VII. On the blood shed from the wounded side.

O most compassionate Jesus, who, not yet satiated with suffering, after shedding for our sins Thy most precious blood, wouldst even after death pour forth the last drop, when, Thy side being opened by the lance of the centurion, Thy blood flowed forth mixed with water, to refresh and fertilise the Church Thy spouse; I pray Thee, by Thy most precious blood, by the great love which induced Thee to consummate the great sacrifice, and by the sharp sword which pierced the tender heart of Thy most afflicted mother, receive us into that asylum of peace, together with Thy holy Vicar, and all Thy sacred pastors and ministers; that, leading a life of perfect charity, we may all attain to love Thee eternally in heaven. I entreat of Thee to increase and strengthen Thy holy faith in all places, and enable all men to enjoy the benefits of Thy most precious blood, and of the bitter sorrows of Mary. Seven Glorias.

ON THE PRINCIPAL GROUNDS OF OUR DEVOTION TO OUR BLESSED LADY.

¡OVE and devotion to holy Mary is but the necessary consequence of a recognition of that peculiar place which she holds in the

great scheme of man's redemption and in the mystery of the incarnation, and arises in every devout and thoughtful mind, not already warped by prejudice, from spiritual musing or meditation on the Word of God, which has ever been the Catholic mode of studying the doctrine of holy revelation. By this means we strive by prayer and contemplation to penetrate into the full depth of meaning which the words of God convey, and of which the blessed Virgin herself sets us the example, when, in relation to the divine mysteries, it is said, "Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart." Once let us fully believe that the Word was made flesh, of the substance of His Mother, and a recognition of her incommu

nicable dignity is begun; for the heart must love and venerate what the mind presents to it so full of dignity and blessing the link which connects man with God, the living instrument of man's redemption. Once let us believe, with St. Paul, that we are compassed about with a great cloud of witnesses, by thousands of angels, and the spirits of the just made perfect; once let us acknowledge, with the Catholic Church, that there is a communion of Saints, consisting of all the saints militant here and triumphant in heaven; that prayer is the golden chain which unites them with God and with one another in the sweet bonds of charity, and that on prayer all our graces and our hopes of heaven depend; and the influence of Mary cannot but be felt of overwhelming importance. What vast consequences flow from the fact of her being Mother of the incarnate Word, of that Being whose name is Jesus, the Only-begotten of the Father, before whom the angels of God adore, to gaze upon whose very countenance forms the eternal beatitude of the Saints! That divine countenance, we may piously and reverently believe, bears the impress of Mary's image, His sacred body being formed from her substance, bone of her bone, flesh of her flesh.

When God had revealed to His angels the mystery of the incarnation hereafter to be wrought, wherein, by reason of the hypostatic union, such unspeakable dignity was to be conferred on human nature, and their ranks recruited from the fallen race of men, with what intense interest must they have looked down upon the race of men, and how must they have gazed with deepest love and veneration when, in her appointed time, appeared that holy Being who had been chosen by God for His instrument in this adorable mystery, she from whose very

substance was to be formed a new object of supreme adoration! And when at length the Father brought His Only-begotten into the world, how must the angels of God have adored Him, yet hidden within the womb of Mary, or clinging to her embrace! Wherever Mary turned her steps, legions of blessed spirits followed her; she became, as it were, the centre round which all creation moved, for she had within her arms heaven itself; the one supreme good and eternal joy was present with her. In venerating the Son, how impossible is it to separate Him from the being who gave Him birth! So intimate is the relation of parent and child, that their very substance is in common. Thus we cannot, when we contemplate the ineffable, eternal generation of the Son, abstract our minds from the Father, who, of His own substance, begot Him; neither, in the infinitely mysterious temporal generation, can we, in contemplating Mary's Son, forget her of whom also He was the only-begotten. Truly may we believe that, if our minds were capable of such abstraction, they would have attained a subtlety not given to the angels of God, who, whilst contemplating the virgin Mother of the Only-begotten of the Father, would indeed stop short of adoration by an infinite degree; but their feeling would pass into such a channel of tender love and veneration, as is due to her who bears, and shall for ever bear, the incommunicable name of Mother of God. Either we must deny, with the Gnostic, that the Word of God took to Him a true body of the seed of Adam, or, with the Nestorian, assert that Christ's personality was not divine, but human; in other words, that He was the Son of God by adoption, not by nature; a man singularly favoured with Divine grace, but not truly God, as He was truly man; or else, admitting the definition of the Catholic

Church, that Mary is truly Mother of God, we must pay, or strive to pay her, the veneration that she merits; and we must do this on the principle laid down by St. Paul, "honour to whom honour is due;" believing that no human heart can love her as she deserves; no human tongue can express her unspeakable dignity and tender love for man; for, until our minds can grasp the idea of God, they can understand but in part what it is to be His Mother.

The relation of mother and son can never be dissolved; once a mother, always a mother; she can never cease to be what she is. Our Lord, whilst on earth, did not disdain to be called that which He was, "The Son of Mary;" and He who fitted her by His grace for her high office, and owns her as His Mother upon earth, when at her call He went down with her to Nazareth, and was subject unto her,2 still owns her as His Mother before the angels of God; still pays her all the duty and the love which the most dutiful son can pay to the holiest of mothers. On earth He obeyed her in all that was the will of God; is it unreasonable to suppose that He may still in some way submit His will to Mary; that, as Mary's will is always in accordance with the will of God, the assent of Jesus follows in order the will of Mary; and that Jesus pours forth His graces upon God's elect at the intercession of Mary? And this, wonderful as it may appear, is only in accordance with the whole analogy of prayer; since it is certain that God vouchsafes, in the order of His acting, to be moved by the will of man, and by the prayers of His creatures for themselves and for others, to bestow His graces. One is not more mysterious than the other; rather they may both be part of one 1 St. Mark vi. 3. 2 St. Luke ii. 51.