speech and colloquy with our Lord, we may, notwithstanding, speak in it to ourselves, and confer with our own soul; sometimes, (as St. Paul says,) exhorting [1] ourselves, and reviving ourselves in the affections and petitions rehearsed; at other times reprehending ourselves for our faults, and for our want of zeal, and being ashamed of ourselves that we serve Almighty God so negligently. In this way David spoke many times to his soul, saying, " Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why dost thou disquiet me? Hope thou in God, for I will still give praise to Him, the salvation of my countenance, and my God." [2] "Be thou, O my soul! subject to God; for from Him is my patience." [3] From these colloquies we must next proceed to speak to God Himself, as did the prodigal son when he spoke to himself, saying, "How many hired servants in my father's house abound with bread, and I here perish with hunger! I will arise and will go to my father, and say to him, ' Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, I am not now worthy to be called thy son: make me,' if it so please thee, ' as one of thy hired servants." [4]
Finally, we may likewise, in prayer, speak to our Blessed Lady the Virgin, to the angels and saints, for the same two ends aforesaid; either to praise and bless them for their sanctity and virtues, and for the benefits which they do us, or to ask them to aid and favour us in the affairs of our salvation: for which we may likewise allege to them some of those motives which we laid down in the preceding chapter, and other special ones beseeming each of them. To the most sacred Virgin may be alleged that she is our mother and the advocatrix of sinners, and that for our remedy her Son gave her this office in charge; alleging also the love that she bears Him, and her desire that all
