"When the Blessed Virgin had given her consent to the angel, and had really become the Mother of God by the power of the Holy Spirit, she testified her gratitude to the Eternal Father, by promptly corresponding to the designs of His grace, and went to visit her cousin Elizabeth, that she might be an instrument in the sanctification of the precursor, and carry grace and salvation to the house of Zachary; it is necessary that on the missions the Sisters propose to themselves the sanctification of little children, and give edification to all classes of persons that they may be recognized as the true daughters of Mary. "When the days were accomplished that she should bring forth her Divine Child, the angels announced that blessed birth to lowly shepherds, as well as to high-born kings, and the Blessed Virgin received with equal affection the honors paid her Divine Son by the humble herdsman and the Oriental sages; so should the Sisters have an equal regard for the poor as well as for the rich, treating all alike, as the children of Mary. "The Blessed Virgin continued to dwell in her poor house at Nazareth in privacy and silence, until the calling of the Apostles, to whom she was a sort of mistress of novices by the charm of her virtues; the Sisters, before applying themselves to the instruction of externs, or the duties of the schools, should prepare for it, by the exercise of prayer, pious reading, mortification of the senses, and all other virtues proper to their state. The Blessed Virgin followed her Divine Son to the foot of the cross, like a good mother who _could not_ lose sight of him; the Sisters should always keep themselves as much as possible in the presence of God, in imitation of their glorious model." Although the rules of religious institutes are not intended for general reading, yet the following extracts are so simple and practical that we think their translation excusable: "_How we must bear with the defects of our neighbor_.--I am bound to believe that my faults and imperfections are greater than those of others, and that they have to do violence to themselves in order to bear with my shortcomings; therefore it is my duty to be patient with them, in imitation of God, who is patient with all, who supports all, and endures all, notwithstanding our many defects, and the disproportion that exists between us and Him. "_On fidelity in little things_.--Our good God is contented with little virtues, if they are the result of our love for Him, and he knows how to increase them in our souls if they are performed with purity of intention. It is necessary, then, that I try to do everything for His love, and for _that alone_.