pardon for all the errors of your understanding and your heart; and for your frequent neglect of God's holy inspirations. Promise Him, that for the future, you will give Him all your actions, both internal and external, and say with the Psalmist, " I have gone astray, like a sheep that is lost, seek Thy servant, because I have not forgotten Thy commandments." (Ps. cxviii. 176.)
Meditations on the Life and Doctrine of Jesus Christ from His Baptism to His Passion.
The life, which the Redeemer led, and the doctrine which He taught, afford plentiful matter for meditation. But since we cannot examine every passage relating tothese, we will select the chief, and shall not so much, follow the order of the history, as the connection and similitude of actions and doctrine. Most ascetic writers have followed this plan.
MONDAY.
Preaching of John the Baptist.— I.
I. "In those days, came John the Baptist, preaching in the desert of Judea." (Matt. iii. 1.) The preaching of the Baptist preceded that of Jesus Christ, as the dawn of the morning precedes the rising sun. Of him it is said, " Behold I send my angel before Thy face, who shall prepare the way before Thee." (Mark i. 3; Mal. iii. 1.) John was, therefore, an angel both as to his office and the innocence of his life. Such ought to be all priests, who are frequently in the Scriptures called angels. Such ought to be the life of every faithful
