Part six (2): Beginning the New Year with Jesus

Devotional Exercises for the Beginning and

End, and During the Course of the Year

To Live a Christian and Saintly Life

And to Make Jesus Reign in Your Soul

Spiritual Exercise for the New Year

1. Beginning the New Year with Jesus

The great Apostle St. Paul tells us that, «Christ died for all, that they also who live, may not now live to themselves, but unto him Who died for them» (11 Cor. 5, 15), and that he "died for us; that, whether we watch or sleep, we may live together with hirr (1 Thes. 5, i10). Jesus Himself assures us that His "delights were to be always with the children of men" (Prov. 8, 31). Therefore, if you are not to deprive Him of His delight, nor of the efficacy of His most holy death, you must seek all your delight in His society, and exercise your ingenuity in piously contriving to be ever with Him, never losing sight of Him, and having Him as your object in all things; you must wake and sleep, live and die with Him, begin and end all your years, months, and days with Him. I shall now set before you the way to begin and end each year well and how to spend it with Jesus. You shall see in 'Tart Seven' how to begin and end your lives with Jesus.

To begin each year of your life in union with Jesus, you should begin it as He began His earthly life. For that purpose, at the beginning of every year, you should take a little time to cast yourself at the feet of Jesus, in order to pay Him your tribute and homage by means of the practices which I am about to set before you.

11. Tribute to Jesus Christ for the New Year

0 Jesus, my Lord, I adore, bless and love Thee with all the powers of my soul, in the first moment of Thy life of suffering on earth.

I adore all the holy thoughts, sentiments and dispositions of Thy divine soul, and all that took place within Thee in that first moment.

0 Admirable Jesus, from the very first moment of Thy mortal life, Thou didst turn towards the Eternal Father to adore, love and glorify Him, to refer to Him Thy being, Thy life and all its consequences. Thou didst give Thyself to Him to do and suffer everything He pleased, for His glory and for love of us. I behold that, at the same instant, Thou didst turn Thy spirit and heart towards me, to think of me, to love me, to make great plans for my soul and to prepare very special graces for me.

Blessed be Thou, 0 Good Jesus, and may all the creatures of heaven and earth, and all the powers of Thy divinity and Thy humanity eternally bless Thee for all these things.

0 Jesus, I give myself to Thee, to commence this year as Thou didst beglin Thy life on earth, and to enter with Thee into Thy holy dispositions. I beg Thee, by Thy great mercy, to implant these dispositions i n my heart.

0 Most Adorable Jesus, in honor of and in union with the humility, love and other holy dispositions with which Thou didst adore and love Thy Eternal Father, giving Thyself to Him at the first moment of Thy life, I adore, love and glorify Thee, as my God and my Saviour, as the Creator of time, the King of years and of centuries, and as the divine Redeemer who purchased for me, at the cost of Thy own blood, all the time which is given to me on earth.

0 Jesus, I consecrate to Thee all my minutes, hours, days and years, my being and my life, and all that goes with it. I desire to employ everything for Thy pure glory alone. I desire all my thoughts and acts, every beat of my heart, every breath I draw, and all else that shall take place in me this year, and in m y whole life, to become so many acts of praise and love for Thee. May it please Thee, my dear Jesus, to grant that this may be so, through Thy most great power and goodness.

I also offer Thee, 0 Jesus, all the love and glory that shall be given to Thy majesty. I unite myself with all the honor and praises that shall be given Thee this year and forever, by Thy Eternal Father,

Spiritual Exercise for the New Year 249

Thy Holy Spirit, Thy holy Mother, Thy angels, saints and all Thy creatures.

0 Most Amiable Jesus, I adore all the designs Thou dost deign to shape for me during this year. Do not permit me to put obstacles in their way. I give myself to Thee to do and suffer everything Thou dost please, for the accomplishment of these eternal designs. In honor of, and in union with the same love with which Thou didst accept, at the first moment of Thy Incarnation, all the sufferings Thou hadst to bear i n life, I now accept and embrace, for Thy love, all the sufferings of body and spirit I shall have to undergo this year and during my whole life.

0 my Saviour, a year will come that will be the last in my life. Perhaps this very year now unfolding is to be my last. If I knew with certainty that this was to be so, with what care and fervor would I spend it in Thy service! However that may be, I wish to spend this year as if I had no more time to love and glorify Thee in this world, and to make up for the occasions in the past, when I have fallen away from m y love of Thee. Please grant me, 0 Good Jesus, all the graces ,that I need for this.

