come forth free from the general contagion of his race' making her appearance pure, holy, and beautiful, rich.. ly adorned with the most precious gifts of grace, and outshining the highest angels and cherubins! Shall we refuse to her our admiration and praises? Shall we not offer to God our best homages in thanksgiving for such a mercy, and for so great a present which he has bestowed on the world in Mary?

The grace which exempted Mary from original sin, preserved her also from the sting of concupiscence, or inordinate love of creatures, and tendency to evil. The first sin of Adam brought on us a deluge of evils, and, by the two wounds of ignorance and concupiscence, which it has left in us, its malignity has spread its influence over all the powers of our souls. Through it our understanding is liable to be deceived, and to be led away with errors; our will is abandoned to the assaults of the basest passions; our senses are become inlets of dangerous suggestions; we are subjected to spiritual weakness, inconstancy, and vanity, and are tyrannized over by inordinate appetites. Hence proceeds in us a difficulty in doing good, a repugnance to our duties, a proneness to evil, the poisoned charm of vice, and the intestine war of the flesh against the spirit. All this we experience and groan under; yet, under the weight of such miseries, by a much greater evil, we are blind, proud, and insensible. The excess of our misery is, that though it be extreme, we do not sufficiently deplore it, humble ourselves under it, and labour, by watchfulness, mortification, and prayer, to acquire strength against our dangers. Mary employed earnestly these arms during the course of her life, though free from this inward proneness to evil, and from the fomes peccati or dangerous sting of concupiscence, which we inherit with original sin, and which remains after baptism, for the exercise of our virtue and fidelity. We court our dangers, indulge and fortify our enemies, and caress and adore those idols which we are bound to destroy. To procure for ourselves some part in the blessing which Mary enjoyed, in the empire over our passions, we must check them, restrain our senses, and die to ourselves.

We must never cease sighing to God, to implore his aid against this domestic enemy, and never enter into any truce with him. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak: heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled (8), If our weakness and dangers call for our tears, we have still much greater reason to weep for our guilt and repeated transgressions. Whereas grace in Mary triumphed even over original sin; we, on the contrary, even after baptism and penance, by which we were cleansed from sin, return to it again, increase our hereditary weakness and miseries; and, what is of all things most grievous, infinitely aggravate our guilt by daily offences. Who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes (9)? O Mother of Mercy, let your happy privilege, your exemption from all sin and concupiscence, inspire you with pity for our miseries: and, by your spotless purity and abundant graces, obtain for us strength against all our dangers, the deliverance from all our miseries, and the most powerful remedies of divine grace! Thus, from this mystery, we are to draw lessons of confusion and instruction for ourselves.

Mary, in her conception, was not only free from stain, but moreover was adorned with the most precious graces, so as to appear beautiful and glorious in the eyes of God. And the grace she then received was the seed of the great virtues which she exercised, and the higher graces, to which, by the improvement of her first stock, she was afterward raised, during the whole course of her mortal life. By the first graces she was free from all inclination to accursed pride, and from all inordinate self-love, and remained always perfectly empty of herself. This disposition she expressed when honoured with the highest graces, and exalted to the most sublime and wonderful spiritual dignity; under which, sinking lower in her own abyss of weakness and nothingness, she sincerely and purely gave all glory to him. She confessed aloud, that he chose her not for any merit, or any thing he saw in her, but because he would signalize his omnipotence by choosing the weakest and meanest instrument, and because he saw in her the nothingness in (9) Jer. ix.

(8) Ps. vii. 3.

which he most fitly exerted, and manifested his infinite power and greatness. By a lurking pride we obstruct the designs of the divine mercy in our favour. The vessel of our heart.cannot receive the plentiful effusion of divine grace, so long as it is filled with the poison of self-love. The more perfectly it is cleansed and empty, the more is it fitted to receive. As the prophet called for vessels that were empty, that they might be filled with miraculous oil; so must we present to God hearts. that are perfectly empty, when we pray that he replenish them with his grace. The exercise of humility, meekness, patience, resignation, obedience, self-denial, rigorous self-examination, compunction, and penance, begin the work: but prayer and divine love perfect the cleansing of the fountain from which they spring. Thus are we to attain that purity of heart and affections by which we shall bear some degree of resemblance to the holy Mother of God. This grace we ought earnestly to beg of God, through her intercession, and particu larly to commend to him, through her, the preservation of the holy virtue of purity, The venerable and pious John of Avila gives this advice in the following words; "I have particularly seen much profit received through her means, by persons molested with temptations of the flesh, who recited some prayer in memory of her spotless conception, and of that virginal purity with which she conceived the Son of God!"

