But when you return will your heart be more happy than at present? O no, certainly not. And why? Because I fulfil the Will of God equally in going, in remaining there, and in returning. When you return, will you go into your own country? She replies, I know no country but the accomplishment of the Will of my God in everything. O admirable example of obedience! Let us, in imitation of the Blessed Virgin, endeavour to submit to authority at all times and in every circumstance, whether it be pleasing to us or not. Let us go with all simplicity even as far as Egypt--that is, into the midst of enemies-- because God Who sends us there will know how to protect us, and assuredly we shall not perish. On the contrary, if we remain in Israel with our enemy, self-will, it will certainly be the destruction of us. In imitation of Mary and Joseph, let us answer the suggestions of the enemy of our soul when he urges us to disobedience in these words: _Deus providebit_--'God will provide.' O my God! happy we if we could accustom ourselves to answer our heart always thus when it becomes anxious, and thus banish all solicitude and trouble. Great indeed is the confidence which God asks of us in His Paternal care and Providence; but why do we refuse it to Him when we know that no one has ever been deceived in Him, but, on the contrary, has always reaped therefrom the most copious fruits? And was not this the promise which Our Saviour made to His Apostles when He urged them to this loving confidence? 'Your Father in heaven knoweth that ye have need of these things.' SPIRITUAL FLOWERS. Obedience has the property of changing the flower of our desires into the fruits of good works. Shun singularity as far as possible, and do not make yourselves different exteriorly in any way from others.--_St. Teresa._ As the best honey is gathered from the flowers of the thyme, which is a small and bitter herb, so when virtues are exercised in the bitterness of the most humble tribulations, they become truly excellent.--_St. Francis of Sales._ As the sun gives its heat no less to a rose amidst a thousand other flowers than if it were alone, so Our Lord does not diffuse His love the less upon one soul because He also loves an infinity of others. The power of His love never diminishes on account of the multitude of rays that it diffuses, but is always unchangeable in its immensity.-- _The same._ EXAMPLE. _The Excellence of the 'Hail Mary.'_