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Show TEE BLESSED VIRGIN. j (By His Eminence Cardinal Gibbons.) j The world is governed more by ideals than by ideas; it is Influenced more by ! living, concrete models than by abstract principles of virtue. ! i The model held up to Christian women 1 ! Is not the Amazon, glorying in her mar- j tial deeds and prowess; it is not the Spartan woman who made female per- i tection consist in the development of physical strength at the expense of d-eirum d-eirum and moaesty; it is not the goddess of impure love, like Venus, whose vo- i taries regard beauty of form and per- j sonal charms as the highest type of le- i male excellence; nor is it the goddess of ! imperial will like Juno. No, the model ' held up to woman from the very dawn of Christianity is the peerless Mother of ( our Blessed Redeemer. I She ia the pattern of virtue alike to j maiden, wife and mother. She exhibits j the virginal modesty becoming the maid, ; the conjugal fidelity and loyalty of the : spouse, and the untiring devotedness of the mother. The Christian woman is everywhere j confronted by her great model. Mary's portrait gazes down upon her from the i wall. Her name is repeated in the pages of the book before her. Her eulogy ia . pronounced from the pulpit. Altars and temples are dedicated In her honor. Fes- tivals are celebrated in her praise. In a word, the Virgin Mother is indelibly stamped on the intellect, the heart, the memory and the imagination of the Christian Chris-tian daughter. The influence of Mary, therefore, in the moral elevation of woman can hardly be overestimated. She is the perfect combination of all that is great and good and noble In Pagan womanhood, with no alloy of degradation. Hers is exquisite beauty, but a beauty more of the soul than of the body; it delights without intoxicating. The contemplation con-templation of her excites no inward re-hellion, re-hellion, as too often happens with Grecian 1 ' models. She is the mother of fair love j devoid of sickly sentimentality or sensu-. sensu-. ality. I i In her we find force of will without , pride or imperiousness. Wo find In her j moral strength and heroism without the sacrifice of female grace and honor a ! heroism of silent suffering rather than ' noisy action. What Spartan mother ever displayed such fortitude as Mary exhibited exhib-ited at the foot of the cross? It seems to me that some writers are disposed to lay undue stress on the admirable ad-mirable and tender qualities of Mary and I of holy Christian women without dwell-! dwell-! Ing sufficiently on the strong and robust Eolnts of their character. The Holy , cripture in one place rronounces a I lengthened eulogy on woman. What does j the Holy Ghost especially admire in her? Not her sweet and amiable temper or her gentle disposition, though of course she possessed these qualities, for no woman is perfect without them. No: He admires her valor, courage, fortitude, and the ' sturdy virtue of self-reliance. He does not say, "Who shall find a gentle woman?" but rather, "Who shall find a valiant woman? As things brought from afar and from the uteermost coasts is the price of her." It is only heroic virtues practiced in a heroic degree that the church canonizes. After our Lord Jesus Christ, no one has ever exercised so salutary an influence influ-ence as the Blessed Virgin on society, on the family and on the individual. The Mother of Jesus exercises throughout through-out the Christian commonwealth that hallowing Influence which a good mother wields over the Christian family. What temple or chapel, how rude soever it may be, is not adorned with a painting or statue of the Madonna? What house Is not embellished with an image of Mary? What Catholic child is a stranger to her familiar face? The priest and the layman, the scholar and the illiterate, the prince and the 1 peasant, the mother and the'' maid i acknowledge her benign sway. And if Christianity is so fruitful In comparison with paganism in conjugal fidelity, in female purity, and .in the respect re-spect paid to womanhood, these bless-; bless-; ings are in no small measure due to the force of Mary's all pervading example and Influence. Ever . since the Son of God chose a woman to be His mother, man looks up to woman with a homage akin to veneration. The poet Tennyson pays the following tribute to Mary's sanctifying influence: This is indeed th Wssed Mary's land, Virgin and Mother of our dear Re- : j (k-emer! ! All hearts are touched and softened at her name; Alike the bandit with the bloody hand. ; The priest, the prince, the scholar and the peasant. The man f dreams, the visionary j dreijmer, f Pay himmse to her as one ever present! And it" our faith had given uj nothing1 more ; Than this example of all womanhood. I So mild, so men-mil, so .strong, so good. I So patient, peaceful, loval, lovinjj. pure, I l'his were enou-h t.j prove it hisner and f truer Than all tho creeds the world had known 1 before. j St. Ambrose gives the following beautiful beau-tiful picture ot .M.ixv s lite before her espousals: ' Let the life," he sys, "of the Kiessed .Mary be ever present to von. in which, as lu a mirror, tho beauty of chastity and the form of virtue shin.s forth. She was ji virgin nt only ia body, but in mir.d, who never sullied tha pur-affection pur-affection of her heart by unworthy t'el-itiEs. t'el-itiEs. She was hvmble of heart, serious in her eonversati jn. fonder of readme than of speakin?. She placed her confidence confi-dence rather in the prayer of tho poor than in the riches of this world. Shu w is ever intent on her ocoupu tiona. and au- r customed to make God. rather than man. the witness of her thoughts. Slw injured no one, wished well to ail, reverenced age, yielded not to envy, avoided all boastii-g, followed the dictates of her reason, and loved virtue. When dl I she sadden her p;irents even by a look? There was nothing forward in her looks, bold in her words, or unbecoming in her actions. Her cajrlag was not abrupt, her gait not indolent, her voice not petulant, petu-lant, so tiiat hrr very appearance was the picture of her mind and the nsur of piety." Her life as a spouse and as a mother was a counterpart of her earlier years. The Gospel relates one littl circumstance circum-stance which amply suffices t demonstrate demon-strate Mary's super-eminent holiness of life, and to exhibit her a.s a beautiful pattern to those who are cidled to rule a household. The evanlist tells us that Jesus "whs stibjert to them" that ia, to Mary and Joseph. He obeved all her commands, fulfilled her behests, complied with her smallest injunctions tn a word. He discharged toward her all tha filial observances which a dutiful son xr-oises xr-oises toward a prudent mother. These relations continued from His childhaod to His public life, nor did they ceaso een then. Now Jesus bpin;? the Son of God, "the brightness of His Clorv and the fia-uro of His substance." could not sin. He was incapable of fulfillinpr an unrighteous precept. pre-cept. The obvious conclusion tr be drawn from these facts is that Mary never sinned by commanding, as Jesus could not sin by obeying; that all her precepts and counsels were stamped with the seal of divine approbation, and that the Son never fultiiled any injunction of His earthly Mother which was not ratified by His Kternal Father In Heaven. Such Is the beautiful portrait which the Church holds up to the contemplation ! of her children, that, studying it, they may admir the original, admlrlnsr thev may love, loving they may Imitate, and thus, by the constant daily" contemplation of the highest, most perfect ideal of womanhood, become more near to God bv bein- made "conformable to the Imae of His Son." of whom Mary Is the most perfect mirror Harper's Bazar. |