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Inasmuch as God continually sends us inspirations by means of His
Angels, we may fitly send back our aspirations through the same
channel.
The souls of the holy dead, resting in Paradise, who are, as
our Lord Himself has told us, "as the Angels in Heaven," (1) are
also united to us in their prayers. My child, let us gladly join
our hearts with these heavenly blessed ones; for even as the
newly-fledged nightingale learns to sing from the elder birds, so
by our sacred communing with the Saints we shall learn better to
pray and sing the praises of the Lord. David is continually
uniting his prayers with those of all the Saints and Angels.
Honour, revere and respect the Blessed Virgin Mary with a very
special love; she is the Mother of our Sovereign Lord, and so we
are her children. Let us think of her with all the love and
confidence of affectionate children; let us desire her love, and
strive with true filial hearts to imitate her graces.
Seek to be familiar with the Angels; learn to realise that they
are continually present, although invisible. Specially love and
revere the Guardian Angel of the Diocese in which you live, those
of the friends who surround you, and your own. Commune with them
frequently, join in their songs of praise, and seek their
protection and help in all you do, spiritual or temporal.
That pious man Peter Faber, the first companion of Saint
Ignatius, and the first priest, first preacher and first
theological teacher of the Company of the Jesuits, who was a
native of our Diocese, (1) once passing through this country on
his way from Germany, (where he had been labouring for God's
Glory,) told how great comfort he had found as he went among
places infested with heresy in communing with the guardian Angels
thereof, whose help had often preserved him from danger, and
softened hearts to receive the faith. He spoke with such
earnestness, that a lady who, when quite young, heard him, was so
impressed, that she repeated his words to me only four years ago,
sixty years after their utterance, with the utmost feeling. I had
the happiness only last year of consecrating an altar in the place
where it pleased God to give that blessed man birth, the little
village of Villaret, amid the wildest of our mountains.
You will do well to choose out for yourself some individual
Saint, whose life specially to study and imitate, and whose
prayers may be more particularly offered on your behalf. The Saint
bearing your own baptismal name would seem to be naturally
assigned to you.
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