Iii. Prayer to the Blessed Virgin for the Beginning Op the Year

0 Blessed Virgin, Mother of my God and Saviour, I honor and reverence thee in the first moment of thy life. I honor and reverence all the dispositions of thy holy soul, and all that took place in thee at that time.

Thou didst begin immediately, 0 holy Virgin, to love and glorify God most perfectly, and from that first moment to the last of thy life, thou didst ever love and glorify Him more and more. And as for me, i n spite of all the years I have been in this world, I have not yet begun to love and serve Him as I should.

0 Mother of mercy, beg thy Divine Son to have mercy on me. Atone for my failings, offering Him on my behalf all the love and glory thou didst ever give Him, to satisfy for my neglect in loving and glorifying Him. Grant that I may share in thy surpassing love for Him, and in the fidelity of that great maternal love. Pray for me, that He may give me the grace to begin, at least now, to love Him

perfectly, and that all that shall take place during this year, and all my life, may be consecrated to His glory and thy honor.

Ye angels of Jesus and His saints, pray for me, that our loving Saviour may give me new grace and new love for Him, to devote this year and my whole life, purely and solely, to the service of His glory and love.

251-

Devotion to the Mysteries of the Life of

Our Lord Jesus Christ

Iv. Each Year You Must Honor with Special Devotion All the States and

MYSTERIES OF OUR Lord's LIFE

So many and so binding are your obligations to honor and love Jesus Christ in Himself and in all the circumstances and mysteries of His life, that anyone who might wish to undertake the enumeration of them would be attempting the impossible. I shall, however, call attention here to one or two. To begin with, I shall show that, since your duty is to continue and fulfil in yourselves the life, virtues and actions of Jesus Christ on earth, so must you also prolong and fulfil, in yourself, the states and mysteries of Jesus, and frequently implore Jesus Himself to consummate and accomplish them in you and in His whole Church.

You cannot too often realize and reflect on the truth that the mysteries of the life of Christ have not yet reached their full perfection and completeness. Although they are perfect and complete in Christ's own Person, they are not yet completed in you who are His members, nor in Holy Mother Church, which is His Mystical Body. It is the plan of the Son of God that His whole Church should participate in and actually be, as it were, the continuation and extension of the mystery of His Incarnation, birth, Childhood, hidden life , public life of teaching and of labor, His Passion and His death, by the graces He desires to impart to you, and by the effects He wishes to accomplish in you through these same mysteries. By this means, He desires to fulfil His mysteries in you.

Therefore, St. Paul says that Jesus Christ is fulfilled in His Church (Eph. 1, 22-23) and that we all come together in His perfection and His maturity (Eph. 4, 13), which means, as I have said, His mystical Body, which is the Church-a maturity which will not be complete until the Day of Judgment. And St. Paul again speaks elsewhere of the same fulness of God which is accomplished in you, and of the

growth and increase of God in you (Eph. 3, 19). And in another place he says that He fills up in His body the Passion of Jesus Christ (C0L. 1, 24). Now what he says of the fulfilment of the mystery of the Passion may also be said of the other mysteries of the life of Jesus Christ.

So the Son of God plans to perfect and complete in you all His states and mysteries. He intends to fulfil in you the divine life which has been His for all eternity in the bosom of His Father, imparting a participation in that life, and making you live, with Him, a life entirely pure and holy.

It is His design to complete in you the mystery of His Incarnation, birth and hidden life, by taking flesh in you and being born in your souls, as it were, through the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and the Blessed Eucharist, causing you to live by a spiritual and inward life, a life hidden with Him in God.

It is His design to perfect in you the mystery of His Passion, death and Resurrection, by causing you to suffer, to die and to rise again with Him and in Him. It is His design to fulfil His glorious immortal life in heaven, by causing you to live, in Him and with Him, a glorious and immortal life after death. He likewise intends to perfect and accomplish in you and in His Church all the other mysteries of His life by the communication and participation granted to you by His holy Will, through the continuation and extension of these mysteries operating in you.

This universal plan of the Son of God will not be completed until the Day of Judgment. The ranks of the saints will not be filled up until the consummation of the time God has allotted to men for their sanctification. Therefore, the mysteries of Jesus will not be complete until the end of the time determined by Jesus Christ Himself for their consummation in you and in His Church, that is, until the end of the world.

