The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-05-31
THE QUEEN OF ALL THE MONTHS.

The month of May, said Archbishop,
Glennon, in a recent discourse, is by
the Catholic Church devoted to the
Blessed Virgin, the mother of God.
In each church special devotions will
be held in her honor. Catholics honor
the Virgin Mother because our Lord
honored her august position, because
of her stainless life, because of her
many virtues She is the queen of
May and of all the months.
She is not alone our mother; she
also is our model. A maiden all fair,
she is the lily of Israel. She is the
type, the exemplar to which Catholic
maidenhood should aspire. Long ago
Catholic mothers took their daugh-
tiers to Mary's shrine that there they
might pray to the Virgin; there to
seek inspiration to live as she lived,
to grow as grew the Virgin Mary.
Virtue is a very delicate flower,
from which, especially in the case of
young women, it is easy to brush the
bloom away. It is possible the flower
will bloom and it's beauty remain. 1t
is possible and easiest when Mary is
the model initiated, and, as with her,
Christ's sacred commands are full
filled
The good example of the Blessed
Mother is especially necessary today,
when so many of our young women
forget the modesty and humility be-
coming to them.
Again so many wives and mothers,
neglect their homes, forget their child
rem and seek the pleasures to be found
elsewhere.
Mary is the model also for the wife
and the mother who care for and
guard their homes as all true mothers
should. She was queen in the home
and preserved her queenliness by leav-
ing it only to perform the duty of
friendship and hospitality, visiting her
cousin Elizabeth to seek her son,
whom she found in the temple, to
offer him there in the presentation for
the marriage feast, or lastly, when
when she went to Calvary to the cruel
fixion.
The true mother should be queen
in the home, and a queen she will be
as long as she remains there. But
when she leaves her home to become
more independent she invariably loses
her queenly title and becomes instead
mere nuisance or troublesome para
site 1t is very doubtful if women to-
day are not really losing their real
power by seeking a larger place in
public life.
While there is no dual standard of
morals, yet because of her sex, her
nearness to the child, his life and
training, we look to the women as
the chief standby of the home, moral
ity and civilization.
The church teaches that the Bless
ed Virgin was predestined to be the
Mother of God; that she was pre-
served from the stain of sin even
from the first moment of her life;
that she has right to be called the
Mother Of God; that she is the great
est of all created beings, is blessed
among women, queen of angels and
saints, mother of all who believe.
The church holds her up as a
model to young women by her mod
esty, simplicity and goodness; to the
wife, because of her fidelity, obedi-
ence and devotion: to mothers because
of her devotion to her home and to the
child Jesus.
The Archbishop compared the life
of the times as being the very an
tithesis of the life of the mother of
Christ, examples of this being pres
ent, he said in the modern dances
and modes of entertainment. He COM
mended mothers faithful in leading
their daughters to the shrine OF
Mary, the queen of May, and con-
demned those who desert the shrine
of Mary for the tents of Bacchus,
and permit their daughters to attend
dances presided over by Venus, the
goddess of impure love.
These fond parents, he said, think
the Bacchanalian orgies and sugges-
tive dances will lead to matrimony
They don't. They lead to death.