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pride, to cherish this inestimable boon, and to show forth in our lives that we are worthy disciples in the school of faith established here by our holy Patron. And, on this night, when the most adorable Body and Blood of our Divine Redeemer are exposed for the special veneration of the faithful, I think I cannot do better than ask you to cherish in your hearts an ardent love for that most holy sacrament as the best means of enlivening your faith and meriting the patronage and inetrcession of the holy St. Finbar. "What is man, O Lord: that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou shouldst visit him?" What have we done, O Lord! that Thou shouldst descend from Thy throne of glory and visit the poorest of Thy servants? Thou art here in the midst of us, as Thou wert on the night of the Last Supper amongst the Apostles - so near that we may behold Thee-so condescending that we may converse with Thee like friends so generous that we may ask of Thee what we please, and be sure to obtain it so loving and tender that our bosoms may melt in the contemplation of Thy sweetness and yet so exalted, so glorious, so powerful, that we may exhaust the language of praise and adoration, and still be at loss for epithets worthy of Thy greatness. There is the great Lord, my brethren, looking down on us to-night — the same who, on the last day, will appear in the clouds of heaven to judge us. Oh let us propitiate Him now in the day of His mercy, for on that day His justice alone shall prevail; and believe me there is no safer way to avert the terrors of Jehosophat than to keep the lamp of faith forever brightly burning in your bosoms not that cold faith by which we merely believe in God, but that faith which worketh by charity, and which is so strongly recommended by Christ and His Apostles. Grant us, therefore, O Lord, the grace to believe in Thee, to hope in Thee, to love Thee, that when that last hour of earthly existence shall have passed away, we may experience in our souls the happy transition of faith into vision, and of hope into possession, charity alone remaining. And do thou, O holy St. Finbar, intercede, we beseech thee, to God for us, that as it is to thy Apostolate our city is indebted for the blessings of Christian faith, we may so shape our conduct, and direct our lives, that following faithfully the beacon of that faith enkindled by thee before us, we may reach in safety the heaven of eternal bliss, to enjoy with thee the blessed society of God and his angels, forever, and forever. Amen.

SERMON ON THE PROFESSION OF A NUN.

"Hearken, O daughter, and see: and incline thine ear and forget thy people and thy father's house, and the king shall greatly admire thy beauty, for he is the Lord thy God."

Ps. xliv. 12.

SEARLY BELOVED SISTER,

On this day,

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certainly the most important of your life, when, after the most mature deliberations, you have consecrated for the rest of your days your whole being to the service of God, it is of advantage to you that you should hear some words, under the auspices of religion, that may strengthen you for the accomplishment of the work you have so nobly begun. Into the retreat which you have chosen for your future years you will carry all the infirmity of your nature, and for you, as well as for us in the world, life will be ever a warfare. It is well, then, that you should have ever before your eyes a model which may show you not only the possibility of proceeding in your adopted course, but which may also illustrate the ease with which all its difficulties can be surmounted. When we undertake some new and previously unattempted task, we are apt to lose courage, and sometimes to despair of success; but when we try what some other wayfarer on life's journey has ventured and achieved, we are stimulated by his example, and go on bravely to the end. Thus I would propose to you, dear sister, the life and character of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as the great standard which you should follow; for she is the brightest model of innocence, selfsacrifice, and religious consecration ever presented by God to an admiring world. I do not wish you to imagine that in following this standard you can ever attain to anything like the purity and holiness of Mary, for none other, save her, ever was or will be "full of grace." But by imitating her virtues you can arrive at a height of sanctity

corresponding to the capacity of your nature and the designs of God; and thus you can fulfil the end of your creation. She is especially the model for those of her sex who have left the world and devoted themselves entirely to the service of God; for her life was the type on which the Church founded the religious profession. And there is an incident in her history that foreshadows with peculiar aptness the ceremony of this day, in which you have been the principal actress, I allude to her presentation in the temple, one of the most important events in that all-glorious life, when she made of herself a holocaust of love and adoration to the Most High, and consecrated to His service every energy of her body, every faculty of her mind, and every aspiration of her sinless soul.

To this remarkable event, then, dear sister, I would direct your particular attention to-day, as in it you will find a perfect illustration of your own position, and from it you will draw much consolation, hope, and encouragement for your future career.

