more pleasing to God than all His other creatures, and chosen to become the Mother of His Incarnate Word.

(20) The angel, i.e. Gabriel, who, though one of the greatest of the heavenly hosts, so willingly and joyfully brought this message to the Blessed Virgin, notwithstanding that its accomplishment would result in the exaltation of human nature above his own.

(21) To reflect in order to derive profit. This reflection, which should always lead to some practical application, ought to be made in every point of the contemplation, and indeed along with each separate consideration if the point should contain several. The fruit of these reflections will of course vary with the subject-matter of each point, and with the spiritual state and needs of the exercitant. Thus many different fruits may be gathered from the same point or consideration, according as the exercitant is in consolation or desolation, in the purgative, the illuminative, or the unitive way, or is seeking this or that virtue, or finds himself guided and moved in this way or in that by the Holy Spirit. Each ought to seek that which he chiefly needs, or towards which he feels himself drawn by divine grace. In this respect the fruit of meditation is like the manna; it is truly bread from heaven, 'having the virtue of every pleasant savour, and agreeing to every taste' (Wisdom of Solomon xvi. 20, R.V.).

The second point is to hear what people on the face of the earth are saying; how they converse one with another, how they swear and blaspheme, etc. Likewise what the three divine Persons are saying, viz. Let us work out the redemption of the human race,' etc.; and then, what the angel and our Lady are saying; and afterwards to reflect thereupon, in order to derive profit from their words.

The third point is to consider what the people on the face of the earth are doing, viz. smiting, killing, and going down into hell, etc.; likewise what the divine Persons are doing, namely, accomplishing the most holy Incarnation, etc.; and in like manner what the angel and our Lady are doing, to wit, the angel fulfilling his office of ambassador, and our Lady humbling herself and giving thanks to the divine Majesty; and then to reflect, in order to derive some profit from each of these things.

At the end a colloquy is to be made, thinking what (22) I ought to say to the three divine Persons, or to the eternal Word Incarnate, or to the Mother and our Lady, making petition according to that

which one feels in oneself, in order more closely to follow and imitate our Lord, so recently (23) become Incarnate; ending with an Our Father.

(22) Thinking what I ought to say, not how or in what words I ought to say it. In these colloquies the words are unimportant; it is the things we ask for, and the desires and affections of the heart which really matter.

(23) So recently-for we are to contemplate this and all the other Mysteries of our Lord's Life, not as things long past, but as if we were present and they were actually taking place before our eyes.

THE SECOND CONTEMPLATION
is on the Nativity.

The usual preparatory prayer.

The first prelude is the history. Here it will be to think how there set forth from Nazareth our Lady, already with child for about nine months, seated, as it may piously be thought (24), on an ass, together with S. Joseph and a maidservant leading an ox, in order to go to Bethlehem to pay the tribute which Caesar had imposed on all those countries.

(24) As it may piously be thought. S. Ignatius occasionally introduces details which are not mentioned in Holy Scripture; but this is contrary to his usual practice, and to what he says in Annotation ii.

The second is the composition, seeing the place. It will be here to see with the eyes of the imagination the road from Nazareth to Bethlehem, considering its length and breadth, and whether it be level or goes through valleys and over hills; likewise beholding the place or cave of the Nativity, how large or how small, how low or high, and how it was prepared.

The third will be the same, and in the same form, as it was in the preceding contemplation.

The first point is to see the persons, that is to say, to see our Lady, and S. Joseph, and the maidservant, and the Infant Jesus after He is born (25), behaving myself (26) as a poor and unworthy little servant, looking at them, contemplating them, and ministering to them in their necessities (27) as though I were present there, with all possible respect and reverence; and then to reflect on myself in order to derive some profit.

(25) After His birth. These words are added because this contemplation includes events which preceded the birth of our Lord, such as the hardships of the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

(26) Literally, making myself (haciéndome).

(27) Their necessities. As we contemplate the poverty of the cave, the manger, the straw, etc., we should call to mind those words of the meditation on the Kingdom of Christ: Whosoever desires to come with Me must be content with the food, drink, clothing, etc., that I have.

The second is to behold, observe, and contemplate (28) what they are saying; and reflecting on myself to gather some fruit.