Now the life you have here on earth was given to you only for the accomplishment of the infinite designs of Jesus Christ for mankind. Hence, you should employ all your time, your days, your years, i n cooperating with Jesus Christ in the divine task of consummating His mysteries in yourself. You must cooperate in this by good works

and prayer, by frequent application of mind and heart to the contemplation, adoration and veneration of the sacred mysteries of His life according to the different seasons of the year, so that, by these very mysteries, He may work in you all He desires to accomplish for His pure glory. This is the first reason why you must have a special devotion to all the infinitely precious details and aspects of the life of Jesus.

V. Additional Reasons for Honoring the Mysteries of the Life of Christ

Although you have every reason to cultivate particular devotion to the mysteries of His life, I shall present four special obligations.

1. You are obliged to imitate the Heavenly Father, according to the teaching of St. Paul: Estote imitatores Dei sicut filii/ii charissimi (Eph. 5, 1). Now the Divine Father is continually absorbed i n contemplating, glorifying and loving His Son, Jesus Christ, and in causing Him to be loved and glorified i n Himself, and in all His states and mysteries.

2. You must love and honor especially all things through which God is given love and glory. Everything that exists in Jesus Christ gives infinite glory to God. So you should give particular and, were i t possible, infinite honor to all the vast mysteries and the very smallest details that are found in the life of Christ. You are infinitely more obliged to honor them and to thank the Son of God for the glory He rendered to His Father by His mysteries, than you are to pay homage and thanks for the graces and salvation He has acquired for you, inasmuch as God's interests ought to be infinitely more dear to you than your own.

3. The Holy Ghost, speaking through Holy Mother Church, continually invites and urges you to adore and glorify the mysteries of Jesus. At the beginning, middle and end and in all the principal parts of Holy Mass, in the hymn Gloria in Excelsis, in the Credo, at the last Gospel, In principio erat Verbum, and at several other places in the Holy Sacrifice, as well as in the daily recitation of the Creed, in daily prayers, and throughout the Divine Office, the Holy Ghost unceasingly recalls to your thoughts the blessed mysteries of the life.of

Jesus. Why is this so, if not in order that they may be the object of your contemplation and adoration and the subject of all your pious exercises, and that thus they may be the daily bread and nourishment of your souls? For your souls should live by faith alone and by the attention and love which they must entertain for the mysteries of God and of Jesus Christ, according to St. Paul's statement: "But my just man liveth by faith" (Heb. 10, 38).

4. All greatness deserves honor and homage, but an infinite greatness deserves infinite honor and homage. This constitutes yet another special obligation. Jesus Christ is the greatest of the great. He i s greatness itself, and is an infinite and incomprehensible greatness. Everything that is bound up in His divinity and humanity, all the mysteries of His existence and even the slightest things that took place i n Him, all sustain an infinite greatness and dignity and embody an infinity of wonders. Therefore, they deserve infinite honor and glory.

And yet, great and noble and holy as these things are, how little known, how seldom considered, how poorly honored they are, even by the very ones who style themselves the children of Christ, who bear His Name and dwell on earth only to know and love Jesus, His life and His mysteries. They are so meagerly honored even by these who cannot possess any real life except in His love and knowledge, according to these great words of Truth Himself: "This is eternal life: That they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17, 3).

The happiness of heaven consists in this alone, and in this alone consists true life on earth: to know, love and honor the life and mysteries of Christ. This will be the basis of the account you shall be required to give of yourself at the hour of death. One of the greatest reproaches that will be made against you in that hour, will be the scanty and poor attention and honor you have given to the life and mysteries of Jesus. This will be the purpose of the Son of God in holding His universal judgment at the consummation of time, namely, to exact, by the power of His justice, the honor and homage due to His mysteries by all creatures, and even by His own enemies, before the eyes of heaven and earth. This also is the reason for the existence of hell, that those who shall have failed to honor

Christ's mysteries on earth by love and free will, will render this necessary tribute in hell through constraint and force, by the operation of God's justice in them.

That is why, if you are to avoid being among the number of these miserable creatures, you must make it your chief care and devotion to consider and honor the mysteries of the Son of God. Preference should always be given to the feasts of Our Lord, as well as to those of His holy Mother, over all other feasts. And you should dispose your time and your devotional exercises in such manner as to honor the entire life of Jesus, and the orderly sequence of its mysteries during the course of each year.

