DUPLICATE FOR THE SAME DAY ON THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION (5) May 7 MARY IS THE ROSA MYSTICA, THE MYSTICAL ROSE 1 OW did Mary become the Rosa Mystica, the choice, delicate, perfect flower of God's spiritual creation? It was by being born, nurtured and sheltered in the mystical garden or Paradise of God. Scripture makes use of the figure of a garden, when it would speak of heaven and its blessed inhabitants. A garden is a spot of ground set apart for trees and plants, all This was written and used in 1874, but the following year it was superseded, and 'Sancta Maria' was written and added instead. good, all various, for things that are sweet to the taste or fragrant in scent, or beautiful to look upon, or useful for nourishment; and accordingly in its spiritual sense it means the home of blessed spirits and holy souls dwelling there together, souls with both the flowers and the fruits upon them, which by the careful husbandry of God they have come to bear, flowers and fruits of grace, flowers more beautiful and more fragrant than those of any garden, fruits more delicious and exquisite than can be matured by earthly husbandman. All that God has made speaks of its Maker; the mountains speak of His eternity; the sun of His immensity, and the winds of His Almightiness. In like manner flowers and fruits speak of His sanctity, His love, and His providence; and such as are flowers and fruits, such must be the place where they are found. That is to say, since they are found in a garden, therefore a garden has also excellences which speak of God, because it is their home. For instance, it were would be out of place if we found beautiful flowers on the mountaincrag, or rich fruit in the sandy desert. As then by flowers and fruits are meant, in a mystical sense, the gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost, so by a garden is meant mystically a place of spiritual repose, stillness, peace, refreshment, and delight. Thus our first parents placed in a garden of pleasure' shaded by trees, 'fair to behold and pleasant to eat of,' with the Tree of Life in the midst, and a river to water the ground. our Lord, speaking from the cross to the penitent robber, calls the blessed place, the heaven to which he was taking him, 'paradise,' or a garden of pleasure. Therefore St. John, in the Apocalypse, speaks of heaven, the palace of God, as a garden or paradise, in which was the Tree of Life giving forth its fruits every month. Thus Such was the garden in which the Mystical Rose, the Immaculate Mary, was sheltered and nursed to be the Mother of the All Holy God, from her birth to her espousals to St. of thirteen years. of it she was in Joseph, a term For three years the arms of her holy mother, St Anne, and then for ten years she lived in the temple of God. In those blessed. gardens, as they may be called, she lived by herself, continually visited by the dew of God's grace, and growing up a more and more heavenly flower, till at the end of that period she was meet for the inhabitation in her of the Most Holy. This was the outcome of the Immaculate Conception. Excepting her, the fairest rose in the paradise of God has had upon it blight, and has had the risk of canker-worm and locust. All but Mary; she from the first was perfect in her sweetness and her beautifulness, and at length when the angel Gabriel had to come to her, he found her 'full of grace,' which had, from her good use of it, accumulated in her from the first moment of her being. ON THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION (6) May 8 MARY IS THE VIRGO VENERANDA, THE ALL-WORSHIPFUL VIRGIN W E use the word' Venerable' generally of what is old. That is because only what is old has commonly those qualities which excite reverence or veneration. It is a great history, a great character, a maturity of virtue, goodness, experience, that excite our reverence, and these commonly cannot belong to the young. But this is not true when we are considering Saints. A short life with them is a long one. Thus Holy Scripture says, 'Venerable age is not that of long time, nor counted by the number of years, |