The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1872-03-24
Morning Star and Catholic Messenger.
NEW ORLEANS, SUNDAY, MARCH "a. 1872.

Morning Star and Catholic messenger
NEW ORLEANS SUNDAY. MARCH a. 1872
.lCommuncated.l
TIE ADJUDICATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN.
The Church, in perfect consistency, cele-
brates, under this title, the utterance of Gods
eternal counsel, which coheres in the message
ton of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
The festival which commends this unparall-
eled event to the loving memory Of every Ca
tholio, indeed, of every one who claims to be
o Christian, is recorded in the earliest !itnr-
gies of tho Church, while the Fathers OF tne
like early periods those especially OF the
worker of the middle of the third century, to
St. Basil of Silencia, Of the middle OF the nitn'
have, in most touching and convincing nomi-
mystery. the frat and greatest Of the Christian
faith, and to its solemn, binding conso s iJ;,
in the primitive devotions and forms OF puol'o
az this there cannot be an historical doubt.
The sacramentary of Pope Gelasius a6undantly
proves that iC was established In Rome long
hence that it must have come down to the
Universal Church on the tide of the traditions
of her earlier days. Indeed, Pope Benedict
hagioiogists Of the Catholic Church, asserts
this antiquity. We have his "Enchiridium"
of Festivals under our eye as we write these
lines, and in the third chapter Of the second
Blessed Virgin, he broadly assumes that, SO
great must have been its antiquity, I'VE may
piously and not nnreasonabiy imagine that the
pious worshiper is indebted for its origin to
the living gratitude of the Blessed Mother
herself, who, with the return of each OF her
earthly years, could not fail, with marked and
singular devotion to honor the mystery which,
in her pure bosom, had worked the salvation
of mankied." Equally probable is it that the
Apostles themselves, and the disciples VINO
pious practice of the Holy Virgin. readily CON
formed to the COMMUNICATION of SO precious
anniversary of the reclamation of mankind
ogy or of religious tradition may stand, 1t 10
beyond doubt and cavil that, on this feast of
the Catholic Church, rests the very sum OF the
deservings of the Blessed Virgin, wrapped IN
the mysterious honors of her motherhood
Neither the jeer of the scorner can blemish,
nor can the cunning of the serpent defeat, pre-
hand, has stamped for time and for eternity:
Ecce 'eniu, beatans me dicent onnes generationes!
AS all the Accomplishments of her whole pre-
,vious life had miraculously tended to the ends
eff . mysterious motherhood; 80 all its subse-
Guencies must necessarily have moved in har-
mony with the fnness of Gods interests.
Question this form of His merciful wisdom for
the redemption of creatures esslaEed-t to sin
and DEATH and, by the act itself, you at once
reject and defeat, so far as your vain question
the Blessed Virgin, for the salvation of man.
There is no one-we do not say Catholic, who
is higher witness of faith in Christ-who
claims to be Christian, who, not yielding to
this truth and this fact. can stand under their
crushing weight, without danger of self"delu-
sion or rebellion against God.
These feeble remarks attempt neither the
dignity yet the nature of q doglnatic essay.
They are intended to pour . loving, however
inadequate tribute to the Mater rirentium.-the
mother of the living hopes of earth for the
everything hopes of heaven, one of which,
with US, is that it has SO far stated enough to
suggest that the Annupciation is, and that it
cannot be but, the concentration of Gods
liz, &1o11 10
and pre- euinenoe of the Virgin Mary, selected
by that annunciation as the agent of his mer-
cies to the children of earth through her super
The measure of greatness of the divine in
tent-if it may be measured-les in the fact
that this very mystery of the Virgins mother
mystery of the redemption Of mankind, devised
through the union of God, the Uncreated with
the created and elect work of His hand-the
work of works of Almighty mercy, moved by
Almighty love-the very centre around which
then moved, aud from that time, in the human
sense, have down to US continued and, for gen.
erations unborn. shall continue to move all the
spiritual hopes and destinies of earth, made
secure by the eternal earnests of the annuncia-
ton made to the Virgin Mary.
The Annunciation and the Incarnation are,
therefore, but one and the same mystery which
the Church logically blends i'll one coinmemo-
ration of grateful pray ers and reyerential love.
For these there are reasons, which not only the
voice of the Church displays, but which the
admissions of even Calvin himself, one of her
most relentless enemies, freely proclaims. eve
cannot admit" he says, g. the blessings which
Christ Jesus has brought to us, without admit
ting, at the same time, The extent to which God
has honored and enriched Mary when He elect
ed that she should be the mother of His only be-
gotten Son." But the essential condition is that,
not only had He willed that she should be the
Mother of His only begotten, but, what is i'm
measurably to her glory, that He also willed
that she should freely consent to the honor and
sanctity destined for her name {: that she should
even discuss the means by which this high
prerogative to be ensured; in one word,
that this great and merciful scheme, in contra
diction, it would almost seem, of her own pre-
conceived ideas of duty, should depend on the
fat of her trusty humility and unbounded
faith: "Behold tho servant of the Lord! Be
it done to me, according to thy words"
This is the great characteristic of the Annun-
citation, the incipient mystery of oil the mys-
teries, through which God works His ways
with His creatures. Another scarcely less
striking characteristic is that, through the
sacred traditions of the past, Mary, by the
>;nl, hal 0rif final w law hpi