The Mirror of the Months THE MIRROR OF THE MONTHS BY SHEILA KAYE-SMITH LONDON: THE SOCIETY OF SS. PETER & PAUL LIMITED WESTMINSTER HOUSE GREAT SMITH STREET S.W.1 _Made and printed in Great Britain at the_ KYNOCH PRESS BIRMINGHAM _for the Society of SS. Peter & Paul Limited_ CONTENTS JANUARY, P. 1 _Month of the Holy Infancy_ FEBRUARY, P. 6 _Month of Light in Darkness_ MARCH, P. 12 _Month of the Passion_ APRIL, P. 17 _Month of the Resurrection_ MAY, P. 24 _Month of Mary_ JUNE, P. 29 _Month of the Sacred Heart_ JULY, P. 34 _Month of the Precious Blood_ AUGUST, P. 44 _Month of the Most Pure Heart of Mary_ SEPTEMBER, P. 49 _Month of the Sorrows of Mary_ OCTOBER, P. 53 _Month of the Holy Angels_ NOVEMBER, P. 60 _Month of the Holy Souls_ DECEMBER, P. 65 _Month of the Incarnation_ January _Month of the Holy Infancy_ The year begins—on a January morning, cold and early. The earth lies frozen under her strewings of snow. There is no wind, and a great silence broods over the fields; the faint bleating of a winter lamb only accentuates the stillness, as it creeps from the lambing-hut with its tale of life beginning in struggle and distress. It is the only sound of life in all that frost-bound stillness, and it is a sound of woe. No promise shows in all that hard, dark soil. Surely nothing can live on the frozen grass, or in the waters of the pond that lie black under their scum of ice. The sun himself looks feeble as he tries in vain to disperse the January clouds, and the long beam that at last goes down into the woods contains no warmth and only the palest light. The fields are bound—water-logged ditches, half-frozen soil, hedges of bare, spindled thorn. The fields are silent—birdless, windless, lifeless; they have no voice but the cry of the winter lamb. * * * * *