Vi. Sequence to be Orserved That You May Each Year Honor All the States and

Mysteries of Jesus

Beginning with the first of all the states of Jesus, the divine life enjoyed by Him in the bosom of His Father for all eternity, it is recommended to honor it in the time immediately preceding Advent, so that you may adore Jesus in His life in the bosom of His Father for all eternity, before adoring Him in His life in the bosom of the Virgin, in the fulness of time. When I speak of the time before Advent, I mean the months of October and November.

I set aside, however, the last two weeks of November, as being appropriate for honoring the life led by Christ in the world before His Incarnation, for the space of five thousand years, from the creation of the world up to the Incarnation of the Creator of the World. For during this time Christ was living, in a certain manner, in the minds and hearts of the angels of heaven, of the patriarchs, prophets, and just men on earth, who knew that He was to come and loved Him, desired Him, awaited Him and continually asked God for His coming. In the same way He lived in the souls Of the patriarchs who were in Limbo. So also did He live in the Mosaic Law, which was promulgated only to prefigure and foretell Him, and to dispose the world to believe in Him and receive Him when He should come.

During Advent you should honor the mystery of the Incarnation, and the dwelling of Jesus within Mary for the space of nine months.

From Christmas to the Purification, honor the Holy Childhood of Jesus, and all the mysteries included in it, as the Church presents them for veneration, such as the mystery of His birth, of His dwelling in the cave at Bethlehem, of the Circumcision, the Epiphany, the Presentation, the Flight into Egypt, His life there up to the age of seven years, of the journeys to the Temple in Jerusalem in company with His holy Mother and St. Joseph, their loss of Him in the Temple, and His session in the midst of the Doctors at the age of twelve years.

From the Purification to Ash Wednesday, honor the infinitely precious and unknown hidden life which He spent working with His Mother and St. Joseph, up to the age of thirty years.

From Ash Wednesday to the First Sunday of Lent, you should honor the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan and His manifestation by the voice of the Father, saying: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3, 17), by the descent of the Holy Ghost upon Him in the form of a dove, and by the. testimony of St. John the Baptist.

During the first week of Lent, honor the solitary life of Jesus in the desert.

During the second week of Lent you should honor His public and active life among men, from the age of thirty to that of thirty-three years and three months, following closely the daily gospel of the liturgy of the Church for the holy season of Lent. One week is, however, too short to honor Christ's public life, and as you cannot devote any more time to it in Lent, you shall honor it again after the Feast of Corpus Christi.

The other four weeks of Lent will be dedicated to the honor of the penitential life of Christ, which i s divided into four parts, namely, humiliations, privations, exterior and interior sufferings. In the first of these four weeks, honor all the humiliations which Jesus bore in His life, both interior and exterior. In the second, His interior and exterior privations. In the third, the exterior sufferings endured in His body. The fourth, the interior sufferings which He bore in His soul.

Holy Thursday, honor the institution of the most Holy Sacrament

of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, and the washing of the feet of the Apostles.

From Good Friday to Easter Sunday, adore Jesus in His agony. His suffering, His Cross, His death, the descent of His soul into Limbo, and the burial of His body.

Easter Sunday, Christ's Resurrection and His entry into the life of glory. This, too, you should venerate on all the Sundays of the year, which are especially consecrated to the honor of Christ's Resurrection.

From Easter to the Ascension, honor Christ's life in glory, and His stay upon earth after the Resurrection.

From the Ascension to Pentecost, you shall again honor Christ's glorified life, this time in Heaven after His Ascension. This glorified life should likewise be adored every Sunday of the year.

From Pentecost to the Feast of the Holy Trinity, you are to honor the mission of the holy spirit of Christ, and all the greatness, attributes and mysteries of that divine spirit.

On the Feast of the Holy Trinity, you shall adore the life of the Blessed Trinity in Jesus, and the life of Jesus in the Trinity, which you should also honor every Sunday of the year. The first day of each week i s always dedicated to the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the honor of the life of the Holy Trinity in Jesus, and of the life of Jesus in the Holy Trinity, and to the honor of the mystery of the Resurrection and the state of the glorified life of Christ.

The three days following the Feast of the Holy Trinity are dedicated to the Three Divine Persons: Monday, to the honor of the Father; Tuesday, to the honor of the Son; and Wednesday, to the honor of the Holy Spirit.

During the octave of Corpus Christi, as well as on the Thursdays of each week, you shall honor the perpetuation of the life of Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist.

The time remaining between the octave of Corpus Christi and the month of August shall be divided into two equal parts. The first is dedicated to the honor of the public life of Jesus, for which there was not sufficient time during Lent.

