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Show Devotion to the Blessed Virgin i Archbishop Gler.non's Eloquent Address. Feast of the Assumption. Historical Facts, Appeal to Sacred Scriptures. A Promise Fulfilled. Civilization Inseparable Insepara-ble From Woman. Middle Ages. Example Exam-ple All Powerful. Loved by AH Nations. Evils of Divorce. Place of Honor Assigned As-signed to Mary. The eloquent sermon of the distinguished archbishop arch-bishop of St. Lou is. commented on o favorably by the entire pres. of the city, will b- l-ng remembered . by all wlm were present at the services. Reading, the Gospel for the Feast, of the Assumption, the preacher began his sermon, saying : S. "Today "we dedicate to Almighty God. our j merciful Father, this new and beautiful temple. And we place it under the auspices of the great sain who. representing humanity in her penitence, heiu-d from the blessed Savior the words of console con-sole tion. 'Thy sins are forgiven thee because thou hast lived much.' It was she who became in her penitence and devotion the illustrious follower of the Master, rejoicing with Him in His joy. following fol-lowing Him in His journey to the cross, and at that place by others deserted, standing with Mary, His mother, at the foot of the cross; she was to be the last beneath the shadow of the dying Savior and the first to welcome Him risen from the tomb. It is her forgiveness and life that remain for all time the sublime expression of the great charity of our Lord and Savior. He who will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, who came to save sinners, to call them to repentance, to bring back the lost, sheep of the house of Israel and to teach that, however bruised and broken the individual indi-vidual be. yet that human life, though a broken vessel, is still deemed worthy of the life and sacrifice sacri-fice of the Almighty. This is, therefore, a day when Cod's mercy to men should stand as the first lesson of our beautiful ceremony. "It must be a day of special joy, and of speial thanksgiving for your venerable bishop, who now r sees crowned the labor of many years, and today ' watches the transferring of this majestic temple from the hands that toiled in its uplifting, to the . Lord for whom it. was built. Again, it is an ? auspicious day, for have you not with you a group of prelates so numerous as rarely to be seen in the western land men individually eminent in their various dioceses as in the church at large '. And yet they are pleased to be with you and your bishop on this occasion. Auspicious is it. because of these distinguished visitors from outside, and particularly because at their head today, in this sanctuary, as at their head in all these United States, stands that prince among prelates, that prince of the j church universal. His Eminence James. Cardinal I Gibbons. It is a long way from here to Baltimore. j It is longer from here to Rome, yet distance is today to-day overcome, and the pleasing spectacle is presented pre-sented of the prince pastor of Santa Maria in Trastevere coming to greet his brother, the pastor of Santa Maria in Salt Lake City. Lastly is it an auspicious day because it is the feast of the Mother, the feast of the Virgin, the Assumption Day of the Queen, the feast known wherever the church i known as the 'Lady Day of Christendom and the church. . . "I would ask your thought for this feast of ours, because it is the feast, day of the blessed mother, and because through the blessed Lord's; public ministry as well, and particularly toward its close, the Mary whose feast we celebrate and the Mary to whom a temple we dedicate, were friends; the one always the recipient of our blessed Lord's honor and affection, the other of his mercy and forgiveness. And I would direct your thoughts especially to the position of the blessed mother in her relation to the Catholic church and Catholic devotion; de-votion; in her relation to society and social well-being; well-being; in her relation to Christian morals and their permanency. ' "Do we speak of the Blessed Mother in her rela- tion to the Catholic church, the Christian religion? We may have to meet at the very outset the objec- ; ! tion of the modern religious purist who would claim : that 'Mary has, or should have, no place in Chris- ; tion service, in Catholic devotion for what was I the blessed Mary but an humble maiden of Israel '' I who became accidentally an instrument unto the I incarnation of the blessed Lord? We will admit.' ; ! they say, 'that she was pious and virtuous, but there ? 