CHAPTER XLVI. Queen Conceived Without Sin.
The great and glorious Queen of Angels, of patriarchs, of prophets, of Apostles, of martyrs, of confessors, of virgins, of all saints was by a special predilection of the Creator, conceived without sin, immaculate. The illustrious Pontiff Pope Pius IX. declared this teaching a dogma of the church on the sixth day of December, 1854.
No words could be more appropriate, none more beautiful concerning our most pure, most chaste Mother Mary, our Queen Immaculate, than those of the apostolic letter of our most holy Father, Pope Pius IX. of holy memory, who proclaimed the doctrine of Mary's immaculate conception an article of faith.
From the apostolic brief we learn that God, who is ineffable, whose ways are those of mercy and truth, whose will is omnipotence itself, whose wisdom reaches irresistibly from one eternity to another and disposes of all things kindly, seeing in His prescience from all eternity the lamentable ruin of the entire human race, the consequence of Adam's transgression? and having in the hidden mystery from the beginning of the ages decreed that, by the sacrament still more mysterious, of the incarnation of the Word, He would accomplish the primitive work of His goodness, in order that man urged to wrong doing by the perfidy of the evil spirit, should not perish, contrary to the design of His mercy, and that which should come upon the first Adam was put aside in the second by a blessing greater than that misfortune, chose and prepared from the beginning and before the ages, a mother for His only Son, that taking from her His flesh and blood, He should be born in the blessed fulness of time; and He loved her among all creatures with such a love, that He placed in her alone, by a sovereign predilection, all His complaisances.
Elevating her incomparably above all the angels and saints, He favored her with the abundance of celestial gifts, taken from the divine treasury, in such a marvelous manner, that always and entirely free from all stain of sin, all beautiful and all perfect, she possessed the plenitude of innocence and of the greatest sanctity that can be conceived outside of God, and in such a way that no other, save God, can comprehend it.
And, indeed, it was in every way proper that she should always shine forth with the splendors of sanctity, the most perfect, and that entirely exempt from the taint even of original sin, she would obtain the most complete victory over the ancient serpent, that Mother, so venerable, to whom God the Father was pleased to give His only begotten Son, conceived in her heart, equal to Him, and whom He loves as Himself, and to give Him in such a way that He is naturally one and the same common Son of God the Father, and the Virgin; she whom the Son Himself chose to be substantially His Mother, she, of whom the Holy Ghost wished that, by His operation, He should be conceived and born, out of whom He Himself proceeds.
This unique and glorious triumph of the Virgin, her most excellent innocence, her purity, her sanctity, her integrity possessed free from all stain of sin, her ineffable riches, of all the heavenly graces, of all the virtues, of all the privileges, her greatness, the Fathers of the Church have recognized the image of them in the Ark of Noe, which, after being made by God's command, escaped entirely from the general deluge of the whole world: again, in the ladder of Jacob "that reached from earth to Heaven, on the rungs of which the angels of God ascended and descended, while God Himself rested on the summit of it;" by which, her untarnished innocence, and her sanctity, free from any spot, were admirably prefigured.
To describe all that has been said, or, so to say, all those divine gifts and the original integrity of the Virgin, of whom was born Jesus, the Fathers, using the words of the prophets, have likened the venerable Virgin herself to the pure dove, the holy Jerusalem, the sublime throne of God, the ark of sanctification, and the house that eternal wisdom built for Himself; to the queen, who, filled with delights and resting upon her beloved, came forth from the mouth of the Most High, all perfect, all beautiful, all lovable in the sight of God.
And revolving in their heart and mind that the Blessed Virgin Mary was in the name and by the command of God, called "full of grace" by the Angel Gabriel, when he announced to her incomparable dignity of the Mother of God; the Fathers and ecclesiastical writers have taught that, by the singular and solemn salvation, of which there is no other instance, it is declared that the Mother of God is the seat of all graces, that she is adorned with all the gifts of the Holy Ghost; still more, that she is as the infinite treasure and unsoundable depths of these gifts; in such manner that she was at no time tainted with the malediction, and that participating, in union with her Son, in the eternal benediction, she merited to hear from the lips of Elizabeth, inspired of the Holy Ghost: "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb."
It is also their belief, no less clearly expressed and unanimous, that the glorious Virgin, in whom He that is all powerful hath done great things, shone with such brilliancy in all the heavenly gifts, of the plentitude of grace, and of such innocence, that she was as an ineffable miracle of God, or rather the accumulation of all miracles, in a word, worthy to be the Mother of God: and approaching God as closely as it is possible for a created being to do, and more than all created beings, she is raised to such greatness that the praises of men and angels cannot do justice to her.
In order to bring out more clearly that state of innocence and justice, in which the Mother of God was created, they have often not only compared her to Eve, virgin, innocent and pure, before she fell into the snares of the astute serpent, but more still they place her above Eve, finding a thousand admirable means to express this superiority.
