How beautiful is it to behold the Holy Virgin presenting herself and the Infant Jesus in the Temple, and making her offering of two doves! Happier is she than all the princes of earth! And what shall I say of the aged Simeon, who takes the Divine Infant in his arms? Let us also embrace Him, let us live and die in these tender embraces.
Place this sweet Jesus in your heart, like another Solomon upon his ivory throne. Let your soul follow His steps, that you may hear the holy words He continually breathes. Remember that your heart should be like ivory in purity and firmness; firm in its resolutions, and pure in its affections.
SPIRITUAL FLOWERS.
Anything we do, however little, will have an inestimable value if it be done for the love of God.—St. Teresa.
It is an exalted degree of perfection to assimilate and conform ourselves to the spirit of the sacred Infancy of our most humble and most obedient Saviour.—St. Francis of Sales.
Whoever wishes to acquire virtue, and does not possess humility, is like to one who carries dust in his hands when there is a high wind.—The same.
Punishment of the Profaners of a Sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin.
The holy Hermitage of Voiron did not escape the profanations of the heretics. They invaded it with arms in their hands, as if they were going to besiege a fortress; they ill-treated and expelled the Monks, took away the sacred vessels, the papers, documents, indulgences, etc., committed horrible sacrileges, and at last set fire to the place and entirely destroyed it, and rolled the remaining stones down the mountain.
This atrocious impiety was not left unpunished, for soon afterwards all who had taken part in the destruction of the hermitage perished miserably. It is remarkable, however, that in spite of all the devastation effected by these impious men, they could not gain their principal object, which was to carry off the statue of the Most Holy Virgin, which was preserved miraculously.