The second part shall be devoted to the honor of the mystery of

the second coming of Jesus, and of the general and public judgment to take place at the consummation of time, which is one of the mysteries of the glorious life of Christ, and the first mystery which Holy Church proposes to our adoration in the Creed after the mystery of the ascension and.the enthronement of Christ at the right hand of the Father.

During the month of August, honor the four principal attributes of Jesus Christ, as follows:

1. His divinity, or divine essence. This He possesses in common with the Father and Holy Ghost, making Him co-equal with the Father and the Holy Ghost, God infinite, incomprehensible, eternal, immortal, all-powerful, all-wise, all-good, resplendent with all the perfections that inhere in the divine essence.

2. His Divine Person. This is proper and peculiar to Him, in virtue of which He is the Son of God, the image and splendor of the Father, and the divine exemplar according to which the Father formed all things.

3. His holy soul, with all its faculties, memory, understanding, and Will

4. His holy body, with all the members, sensations, and feelings, especially His Precious Blood and His divine Heart

During the month of September, honor the seven kingdoms of Jesus Christ, which are:

1. Christ's kingdom in the natural world, made up of the four elements of earth, water, air and fire , and all natural things that exist in the world.

2. The kingdom of Christ in the spiritual and mystical world on earth. that is, the Church Militant

3. The kingdom of Christ in death, in which are honored His sovereignty, His justice, His eternity, His death and His immortal life

4. The kingdom of Christ in the particular judgment, which He daily and hourly exercises upon souls as they depart from this life, in which His justice, His equity, His truth, His power and divine majesty are greatly honored.

5. The kingdom of Christ in the Church Suffering, Purgatory,

where continual glory is given to His divine will, His justice, His goodness and His sufferings.

6. The kingdom of Christ in hell, where all His divine perfections and all His mysteries are honored in a way that is superlatively terrifying and astounding.

7. The kingdom of Christ in the Church Triumphant, in heaven

These are the seven kingdoms of Christ to be honored during the month of September. I call them kingdoms because Christ reigns and triumphs in all these states, and in all these things, and because these seven kingdoms are filled with the glory, the honor, the power, the presence and the majesty of Jesus Christ, as I shall show more fully in the proper place, if it may please God to give me the time and the grace to continue this book.

On the feasts of the Blessed Virgin, and on Saturdays, you shall honor the life of Jesus in His Virgin Mother and all the wonders and mysteries He worked in her.

On the feasts of angels and saints celebrated during the course of the year, you shall honor the life of Jesus as manifested in the angels and saints.

So, you must leave no mystery in Jesus Christ without special honor. You should see Him and honor Him in all places, all times and all things. During the course of the year, you must venerate each of His manifestations and all His mysteries. But to make it easier for you, while waiting for God in His good pleasure to give me time and grace to finish another book I have begun,(1) to give a more extensive treatment to all the kingdoms and mysteries of Christ, I shall here set down the chief aspects you must consider and honor in each mystery of the life of Jesus, and outline a method for their veneration.

First, I should like to point out that you are obliged to have particular devotion to certain angels and saints, to whom you should pay special honor during your lifetime. It is also a good thing to single out some order of saints and angels for special veneration during the (1). St. John Eudes probably refers to All Jesus, or Exercises on the Mysteries of Jesus, a work which was never published. The manuscript is not extant. Cf. P. Costil, Fleurs de ]a Congrégation de Jésus. et Marie, 1, 644, and R. P. de Montigny, Vie du P. Jean Eudes (Paris, 1827), P. 438.

course of each year. But it is much more important for you to select some attribute or mystery of Jesus to honor throughout your lifetime, having first recommended your intention to God, invoked the Holy Ghost and consulted your spiritual directors. It is likewise an excellent practice to choose a special mystery each year, On the Feast of the Ascension of the Son of God, to be the object of particular veneration in the course of that year. This should be done in the manner I shall propose below.

VII. EACH MYSTERY OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST To BE VENERATED UNDER SEVEN ASPECTS

Among the infinite wonders contained in each mystery of the life of Jesus, there are seven main aspects which you should consider and honor in them, for knowledge of them will give you much light and .scope, as well as facility in concentrating on His Mysteries.

