The Irish standard., 1905-10-14

} The self-absorption and egotism Of the
, past are recognized and repented; sell
5 fish indifference grows to generous en-
thusiasms, and all that is beautiful and
noble and lofty in life takes on init.
mate Significance while personal bless
, ings strain beyond self life minister.
, ing angels to share their sweet grace
with others. Gentle words, tender
deeds, date from loves apocalypse
: noble efforts and grandest ideals. And
; all these the Catholic sweetheart brings
to the married life, to dignity, sweeten
exalt, immortalize it.
} Well may the heart of lover and
husband rest in her. his pearl of great
, price, whose value indeed in above ru-
bies. In her he has no light love, the
: mere vane of his fortunes; no false
, love, to fail his loves hottest visions;
! no fair-weather love, to flee when
. shadows gather. True and faithful
J loving and loyal unto death is the
i, Catholic sweetheart, whom man loves
and God blesses.
4 What, then. of her sister, the Cath
!: olic spinster? In sacred truth can she
plead justification. and recompense,
land vocative missioner is her life as
tradition is fain to convince us, des-
!; olate and barren waste?
Let us put to her censors the INTEL
iigent question:: Who is justified in as
; Stunning that the spinster is unloving
and unloved? If hearts know their
own bitterness, may they not know.
too, secret sweetness. Perchance the
spinster has loved unworthy, and
gained, not lost by the divine mistake.
Perchance she has loved SCIENTIFICALLY,
immolating on the altar of duty her
woman dream of wedlock. Perchance
she has loved, as the moth loves the
star, some unattainable good that She
lis better and best for loving, since love
is never vain, never futile Perchance
she has loved and lost" and in losing
the mortal lover, retained immortal
love. Let none presume in sheer ig-
norance to judge and therefore mis-
judge her. 1t is true, providentially
true, that to the few women, love and
lover in the sense of marriage-oppor-
tunity, never come; but the few excep-
tons do not stand for the great mapor-
ity-single by force of vocation, or be-
cause their course Of true love has not
run smooth" In any case, a loveless
life is an impossible paradox. Love is
the life Of the human heart, and every
living creature loves some person or
some ideal. If the love be unhappy;
has it no claim to reverence? On light
world, oh cruel world, think!
But the representative Catholic spin
ster has the single vocation, and her
problem is what to do with it. That
the world makes it hard for her, there
is no gainsaying. It cedes her such
tribute as it must, but its concession is
grudging. If perforce it favors her, 1t
condescends and patl,onizes. Poor"
spinster! What though she be proving
great soul, great intellect, great heart
edness? Still, she is only an old
maid"-not wife and mother.
Is there no union of heart, then? Is
there no maternity in the spirit? A
whole class Of celibate men serve re-
ligion, art, science, philanthropy. Is it
according to Divine economy to natur-
al harmony, that these masculine souls,
minds and hearts have no spiritual, in
tellectual, sympathetic feminine coun-
terparts? And aside from this fact
that social class balances class, is
there no motherhood save in the nat
ural order? What of the creative gift
of genius, the prolific Divine spark
What Of the social mission that leaves
fruit even unto future generations?
What of the maternal service of the
strong and unselfish, to the weak and
impotent? What Of the motherhood of
orphans by the life of active charity,
whose heroic sacrifice and conservation
are not confined to the convent?
II Mother Church first, and we might
almost add land last" since as yet she
has few followers, recognizes the single
: life as a secular vocation, and the
: spinster honorable in her observance
! Of 1t. Therefore the Church is the
: Catholic spinster's court Of appeal and
refuge. 1t supplies all that the blind
foolish world may deny her. In the
Church is love-Ddvine love humanized
5 in the Savior, idealized in the euchar.
istic real presence, and vitalized in Its
tenderest and most appealing incarnate
phase, in the crib of Bethlehem. II
J. the Church is friendship Of the su.
: preme type that even a Napoleon rec.
!. ognized as "the true image Of the De.
+ ity"-the friendship Of the father o.
i souls, of the priestly brother Of Catho.
e lie men and women, whose wounds are
!, faithful, and who heals them with sac.
ramental balm. In the Church, too
= the arts and aesthetics lavish upor
the socially isolated woman their pur.
n est and highest achievements-class
8 beauty Of architecture, of sculpture, O.
: painting; the divine art of music in it!