solutions. Enlighten our understandings with a lively faith, raise up our wills to a firm hope, and inflame us with an ardent charity. Strengthen our weakness, and cure the corruption of our hearts; grant that, overcoming our enemies, both visible and invisible, we may make good use of Thy grace; and vouchsafe us the inestimable gift of final perseverance. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Then one of the Short Meditations may be carefully read: followed by the Litany or other devotion appropriate to the day of the week (for which see the Table of Contents); concluding with UB tuum præsidium

WE

E fly to thy patronage, O holy Mother Dei Genitrix; nostras de- of God; disregard not precationes ne despicias our petitions in our nein necessitatibus nostris ; cessities; but from all sed a periculis cunctis dangers deliver us, O libera nos, semper Virgo, ever-virgin, glorious and gloriosa et benedicta. blessed.

All ye Angels and Saints of God, pray for us. May the souls of the faithful, &c.

SHORT MEDITATIONS.

Mainly founded on the "Meditazioni sulle Massime Eterne" of St. Alphonsus of Liguori.

SUNDAY. THE LOVE OF GOD TO MAN.

SING

INCE the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ the time has been one of love, and no longer one of fear. For who can doubt the love of Him, who delivered Himself up for us, and redeemed us in His blood? It is the greatness of this love

which should incite us to love Him in return; remembering that one of His chief objects in alĺ His sufferings was to make manifest how much He loved us; and so to win us over from sin and misery to Himself and His glory. "In this," says St. John, "have we known the love of God, that He laid down His life for us." For it was not essential to our salvation that Christ should die; one drop of His sacred blood would have sufficed for our redemption, and for that of a thousand worlds. But it was His gracious will by dying in humiliation and anguish to gain for us a greater blessing and glory, and to make us the better realise the infinity of His love; thus forcing us, as it were, to give Him back our love in return. "For," as St. Paul says, "the charity of Christ constrains us." Not the passion, nor the death, but the love of Christ.

66

And if, as he also tells us, Christ died for all, that they also who live, may not now live to themselves, but to Him who died for them," how important is it that we should try to keep our thoughts and wishes from selfish aspirations, and from the misleading advantages and pleasures of this world, by constantly bearing in mind that He who was God and self-sufficient in His glory, yet emptied Himself for our sakes, and took the form of a servant? Small indeed, we must fear, is the number of those who love Christ in earnest; but, great or small, let us at all events fully determine to be of the number; and thus show, to the glory of God and our own good, the gratitude which in return for His unspeakable love, we so truly and so abundantly owe Him,

LE

MONDAY.-THE END OF MAN.

ET us consider that it is God who has given us the life we possess: that He has created us after His own likeness, and has made us His children; and that in return for this He requires our love and service here, promising us eternal happiness hereafter. This life, then, has been given to us, not that we may become rich and powerful, not that we may devote ourselves to earthly pleasures, not simply to eat, drink, and sleep; but that we may love and serve God, and in this way save our souls; the things of this world being given to us, not as an end in themselves, but as a help in attaining our true end.

And though now, alas, we are almost always thinking of these earthly things only, let us remember that at the hour of death we shall inevitably wish that we had made the service of God our one great object. If they who have devoted their whole hearts and minds, and the whole course of their lives to the service of God, will then think that all they have thought or done is as nothing to gain His mercy; that they have still only too much reason to dread appearing before their Almighty Judge: what will be the horror and the remorse of those into whose lives the thought of God and of His judgments, and the desire to please Him, have seldom, if ever, entered? With what despair will they then realise that all the power, the wealth, and the pleasures for which they have striven, are not only utterly useless to them, but have estranged them from that one thing necessary, the friendship of God! How will they then

wish--but with how little of hope to remedy the effects of their folly! Let us therefore seize the opportunities we now have, and, entreating God for His grace, devote ourselves as entirely as we can to His service.

L'

TUESDAY. THE IMPORTANCE OF MAN'S

ATTAINING HIS END.

ET us consider the great importance of attaining our end its transcendent importance, because if we attain it, we shall have gained salvation, and eternal happiness both in soul and body; whereas, if we fail, we lose everything: Paradise and God, body and soul. Surely then the service of God and the saving of our souls is the pursuit which is above all other pursuits; the only really important one, because the only one necessary. And it is folly to recognise this, and yet to determine to enjoy the pleasures of this life first, and then afterwards to think about God and the salvation of our souls. Alas, it is this delusive hope of serving two masters which has led on so many to their ruin; which has drawn them on, gradually but surely, to destruction, little as they ever intended to lose their souls: for who would designedly ever frame for himself such utter woe? But this reform which we intend, will it ever come to pass? Is it not too likely that we shall be always putting it off, for the sake of some sin which at the moment we are bent upon committing? And who, moreover, has undertaken that, if we sin now, we shall hereafter have either the time or the will to repent? Has not God Himself warned us that His mercy is for

them that fear Him? And what fear have they who mock and insult Him with their sins? Let us therefore beware, for He punishes when the measure is full. Let us tremble lest that one sin which we are now bent on committing, fill up our measure. Let us now, and at once, turn away from our evil courses, cast ourselves upon the mercy of God, and live in earnest new lives.

LE

WEDNESDAY.-GOD AND MAMMON.

ET us consider how time is found for the affairs of this world, however varied and numerous; but not for the things of God. How many of us are there who, if called upon to devote even one week to the service of God, would not reply that the occupations and requirements, to say nothing of the pleasures, of this world, do not admit of it? And yet this world is not the end of all; there is another world which can be gained in only one way. And what will these occupations, these riches, and pleasures,-nay, what will the whole world avail us, if we lose that other life? For let us not be of those who blind themselves with the delusion that they can serve both God and Mammon: the choice is God or Mammon. The two services are opposed one to the other; and the service of God is not a pastime, but a struggle, a denying of one's self, a war, a hard race for the winning of an everlasting prize. What then is the folly of those who, for the sake of a few fleeting pleasures, give up all that is really worth obtaining, their eternal salvation; who for the sake of comparatively worthless things which they see, and are impatient to pos