_Prayer_ (from St. Augustine and St. Bernard).--Remember, O most compassionate Virgin Mary! that it was never heard in any age that anyone who implored your protection has been abandoned by you. Animated by this confidence, I have recourse to you, O Mother of God, Virgin of virgins. Do not despise my prayers, Mother of the Divine Word, but graciously hear and answer me. O Mother of God! you pray for all, and above all, for sinners; deign, then, to pray for me, a more obstinate sinner than any other, and therefore a more worthy object of your pity! You see plainly the urgent need I have of your intercession; therefore interest yourself in my regard, and obtain for me, from your Divine Son, the grace of sincere conversion and holy perseverance. Amen. _Ejaculation._--I place myself for the whole of my life under your protection, O Mother of my God! O show that you are my true Mother! _Practice._--Be very attentive in all your exercises of piety during the day. THIRTEENTH DAY. THE TRIALS AND CONSOLATIONS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. WE can never meditate too much upon the great and cruel sorrows with which the heart of the august Virgin Mary was afflicted during the whole course of her life; yet she was the most holy of creatures, the most beloved by God. 'You,' exclaims St. Chrysostom, 'who bitterly weep and lament, under the contradictions and afflictions that assail you, are you not ashamed to desire and seek for such a happiness as even the Holy Family did not enjoy? Ponder, I beg of you, the vicissitudes and changes to which they were exposed!'