a servant; and to the Holy Ghost, who rested on the Flower that sprang up out of the root of Jesse.2

'Twas thou, O Gabriel! that taughtest us the salutation wherewith we should greet Mary full of grace. Thou wast the first to pronounce these sublime words, which thou broughtest from heaven. The children of the Church are now, day and night, repeating these words of thine; pray for us that we may say them in such a manner, as that our Blessed Mother may find them worthy of her acceptance.

Angel of Strength, Friend of Mankind! relent not in thy ministry of aiding us. We are surrounded by terrible enemies; our weakness makes them bold: come to our assistance, get us courage. Pray for us during these days of conversion and penance. Obtain for us the knowledge of all we owe to God in consequence of that ineffable mystery of the Incarnation, of which thou wast the first witness. We have forgotten our duties to the Man-God, and we have offended him: enlighten us, that so, henceforth, we may be faithful to his teachings and examples. Raise up our thoughts to the happy abode where thou dwellest; assist us to merit the places left vacant by the fallen Angels, for God has reserved them for his elect among men.

Pray, O Gabriel, for the Church Militant, and defend her against the attacks of hell. The times are evil; the spirits of malice are let loose, nor can we make stand against them, unless with God's help. It is by his holy Angels that he gives victory to his Spouse. Be thou, O Strength of God! foremost in the ranks. Drive heresy back, keep schism down, foil the false wisdom of men, frustrate the policy of

1

1 Philipp. ii. 7.

2 Is. xi. 1,

the world, arouse the well-minded from apathy; that thus, the Christ whom thou didst announce, may reign over the earth he has redeemed, and that we may sing together with thee and the whole angelic choir: Glory be to God! Peace to men!

MARCH 19.

SAINT JOSEPH,

SPOUSE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN.

YESTERDAY, it was the bright Archangel that visited us; to-day, it is Joseph, the Spouse of Mary, the Foster-Father of the Son of God, that comes to cheer us by his dear presence. In a few days hence, the august mystery of the Incarnation will demand our fervent adorations: who, after the Angel of the Annunciation, could better prepare us for the grand Feast, than he that was both the confidant and faithful guardian of the divine secret?

The Son of God, when about to descend upon this earth to assume our human nature, would have a Mother; this Mother could not be other than the purest of Virgins, and her divine Maternity was not to impair her incomparable Virginity. Until such time as the Son of Mary were recognised as the Son of God, his Mother's honour had need of a protector : some man, therefore, was to be called to the high honour of being Mary's Spouse. This privileged mortal was Joseph, the chastest of men.

Heaven designated him as being the only one worthy of such a treasure: the rod he held in his hand, in the Temple, suddenly produced a flower, as though it were a literal fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaias: There shall come forth a rod from the root

of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root.1 The rich pretenders to an alliance with Mary were set aside; and Joseph was espoused to the Virgin of the House of David, by a union which surpassed in love and purity everything the Angels themselves had ever witnessed.

But he was not only chosen to the glory of having to protect the Mother of the Incarnate Word; he was also called to exercise an adopted paternity over the very Son of God. So long as the mysterious cloud was over the Saint of Saints, men called Jesus the Son of Joseph, and the Carpenter's Son. When our Blessed Lady found the Child Jesus in the Temple, in the midst of the Doctors, she thus addressed him: Thy father and I, sorrowing, have sought thee; and the holy Evangelist adds, that Jesus was subject to them, that is, that he was subject to Joseph as he was to Mary.

Who can imagine or worthily describe the sentiments which filled the heart of this man, whom the Gospel describes to us in one word, when it calls him the just man ?3 Let us try to picture him to ourselves amidst the principal events of his life-his being chosen as the Spouse of Mary, the most holy and perfect of God's creatures; the Angel's appearing to him, and making him the one single human confidant of the mystery of the Incarnation, by telling him that his Virgin Spouse bore within her the fruit of the world's salvation; the joys of Bethlehem, when he assisted at the Birth of the Divine Babe, honoured the Virgin Mother, and heard the Angels singing; his seeing, first the humble and simple Shepherds, and then the rich Eastern Magi, coming to the stable to adore the new-born Child; the sudden fears which came on him, when he was told to arise, and, mid-night as it was, to flee into Egypt with the Child and the Mother; the hardships of that

1 Is. xi. 1. 2 St. Luke, ii. 48. 3 St. Matth. i. 19.

exile, the poverty and the privations which were endured by the hidden God, whose foster-father he was, and by the Virgin Spouse, whose sublime dignity was now so evident to him; the return to Nazareth, and the humble and laborious life led in that village, where he so often witnessed the world's Creator sharing in the work of a Carpenter; the happiness of such a life, in that cottage where his companions were the Queen of the Angels and the Eternal Son of God, both of whom honoured, and tenderly loved him as the head of the family:-yes, Joseph was beloved and honoured by the uncreated Word, the Wisdom of the Father, and by the Virgin, the master-piece of God's power and holiness.

We ask, what mortal can justly appreciate the glories of St. Joseph? To do so, he would have to understand the whole of that Mystery, of which God made him the necessary instrument. What wonder, then, if this Foster-Father of the Son of God was prefigured in the Old Testament, and that by one of the most glorious of the Patriarchs? Let us listen to St. Bernard, who thus compares the two Josephs: "The first was sold by his brethren, out "of envy, and was led into Egypt, thus prefiguring our Saviour's being sold; the second Joseph, that he might avoid Herod's envy, led Jesus into Egypt. "The first was faithful to his master, and treated his "wife with honour; the second, too, was the most "chaste guardian of his Spouse, the Virgin Mother "of his Lord. To the first was given the understanding and interpretation of dreams; to the "second, the knowledge of, and participation in, the "heavenly Mysteries. The first laid up stores of

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corn, not for himself, but for all the people; the "second received the Living Bread that came down "from heaven, and kept It both for himself and for "the whole world."1

1 Homily 2nd. On the Missus est.