whilst from his cross he recommended thee to the

care and protection of his beloved disciple, St. John — take pity, I beseech thee, on my, poverty and necessities; have compassion on my anxieties and cares; assist and comfort me in all my infirmities and miseries. Thou art the mother of mercies, the sweet consolatrix and refuge of the needy and the orphan, of the desolate and the afflicted. Look, therefore, with pity on a miserable, forlorn child of Eve, and hear my prayer; for since, in just punishment of my sins, I am encompassed with evils, and oppressed with anguish of spirit, whither can I fly for more secure shelter, O amiable mother of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, than to thy maternal protection? Attend, therefore, I beseech thee, with pity and compassion, to my humble and earnest request. I ask it through the infinite merits of thy dear Son; through that love and condescension wherewith he assumed our nature, when, in compliance with the divine will, thou gavest thy consent; and whom, after the expiration of nine months, thou didst bring forth from the chaste enclosure of thy womb, to redeem the world and to bless it with his presence. I ask it through that anguish of mind wherewith thy beloved Son, my dear Saviour, was overwhelmed on Mount Olivet, when he besought his eternal Father to remove from him, if possible, the bitter chalice of his future passion. I ask it through the threefold repetition of his prayer in the garden, from whence afterwards, with dolorous steps and mournful tears, thou didst accompany him to the doleful theatre of his sufferings. I ask it through the stripes and wounds of his virginal flesh, occasioned by the cords and whips wherewith he was bound and

scourged, when stripped of his seamless garment, for