The immaculate Conception of the holy Mother of God was not only in itself a great and glorious mystery, but likewise joyful to mankind. Certain glimmerings of the benefit of our Redemption had gone before from the fall of Adam in several revelations, types, and figures; in which the distant prospect of this wonderful mercy filled the patriarchs and other saints of the Old Law with comfort and holy joy. But the Conception of Mary displayed the first rays of its approaching light, and may be said to have been its rising morning, or the dawning of its day (b). In this mystery she appeared

(b) St Bernard reproves the canons of the church of Lyons, because, by their own private authority, they celebrated a feast of the VOL. XII.

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immaculate

pure and glorious, shining among the daughters of Adam as a lily among thorns (10). To her from the moment of her Conception God said: Thou art all beautiful, my love, and there is no spot in thee (11). She was the enclosed garden, which the serpent could never enter and the sealed fountain, which he never defiled (1). She was the Throne and the Tabernacle of the true Solomon, and the Ark of the Testament, to contain, not corruptible manna, but the Author of the incorruptible life of our souls. Saluting her with these epithets, in exultation and praise, let us sing with the church: "This is the Conception of the glorious Virgin Mary, of the seed of Abraham, sprung from the tribe of Juda, illustrious of the house of David, whose life, by its brightness, illustrates all churches."

ON THE SAME DAY.

St ROMARIC, Abbot. Renouncing the court of Clotaire II. in which he enjoyed the highest honours and dignities, he sold great part of his estates for the benefit of the poor; and with the residue founded two monasteries, one for men, the other for women, at the foot of mount Vosge, now in Lorrain. He took the monastic habir at Luxeu, and procured St Amatus, a monk of

(12) Cant. iv. 12.

(10) Cant. xi. 2. (II) Cant. iv.7. immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, without consulting the Roman see. (ep. 174). Long before that time this festival was kept with great devotion in the Eastern churches; and was an holyday before the emperor Emmanuel Comnenus enforced its observance, about the year 1150, (ap. Balsam in nomocan. Photii). George bishop of Nicomedia, in the reign of Heraclius, calls it a feast of ancient date. Baronius, Benedict XIV. &c. suppose that in the West it was first instituted in England, by St Anselm, about the year 1160. But St Anselm's letter, on which this opinion is founded, seems not to be genuiné. (See Lupus, ad Conc. Mogunt. sub Leone IX T. 3. p. 497.) And Jos. Assemani demonstrates from the marble calendar of Naples, engraved in the ninth age, this feast was then kept in that city, and that the church of Naples was the first in the West which adopted it, in imitation of the Orientals. Pope Sixtus IV. in 1483, commanded it to be kept an ho lyday. See Bened. XIV. De Festis B. Mariæ V. c. 15. p. 348. Jos. Assemani. in Calend. Univ. T. 5. p. 433. ad p. 462. and Mazocchius, In Vetus Marmoreum Neap. Calendarium.

that

that house, to be appointed first abbot at Remiremont, which was the name of the monastery which he had built. He spent several years under his direction in the same house to which he removed. Upon the death of St Amatus, he was compelled to take upon him the government of that abbey. The world, from which he fled, he viewed at a distance with a pious dread, and in his sanctuary enjoyed that peace which heaven alone can give. The example of his life, and the severity which he used towards himself, were alone a censure of the slothful. Charity, sweetness, and humility, formed, the character of his virtue. Having made it his chief study, during the twenty-six years of his abbacy, to learn to die, he joyfully received the last summons, and departed from this life to a better, in 653. His name is inserted in the Gallican and Roman martyrologies. See his life written by a disciple, and Bulteau.

DECEMBER

IX

ST LEOCADIA, VIRGIN, MARTYR.

A. D. 304.

THE name of St Leocadia is highly reverenced in

Spain. This holy virgin was a native of Toledo, and was apprehended by an order of Dacian, the cruel governor under Dioclesian, in 304. Her constancy was tried by torments, and she died in prison. For hearing of the martyrdom of St Eulalia, she prayed that God would not prolong her exile, but unite her speedily with her holy friend in his glory in which prayer she happily expired in prison. Three famous churches in Toledo bear her name, and she is honoured as principal patroness of that city. In one of those churches most of the councils of Toledo were held in the fourth of these she is honourably mentioned. Her relicks were kept in that church with great respect, till in the incursions of the Moors they were conveyed to Oviedo, and some years afterward to the abbey of St Guislain, near Mons in Haynault. By the procurement of king