Behold Your Mother The Blessed Virgin’s Goodness and Greatness . To St. John the Evangelist The three words that form the title of this book were first spoken to you from the Cross, O dear and glorious Saint Our Divine Redeemer was then dying for our sake. In a jew moments He was to breathe His last breath and leave this mortal life for ever and in those last moments He bequeathed His Blessed Mother to your care. But you, dear Saint, represented us all in that solemn scene, and Mary was given to us also as our Mother. To each of us our Lord says still, quotBehold your Mother.quot Oh, may it be said of us as of you quotAnd from that hour the took her as his own.quot Let us take her as our disciple own. Let us look up to her as a mother, confide in her, love her, fly to her in all our troubles, try to please her in every way that we can, try to avoid all that displeases her, and to live in the manner that befits the children of such a Mother. Help us, O sweet Apostle of Love, to feel as you felt towards the Mother of Jesus after Jesus had said to you with His dying breath, quotBehold thy Motherquot Note to Second Edition. The first edition of this book, consisting of a thousand copies, has been exhausted in three months. This is due most of all to its beautiful theme, about which the pious faithful can never hear enough. Catholic journals and reviews on both sides of the Atlantic have given the little volume a generous welcome. It is now sent forth again in the hope of helping some more souls to turn with greater love and confidence to our Mother who is in Heaven. Feast ofOur Lady s Nativity, September 8th, 1909. MATTHEW RUSSELL, SJ. Preface I HAVE had the happiness of putting into printmany devout prayers and meditations in prose and verse about the Holy Eucharist, Our Blessed Lady, St. Joseph, and many saints. The small volumes of verse were generally followed before long by books of prose on the same themes. quot Thus Emmanuel, a Book of Eucharistic Verses, quot quot Moments before the Taber was followed by quot nacle, quot At Home near the Altar, quot quot the Altar Rails, quot and Communion and quot quot Close to quot Day quot was followed by quot St. s Joseph Anthology St. Joseph of Jesus and Mary.quot Strange to say, this has not yet been the case with regard to the Blessed Virgin. quot Madonna quot appeared in 1880 and no corresponding book of prose has since been offered in homage to the Queen of Heaven. I dare to supply this omission now. quot quot Another book about the Blessed Virgin Yes, although far better books exist already in abundance but this new one may fall under eyes that would never read those other better books, and God may perhaps use these simple pages to inspire some hearts with the filial love that is due to our Mother in Heaven. When Raphael was at work one day on the famous Sistine picture of the Blessed Virgin, Marc Antonio, entering his studio, exclaimed quot Cospetto, another Madonna quot quot Yes, quot the great Artist quot gravely replied. If all painters spent all their time trying to depict our Blessed Lady, they could never exhaust all her beauty.quot It may be well to add here that my first two books of religious verse mentioned above quot Emmanuel quot and quot Madonna quot have, after running through several editions, been out of print for many years, their contents being in quot cluded in Sacred Verses.quot Vespers and Compline, aSoggarth s Several of the devotional essays in this new volume have appeared in The Ave Maria…