5 were many others such as she among the women of II Israel. When Christ would become man it was 1 necessary that He be born of woman and Mary was the woman selected; but the selection was not ' j made with regard to the personal merit of the ' j Virgin; it was only an act of divine condescension to one of His creatures.' ' ''This, my dear friends, is the average teaching ', J outside the Catholic church today concerning the I ! blessed Virgin, and if it were true, it would follow that Mary deserves no more than passing notice, to : be ranked at best with Esther and Judith and the ' I other good women of her race. ! s "But we may not agree with such a view, for I it is false to history; it is false to fact; it is false f to our, Mother. ; ! "True. Mary- was a creature a human being ' just as human as we are: and true is. it also as a ! consequence that, as there must ever remain an infinite distance between the creature and the . i Creator, we may not. cannot, give to Mary or to any other creature the worship and adoration duo to God alone. This we admit. Catholics the world . over and during all the history of the church have j so held, and taught, and practiced. "But while this is true, we next and with equal j j energy profess that Mary was not a mere accidental selection, not a mere pious woman of Israel; but that she was preordained, and, by God's grace and ' the merits of the Redeemer, prepared by her high j and holv mission, the highest and holiest evtr ppr- j formed by a human being; that she was prefigured I in type and prophecy, and by the singular provi- j : Continued on Pacp 5, ' '' DEVOTION TO THEBLESSED VIRGIN honor and to look to herT4 WrfS f Smg duty to deepest affection. hlghe? reTCrnce and "And for proof of those things we need do no -le source of his Sf hf u ou t f to which he is filing to make an appeal. At the very beginning, in the very first chapter of Genesis, when the sacred writer records the his JT fallen man. If the enemy has conquered, and Uxil is for the moment triumphant, yet between the ev one and the woman' there shall be constant enmftv 7lfte read?' Sha11 Crush the nent'8 head. So at the very dawn of history, when man emerges therefrom, though the light of God' presence pres-ence is withdrawn because of sin, yet there fei rift m the clouds, and distant though the day of redemption be, he sees through the rift the blessed promise of the coming Redeemer, Marv's child, who was to conquer sin and death "Onward we go through the pages of the Old Shw 'ii 7" tW pW return to hat first blessed promise, when the prophets o hope arise, -when the poet-seers, looking into the future tell of the great day that is yet to be-as the outline of the vision becomes clearer and clearer so also do they more accurately, define the dignity and prerogatives of Mary. Isaiah tells of a Redeemer; Re-deemer; how was He to come? 'Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son.' Seer-like, they 'behold 'be-hold in vision this virgin approach, and ask in the ocstasy of this vision who she is: 'Who is she who cometh up from the desert?' and the answer comes: i hou art all fair, oh my beloved, and there is not a spot m thee.' Is she not even as fair as the moon, as bright as the sun, terrible as an army set m battle array? To these ancient prophets the lrgin mother was no accident, but a being of definite outline, virginal, beautiful, clothed with majesty and honor. "And when we come 'to the New Testament the fulfillment of the promise we find all this veri- fied. The rift in the clouds broadens, the air is v. warmed with the flush of the coming day, the J rustle cf the Angel's wings is heard, and the great I angel messenger of Go.d, Gabriel, comes with the message to the humble Virgin at Xazareth, and . ,. salute? her in terms never before spoken to human ; being: 'Hail, full of grace! 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-f jour-f neys with Him to the temple, and to the marriage feast; she rejoices with Him in His joys, treasures His vrds 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. "So, 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 diem, and gave the life that He received from Mary in atonement for their sins, and who, greeting Mary on the resurrection morning, proclaimed His conquest con-quest over death and sin and hell. "From the earliest ages of the Christian church we find that Mary's name is sung in paeons of praise. A monk, Xestorius, denies her holy place in the great plan of the incarnation; says" she is only the mother of the man Christ. But a solemn ecumenical council meeting at Ephesus rejects with indignation the false teachings, and solemnly defines de-fines and declares Mary to be the mother of God. "Is it not proper, then, that we should honor her; that we should join the Prophet in proclaiming her 'Ave:' join Christ, Himself; in saluting her as Our Mother? When we hear criticism from without with-out on the Catholic, devotion to the Virgin mother, it 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 Savior's and disdain the injunctions of scriptures themselves. The Archangel saluted Mary as 'full of grace," The Catholic in all ages repeats re-peats angelic words in the language of sacred scrip-xure. scrip-xure. What think, you then of those who criticise , Catholics, who take from the scripture, and from the J 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 no place; that in that church the one 'blessed amongst women' shall