Page:TheYoungMansGuide.djvu/418

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communities! Many of these, like Aloysius, are angels in human flesh, who add bodily mortifications to innocence of life. Others are holy penitents, like Magdalen, Augustine, and Mary of Egypt, who honor God more by their penance than ninety-nine just who need not penance. Think, then, of this countless number of devout men and women, who every day recite the Rosary piously for themselves and their brethren! Think of the dying who, in momentary expectation of seeing God, devoutly offer the prayers of the Rosary as their last petitions to heaven in behalf of their brethren and themselves! Think of those who were once members of these confraternities, who are now among the elect of God, and who constantly watch over the welfare of these fellow-members on earth. Think of the prayers, almsdeeds, mortifications of all those united in the Rosary, as presented to Jesus Christ through the hands of His Mother, and may it not be said they do a holy violence to heaven? "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away." How truly may it be said of those who, through this devotion, learn the virtues of Mary, and exhibit them in their daily lives: "They that-v explain me shall have everlasting life."

The Rev. Mother Francis Raphael, O.S.D. (Augusta Theodosia Drane), writes, in "The Spirit of the Dominican Order": "If we examine the special devotion of our saints,