MARY S PRAISE ON EVERY TONGUE ROEHAMPTON I PRINTED BY JOHN GRIFFIN OUR LADY OF LOURDES. Original stntue modelled under Bernadette s direction. MARY S PRAISE ON EVERY TONGUE A RECORD OF HOMAGE PAID TO OUR BLESSED LADY IN ALL AGES AND THROUGHOUT THE WORLD By P. J. CHANDLERY, S.J. " " Author of Pilgrim Walks in Rome PREFACE by Fr. BERNARD FAUGHAN, S.J. LONDON : THE MANRESA PRESS, ROEHAMPTON, S.W. W. E. BLAKE & SON, Limited Catholic Church Supplies 123 Church St. Toronto, Canada 5 4 NIHIL OBSTAT F. Thomas Bergh, O.S.B. Censor deputatus. IMPRIMATUR fPetrus Epus Southwarc. TO MARY THE IMMACULATE MOTHER OF GOD THIS SIMPLE TRIBUTE OF AFFECTION IS OFFERED THROUGH THE HANDS OF HER LOVING CLIENT ST. JOHN BERCHMANS, In conformity with the decree of Pope Urban VIII, the author hereby declares that any extra ordinary events related in this volume of persons not canonized or beatified, are to be accepted as resting on mere human testimony, with no wish to forestall the Church s judgment in the matter. AUTHOR S PREFACE following notes on Mary s Praise, originally -*- intended only for private devotion and for instruc tions to Religious, have been rearranged and prepared for publication at the urgent request of several devout serve to persons, in the hope that they may promote in greater devotion to our loving Mother, especially Eng land. The work, necessarily compressed to lessen the expense of printing, differs in character from most English works on the subject, inasmuch as it does not contain a series of meditations or reflections on our Lady s life and virtues, nor of devotional exercises in her honour : its aim is rather to show the enthusiasm with which devotion to her has been taken up in all countries and by all classes of " persons, especially in Catholic England, Mary s Dowry." It abounds in matters scriptural, patristic, historical and biographical, and will be found touchingly suggestive of holy thoughts, most helpful in private meditation and in addresses to Sodalists and others. Such a work might easily have been expanded into a volume three times the size, but the price would then have made its purchase prohibitive to many who might wish to possess a copy for private devotion. .CtL viii AUTHOR S PREFACE Fr. S. Marie et la de Drive, J. (" Compagnie Jesus," p. 133) relates that St. John Berchmans made the following request to his friend and brother-scholastic Nicholas Ratka i : "If you live, won t you write some book in honour of our Lady, and particularly in honour of her Immaculate Con " ception ? He added : "I have made a vow to write such a book, and I have in my mind the plan I wish to work out, viz., explaining the figures of the Immaculate Conception, then the direct arguments, then the miracles, etc." Whether Nicholas Ratkai ever carried out this request is but the a unknown ; present writer, who during pro longed stay in Rome often knelt at the shrine of the youth ful Saint, in the church of Sant Ignazio, may be permitted to offer through his hands to our Immaculate Mother this small tribute of loving affection, simple and imperfect as it is, hoping that it may do some little good by making her better known, better loved, and more widely praised. MANRESA HOUSE, ROEHAMPTON. October, 1919. PREFACE MARY IMMACULATE FT is to me a strange phenomenon," wrote the late * Cardinal Newman, " that so many learned and devout men stumble at the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, and I can only account for it by supposing, in matter of fact, they do not know what we mean by the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception." " Cardinal is the learned " The right ; and devout men to whom he refers, in attacking the doctrine of the Imma culate Conception, are assailing it, not in the sense in which it is denned by the Church, but in the sense only in which they themselves fancy it must be denned by Her. There is a proverb which says : "He that understands amiss, concludes worse." This being so, it may not be alto gether out of place to give here in a foreword to this most interesting and edifying volume, all in praise of God s Mother, a short exposition of the doctrine without the knowledge of which it is no easy matter to arrive at a true estimate of Mary s dignity and sanctity. And here, let me observe, that my experience teaches me x PREFACE that one of the chief reasons why " learned and devout men," outside