receive no benediction? As for us, true to scripture, true to our Master, true to all that is beautiful and good in human life, we chall remain devoted to our mother; because she for her virtue1? merits our honor, for her august position posi-tion she proves her worth, and makes her place be- side her Son a place of power and dignity, while her title as 'mother of all the living' merits our f reverence and affection. "But again the blessed mother has not only a close and holy bond, uniting her to the church and t binding all the children thereof in a holy and reverential rever-ential union, the blessed mother has also a relation to this civilization of ours which is paramount. You will, I think, admit that one of the tests of a civilization's greatness, a test of its progress or decay, is the position that woman attains therein. i Her place in the home, her place before the chil- " dren, her place in the popular mind these indicate the standard that civilization has attained hi the world. Now, if we take this as the test of civilization civiliza-tion before our blessed Lord. came, we 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 as wife, mother or daughter, anv recognition her influence was unfelt because she had nc::-c to wield a place of honor denied her because she was deemed unworthy of any. "When our blessed Lord came on earth to re- deem and save it, the blessed Virgin who guarded i: : His infant life, who followed Him to Calvary, who stood beneath the cross, who was honored as His i. (- mother, became to all His spiritual children hence- forth a mother, and became then and for all time ' the tvpe of what the Christian wife" and mother should be. And as the Kingdom of the Cross became be-came more firmly established, so also she who stood by the cross grew in influence and power. Womanhood, Woman-hood, that at her coming was degraded, helpless and hopeless, finds in her a friend and an inspiration, for as Mary was honored so should be honored the mothers, wives and daughters of those who would revere and adore the Christ. "But it was only when barbarism was conquered that woman began to fully benefit by the protection f of their Christian faith and the example of Mary, their mother. "In those crude but vital ages, now for better or worse forever gone, those middle ages, called by s various names as men love or hate their memories, we witness the coming together of barbarism and faith. We watch the struggle and hear the clash ' of arms and the voice of the preacher. The men ' swore and drank, as did their barbarian forefathers ia the forests of the Northland; but, anon, above their passions and their pride, there arose the conquering con-quering symbol of peace and good will. The standard stan-dard of the Crucified One rises over city and hamlet, ham-let, and the strong, impetuous children of the Northland North-land lower their standards and accept the sweet yoke of the gospel; while close to that cross, as on Calvary, stood also for them the sweet mother Mary, compelling not alone their deepest admiration, admira-tion, but eliciting also their heart's love. Her . name will they honor; for her will they henceforth draw their swords. She will govern their homes while they go forth, and home-coming they will bring to her shrine the treasures that they gather. And as they honor Mary, so they will honor their own wife and daughter and mother, for of all these Mary is the tj-pe, and as God has honored her, so shall her sex be honored. So we have, in the be- ginning of chivalry under the influence of faith, the proper place finally accorded to the wife and mother and daughter in the economy of the Christian Chris-tian world. So that if today the degradation and miserable lot of the women of pagan times has given way; if the woman is no longer regarded as the property and slave of man; if she reaches up to, her dignity and can assume the proud position she holds today; if, I say, woman is honored in the home, it is because that Nazareth home where Mary ruled has been its type and forerunner ; if the Christian Chris-tian matron and mother is honored today, it is because be-cause the mother of the Christ on being herself exalted has lifted her up and ennobled her. The slaves of antiquity are the ladies of today gentlewomen, gentle-women, queens and they owe it after Christ to the first Lady who could say that henceforth all generations genera-tions shall call her blessed. "But not alone for woman's elevation has the blessed Virgin been a power. Her refining influence in-fluence is felt in every form of life. She becomes an inspiration unto all noble endeavor, unto all heroic sacrifice, unto all holy and exalted living. She enters the temple and there her litanies are chanted. She appears to the little children, and there her shrines are builded. She enters the heart of the artist, and he seeks to fix on canvas but all in vain the majestic presence that fills his soul. Yet he would try, and behold! the canvas glows with his creation. There is