"O eternal and all powerful God, I have not the humility that I ought to have, but my extreme misery constrains me to acknowledge that I am the most abject of all your creatures, because being tainted by _original_ sin I am, in a certain sense, lower than the brute creation, and on account of my _actual_ sins, I deserve to be cast into hell. The confidence I desire to have in prayer, but do not possess, I expect from your bounty and mercy, because you have given your only Son to redeem us by His precious blood, and I would rather lose a thousand lives than fail to believe the truth of His words. Grant me this grace, my God; it is my strength and my confidence. As to the perseverance I should have in prayer, the consideration of the many graces I have received from you oblige me to testify my gratitude to the last hour of my life, and on through eternity. For, if I have the happiness of being admitted after death into the company of the blessed, I shall persevere in prayer, if you so permit, and unceasingly implore your mercy for the community. I ask neither wealth, nor honors, nor pleasures of this life; I only ask that your holy will may be fully accomplished, and that we may follow the road you have pointed out to us, and which the Blessed Virgin herself has so faithfully trodden. I earnestly beg that every member of our community, and those who shall succeed them, as also those who contribute to their spiritual advancement, may be of the number of the predestined. I believe, dear Lord, that my demand is just, and I make it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, of Mary, His holy mother, of her glorious spouse, St. Joseph, and of all the blessed inhabitants of the celestial court." We will conclude this chapter by giving an outline of the funeral oration pronounced by M. de Belmont, Superior of the Montreal seminary, at the sepulture of Sister Bourgeois' heart. The orator took for his text the words of St. Paul, "Be ye imitators of me, as I also am of Jesus Christ," and then reminded the Sisters, that although nature exacts many tears for the death of those we love, tears which religion does not condemn, provided they are kept within reasonable bounds, and sanctified by prayer and sacrifice, yet it was fitting, at the inhumation of the heart of their Foundress, to terminate the duties both of nature and piety regarding her they all equally mourned. "You have lost her visible presence," he said, "yet, being the custodians of her heart, you should revive within you her spirit, by reproducing in your lives the virtues of which she has given so many examples. It is for this special purpose God has permitted the division of her mortal remains, because He wills that both her _heart_ and _spirit_ shall be _your treasure_, and she was never more truly your superior and model, than when during life she strove to imitate Jesus Christ."