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prayer, so just and fitting in themselves and so conformable to Christian faith, hope, and charity, a certain charm most agreeable to the Virgin adds a special weight. For with our voice appears to be united that of the Son Jesus, Who gave us the same formula of prayer in fixed terms and commanded that it should be employed : “Thus, therefore, shall you pray” (Matt. vi. 9). Let us not doubt, then, that she will discharge towards us her office, full of eager love, when with a ready disposition we carry out this injunction by reciting the Rosary ; gracefully receiving this chaplet, she will grant us in return a rich reward of favors, The character of the Rosary, in itself well calculated to help us to pray with the proper spirit, affords no small ground for feeling assured of her liberal bounty. Such is man’s weakness that when he is engaged in prayer his attention is easily and frequently withdrawn from God, and he is divested from the object he has resolutely set before himself’ Now, whoever prop: erly considers the nature of the Rosary will at once see how efficacious it is for keeping the mind alert, for removing torpor, for exciting a salutary sorrow on account of sins that have been committed, and for leading the thoughts to subjects of heavenly contemplation. As is well known, the Rosary consists of two parts which are distinct and vet connected together—the meditation on the mysteries and the vocal prayer. This kind of prayer then requires particular attention on the part of those who use it— that is, not only in directing the mind in a certain way towards God, but in contemplating and meditating in such a manner that examples of the higher life are taken to heart, and food found for every species of piety. Indeed, there is nothing greater or more admirable than those same things in which the perfection of the Christian faith appears, and by the light and power of which truth, justice, and peace

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have advanced on earth upon a new scale and with most benificent results. Consonant with this is the mode in which these truths are set before the cultive‘ors of the Rosary; that is to say, in a manner acxpted to the intelligence even of the unlearned, For the Rosary is arranged not so much for the consideration of dogmas of faiih and questions of doctrine, but rather for putting forward facts to be perceived by the eyes and treasured up in the memory —facts which make all the greater impression on the mind and effect it the more beneficially in as much as they are presented as they occured, the identity of time, place, and person being preserved. When, before everybody, these considerations are marked and strongly impressed upen the mind from early years, on the mention of each mystery whoever is really inclined to prayer takes them in without any effort whatever, and by a sort of natural movement of the mind and heart he receives abundantly the dew of heavenly grace which Mary plentifully bestows. There is another commendation which renders these chaplets more acceptable to her and more worthy of recompense. For when we piously repeat the third series of mysteries we express in a more lively manner our grateful feelings towards the Blessed Virgin, declaring as we do that we can never be sufficiently mindful of the blessings which she ensured with ineffable charity in contributing to our salvation. These noble mementoes, recalled again and again in her presence, must bring to her soul new and inexpressible pleasure and excite in her sentiments of solicitude and maternal beneficence. And from these recollections our prayer becomes more ardent and assumes the force of an entreaty. So that as the mysteries are severally gone through we feel that we have put forward so many appeals which will prove influential with the Virgin. For itis to thee we fly, Holy Mother of God ; do not

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