Seventh Dat ?!

dear Mother. The adorable Infant crushed the head of the serpent, by whose poison Eve had perished.

" Sara, the fair Isaac's mother, foresaw thine Infancy, O Jesus, in her own son's crib ; the lullaby she sans over him told the mysteries of thy Childhood, which were foreshadowed and prefigured in her own child. Thus did she sing : 'Sweet Babe 1 fruit ' of my prayers 1 I see in thee 'the Lord, who is hidden in 4 thee as in his type: 'tis He 'receives the wishes and the 4 prayers of pious hearts, and 'grants them their requests.'

" The Nazarite Samson, the youth of exceeding strength, was a figure of thy strength, O Jesus ! He tore a lion to pieces, typifying the death thou didst slay, for thou didst crush death, and from its bitter entrails didst draw forth life, whose taste would be most sweet to us.

"Anna, too, pressed Thee to her bosom in the person of Samuel the Prophet, who was twice a figure of thy ministry*; firstly, when he prefigured thy most just seventy on the day when he slew King Agaff, the figure of the devil, and cut him to pieces ; secondly, by imitating thy mercy, though imperfectly, when he unceasingly shed his tears of loving and sincere compassion over the fall of Saul." randus puer caput serpentis contudit, cujus ilia olim infecta veneno periit.

A cunis decori Isaac, Sara mater tuam speculabatur infantiam, teque illo adumbratum suo mulcebat cantu ; relegensque infanti® tu» mysteria in eo puero expressa : Euge, fili, votorum fructus meorum, cantabatj jam nunc video in te, qui latet in te Dominum, omnium piorum vota precesque suscipiens, et ratas efnciens.

Nazarseus Samson juvenis fortissimus tu» fortitudinia umbra fuit ; leonem laceravit, mortis quam concidisti typum; rupisti scilicet mortem, vitamque ex ejus amarissimo ventre excluaisti, cujus usura nobis futura erat jucundissima.

Anna pariter te in Samuele figuratum, suo non semel pectori oppressit, turn primum, quando tuam prasensit justissimam severitatem ab illo reprsesentatam eo die, quo regem A gac in frusta dissectum occidit, expressam diaboli imaginem : turn item in, quando tuam contemplabatur clementiam ab eodem velut rudiore manu descriptam, eo tempore quo Saiilis ruinam piis et veris lacrymis lugere non deatitit

CHRISTMAS.

The Menaea of the Greek Church furnish us with these beautiful stanzas, in honour of the Holy Mother of God.

XVL DIE JANUARII.

Terra inarata apparuisti, o augustissima, quae spicam nobis protulisti, universi nutritorem Dominum Jesum, ez cmo nos comedentes, ad vitam revocamur.

Deum ez te incarnatura videntes, o Virgo casta, Deiparam te proprie confitemur, quae omnium reformationis, absque ulla dubitatione, causa f uisti.

Superessentialis ille, qui carnis erat ezpers, ez venerandis sanguinibus tuis incirnatus est, o castissima; et caro sine ulla mutatione f actus, cum hominibus conversatus est.

Naturae leges in te, o puris8ima Virgo, re vera innovantur : Virgo quippe post part urn manes, velut ante partum, Christum legislatorem enixa.

Miserabilis animae meae passionibus medere, o Dei Genitriz castissima; mentern tranquilla hostilibus invasionibus velut tempestatibus jactatam, et cor meum pacatum redde, o puella.

Eosam in medio spinarum te vere invenit in hujus mundi convallibus, o casta Virgo, Jesus omnium

O most august Queen I thou wast the untitled land that gavest us our Wheat, Jesus, the Lord and feeder of the universe ; by eating this Bread we are restored to life. . Seeing our Lord made incarnate from thee, chaste Virgin! we confess thee to be in very deed the Mother of God, that didst thus become, we hesitate not to proclaim it, the cause of the regeneration of all things.

He, the Being above all beings, who was a pure spirit, took flesh to himself from thy pure blood, 0 Spotless Maid I and, remaining God as before, he was made Flesh, and lived among men.

Nature's Laws were truly suspended in thee, most pure Virgin ! for thou remaiuest a Virgin after thy delivery, as thou wast before it, for thou didst give birth to Him who is the giver of all laws, Christ.

Spotless Mother of God! heal the passions of my wretched soul : appease my mind, tossed by the attacks of my enemy as with tempests, and bring, O Virgin, peace unto my heart

Jesus, the divine Husbandman of the world, found theer chaste Virgin ! in the lowly valley of this earth, growing as a Rose amidst thorns. He entered thy womb, and was born of thee, refreshing us with the delicious fragrance of tfie knowledge of divine things.

O Virgin Mary ! we acknowledge thee to be the mystic candlestick, on which was placed the Light inaccessible ; thereby, thou bast enlightened the minds of all the faithful, and hast put to flight the darkness of sin.

Thus do we cry out to thee in words of thankful love: Hail, most pure dwelling of spiritual Light 1 Hail, cause of our union with Qod ! Hail, destroyer of the curse I Hail, O thou that didst call from their exile the children of this earth 1 plantator, atque ex utero tuo natus, nos divinae cognitionis suavissimo perfudit odore.

Te spirituale candelabrum, quae lucem inaccessibilem suscepisti, agnovimu, o Virgo Maria, quae omnium fidelium animos illuminasti, et peccati tenebras eliminasti

Vocibus gratiarum actione pienis aa te clamamus : Ave, immaterialis, lucis habitaculumpurissimum; ave, causa deificationis omnium ; ave, maledictionis dis> solutio ; ave, terrigenarum expulsorum revocation