Mary was like a most beautiful flower, which diffuses its perfume from
its very first budding. Flowers differ in their method of diffusing
fragrance, as, for instance, roses and carnations. Roses smell sweeter
in the morning before mid-day; but carnations and pinks shed a more
pleasing scent in the evening. The glorious Virgin was like a most
beautiful rose amongst thorns, and although never for an instant did
she cease to diffuse an odour of surpassing sweetness, yet the
fragrance of her infancy was the most acceptable to the Divine
Majesty.--_St. Francis of Sales._
Chastity is the lily of virtues, because it renders men equal to the
Angels; if virtues be separated from purity, they are no longer
virtues. Purity is chastity, and it possesses a glory of its own, for
it clothes both soul and body with its beauty.--_The same._
As the busy bee flies to all the flowers, and sucks from each its
purest juice with which to form honey, so should a religious soul
observe the virtues of others, and learn, for instance, modesty from
one, science from another, and obedience from a third; in a word, he
should take from each one that which he perceives to be most perfect,
and copy it in his own person.--_St. Antony._