Some may, perhaps, wonder that I have said that the purity of Our Lady was exposed to the severest trials; and yet so it was. But we must not suppose that these trials were similar to our own. As she was all purity, these assaults could not be like our own. The temptations which come to us, who, unhappily, bear their incentives within our hearts, could never have ventured to approach that wall of her virginal integrity. But was it not a great trial for Our Lady when the Angel appeared to her in human form? And did she not manifest this in the fear and perturbation which assailed her, so that the Angel was obliged to reassure her in these words: _Ne timeas, Maria--'Fear not, Mary'?_ By them he wished to remove the disquiet which her virginal purity suffered; it was as if he were to say: You see me in human form, but I am no man, nor do I come to you on the part of any man. Modesty, says a holy Doctor, is, as it were, the sacristan of chastity. The sacristan of a church keeps an eye always to the altars, that nothing may be stolen, and he fastens the door with care. In like manner virginal souls are jealous to preserve this virtue unspotted, and no sooner do they perceive danger, or even the shadow of danger, than they are quickly alarmed. Thus it was with the Most Blessed Virgin, who was not only the Virgin _par excellence_ of all in heaven and on earth, but also the most humble of all, and she manifested in this mystery of the Annunciation, the most sublime act of humility that a pure creature could make. When she heard herself called by the Angel _full of grace_, and received the announcement that she should become the Mother of a Son Who was to be both God and Man, she was troubled, and filled with fear; because, although she had conversed familiarly with the Angels, she had never heard them utter a single word in her praise. The Most Holy Virgin would here teach us the dangers to which purity is exposed by the desire of praise. Humility is the inseparable and necessary companion of virginity, which could not long be maintained in a soul that was not humble. It is true that in persons who live in the world one of these virtues may subsist without the other, as we see in the married life, but in regard to virgins, it must be absolutely asserted that one who does not profess both these virtues has neither of them except in appearance.