The first is the external aspect of the mystery, that is, all its outward manifestations. For instance, the visible exterior elements in the mystery of the birth of Jesus are the nakedness, poverty, cold and weakness of the newborn Want, the little swaddling bands in which He was wrapped, His cradle in the crib and on the straw between the ox and the ass, His tears and baby cries, the tiny movements of His sacred feet and hands, the first gaze of His baby eyes, His slumber in the arms of His Blessed Mother, the nourishment He took from her most holy breasts, the sweet kisses He received from her and from St. Joseph, the visit of the shepherds, and all the Other touching incidents that took place outwardly in the stable of Bethlehem, On the night of the birth of the Son of God.

This is what I call the body and the exterior of the mystery of the birth of Jesus. Likewise, all that took place outwardly in the mystery of the Incarnation, of the Circumcision, the Presentation in the Temple, the flight into Egypt, the Passion and all the other mysteries. All that was said or done or suffered outwardly, either by the Son of God, or by the other human beings and the angels who were present at the unfolding of the mystery, comprises its body. Every detail deserves your consideration and honor, because there is nothing unimportant

in the mysteries of Jesus, but, rather, each aspect is great, divine and worthy of adoration.

If the Son of God, therefore, takes the trouble to concentrate His divine spirit and Heart (which ought not, it seems, to be concerned about anything Other than divinity itself), on the consideration of every step you take, even numbering the hairs of your head, as He Himself asserts, and writing and treasuring in His Heart the slightest actions you perform for Him, so that He may do honor and glorify them for all eternity in heaven, how much more should you centre your mind and heart on the consideration, adoration and glorification of the smallest details Of the infinite mysteries of His life, seeing that there is not one thing about them which is not infinitely great and admirable, and deserving of infinite honor and adoration!

The second aspect to be considered and honored in each mystery of the Son of God is the interior spirit of the mystery, that is, the particular virtue, power and grace which inhere in the mystery and are peculiar to it, since each mystery has its own proper virtue and Spirit of grace. This includes the thoughts and intentions, the affections, sentiments, dispositions and interior activity accomplishing the mystery. I n a word, it includes all that took place inwardly in the mind, Heart and holy soul of Christ, and in the minds and hearts of ,all those who participated directly in the mystery.

Take, for example, all the interior content of the Incarnation, the birth, Passion and other mysteries of the Son of God, such as the thoughts in His mind, the afflictions and sentiments of His Heart, His inward dispositions of humility, charity, love, submission, meekness, patience. Likewise the inward activity of all His mysteries and acts, with respect to His Eternal Father, Himself, His Holy Spirit, His Blessed Mother, His angels and His saints, mankind in general, and each one of us in particular. Add to this the power and virtue and spirit of grace which He exercised in His Incarnation, His birth, Passion and other mysteries. I call at this the spirit, the core and, as it were, the soul of the mystery.

This spiritual aspect ought to engage your principal attention and honor in the mysteries of the life of Our Lord; yet it actually receives the least attention and honor. Many Christians are satisfied to con

template the body and the externals, without passing on to the inward features of these tremendous mysteries. Yet it is the spirit and the core that are most important, constituting the foundation, the substance life and truth of the mystery, whereas the exterior is no more than a covering, an accessory, and the accidental being of the mystery. The exterior and body is passing and temporal, but the interior virtue and spirit of grace which dwell in each mystery are permanent and eternal.

Thus you may truly say that Christ's mysteries are not in the past, but are always present, according to the spirit, the interior, the truth and substance of the mysteries, not according to the body and exterior. It is true, however, that one may also say that even according to the body and externals, the mysteries remain ever present in a certain sense, before God, just as all things are always present to Him by virtue of His eternity, because there is nothing past or future in the sight of God.

The third aspect to be honored is the effect accomplished and continually renewed in each one of the mysteries of Jesus. In Sacred Scripture, the Son of God is called the "Lamb, which was slain from the beginning of the world" (Apoc. 13, 8), since from the beginning of the world He has by His death, Incarnation and all His other mysteries, brought about many wonderful effects in glory, felicity, light, grace, mercy, justice and terror, in heaven, on earth, in hell, upon men, angels, and all other creatures. This I shall show, God willing, more extensively further on.

The fourth aspect to be adored in all Christ's mysteries is the special intention present, for in each mystery Our Lord sought to carry out some particular intention, for instance, the intention to glorify His Father and Himself, to glorify the mystery itself and, in certain special ways that are unknown to us, to sanctify souls and to accomplish all the untold effects of grace bound up in each inscrutable mystery.

The filth aspect to be venerated is the association of the Blessed Virgin with each mystery of Christ. She has a special and extraordinary part in all the mysteries of the life of her Son. She has more share than all the angels and saints and the whole world put to