the person of His beloved disciple St. John,
to her as her children, declaring her our Mother. From that moment we
belong to Mary, and Mary belongs to us: "Behold thy Mother!"

PRACTICE

MARY loves us because she loves God, and because God loves us. She loves
us as her brethren who share human nature with her. She loves us as her
children, whom she has borne to eternal life. She loves us because we
are miserable and helpless. True, we offended her divine Son, but she
knows our frailty, our blindness, the assaults of the flesh and the
devil to which we are exposed; and by all this she is moved to come to
our aid.

Do not, however, imagine that this good and amiable Mother will hear
your call for assistance if you continue to offend her divine Son with
malice prepense. To obtain her aid you must make yourself in a manner
worthy of it. This you do by striving to imitate her virtues. Or is
there anything in her example that we are unable to imitate? True, we
can not attain to her perfection in virtue, but we can copy it to a
certain degree. To follow Mary's example there is no need of performing
miracles, of having ecstasies, or of doing any other extraordinary
deeds. All that is necessary is to persevere faithfully in the ordinary
duties of life, and to perform them to the best of our ability.

"Behold thy Mother!" These words of our dying Lord were addressed to the
beloved disciple St. John, but were intended for all mankind. Even as
Mary never ceases to be the Mother of God, she never will cease to be
our Mother.

Prayer of the Church (located on the first day of the novena).

Litany of Loreto (located in the final section of the book).

_Prayer_

O HOLIEST Mary, bless me, my heart and my soul, as thou thyself wast
ever blessed of God among all women; for I have this sure hope, dear
Mother, that if thou bless me while I live, then, when I die, I shall be
blessed of God in the everlasting glory of heaven.

Hail Mary, etc.

Ejaculation (located on the first day of the novena).

IV

Novena in Honor of the Seven Sorrows of Mary

[Illustration: Mary, the Mother of Sorrows]

NOTE.--Besides the indulgences granted for every novena in honor of the
Blessed Virgin Mary by Pius IX, Pope Leo XIII, January 27, 1888, granted
that all the faithful may gain, on the _third Sunday in September_,
being the second feast of the Seven Sorrows of Mary (the other is
observed on the Friday before Palm Sunday), a plenary in