Page:MaryHelpOfChristians.djvu/148

 obtain for  me  the  virtue  of  temperance  and  the gift of  counsel.

Hail Mary,  etc.

Ejaculation (p.  118).

Preparatory Prayer  (p.  115).

HO can  describe  the  sorrow  and  anguish  of Mary's  heart  when  the  body  of  Jesus  was taken from  the  cross,  when  her  tearful  eyes  fell upon His  disfigured  features! The pure  and  holy and beauteous  form  of  her  Son  was  a  mass  of clotted  blood  and  unsightly  wounds;  and  yet,  disfigured as  it  was,  there  shone  in  His  countenance a clear,  calm  expression  of  divine  majesty. Now Mary views  the  wounds  of  that  sacred  body;  she looks at  the  gap  made  in  His  side  by  the  cruel spear, and  can  almost  see  the  Sacred  Heart  of Jesus,  all  bruised  and  broken  for  love  of  man. Before her  vision  passes  in  detail  His  life  and  her own. Memory presents  to  her  mind  every  day and hour  of  their  quiet,  happy  life  at  Nazareth. Is it  to  be  wondered,  then,  that  at  this  bitter moment her  sorrow  was  so  great  that,  as  St.  An-