_Colloquy._ _The Alma Redemptoris Mater_:--"Sweet Mother of our Redeemer, gate whereby we enter Heaven, and star of the sea, help us, we fall; yet do we long to rise. Nature looked upon thee with admiration when thou didst give birth to thy Divine Creator, thyself remaining before and after it a pure Virgin. Gabriel spoke his _Hail_ to thee; we sinners crave thy pity." (_Anthem from Advent to the Purification._) _Resolution._ To ponder more and speak less. _Spiritual Bouquet._ "Dico ego opera mea Regi." The Circumcision of Mary's Son "_And after eight days were accomplished that the child should be circumcised, His name was called JESUS, which was called by the Angel before He was conceived._" (St Luke ii. 21.) _1st Prelude._ Mary with her Child. _2nd Prelude._ Grace to learn more about them both. _Point I._--THE CIRCUMCISION After one week of peace and joy, Mary is called upon to suffer with, and on account of, her Son. The Law of GOD is clear. "On the eighth day, the infant shall be circumcised." (Lev. xii. 3.) And there is no doubt in the minds of Mary and Joseph, that, though the Holy Child has no need of the rite which probably cleansed away original sin, He must nevertheless submit to it, as being part of His Father's law, every jot and tittle of which He has come to fulfil. So JESUS, of His own free will, classes Himself with sinners, and offers to GOD the firstfruits of that Blood which He will shed for them on Calvary. The Circumcision of her Son means much to Mary; she sees Him suffer; she hears His cry of pain; she sees the Blood flow; and she understands that to be the Mother of GOD means being the _Mater Dolorosa_; and now she has fresh matter for her Meditations. Her Son is to be the Victim for sin, and she unites her sacrifice to His. The rite of Circumcision was to the Jew a sign of the Covenant that GOD had made with his nation--it marked him out as one of GOD'S own people; it was a mark of his dependence on GOD, and also of his slavery to sin till GOD set him free. "Circumcision is that of the heart," St Paul tells us, "in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of GOD." (Rom. ii. 29.) By assisting with Mary at the Circumcision of her Son, I mean that I want to understand something of this circumcision of the _heart_--understand, that is, that GOD has made a covenant with me, that I belong to Him, and am dependent on Him; I mean that I am ready with the knife of mortification to cut away all that prevents me from being a good servant, ready to "resist unto blood," if need be, but, at any rate, ready to make myself a victim with JESUS, as Mary did, willing to suffer anything which He calls upon me to suffer. _Point II._--HIS NAME--JESUS