The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1905-11-18
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self believed.
AS a modern instance, take the APP
partition of the Blessed Virgin to the
peasant girl at Lourdes. The hun
dreds upon hundreds of we'll authenti-
Gated miracles of healing which have
taken place at Lourdes and are still
of constant occurrence have been
enough to confirm the faith of Cath
olics the world over in the reality of
what the peasant girl reported; and
it is no proof of our superior order
as rational beings if we protesting and
calling ourselves Anglo-Catholics re-
fuse to accept such evidence as is thus
afforded.
The great Jesuit society, which for
the mentality and scholarship of it's
members probably has no equal in the
world, has for a founder hard
hearted, strong minded soldier whom
it would be absurd to style a rattle
Drained visionary, and yet whatsoever
is at all familiar With the history of
Ignatius Loyola must know how he
firmly believed that he was visited
by the Mother of God and that he
was immensely helped by her in all
he undertook ad majorem Die Glor-
lam. Just within the gates of st. An
drew's Novitiate at Poughkeepsie,
where hundreds of Jesuits receive
their magnificent training, is a beau
tiful stone chapel which is dedicated
to Our Lady of the Wayside, and
stands there monument in stone to
the unquestioning faith of every. Jes-
uit in a certain appearance of the
mother of God to st. Ignatius as he
knelt at wayside shrine erected to
proofs which the archives of the
church contain of the active part
which the mother of Jesus has since
her assumption into heaven taken in
the affairs of Catholic believers on
earth, a volume would have to be
compiled much larger than the Bible.
To reject all this testimony and hold
oneself superior to the combined wis
dom and experience Of the Catholic
faithful since primitive times, is not
to give evidence of finer intelligence
than a Bonaventure or Thomas
Aquinas possessed, but rather Of an
irrational unbalief. There may be
hundreds of legends extant in Catholic
literature unworthy of credence; but
to reject because Of these the whole
mass of testimony concerning Our
Lady's ability to hear and answer
prayers is to cast discredit on all tes-
timony in every age and by every
author to the miraculous and super
natural. And this surely no one who
is Catholic enough to believe that the
religion of Jesus Christ is itself the
most stupendous of miracles would
wish to do.
If we accept the witness of the
Catholic Church in regard to other
matters of faith there can be no valid
reason for rejecting what she bids us
believe about the efficacy of prayer
addressed to Our Lady and Mother
in heaven. There is no better way to
realize the truth of the Catholic re-
ligon all the way through than to
practice ii, ana II our Anglican breth-
ron would know for themselves the
reality of Marys love for them per-
sonally and her readiness to help and
intercede with God on their behalf
let them test by calling upon her de-
voutly in every hour of need, and JUS
take it for granted that the Catholic
Church knows what she is talking
about when she affirms and reiterate!
so continually that Christ in address
| ing st. John OH the cross In realit!
addressed us all. saying: Behold tn!
mother" and that having constituted
her the universal mother of all the re
deemed, Almighty God has qualitie
her for her office by assuming her Int
heaven, enthronng her at the RICH
hand of Jesus Christ. her Son, an
| giving her command over a great ret
inue of ministering spirits, to do he
bidding in ministerng to those VII
look UP to her from every part c
our far-off world. and who never ceas
to cry "Hol! Mary. Mother of Coo
hour of death"