HE

E has given His angels charge over thee.

Ps. xc. 11.

I am in the habit of saying that the Blessed Virgin is in a way more truly a creature of God and her own Son than anything else in the world, inasmuch as God has in her created many more perfections than in all other creatures besides; and also, that she is more truly redeemed than any other of our kind, since she was redeemed not only from sin itself, but even from the power and inclination to commit sin at all.

St. Francis of Sales.

The heart of Mary looked above
And upward flew in flames of love;
In vain did earth around her call,
Her God to her was all in all.

Love, brought to her by God her Son,
In Mary's heart deflected shone.
Heart of Mary, loving fire,

My heart, too, with love inspire.

Fr. F. C. Kolbe.

She

O truly admirable humility of Mary! is not only, as she calls herself, the handmaid of the Lord, but she also deigns to be the handmaid of the handmaids of the Lord. St. Bonaventure.

Pour on us light and love from the Heart Divine;

For to thee, who hast ever lain in the Bosom of God,

He grants to bestow the gifts of His Heart as

thine.

Emily Hickey.

HE is the brightness of eternal light, and the unspotted mirror of God's Majesty,

and the image of His goodness.

Wisdom vii. 26.

Our glorious Lady is set before us as a mirror and as an epitome of Christian perfection. God would have her pass through all states and stages of life, so that all sorts and conditions of people might find in her, as in a sea of graces, whatever they should need, to be formed and reared up in their vocation according to the will of God. St. Francis of Sales.

'Tis thine

To know His love, our want,

And lead the poor before His Blessed Face.
Who shall declare the royal recompense,
The sweet repose, the happiness immense,
Prepared for those who love and serve
their God?

'Tis thine, who shinest bright

Like ivory in God's light,

To guide us safely to that blest abode.

Fr. Digby Best.

The great King has given to her, as to another Esther, the half of His kingdom, and has made her the Queen of Mercy, as He Himself is the King of Justice. St. Thomas Aquinas.

Lift your hearts to heaven in prayer,
Mary's heart will keep them there.

Fr. F. C. Kolbe.

HOW

OW beautiful art thou, and how comely, my dearest, in delights.

Canticles vii. 6.

How true it is that the most Blessed Virgin and her Son had but one soul, one heart, and one life, so that this holy Mother lived only by her Son, who lived in her !

St. Francis of Sales.

She was a sea-shell from the deep
Of God; her function this alone
Of Him to whisper as in sleep
In everlasting undertone.

Aubrey de Vere.

The marvellous avenue of graces, which began in the Immaculate Conception, runs without a fault or break straight to the Blessed Sacrament. The one mystery answers to the other; the one illuminates the other; the one completes and consummates the other. ... So, at every Mass and in each Communion, we look up to the Immaculate Conception. The light of that far-reaching mystery is in our faces on the altar-step.

Sweeter than odours of the South

In some untravelled purple sea.

Katharine Tynan Hinkson.

My Blood so red

For thee was shed.

Come home again, come home again,

Child of My grief and pain!

Thou art gone astray,

Out of thy way,

Now all My love must plead with thee

Come back to Me!

Come back to Me!

Fiona McKay.