the Church, do not understand the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, is because they misunder stand the doctrine of Original Sin. Not knowing the cannot realize the to the rule not rule, they exception ; the cannot see the recognizing penalty, they privilege ; in other words, not appreciating what we mean by the stain and guilt of Original Sin, they do not and cannot know what is meant by exemption from it. Besides personal sin, which may be mortal or venial, there is another sin called a quasi-personal sin. It is the sin inherited by the human family from Adam, who, as origin and constituted head of the human family, has transmitted to his posterity that state of forfeiture of grace, into which he fell when he transgressed God s law in the Garden of Paradise. Revelation teaches us that Adam, having forfeited for himself through an act of prevarication Sanctifying Grace, together with all its formal effects, and those preternatural gifts, with which God had dowered his being when He created it, has, as our rightly constituted head, trans mitted to us those fatal consequences of his lawlessness. Accordingly, each member of the human family is con ceived and is born in a state of forfeiture and disinherit " ance. Hence the cry of the royal psalmist : Behold I was conceived in iniquity, and in sin did my mother con ceive me." Since Adam s fall, Man, his descendant, comes into this world despoiled of that divine life of grace which finally PREFACE xi develops into the life of glory. Ti]l reinstated in grace, Man, being without supernatural life, is without a super natural end to life. He is a wandering star, and, till grace restores him to divine sonship, he is no heir of God or co-heir with Christ. I have stated the rule let me now pass on to its excep tion. Mary is its exception. When we speak of her Immaculate Conception we mean to say that Mary did not incur the fatal consequences of Adam s fall from Grace mean to that the favour of ; we say she, by special God, was exempted from Original Sin, so that there was no moment of her life, either after or before her birth, in which she was in a state of forfeiture. On the contrary, sinless and stainless in her origin, she started her race for Heaven, enriched with a wealth of grace, short only of infinite. It is not my purpose here to do more than set before the readers of this book what is meant by the Immaculate Conception. Once we begin to realize the meaning of the doctrine, all Catholic outpouring of appreciation, eulogy " and love of God s great masterpiece, the Woman clothed with the Sun," becomes intelligible and reasonable. This volume is a bouquet of flowers offered at Mary s feet her ; they symbolize virtues, they are tokens of our child-like, clinging love of her, who, as she gave to us her Son, can win for us His grace and His love. What she has been in the past, to sinner as well as to saint, may she be to us, who sorely need her help. From her, as from no library, we learn to know the workings of the Sacred xii PREFACE from as from no Heart ; her, Director, we may gather secrets of our and from as from no the sanctity ; her, other mother, we may be sure of guidance in life, of care in sickness, of comfort in sorrow, and of special love and help in death. Never can we tire of lifting up our eyes, our hearts and our voices to this incomparable and ever blessed Mother. " Above the Moon her face reflecting Heaven, Beneath her feet the Earth with all its strife, Thus is she pictured who to man hath given The Source, the Author, and the Crown of Life. Thou beauteous promise of Creation s dawn, Destined restorer of our fallen state, Brightest Star that ushered in Redemption s morn, " Shine on our darkness, Oh! Immaculate ! BERNARD VAUGHAN, S.J. CONTENTS PAGE Our Lady greatly honoured i I By God the Father . .* . II By God the Son ,~~ . 4 6 III By God the Holy Ghost. 8 IV By the Angels . / 1 1 V By Patriarchs and Prophets . VI By Figures in the Old Law . .13 . 16 VII By the Apostles . , VIII By Early Christians . .18 IX By Early Fathers of Eastern Church . 21 X By Early Fathers of Western Church . 24 XI By Decrees of Councils . .27 XII By Invocations in Ancient Liturgies . 29 XIII By Saints of the XII Cent. < . 31 " XIV By Saints of the XII Cent, (cont.) . 34 XV By Saints of the XIII Cent. .36 XVI By Saints of the XIII Cent. (cont.). 4 XVII By Saints of the XIV Cent.