A Visit to the Blessed Sacrament on the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady.
Glory be to the Father and to Thee, O Lord God, Jesus Christ, my Redeemer, and to the H0Iy Ghost- Thou art here present, O Jesus, in Thy sacred Humanity and Divinity, true man and true God, Thou who with the Father and the Holy Ghost livest and reignest one God through all the ages of an unbeginning and never ending eternity. Out of this year of our mortal life, which is slipping away at every instant, this is the day on which we call to mind that glorious and happy day in the past on which Thou didst take up into Thy heavenly home Her who had made a home for Thee at Nazareth, Her term of weary waiting was over at last. It seems strange to us, poor ignorant creatures, that Thou couldst be content to leave Thy Blessed Mother so long after Thee, but even we can dimly conjecture the immense additions made to her inconceivable stores of grace and merit by the prayers and patience of those long years during which, the sigh of her Immaculate Heart must have been at every instant that pathetic cry of the Psalmist : "Woe is me that my sojourning is prolonged ! " (Ps. cxix. 5). But at last, on the first Feast of the Assumption, Thou didst bid her come to Thee over the waters ; or rather Thou didst come for her, and, as a loving son, didst embrace her tenderly and lift her up to her high throne in heaven. There she has reigned ever since, and there she shall reign for ever, Queen of Angels, Queen of all Saints, in the enjoyment of the ineffable joy and glory which are Thy Mother's share of heaven. Ah, if I had the pure, unselfish love that I ought to have for Thee, O Lord, and for Thy Blessed Mother, it ought to make me happy to think of Thy infinite happiness, and hers, as near to infinite as the highest and purest of creatures can attain. A holy man who did much by word and work for Thy glory, (Frederic Ozanam, founder of the St Vincent de Paul Society) O Lord, when he was on earth, and who must now be with Thee in heaven, wrote once : "When I consider how short life is, and how near may be the time of reunion with those who are now separated from us by death, I feel all the temptations of self-love and other evil inclinations pass away.'' Not alone Thy holy human creatures, O Lord, with whom we have been linked during our earthly pilgrimage, but still more the heavenly citizens to whom we have prayed during life, and, most of all, Mary our Mother, and Thou her Divine Son. In Thy merciful love Thou wiliest her to take an interest in each of us, her poor exiled children. Would that she, my heavenly Mother, could turn the eyes of Thy mercy upon me with those words that the Father spoke of Thee : " This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." The first part is true, I am dear to her, I am her child, she has a mother's heart for me—but ah ! how much is there in my life and in my heart that must displease her sadly ! May her prayers obtain for me the grace to wipe out all the sinful past with the tears of true contrition, and to use my little remnant of life in fitting myself a little better for the heavenly life that I hope for, that I must dare to hope for, but which I must labour for more earnestly than alas! I have hitherto done. " O Jesus, grant that I may always love Thee, and then do with me what Thou wilt.'' Always. In life, in death, and for all eternity : for, as long as Thy love is in my heart, it must be well with me. Amen, amen!—for ever, Lord Jesus, my God
