She knew the good which God purposed to work there; she knew that it was the will of her Divine Son to sanctify His Precursor, who was to receive grace “at her voice," announcing the approach of the Word: Ut facta est vox salutationis tuæ in auribus meis. Mary, therefore, tears herself from the delicious repose of contemplation, to fly to the hill country: Abiit in montana cum festinatione. All the Saints who have been filled with the Spirit of God have had an ardent thirst for prayer, silence, and solitude; and all those who have been destined to convey to others the graces which have been lavishly bestowed upon themselves, have thirsted no less ardently to overcome themselves by forsaking interior joys for the love of their brethren. But what a difference is there between the grace of the Saints, and the plenitude of Mary's grace! What a difference between the love of the Saints, and the love of Mary for silence and contemplation! What a difference between the sacrifice made by the Saints in breaking the Divine repose of the soul in obedience to the voice of charity, and the sacrifice which Mary must have made in leaving the heaven within her heart to tread the rough, hard ways of this world! But it was the sacrifice of charity, the sacrifice of the love of souls, and she hesitates not a moment; she hastens whither the will of God calls her: Viam mandatorum cucurri dilatasti cor meum. She re mains also with Elizabeth as long as it is the pleasure of the Word that she should abide there; Who willed that she should continue, as she had begun, the sanctification of the greatest of the Prophets. To this example of charity Mary joins another of which we all stand greatly in need, the example of the most profound humility in the highest exaltation. Elizabeth, enlightened by God, and full of confusion at the honour conferred upon her, says to Mary: "And whence is this to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?" She says but the truth when she calls Mary "happy," and "blessed among all women;" but Mary, more enlightened still, says nothing more than the truth when she refers all praise to God alone, the only Source of all good, of all grace, of all greatness: Omnia ex te, et ideo in omnibus es laudandus; and cries: "Thou praisest me, and I praise the Lord" (Magnificas matrem Domini, sed magnificat anima mea Dominum). Thou praisest me for the greatness to which thou seest me raised, but it is the Almighty alone Who has done these great things in me, and Who has been pleased to cast His eyes on the lowliness of His handmaiden. Mary thus reveals to us the two sources of humility: the knowledge of God, and the knowledge of ourselves; and teaches us that the most profound humility is ever the deepest truth. Lastly, the mystery of the Visitation is a mystery of consolation, because it recalls to us most sensibly the order established by God for the communication of His graces, that order of which we have already spoken at length,' and of which the Visitation of Mary is the living image. All graces come from God: Omne datum optimum et omne donum perfectum de sursum est, descendens a Patre luminum.2 But all graces come to us by the merits of Jesus Christ, the only Mediator of Justice between God and man, because He alone has reconciled us with God, and redeemed us by the price of His Blood. It is, nevertheless, His will that we should ask Him for these graces, and that we should also ask them for one another: Orate pro invicem ut salvemini; multum enim valet deprecatio justi assidua, and, consequently, that the mediation of prayer or intercession should be added to the mediation of justice. Now, it is in the order of intercession that we have seen Mary to be constituted the universal Mediatrix ;4 and it is this office of love, so truly worthy of her Mother's heart, which we see her fulfil when she communicates by a word from her blessed mouth the first grace of the new covenant to the last 2 James i. 17. 1 Ch. xii. and xiii., supra. 4 Ch. xii. and xiii., supra. Prophet of the old. This order ordained by God has prevailed in every age; for as all the graces which have been granted to the world, have been granted to it for the sake of the merits of Jesus Christ, they have been also granted to the prayers of His Mother, and, as it were, at the voice of the second Eve, the Mother of our new life. Prayer. My God, I bless Thee for this order of Thy dispensation. I am full of gratitude and joy at the thought that Thou art pleased to grant me all things for the merits of Jesus, and at the prayer of Mary. My poor prayers, then, can never ascend alone. My Mother will perfect them and offer them, especially if I faithfully invoke her with childlike confidence, to obtain grace to overcome myself, and to become pleasing in Thy sight. I know, O Lord, that Thou hast prepared grace for us, to enable us to become like unto Thee by the accomplishment of Thy Divine Will. I shall certainly obtain it if I desire it for that end, if I ask it for that end: Fiat voluntas tua. I will ask it, then, by the "Our Father," the prayer of Thy Divine Son, to which I will always add the "Hail Mary," the sweet prayer of the universal Church, that Mary herself may offer the Lord's Prayer to Thee for me, with the perfect devotion of her own heart. Thou wilt have me, O Lord, to resemble Jesus, as Mary resembles Him; to be humble, chaste, charitable, obedient: Fiat voluntas tua. May Thy holy will be done in me now and always, and at the hour of my death (nunc et in hora mortis nostræ). Amen. CHAPTER XX. THE PURIFICATION OF MARY AND THE PRESENTATION OF JESUS IN THE TEMPLE. The Mosaic law-The primitive law-The fulfilment of prophecy. LET us open the Gospel, that we may fully receive what is there revealed concerning the mystery of the Purification and the Presentation. "And after eight days were accomplished, that the Child should be circumcised, His name was called Jesus, which was called by the angel, before He was conceived in the womb. And after the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were accomplished, they carried Him to Jerusalem, to present Him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord: Every male opening the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. And to offer a sacrifice, according as it is written in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle-doves, or two young pigeons. And behold there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Ghost was in Him. And he had received an answer from the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. And he came by the Spirit into the Temple. And when His parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, he also took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said: Now Thou dost dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, according to Thy word in peace; because my eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples: a light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel. And His father and Mother were wondering at those things which were spoken concerning Him. And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His Mother: Behold this Child is set for the fall, and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted. And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed." The better to understand this passage of the Gospel, we must recall to mind those two precepts of the old law to which it refers. By the first, every woman who had given birth to a son was forbidden to approach the sanctuary for forty days (in the case of the birth of a daughter, the time was prolonged to eighty); at the expiration of that time, before being admitted into the Temple, she was to offer a lamb as a holocaust, and a young pigeon or turtledove as a sin-offering. If the woman were poor, the was to offer two pigeons or doves, the one as a holocaust, the other as an expiation.2 This positive law reminds us of the truth of which we all bear the evidence within us, the truth of our original corruption, and is founded on the natural law of the propagation of our race by generation, in virtue of which human nature is transmitted as it is, and thus passes from age to age, like the waters of a river which bear with them the pollution of their source. The second positive law of the old covenant referred to in the Gospel of the Purification, is that by which mothers were commanded to offer their first-born son to God and to redeem him,3 in memory of the first-born of Israel, who were preserved by the blood of the lamb from the sword of the destroying Angel, when he struck the first-born of Egypt to overcome the obstinacy of Egyptian tyranny, and set free the first-born people of God. The consecration to God of the first-born is, however, of still higher antiquity, for they had been already destined to the priesthood under the law of nature by the primitive revelation :4 God thus requiring the offering of the first fruits 2 Lev. xii. 3 Exod. xiii. 1 Luke ii. 21-35. 4 The law which is called the law of nature, to distinguish it from the written law, or the Mosaic revelation, and from the law of grace, preeminently so called, or the Christian revelation, is not the purely natural law, which would have corre |