OCR Text |
Show .The Rosary in Ireland. No one familiar with the Irish at home or abroad will discern any note of exaggeration in this paragraph from a paper by Father Proctor, O. P., in the Rosary Guide: "In prosperity and in adversity, in the evening of sadness and In the morning of gladness, in their joys and in their sorrows, the Beads were ever their talisman, the Rosary their anchor an-chor of hope which kept them united to Jesus, the Incarnate Son, and to Mary, the Spotless Mother. In the ages of persecution the Rosary was their 'shibboleth,' 'shib-boleth,' the password by which they were known to be 'of Christ and of God." During the dark days the Rosary Ros-ary kept the lamp of their faith ever burning in the Irish heart and in the Irish home. When the Mass was proscribed pro-scribed and' the sacred rites were put under a ban, and a price was set upon the head of the priest the soggarth aroon so dear to Erin's children the T-, .i r :j t IW&Aiy Uliut lilt- OHCCl riunuciiic Ul God and the influence of the Virgin Mother and Queen, preserved that faith in the Incarnation and In the mysteries of redemption which is the very life of the Irish race." , . We have often thought that, as Mary has "put down all heresies," so Irish dtvotion to Mary has been the efficient cause of Ireland's having ever been preserved from 'either heresy or its half-sister, schism, says Ave Maria. Alone among all countries, the Emerald Emer-ald Isle holds the distinction of never having given her adhesion, even for a day, to an anti-Pope. |