"Whatsoever He shall say, do." Obedience, then, is love's consummation. Mary's love--strong flame though it is--cannot get beyond obedience; there is nothing higher; it is the proof, the crown, the consummation of love. When, for the moment, her request seems unheeded--even rejected--her consolation is: "Whatsoever He shall say" will be right; whatever it is, it will be the answer for me. "_Ecce ancilla Domini._" Behold the servant waiting. _Point II._--RESULT--WATER CHANGED TO WINE The waiters have not long to wait for their orders. When His Mother has prepared us and we are standing waiting ready to do "whatsoever" He shall say, the order is quite clear. We know exactly what He means, and what it is that He wants done; and though the order may seem unreasonable, and we run the risk of humiliating ourselves before others, yet we shall do it, for His Mother said: "Whatsoever." And by doing it we shall prove that our love, like hers, is a consummating love--a love that finds its consummation in obedience. This kind of love is like a fairy's wand; it changes all that it touches, water is wine everywhere--that is, we get the best out of everything; not perhaps immediately, or at any rate we are not so quick to _detect_ the "good wine" as the steward of the feast was; the path of obedience is often, as it was for Mary, a path beset with difficulty and sorrow; but love has touched it, the result is the same, the water _is_ changed, and changed into "_good_ wine." It would not be good for us to drink of it to the full now. GOD reserves the good wine till the end, and when we have well drunk of the cup of suffering and sorrow here, He will hand us the cup of joy that inebriates. Here we may only "_taste_ and see that the Lord is sweet"; (Ps. xxxiii. 9); but one day, when the _flamma amoris consummantis_ is perfected in us, when we have done all that He saith to us, and paid our debts even to "the last farthing," (St Matt. v. 26), then we shall drink to the full of the joy of His countenance, (Ps. xv. 11), and He will say: "I have inebriated the weary soul, and I have _filled_ every hungry soul." (Jer. xxxi. 25.) _Colloquy_ with Our Lady, asking that I may always hear her voice telling me to obey her Son. _Resolution._ To remember that obedience turns water into wine. _Spiritual Bouquet._ "Whatsoever He shall say to you, do ye." Who is my Mother? "_My mother and my brethren are they who hear the word of GOD and do it._" (St Luke viii. 21.) _1st Prelude._ Our Lady standing waiting on the outskirts of the crowd. _2nd Prelude._ Grace to "hear the word of GOD and do it." _Point I._--HIS MOTHER STANDING WITHOUT