O CLEMENS, O PIA, O DULCIS VIRGO MARIA. _O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary._ We multiply our words in trying to express to our Mother something of what we feel towards her, but they all mean the same thing--that she is a _Mother_. Her sweetness is as ointment poured forth, and attracts all to it. Her kindness and love, too, have been known to all since she stood at the Foot of the Cross, and received all her banished children into her stricken heart. Never in vain can we appeal to our sweet Mother. And so with renewed confidence we will say our _Salve_, rejoicing even in this vale of tears because we have a Mother who knows all about us, and who will never forget us; whose one desire is to show us the Blessed Fruit of her womb, JESUS; who will teach us to sing the Lord's song in a strange land, even as she sang her _Magnificat_; and who will one day, when the days of our exile are over, sing with us the ever "new song" of Redemption to "Him Who loved us and washed us in His Blood." Till then, dear Mother, help us to be patient, and help us to learn the lessons of the valley, remembering that they will never be learned at all if they are not learned here. _Colloquy._ The _Salve Regina_. FOOTNOTE: [Footnote 1: _Note._--There are times when we get a little tired of Preludes and Points, and feel that a change of method would be a help to our Meditation. St Ignatius knew this, and knew also that to some minds Preludes and Points would be a positive hindrance; and so he has given us, in his book of the _Spiritual Exercises_, "Three (other) methods of prayer." Our Meditation to-day is according to the _Second Method_, which "consists in considering the signification of each word of a prayer." (Text of the _Exercises_.) St Ignatius says that if one or two words give us sufficient matter for thought and spiritual relish and consolation, we are not to be anxious to pass on, even though the whole time of the Meditation be spent on _one_ word, but leave the rest till the next day. So we may take to-day as many words of the _Salve Regina_ as we find spiritual relish for. This method, St Ignatius tells us, may be applied to "_any other prayer whatsoever_."] _Dei Genitrix, intercede pro nobis._ PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY NEILL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH. * * * * * Transcriber's Notes: Obvious spelling and punctuation errors were repaired, but unusual period spellings and grammar uses were retained. Original placed punctuation such as semi-colons outside closing quotation marks; this was retained. Table of Contents entries do not always agree with chapter headings in the original; these differences were retained. Gospel references throughout the main text begin with "St" as in "St Luke." In two exceptions--P. 23 and 97--the "St" was missing and has been added by the transcriber for consistency. The preface, by a different author, does not use "St" before gospel references.