pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt" (Matt. xxv. 39).

St. Paul, converted into a "vessel of election" by the grace and very presence of Jesus Christ Himself, cried out: "Lord, what wilt Thou have me do " (Acts, ix. 6). To know and do the will of God was the first prayer of the Apostle of the Gentiles. In like manner the prayer of the Royal Psalmist to God was, "Teach me to do thy will" (Ps. cxlii. 9).

How beautiful aud sublime the prayer of holy Job in the darkest midnight of his abandonment, humiliation, and sufferings! "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither; the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, as it hath pleased the Lord, so it is done: blessed be the name of the Lord" (i. 21).

St. Teresa justly concludes: "All that he who practises prayer should seek is to conform his will to the Divine Will; and let him be assured that in this consists the highest perfection."

"The perfection of love," concludes St. Alphonsus Liguori, "consists in conformity to the Divine Will."

No wonder, therefore, that our great Patriarch, St. Joseph, was prompt and ready

to obey the whispers of God's Angels. The life of St. Joseph was to watch, to know, and to do the will of Jesus Christ, his Lord and Saviour.

PRACTICAL RESOLUTION.

To do the will of God is Christian perfection. To be resigned in all things to God's holy will, to take all things from God's holy hands, converts dull earth into a paradise. Our days in this vale of tears are full of sorrows; but resignation to God's holy will sweetens all the bitterness of life. In pain, therefore, in trials, in disappointments, in evil as in good fortune, in sickness and in death, I resolve, by the aid of Divine grace, to be resigned to God's holy will; to take all things from God's divine hands, and to say, with holy Job, "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away: as it hath pleased the Lord, so be it done: blessed be the name of the Lord."

PRAYER

"Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." "Teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God." "For what have I in heaven? and, besides Thee, what do I de

sire upon earth? For Thee my flesh and my heart have fainted away! Thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion for ever" (Ps. lxxii. 25). "May the most just, the most high, the most amiable will of God be done, praised, and eternally exalted in all things." "To Thee, O merciful God, I confess that often, under trials and disappointments, I have murmured and repined against Thy adorable will. In Thy divine mercy, O Lord, forgive the past, and, for the future, grant me the grace to be resigned in all things to Thy holy will. In trials, in pains, in evil as in good things, in sickness and in death, may I ever say, Thy will be done;' 'as it hath pleased the Lord, so it is done: blessed be the name of the Lord.""

PRACTICE.

To-day make several fervent acts of conformity to the holy will of God; and, after each act, beg of God the grace, in all future trials, to be resigned to the holy will of Providence.

ASPIRATION.

Thy will be done on earth as it is in "The Lord gave and the Lord

heaven."

hath taken away: as it hath pleased the Lord, so it is done: blessed be the name of the Lord."

MARCH 19TH.

NINETEENTH MEDITATION.

The Sanctification of our Ordinary Actions. PURITY OF INTENTION.

St. Joseph a model of the sanctification of ordinary actions by purity of intention. Invocation of the Holy Ghost, as at page 278, Come, O Holy Ghost," &c.

"Whether you eat or drink, or whatever else you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. x. 31). "Whatever you do in word or work, do all for the glory of God." "Man seeth those things that appear; but the Lord beholdeth the heart." (1 Kings, xvi.) "If thy eye be single, the whole body shall be lightsome" (Matt. vi. 22).

Reflect that to be pious and holy it is not necessary to work miracles, or to perform extraordinary actions. No miracle is recorded in the lives of many great Saints. Of the great St. John the Baptist, the Gospel says: "And many resorted to him, and they

said: John, indeed, did no sign" (John, x. 41). Countless millions are crowned in Paradise by the brightest diadems of glory, by the sanctification of their daily actions. To be holy, to be great Saints, it is only necessary to sanctify our ordinary actions. How, therefore, are we to sanctify our daily actions?

We sanctify our ordinary actions by doing each and all simply to please God alone. The intention is the soul of the act. "Man seeth those things that appear; but the Lord beholdeth the heart."

The intention
It is the com-

stamps the value of the act. mon teaching of theologians that no act, no matter how good in its lf, performed without a supernatural motive, will obtain any reward from God in heaven. For instance, if we gave a million of pounds sterling to the poor through a natural motive of pity or compassion, we get no reward from God in heaven. St. Paul puts it clearly: "If I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor; if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity" (that is, except I do it for God), "it profiteth me nothing (1 Cor. xiii. 3). How many even good Christians lose the reward of their good acts, their almsgiving, and the reward of even