; but we are told by the same archangel, that the Blessed Virgin was always with God, always in grace, nay, full of grace. "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee."5 Since Mary then did not find grace for herself, she being always full of it, for whom did she find it? Cardinal Hugo, in his commentary on the above text, replies that she found it for sinners who had lost it. 'Let sinners then,' says this devout writer, who by their crimes have lost grace, address themselves to the Blessed Virgin; for with her they will surely find it; let them humbly salute her, and say with confidence, 'Lady, that which has been found must be restored to him who has lost it; restore us, therefore, our property which thou hast found.'6 On this subject, Richard of St. Lawrence concludes, That if we hope to recover the grace of God, we must go to Mary who, has

1 Omnes libertationes et indulgentias factas in Veteri Testamento, non ambigo Deum fecisse propter hujus benedictæ Puella reverentiam et amorem.-Tom. iv, Serm. 5, de B. V. c. 2.

2 Quæramus gratiam, et per Mariam quæramus.-Serm. de Aquæd.

3 Inventrix gratiæ.-De adv. D. Serm. 2.

Ne timeas, Maria; invenisti enim gratiam.-Luc. i, 30.

5 Ave, gratia plena; Dominus tecum.-Luc. i, 28.

6 Currant igitur peccatores ad Virginem, qui gratiam amiserunt peccando, et eam invenient apud eam humiliter salutando, et secure dicant, Redde nobis rem nostram, quam invenisti.-In cap. i, Luc.

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found it, and finds it always.' 1 And as she always was and always will be dear to God, if we have recourse to her, we shall certainly succeed. Again Mary says, in the eighth chapter of the sacred Canticles, that God has placed her in the world to be our defence: "I am a wall: and my breasts are as a tower." And she is truly made a mediatress of peace between sinners and God: "Since I am become in His presence as one finding peace. On these words St. Bernard encourages sinners, saying, 'Go to this Mother of Mercy, and show her the wounds which thy sins have left on thy soul; then will she certainly entreat her Son, by the breasts that gave him suck, to pardon thee all. And this Divine Son, who loves her so tenderly, will most certainly grant her petition.'3 In this sense it is that the holy Church, in her almost daily prayer calls upon us to beg our Lord to grant us the powerful help of the intercession of Mary to rise from our sins: 'Grant thy help to our weakness, O most merciful God; and that we, who are mindful of the holy Mother of God, may by the help of her intercession rise from our iniquities.4 With reason then does St. Lawrence Justinian call her the hope of malefactors;' since she alone is the one who obtains them pardon from God. With reason does St. Bernard call her 'the sinners' ladder;' since she, the most compassionate Queen, extending her hand to them, draws them from an abyss of sin, and enables them to ascend to God. With reason does an ancient writer call her the only hope of sinners;' for by her help alone can we hope for the remission of our sins.5 St. John Chrysostom also says 'that sinners receive pardon by the intercession of

1 Cupientes invenire gratiam, quæramus Inventricem gratiæ, Mariam quæ, quia semper invenit, frustrari non poterit-De Laud. V. 1. ii, c. 5.

* Ego inurus: et ubera mea sicut turris, ex quo facta sum coram eo quasi pacem reperiens.--Cant. viii, 10.

3 Vade ad Matrem misericordiæ, et ostende illi tuorum plagas peccatorum; et illa ostendet pro te ubera. Exaudiet utique Matrem Filius. †

+ Concede, misericors Deus, fragilitati nostræ præsidium; ut qui sanctæ Dei Genetricis memoriam agimus, intercessionis ejus auxilio a nostrís iniquitatibus

resurgamus.

5 Tu es spes unica peccatorum, quia per te speramus veniam omnium delictorum.-Int. op. S Augustini, Serm. cxciv, de Sanctis.