South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-10-18
FATHER CONWAY
SPEAKS ON MARY
Declares Blessed Virgin is No
Ordinary Woman as Shown
in Scriptures.

In his sermon on THE Blessed Vir-
gin" the Rev. Father Conway. mis-
sioner at St Joseph's church, Sunday
morning gave an interesting talk on
the place of the Mother of God in the
Catholic faith
Father Conway said on this point:
Speaking of expressions of devo-
ton, RUskin says that they are rather
poetical illusions than serious pray
ers: the utterances Of ina ginative en-
thusiasm rather than reasonable con-
viction. And as such, they are rather
to be condemned as illusory and fic-
titious than as idolatrous: nor even
as such condemned altogether, for
strong love and faith are often the
roots of them, and the errors of affec-
ton are better than the accuracies Of
apathy We read in the Scripture
(Josue, X, 14) of the Lord obeying
the voice of a man Now, this does
not mean a real obedience, but Gods
readiness TO hear the prayer of Josue.
ITO say that Mary Commands God
is heretical doctsine decree Of the
Roman Inquisition. Feb. 2S, 1879. If
the expression is used, il merely i'm
plies that out OF His great love for
His mother, Jesus Christ is ever ready
to bear her prayer. Every country
has it's peculiar idioms, which a for
eigner must master; so the church has
her idioms, which non-Catholics
should learn before they find fault
No Ordinary Woman.
Why do you pay so much honor
to the Blessed Virgin when she was
only an ordinary woman on earth?'
we are often asked
The Blessed Virgin was not an
ordinary woman. Would the Father,
having the choice of countless mill
lions. create an ordinary woman TO
be the mother Of His only begOtten
Son? 1t is preposterous even TO inn
agine il. On the contrary. she is the
most extraordinary OF women, before
whom the greatest saints of the old
law and the new pale as to the stars
at the rising of the sun.
1--WE honor her as the masterpiece
of God-whom God honored, indeed,
above all creatures in her divine ma
ternity An ordinary woman Why
the Prophet Isaiah tells of her lisa.
vii:14 coming; the court of heaven
sends an Embassy TO her duke. 1920;
the Angel Gabriel salutes her with
the words, Hail. full of grace, the
Lord is with thee. blessed art thou
among women Ouke, i:2S); her
cousin, st. Elizabeth, greets her,
BLESSED art thou among women, and
blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And
whence is this to me that the mother
of my Lord should come to me? Glib,
43); and Mary herself prophesies
truly: Behold from henceforth all
generations shall call me blessed Gb..
4S). Are not we therefore, who daily
fulfill this prophecy, stamped thereby
as belonging to the generations OF
Gods people? Must we not love her
who was close to Christ from Bethle-
hem to Golgotha? Must we not love
the virgin mother of God, immacu-
lately conceived and sinless, who
shows the world what human nature
is capable of through the grace of
God, who teaches men the dignity of
motherhood and the purity of virgin
ity. which the pagans of those days
had forgotten?
"'Do not the terms applied to the
Virgin in the Catholic prayer books
border on blasphemy? is another
question frequently put.
No Blasphemy.
We readily grant that some ex-
pressions in Catholic prayer-books or
books Of devotion are literally ineXact
and exaggerated; but there is no SEM
blance TO blasphemy, for every Cath
Ollie knows perfectly their true sense.
We must in all honesty carefully dis
tinguish the language of dogma. To
the unprecedented the eXaggeraton. II
there be any, will always be manifest,
and the accuracy of dogma may be
easily obtained by consulting a cate
chism or a manual OF theology.
often the impassioned words char
acteristic of the Italian or Spaniard
may be distasteful TO the colder and
less imaginative Englishman or Amer
lean. The expression of an ardent
lover to his sweetheart may not all
be literally true. for warmth of feel
ing often begets exaggeration in Ian
guage But who would cavil thereat,
and ask the lover always to speak in
cold. matter-of- fact terms? Must there
be no warmth in the expression or
our love of the saints of God?
do Catholics adore the Virgin
Mary2
NO. Catholics adore God alone.
| They love and honor Mary as the
mother OF God and the greatest of His
saints but they know she is only a
creature and that therefore to adore
her would be idolatry We adore no
saints wrote St. Epiphanius in the
fourth century. Let Mary. then,
he honored. but the Father. Son and
Holy Ghost alone be adored' (Adv.
4 III H. ~