(28) To behold, observe, and contemplate, etc. Since in the first point we are bidden to see the persons, and in the third to behold and consider the actions, why in this second point, in which we are to consider the words, is it not said to hear them as in the preceding Mystery of the Incarnation? The reason would seem to be that in this Mystery the Evangelists have not recorded any words, and therefore it is only by noticing and contemplating the persons and their actions that we can infer what they may have said, or, if they said nothing, what may have been their thoughts. Indeed in the second point of all these contemplations on the Mysteries of our Lord's Life, we may often find much profit in considering the thoughts, i.e. the unspoken words, of the various persons, and also their silence. Thus in the present case we may consider how they do not murmur or complain at the fatigue and hardships of the journey, or the treatment they meet with at the hands of the people of Bethlehem, but bear all patiently with humility and sweetness, preserving both on the journey and in the cave a spirit of recollection and silence while they contemplate the divine Mystery in which they are taking part.

\ The third point is to behold and consider what they are doing; as, for example, the journey and the toils they undergo in order that (29) our Lord may be born in extreme poverty, and after so many labours, after hunger and thirst, heat and cold, insults and injuries, may die at last on the Cross, and all this for me (30). Then reflecting to gather some spiritual fruit.

To end with a colloquy, as in the preceding contemplation, and with an Our Father.

(29) In order that, etc. The journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, with all its toils and hardships, was designed by the providence of God in order that our Lord might begin in extreme poverty a life which was to pass through every kind of suffering and privation, to the perfect poverty and desolation of the death upon the Cross.

(30) And all this for me. S. Ignatius wishes the exercitant to bring everything home to himself, that by the contemplation of our Lord's individual love he may be moved to make a response of love and devotion to Him.

THE THIRD CONTEMPLATION

will be a repetition of the first and second Exercises.

After the preparatory prayer and the three preludes, will be made the repetition of the first and second Exercises, noting always some of the principal parts, in which one has found some light, or experienced some consolation, or desolation; making in the same manner a colloquy at the end, and saying an Our Father.

In this repetition, and in all those that follow, the same order of procedure will be observed as was observed in the repetitions of the First Week, changing the matter, and keeping the form (31).

(31) We have already spoken of the great importance which S. Ignatius attaches to these repetitions. See Note 31, p. 66, and Additional Note I, § 2, p. 228.

In the Second Week they are, if possible, even more important than in the First; for the more deeply the teachings of these Mysteries of our Lord's Life are impressed upon our souls, the better shall we be disposed and prepared to embrace the third Mode of Humility, and to make a good Election, which is the goal to which all these Exercises are directed.

THE FOURTH CONTEMPLATION

will be a repetition of the first and second, made in the same manner as the above-mentioned repetition.

THE FIFTH CONTEMPLATION

will be to apply the five senses to the first and second contemplations.

After the preparatory prayer and the three preludes, it is profitable (32) to apply the five senses of the imagination to the first and second contemplations in the following manner :

(32) It is profitable. Who can doubt that he would have found much spiritual profit if he had been permitted to be actually present at the birth of our Saviour, or any of the other Mysteries of His life? Our contemplations, and especially the application of the senses to them, will, please God, produce in us something of the same results, if we bring to them a lively faith, and an attentive and watchful spirit. For some further remarks on this form of exercise, see Additional Note O, § 2, p. 253, and Directory xx.

The first point is to see the persons with the eyes of the imagination, meditating and contemplating in particular their circumstances (33), and gathering some fruit from the sight.

(33) Their circumstances, e.g. the manger, the straw, the swaddling clothes, the winter cold, the helplessness also of the Holy Child and His dependence upon His creatures. The contemplation of these and other such-like circumstances will furnish a devout soul with much matter for meditation.

The second point is to hear with the hearing that which they are saying, or might say (34), and reflecting within oneself to gather from it some profit.

(34) Or might say, i.e. words which would have been fitting for them to speak, and which they may actually have spoken though they are not recorded by the Evangelists. These, too, like the interior thoughts and dispositions of the several persons, we may reverently conjecture, and often dwell upon with much spiritual profit. See above, Note 28, p. 92.

The third is to smell and taste (35) with the interior senses of smell and taste the infinite fragrance and sweet savour of the Divinity, of the soul, and of its virtues, and of all else, according to the character of the person contemplated, reflecting on oneself and gathering therefrom some profit.

(35) To smell and taste. S. Ignatius joins these two senses together, as indeed in their bodily form they are closely allied. It should be noticed, however, that they are to be applied only to moral and spiritual objects, as here to the sweetness of our Lord's Divinity and the fragrance of His human Soul, and that the results of their application are not bodily sensations, but interior affections.

All these interior senses may be applied not only to holy things,