end. These are:-1. The memory of the happiness which you enjoyed in those years during which, while serving your Creator with fervour, you experienced an ineffable peace, and a holy, heavenly joy. 2. The comparison between the wretchedness of your present state of tepidity, and the blessedness of your former state of fervour. 3. The consideration of the Divine goodness, which graciously recalls the erring sinner to the right path; patiently waits for him when he delays; and, finally, on his return, lovingly embraces him, and clothes him with the splendid robe which he had at one time worn.

Read the Gospel narrative, and there you will admire the clemency of this loving father: "When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and running to him (behold the readiness of his mercy) fell upon his neck, and kissed him (see in this the tenderness of his affection) . . . . and he said to his servants, Bring forth quickly the first robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand (behold the fulness of grace)

and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and make merry" (see the greatness of his joy), Luke xv. Wherefore, let this ready, tender, full, and joyful readiness to pardon, on the part of so good a Father, be for you a powerful incitement to return repentant to the bosom of His mercy.

AFFECTIONS.

One ought to burst forth into those same affections to which that unhappy prodigal gave expression in presence of his offended parent -1. Of more intense grief for past sins: "Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before thee". I have deserved a thousand times to be hurled into hell, yet, notwithstanding, you

not only pardon me, but of your own accord you invite me to return to your arms. You, best of Fathers, are the first to rush into the embraces of the worst of sons; you open out your arms to receive me; you bend down to kiss me; you clothe me again with the robe of grace which I had so impiously cast aside; you adorn me once more with the ring of love which I had so perfidiously flung from me ; nor yet are you satisfied; you prepare a banquet for me, at which the Bread of Angels, the Holy Eucharist, will renew my wasted strength.

O Mercy, truly infinite! I am no longer able to resist such goodness! Behold me returned to you. You will not reject in his hour of repentance the poor sinful castaway whom you have so long and so patiently waited for, and whom you have so lovingly invited to return. Alas! alas! I have offended Thee; I have offended my Father, . . . . and what a father! . . . . and with what heinous guilt! Ah, who shall grant me an immense, an infinite sorrow!

2. We should elicit an act of efficacious horror of future sins. Already has my resolve been taken; I, too, with the Prodigal Son," will arise and will go to my Father". I will burst the chains of my vices: I will return to my Father. I call upon heaven and earth to be witnesses of this resolution. I will return to Thee, O my God, firmly determined to serve Thee henceforward in whatsoever Thou shalt command, and in a spirit of most absolute indifference.

3. An act of humility, joined to a detestation of pride, which is the main root of all evils. “I am no longer worthy to be called thy son." Ah! I shall cry out with St. Bernard, "How shall I, who am so bad a son, dare to lift up my face to so good a Father?”

I am a sinner; not only unworthy to be respected, praised, and placed in positions of honour and eminence, but deserving above all men every possible insult and disgrace.

4. Of hatred of one's self, by detesting sensuality, as being the second great source of sin : "Make me as one of thy hired servants". I hate and abominate self-love, which, by inducing me to abandon the most amiable of Fathers, caused me to squander my substance in a far-off land. I hate myself also, for, considered in relation to that moment in which I sinned, I am the eternal object of my Creator's hatred. My resolution is already formed; I will take vengeance upon, and will punish myself; and, therefore, there is no labour, no pain, no trouble, no calamity, which I am not ready to endure, provided may in this manner appease the Divine Justice.

I

5. An act of knowledge of ourselves. O Lord, I am that prodigal son who has abandoned thee; I see my life painted in your parable; and that flight, those vices, that poverty, that starvation, are the true pictures of my soul when separated from Thee, and deprived of your grace. But, behold, I return; Father receive me, and heal my many miseries.

COMPENDIUM.

I. The prodigal son, having received his portion, travels into a far-off country. Here consider: 1. From whom does he depart?-From a father who loves him? 2. Whither does he go?-Into a distant and unknown land. 3. Why?—Through pure waywardness. Apply the parable to yourself, and you will find it founded on fact. 1. You abandoned God, the fountain of all good. 2. You turned to

sin, the source of all evil.

3. And this you did, for

what? . . . I blush even to think of it.

II. Consider the prodigal son employed in herding swine. 1. He is poor and naked. 2. Is dying of hunger. 3. Is abandoned by those very persons on whom he squandered his property. 4. Is cruelly treated by the master whom he served.

Behold in

this the picture of a soul which by sin withdraws from God. 1. She loses grace. 2. Has a loathing for spiritual things, and pines away through want of them. 3. She is abandoned by those very persons to please whom she sinned. 4. She is cruelly treated by those very passions to which she was a slave. How happy would she have been if she had served her Father as an obedient child.

III. Consider the return of the prodigal to his father. To this he was impelled: 1, by the remembrance of his past happiness; 2, by the sight of his actual wretchedness; 3, and by the consideration of his father's mercy. Do you be likewise moved: 1, by the remembrance of your happiness when you were fervent; 2, by the picture of your misery in your present state of tepidity; 3, and by the consideration of the Divine mercy.

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Fourth Day.

TO THE READER.

After detesting our sins and returning with the prodigal son to the bosom of God, our Father, we promised to serve Him in whatsoever way he shall command. Being, however, ignorant of the way in which we ought to walk, and not knowing the manner in which we ought to carry his wishes into execution, we need some guide to follow, and some exemplar to serve for our imitation.

This is no other than our Lord Jesus Christ, to imitate whom we are incited in the following meditation. The fruit to be gathered from it is a desire to serve God henceforward, in imitation of Jesus Christ, in whatever manner He shall make known to us in the course of these exercises.

FIRST MEDITATION.

On the Kingdom of Christ.

FIRST POINT.

Ir is just that we should follow Jesus Christ. I. Because of the dominion which He has over us. This