Although there is not on record any scriptural evidence of the presentation of Mary in the Temple, the fact of that presentation having been duly and religiously made is placed beyond dispute by a well-grounded tradition that has ever existed in the Church. Joachim and Anna, the parents of the youthful virgin, were fast declining into the vale of years, and naturally enjoyed the consoling hope that their beloved child would be to them the sweetest solace in the evening of their earthly pilgrimage. But Mary, although very young, had far different views. She conceived the idea of consecrating her virginity to God, and dwelling all her days in the holy temple of the Lord. We may well suppose her crying out in the words of the Psalmist, — "One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may see the delight of the Lord, and may visit His temple." Nor was this a mere childish desire on the part of Mary, for, although only in the first blush of childhood, little advanced indeed beyond the age of merest infancy, yet the powers of her mind far exceeded in vigor and maturity the scope allotted to the generality of the children of men. Altogether free from the taint of original sin, which obscures the intellect and weakens the will, her soul was gifted with the glorious endowment of the reasoning faculty at a very early age, and, even while the hearts of her fel

low-children were but just budding into life, Mary's was already the full-blown "Mystical Rose," blooming for God, and emitting the sweet odor of sanctity for Him. A voice rang in her infant ears; it was the voice of God, saying, "Hearken, O daughter, and see: and incline thine ear, and forget thy people, and thy father's house, and the King shall greatly desire thy beauty, for He is the Lord thy God." Quickly responsive to the celestial call, the beautiful child arose, and imparted to her beloved parents the mandate of Heaven. To worldly-minded parents this decree of separation might be a source of bitterness and regret. Not so was it with the sainted Joachim and Anna. Their nature indeed may have been tempted to repine, and some few human tears may have been shed at parting, --for the parting came soon, very soon, just as the youthful virgin had arrived at the most interesting period of existence, - the happy days of innocent childhood, the helpless period, too, when a mother's love and a father's care were still needed to guide her tottering footsteps and direct her in her first timid flight from her humble home.

Joyfully according with the will of Heaven, her parents accompanied the virgin to the temple to offer, as it were, the precious victim before the throne of the Most High. Oh! never since the days of Abel, or of Abraham, was any nobler sacrifice offered to the Lord, or one more worthy of His acceptance, than this. The sacrifice of the youthful virgin was a sacrifice without a shadow of reserve. She offers herself wholly and entirely and forever to her God. Before the temptations of the world or the flesh have time to mar her progress in virtue: before sin has a moment's opportunity to tarnish her spotless soul, she consecrates herself for her whole life to her Maker. If there be joy in Heaven for one sinner doing penance, oh! what must have been the joy and exultation of the whole court of Heaven in contemplating, not the conversion of a sinner, but the dedication to the Lord of a soul brighter, purer, and more privileged than that of the most glorious angel that worshipped before His eternal throne. With what complacency must God have looked upon that fair being as she knelt before His tabernacle in all the loveliness, innocence and simplicity of childhood, and with what a rich and abundant blessing must He have ratified His acceptance of this, the most pleasing gift ever offered to His service. Mary sacrifices

for God all her hopes and prospects of worldly prosperity, and by her vow of virginity cuts herself off from the noblest and most cherished ambition of the maidens of Judea, the ambition of becoming the mother of the Messiah. On the day of her presentation she places herself in a state of dependence and subjection to the ministers of the temple for all the days of her life, in order to consecrate her will and her heart to that Holy Spirit which was henceforward to replenish her soul forever, and was to make her a subject for the rarest and most ennobling operations of His grace. On that day Mary laid the foundations of the order of virginity and religious consecration. On that day she exhibited to all the maidens of futurity the model of a life altogether angelical; so that those who follow in her footsteps sanctify the earth, fill Heaven with souls, and become victims consecrated to Jesus; the spouse of virgins, under the auspices of her, the incomparable patroness and queen of virginity. Oh! what grace, what sanctity, what religion inflamed the heart of Mary at the moment of this consecration; what a contempt of the world and its pleasures, what love for God; what humility; what obedience; what purity; what a hunger and thirst for the perfection to which she was called by the voice of her Creator! But oh! what joy, too, must have filled her loving heart at the moment of this most close and happy union with her God, the author of every joy, the dispenser of every consolation: her soul was to be henceforward refreshed and exhilarated with delicious drafts of His holy grace, and to overflow with delights of heavenly contemplation. Here, in the depth of solitude, she was destined to feel more entrancing rapture than all the so-called pleasures of the world could possibly confer, for "Better, O Lord," says the Psalmist, "is one day in Thy courts above thousands. I have chosen to be an abject in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tabernacles of sinners."

But Mary's response to the Divine vocation was no less prompt than her fidelity to grace was devoted and persevering. Illumined by the light of Heaven, she constantly recognized in the temple the Lord of the temple, and lived and moved in His holy presence, enriched with all the purest grace of the soul in childhood, without any of its weaknesses; at that early age her piety far surpassed the most exalted perfections ever attained by the greatest of the saints of God. While devoting herself in those tender years to the ser