All the joy that the Incarnation brought to the Blessed Trinity, Mary to a great extent must have shared. There was the joy of God the Father, because He saw His designs in creating man fulfilled, His justice satisfied and a human creature doing Him perfect homage and bringing Him so much glory. There was the joy of God the Son, because at last He was united to our human nature, because He being God had nevertheless a human Soul and a human Body, to which He could unite all the Divine perfections, and by means of which He could carry out all His Father's designs for the lost human race. There was the joy of the Holy Spirit Who had overshadowed Mary and by His Divine power created in her a Soul and a Body so beautiful that they were worthy to be taken by the Eternal Word and for ever united to the Divinity. The Holy Ghost saw now a human Soul into which He could pour _all_ the grace that would be needed by the whole human race. Of His fulness all were to receive (St. John I. 16). And what was the means whereby all this joy was given to the Blessed Trinity? The Body which had been formed from the most pure flesh and blood of Mary. She had lent herself at God's request to be the instrument used, and now she was the Tabernacle where the God-Man lay hidden. As He shared His life with His Mother, since it was her blood which was coursing through His Veins, so He shared all His acts with her. That first perfect act of adoration made by a human Soul to God was shared by Mary--she adored too. That first whole-hearted oblation of a human Soul to God was shared by Mary when she said her: "_Fiat mihi secundum verbum Tuum_." That first perfect act of love from a human Heart was shared by Mary for how close was the union between the Sacred Heart of JESUS and the most pure heart of Mary! When JESUS made acts of reparation of humility, of conformity to His Father's Will, Mary made them too--she could not but do so, for her life was so closely bound up with that of her Son; He became the mainspring of all she did. It was the charity and humility in _His_ Heart that made her go to visit her cousin Elizabeth and make herself her handmaid; it was _His_ salutation that made hers so powerful with regard both to Elizabeth and to the infant John; it was the thanksgiving in _His_ Heart which overflowed into hers and made her sing her _Magnificat_. That Mary spent the nine months in adoration we may well believe, but she spent them also in union with her Son, sharing all with Him and giving us a perfect model of the interior life--which means not only that God shares in the acts of the soul, but also that the soul shares in the acts of God, Emmanuel--God with us--in order that we may be "with the King for _His_ works" (1 Paralip. IV. 23). POINT II. MARY MY EXAMPLE.