our good Master, Who is the Life of our life, and without Whom we cannot have true life.

They forget no possible means which can help our salvation and our eternal perseverance, and prayer being one of the most certain and useful means, it is by the ministry of angels that our prayers are presented at the throne of the Divine Majesty, and amongst all the exercises of the spiritual life, there are none in which they are more ready to help us. Mortification is the sister of Prayer, and these two companions are never separate. What do not these holy spirits do continually to establish us solidly in the practice of that virtue, which is so necessary that without it we can expect nothing from a soul, for it is certain that to be truly Christian we must be truly mortified.

Resolution. Have recourse to the holy angels in our dryness and difficulties in prayer.

Aspiration." And there appeared to Him an angel from heaven strengthening Him." (Gospel according to St. Luke, xxiii. 43.)

EXAMPLE.

THE GRACE OF HOLY BAPTISM.

The Père de Loret of the Society of Jesus relates a remarkable instance of this. In the month of January of the year 1634, in Vienna (Austria), three souls delivered from Purgatory appeared to a religious of the same company, to

thank him, since by his prayers and mortifications they were going to enjoy eternal rest. "On the day of your birth," they said to him, "our good angels brought us the news, and promised us that one day you would be our liberator, which consoled us greatly. Besides, know that you are greatly indebted to your angel-guardian, for without him you would never have received baptism.

OCTOBER 18TH.

Meditation for the Eighteenth Day of the Month of the Holy Angels.

ASSISTANCE IN SPIRITUAL MATTERS (continuation).

Prelude.-Represent to ourselves our angelguardian as a soldier, armed from head to foot, and standing at our side, to defend us from numerous and wicked enemies.

Meditation.-Angels are holily occupied in inspiring us with the love of all virtues, but especially the love of virginal purity, for that makes us like to them; "it makes us their brothers," says St. Cyprian, and causes us to enter more intimately into their holy friendship, and what do they not do to protect this lovely virtue, which, raising man above himself, makes him live an angelic life on earth.

But their love leads them especially to inspire us with a great love for the sweet Jesus, and our, dear Mother Mary, knowing that this love is the soul of all virtues, so that they endeavour as much as they can to plant it firmly in our hearts. And because it is necessary for the practice of virtue to have an enlightened spirit and a mortified will, they do not fail in giving light to the mind, and generous feelings to the heart. It was through them that the old law was given, and the greatest truths of the new one have been manifested by these blessed spirits. Read the Old Testament, it is full of revelations made by the holy angels, and as to the new law they announced to the glorious Mother of God the adorable mystery of the Incarnation; to the shepherds who watched on the mountains of Bethlehem the birth of the Son of God; to St. Joseph the conception of the uncreated Word in the chaste womb of his virginal spouse, and the land to which he was to conduct the holy Infant to save it from Herod's persecution; to the Maries the resurrection of our Saviour; to the disciples His terrible coming at the day of judgment.

Resolution. In the difficulties which we meet with in the practice of virtue, have recourse to the holy angels.

Aspiration. "Purity makes man the brother of the angels." (St. Cyprian.)

EXAMPLE.

ST. DOMINIC AND THE ANGELS.

St. Dominic was one of the most fervent lovers of Jesus and Mary, and therefore the angels loved him. He received from them all kind of help during the long nights when he watched at the foot of the holy altar, and gave vent to the feelings of his heart in the presence of his good Master, in the most holy sacrament of the altar, and invoked the protection of the most holy Virgin. He was never tired of spending the night in prayer, and tried as much as possible to be in the presence of the adorable Eucharist, and the angels, overjoyed at this untiring love, united themselves to him, for those holy beings rejoiced in joining him. They were seen coming with torches to his rooms, opening the doors of the house and of the church, where they conducted him, and when it was time reconducting him in the same way. The servants of a bishop with whom he was staying having noticed this wonder, mentioned it to their prelate, who, having watched the holy man about the hour when this happened, he had the consolation of being a spectator of it, and of admiring the goodness of the heavenly spirits towards man. (Boudon: Devotion aux Neuf Chœurs des Anges.)

OCTOBER 19TH.

Meditation for the Nineteenth Day of the Month of the Holy Angels.

ASSISTANCE IN SPIRITUAL MATTERS

(continuation).

Prelude.-Let us represent to ourselves our guardian-angel at our side, eagerly profiting by every moment to make us faithful to grace, and to increase in us that spiritual life which is his great preoccupation.

Meditation. The holy angels omit nothing to keep us from sin, or to deliver us from it when we have unhappily fallen. Sometimes it is by the thought of paradise, hell, or eternity, sometimes by efficacious considerations on the fatal effects and consequences of sin; sometimes by clear thoughts of death or the shortness of life; sometimes by examples of the saints or the punishment of sinners, and these lights which often open suddenly the eyes of our soul to the greatest truths, these unexpected inspirations which touch us when we least expect them, and which impress us so deeply, come to us through the ministry of the holy angels.

There are happy moments when we feel our heart impelled to give itself to our loving God without any assignable cause. It may happen in the midst of recreation, of enjoyment, of a feast; sometimes even when, alas! we may have