the Madonna a virginal face, all pure, or a mother all tender, or a 'mater dolorosa' wrapped in the mantle of despair. Whence comes these effects? He can see in that youthful face of the Virgin, shining through her eyes, the . dawn of the eternal day. He can see the hues of the morning, the solemnity of the eve, the gladness of the accomplished promise, the sorrow of the sword-pierced heart all gathered in that one beautiful, beau-tiful, pitying Madonna face. Whence comes it that all this could be seen and set, on canvas by the , artists of the long ago, while today those who would be their successors cannot even be their imitators, and can only look with despair on these masterpieces master-pieces of ages of faith? It was because when Rafael lived and Corrcggio and Murillo and Fra Angelico, the hand that painted was clean and the heart of the artist was filled with visions of faith and pure love. Mary was the queen over all hearts, and at once their inspiration and reward. "My brethren, if ever in the world's history, this, day is the day and this nation is the nation when we must take the blessed mother her place, her history his-tory and her example, and apply them to the social conditions that surround us. We may boast of an advanced civilization; we may boast of great commercial com-mercial prosperity; we may boast of a commanding position among the nations of the earth, but what will these stand for, if beneath the surface there be a beginning of our decay and fall? What solace is there in riches, power or influence if the standard of life is lowered; if the home begins to fall, and with their failure a happiness that heretofore dwelt therein also disappears i , What use to speak of greatness abroad, if we only have to contemplate weakness at home? And yet is it not true that paralleling our advancing wealth and prestige there is also through the nefarious influences around us the gradual decay of the home and all it stands for? Is it not true that the position of a great multitude of women is made miserable, if not impossible, by the deadly action of the divorce court, while those who have not had recourse to this same tribunal await with anxiety the outcome of the injustice done their sisters before them, expecting that their time will soon come to be made wives that are abandoned., mothers that are compelled to struggle for themselves them-selves and their children alone ? The upbuilding of 2,000 years in the blessed mothers influence, the blossoming out of the Christian home and all it stands for are now imperiled, and it looks as if that first and best result, humanly speaking, of our Christian civilization is soon apparently to pass away. Have we not reason then to turn to her whose influence has been for woman's elevation, whose example has been for the stability and the perpetuity of the home, and whose life has by its many virtues ennobled all her sex? Have we not a right to turn to her today and to pray to her that she may restore Christianity to the home and such blessed influence as she exercised in Xazareth long ago, guiding still and guarding those who would claim kinship with her divine Son and membership in the family of Christ? "In truth, it is high time to call a halt, and say to the neo-pagan the destroyer of the home, the leaders in this ruthless revolution to say, before it is too late, that the homes we have builded are sanctuaries, sanc-tuaries, and that none may enter either by the decree de-cree of the court or' the desire of the libertine to desecrate these homes or pillage them of their treasures; that with all the strength of our Christian Chris-tian faith and devotion we shall uphold what has cost so much and so long to make a permanent institution and a foundation at once for all future progress and prosperity; that we shall honor and continue to honor the names pf wife and mother, and will not allow to become broken links those we hold to be the golden chain binding our civilization " together, uniting, generation to generation in the 'solid bond of their devoted lives. "This new and hopeful land of ours has been specially dedicated to Mary under the title of her Immaculate Conception. It is our duty as Catholics, as well as citizens, to uphold that which Mary, our mother, represents, to make her reign complete in the duty and strength of her daughters; in the permanency and stability of our homes; and thereby there-by in the ennobling and strengthening of our national na-tional life. For as the home is today so shall be the republictomorrow ; as life in the home is today to-day so shall be the national life tomorrow. We build wisely, therefore, who build under the influence influ-ence of the blessed mother ; we worship wisely when we stand with her at the foot of the cross; we pray wisely when we say, with the Angel, 'Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with the,' or, kneeling with the sinners, we say to her, 'Holy Mary, mother of God, prav for -us sinners now and at the hour of our death.' " |