Oh, how happy are those souls who follow the example of this Sacred Virgin, and dedicate themselves from their tender years to the service of God! Fortunate are they to have retired from the world before they were known to it! Like delicate flowers scarcely yet open, nor touched by the heat of concupiscence, they exhale a most sweet odour in the Divine Presence by means of their virtues and innocence. SPIRITUAL FLOWERS. Mary was like a most beautiful flower, which diffuses its perfume from its very first budding. Flowers differ in their method of diffusing fragrance, as, for instance, roses and carnations. Roses smell sweeter in the morning before mid-day; but carnations and pinks shed a more pleasing scent in the evening. The glorious Virgin was like a most beautiful rose amongst thorns, and although never for an instant did she cease to diffuse an odour of surpassing sweetness, yet the fragrance of her infancy was the most acceptable to the Divine Majesty.--_St. Francis of Sales._ Chastity is the lily of virtues, because it renders men equal to the Angels; if virtues be separated from purity, they are no longer virtues. Purity is chastity, and it possesses a glory of its own, for it clothes both soul and body with its beauty.--_The same._ As the busy bee flies to all the flowers, and sucks from each its purest juice with which to form honey, so should a religious soul observe the virtues of others, and learn, for instance, modesty from one, science from another, and obedience from a third; in a word, he should take from each one that which he perceives to be most perfect, and copy it in his own person.--_St. Antony._ EXAMPLE. _The two Invocations of St. Philip Neri._ Of the many ejaculatory prayers of St. Philip Neri to the Most Holy Virgin, two were very familiar to him. The first was, 'Virgin Mary, Mother of God, pray to Jesus for us'; the second consisted in the two words, 'Virgin and Mother'. He used to say that they contain all the panegyrics of Mary, both because they express her admirable name, and because they declare her two miraculous privileges of _Virginity_ and _Maternity_, and the incomparable title of _Mother of God_. He composed a rosary with these two invocations, which he recited frequently with his penitents, and had always in his hands. A pious person, who was continually tormented by evil thoughts, asked him one day for a remedy. The Saint counselled her to recite this rosary of his, which consisted in repeating these two invocations alternately, sixty-three times. She followed his advice, and in a short time recovered her peace of soul.