stepping-stones by means of which we pass to Him. God everywhere and self nowhere! God everything and self nothing! God, not self, the object of all I do and think and plan! And that not because I can feel Him and see Him and enjoy Him, but because my faith tells me that though hidden _He is there_. This was the principle of Mary's life hidden with her Son. He was the cause, the direct cause, of all her troubles, of all the many swords that pierced her most pure heart, yet never was there a life hidden with Christ as was Mary's and the reason was that she forgot herself and saw JESUS only. "_Your_ life is hid with Christ in God." Are these words of St. Paul true about me? Let me read the whole verse and then I shall know: "For _you are dead_, and your life is hid with Christ in God." _When_ self is dead, then I shall be able to say _God only_, and till then, God be thanked, I can hide my miserable self in Him and tell Him that I want it to be sacrificed though I so seldom have the courage to do it. _Colloquy_ with JESUS hidden in Mary. _Resolution._ To see my hidden God everywhere and self nowhere. _Spiritual Bouquet._ "Why hidest Thou Thy Face?" (Job XIII. 24). THE INTERIOR LIFE. (5) PRAYER. "Behold I come that I should do Thy Will: O my God, I have desired it, and Thy law in the midst of my heart." (Ps. XXXIX. 8, 9). _1st. Prelude._ Vas spirituale. Vas insigne devotionis. _2nd. Prelude._ Grace to "pray without ceasing." (1 Thess. V. 17). POINT I. THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER. Amongst all the lessons that JESUS living in Mary teaches us, that on prayer must ever hold a foremost place. What is Prayer? "The lifting up of the heart and mind to God," the Catechism tells us. To love God, then, and to think about Him is to pray. JESUS lived in Mary uniquely to do the Will of His Father. He and the Father were _one_--one heart, one mind. He took pleasure in all that concerned His Father: "Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." He taught us to pray in the same way, taking our thoughts away from ourselves to our Father, and when we do ask for something for ourselves, letting it be just a short prayer for mercy or for help, acknowledging our weakness and misery and nothingness, while we keep our eyes fixed on our Father--He God, I His creature; He everything, I nothing. "God be merciful to me a sinner," this prayer contains all we need. O my little JESUS, Who didst think of me in Thy communion with Thy Father, for Thou didst come to do His Will, and His Will was that I should be saved, teach me to think of Thee and to love Thee so much that my life, too, may be one perpetual prayer, that is, that communion with God may be the attitude of my soul. POINT II. MARY'S SPIRIT OF PRAYER.