The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-08-21
DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN

49, IL IT becomes our pleasing duty to
1onor and TO look to her with highest reveroo
deepest affection reverence and
And Tor proof of these things we mood 40 80
IIo!e ulal open the sacred scriptures these 1er
scriptures which the religious purst procla;n,s -
pe U4e soie source OF his belief and the only cout
TO which he IS willing to make an annea
AT the very beginning, in the very fret oh,,tan
OF GENESIS, when the sacred writer records +bo ~;
tory OF the primal fall, the Almighty oivas bo -
fallen man. If the enemy has conquered ond III
Is Tor the moment triumphant yet between the OWL
one and the woman there shall he constant ;4
she, as the vulgate reads shall crrsb t ,
mead. 90 at the very dawn of history 1ybeI nan
energies therefrom though the light If Cod ros
enee Is withdrawn because of sin. vet tbere =;
TIL IN the clouds, and distant though the dav If
De- ne sees through the rift the blessed
promise OF the coming Redeemer Marv's child who
was to conquer sin and death W
~ inward we go through the pages of the Old
l esIaInent; and whenever these pages return to
la lIleO olesseo promise, when the prophets of
nope arise, when the poet-seers LOOKING into +b6
future, tell of the great day that is vet 70 bo .e
the outline of the vision becomes clearer and clearer
50 also Go they more accurately define the DIGNITY
and prerogatives of Mary. Isaiah tells of q Re-
oeemer; how was He to come? Behold virgin
Shall conceive and bear a SON. Seer-like thew he
mold IN vision this virgin approach and ask in the
ECSTASY of this vision who she is: who is she who
cometh up from the desert p-and the answer comes.
Thou art all fair oh my beloved. and there is NOT
spot IN thee Is she not even as fair as the
moon, as bright as the SUM- terrible as an army set
IN battle array! 10 these ancient prophets the
Virgin mother no accident but a being of
Definite outline virginia., beautiful clothed with
majesty and honor
And when We come to the New Testament
the fultlment OF the promse-we find all this veri
fled. The rift in the clouds broadens the air Is
warmed with the flush of the coming dav +be
rustic OF the Angels wings is heard and the great
angel messenger of God, Gabriel. comes with the
message to the humble Virgin at Nazareth. and
salutes her IN terms never before spoken to human
beng: Hail. full of gracei The Lord is with thee
The months pass by and the Virgin mother gives
birth to the Savior, while angels sing glory and
peace. The Virgin mother trains the Child so that
subject to her, He grows in wisdom age and grace:
she seeks Him when lost in the temple; she Jour-
neys with Him to the temple and to the marriage
feast; she rejoces with Him in His Joys treasures
His words and love in her heart and when the hour
comes to test her love and fidelity she fails not
but stands by the cross-a-Mater Dolorosa-to
watch her Son die
$50, blessed by her Savior and Son. honored as
no one ever has been honored she will be honored
and revered by the people who in all the after years
place their faith and hope in that Son who redeemed
them, and gave the life that He received from Mary
III atonement for their sins, and who, greeting Mary
on the resurrection morning, proclaimed His con
quest over death and sin and hell
From the earliest ages of the Christian church
we find that Mary's is sung in paeons of
praise. monk, Nestorius, denies her holy place
IN the great plan of the incarnation; says she is
only the mother of the Christ. But solemn
ecumenlcal council meeting at Ephesus rejects with
indignation the false teachings, and solemnly de-
fines and declares Mary to be the mother of God
rs 1t not proper, then, that we should honor
her; that we should join the Prophet in procaiming
her 'Ave; join Christ, HIMSELF in saluting her as
Our Mother? When we hear criticism from with
out on the Catholic devotion to the Virgin mother
1t comes with poor grace from those to whom the
sacred scriptures are the only gospel; because we
feel in honoring Mary, these scriptures so advise
Us, and that they in their criticism dishonor the
blessed Sayior's and disdain the injunctions of
scriptures themselves, The Archangel saluted Mary
as full of grace" The Catholic in all ages re-
peats angelic words in the language of sacred scrip
lure. What think you then of those who criticise
Catholics who take from the scripture, and from the
Angel the words of praise for Mary, His mother?
Or what think you of a church which, claiming in
any way to be the church of Christ or, in other
words, the family of Christ, would rise up to say
that in that family the mother of Christ shall have
place; that In that church the one blessed
amongst women shall receive no benedictionl As
for us, true to scripture true to Master, true
to all that IS beautiful and good in human life,
shall remain devoted to mother because she for
her virtues merits our honor, for her august posi-
ton she proves her worth, and makes her place be-
side her Son place of power and dignity, while
her title as mother of all the living merits our
reverence and affection.
"But again the blessed mother has not only
close and holy bond uniting her to the church and
binding all the children thereof in holy and rever
entail union, the blessed mother has also relation
to this civilization of ours which is paramount
You will, I think, admit that of the tests of
civilizations greatness, test of its progress or
decay. is the position that woman attains therein
Her place in the home, her place before the chill
dren her place IN the popular mlnd-these indicate
the standard that civilization has attained in the
world Now if we take this the test of civiliza-
ton before blessed Lord came, will find that
though in some aspects there were civilizations
noted for domestic and national virtues, yet not
in one of them (Grecian and Roman not excepted) |
had woman whether wife, mother daughter,
7nv recognition-her influence was unfelt because
she had nczse 10 weld-a place of honor denied her
because she was deemed unworthy of any.
''When our blessed Lord came earth to re-
L. ;rr;,, L. rInl