Mary was born with an end to fulfil, just as I was. She was created to praise, reverence, and serve GOD, just as I was; created to save her soul, just as I was. And because of her absolute purity, she understood her end perfectly from the first moment of her existence, and followed it always without swerving. While her mother was offering her to GOD, she, with the full use of her reason (as many hold) offered herself to fulfil the end for which she had been created. She did not know what the _particular_ end was to be--GOD did not reveal to her till the day of the Incarnation, that she was to be the Mother of GOD--but she offered herself to do what GOD wished, she put herself at His disposal. And this is what I must do every day of my life if I would fulfil the end for which GOD has created me. Here I am, Lord, to do Thy bidding, to do whatever Thou didst intend me to do to-day. I may not know, any more than did the Immaculate babe in her cradle, what the _particular_ end is for which He has destined me; but that does not matter. If I am found faithfully doing my duty of the moment, whatever it may be--doing it, that is to say, for GOD, praising, reverencing, and serving Him in it--I shall not miss the important moment in my life when GOD calls me to the special work for which He has destined me. I can, if I will, do each little duty of my everyday life for GOD, with the pure motive of giving Him pleasure. It is the surest way of making myself indifferent as to whether or not the duty gives _me_ pleasure! And it ensures that, from one point of view, _all_ duties will be a pleasure. I was created by GOD to do this particular thing for Him at this particular moment, so I do it. What an uplifting thought! It puts me at once on to another plane--the supernatural plane--where the whole aspect is different. This is the truth, which the little one whose birthday I am thinking about to-day understood so perfectly. "Behold the handmaid of the Lord," was her cry even then. It was because Mary understood the value of the "Sacrament of the moment," as it has been called, that when _the_ moment of her life came, and her great end was revealed to her, she was able to say: "_Ecce ancilla Domini!_" She was used to saying it; it was the most natural thing for her to say. And so will it be for me, if only I will practise as Mary did. I shall bow to His Will in the _great_ crises of my life--not naturally but supernaturally--because I have formed the habit in all the _little_ things that make up my life. _Point III._--THE DOVE