Eve, indeed, in following the suggestion of the serpent, lost her original innocence and became his slave; but the blessed Virgin, increasing constantly her original gifts, far from ever giving ear to the serpent, overcame entirely, by the divine virtue which she had received, his strength and his power.
Let all, therefore, with even more ardor and piety continue to honor, invoke and beseech the ever blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, conceived without original sin, and let all have recourse with entire confidence to that sweet Mother of grace and of mercy in all their dangers, their sorrows, their necessities and their fears.
There is nothing to dread; there is no reason to lose hope when we walk under the care, auspices, patronage and protection of her who, having for us the heart of a mother, and taking upon herself the affair of our salvation, is solicitous for all men and nations.
Made by our Lord Queen of Heaven and earth, exalted above all the choirs of angels and all the orders of saints, seated at the right hand of her only Son, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ; what she wishes she obtains; she cannot ask in vain.
CHAPTER XLVII. Queen Of The Most Holy Rosary.
Our holy mother, the Church, never ceases to look after the good and welfare of all her children. At the sight of any danger she goes to their aid and with the tender heart of a loving mother, offers them her counsel and assistance. The power of God is with her, the counsel, wisdom, understanding and fortitude of the Holy Spirit dwell in her, and the promise of her Divine Founder, Jesus Christ, that He would be with her all days to the consummation of the world, is wonderfully verified.
The teachings and practices of the Church meet the needs of all men and times. She offers to incredulous scoffers of holy religion the devotion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; those who deny original sin, she confronts with the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary: upon those who seek but gain and are given to a voluptuous life, she presses the life of the poor, simple and indefatigable Saint Joseph, the chaste spouse of the ever glorious and Blessed Mother of the Saviour. To all she holds up Mary as their help, their support, their secure refuge, rich in every virtue, and blessed with the plentitude of the graces of Heaven.
Many, very many, devotions have Mary for their object. There is one among them that seems to embrace all other acts of piety in her honor, that of the devotion of the Holy Rosary. It was in France, in the province of Languedoc, that it originated in the beginning of the thirteenth century. At this time, great havoc was being wrought in the Church by the revival of an ancient heresy, that of the Albigenses.
Both Church and state united their forces against the common foe, but to no purpose. It was reserved in the plan of Divine Providence, for a holy, zealous religious, a true man of God, Saint Dominic, to suppress the disorders, and obtain a signal victory over heresy and irreligion.
He had labored strenuously to bring back to God, those deluded souls, yet little headway was made. He fortified himself in season and out of season by prayer. One day while the Saint was in fervent recollection, tears dimming his eyes, pleading with God to show mercy to the enemies of Christ and His Church, Mary, upon the part of God, disclosed to him the means whereby he would triumph over those poor wandering souls and obtain victory for the Church.
"Know," said the Blessed Virgin to him, "Oh, my son, that the means which the Adorable Trinity employs for the salvation of this world is in the Angelic Salutation, which is the foundation of the New Testament. If, then, you wish to overcome hardened hearts, preach my rosary."
Without delay, Saint Dominic obeyed the heavenly vision, and, with the rosary as his only weapon, he set out to win to God souls dear to Him and to Mary. This vision of the Blessed Virgin to Saint Dominic was not her first, nor has it been her last to favored souls. Often she has been, so to say, God's angel bearing glad tidings to men of good will.
The happy results of the preaching of the rosary were marvelous, for history places the number of those misguided souls who returned to the service of holy religion, at above one hundred thousand families. A glorious victory for Mary and her rosary.
This, however, was but an earnest of what in after years the rosary was to win of victories for Christ and His Church in every land and clime. Today, every devout child of holy mother Church clings to His rosary as to His very life, knowing that this devotion is the power that will enable him to overcome the devil, the world and the flesh. Rather than part with his rosary he would sacrifice his life, for losing his life in such a cause would be to gain it for all eternity.
It is a devotion pleasing to God and to His most admirable Mother Mary. The "Our Father" was taught us by our Lord Himself, while the "Hail Mary" comes direct from God through the Angel Gabriel, Saint Elizabeth and the Church inspired by the Holy Ghost.
The rosary contains fifteen decades of "Hail Marys," with one "Our Father," before each decade. It is a brief yet beautiful history of Jesus and Mary, from the moment the angel saluted her, "hail full of grace," until she was crowned by the hand of her Divine Son as the Queen of Heaven and the Queen of earth.
The rosary is divided into three parts, each containing five decades, and known as the chaplet which signifies a wreath of natural flowers worn on the head as an especial mark of distinction.
Rosary derives its name from Mary's rose garden, or from rose, simply, the queen of flowers, while the "Hail Mary" is called the "queen of prayers."
In telling the rosary we weave the "queen of prayers" into a beautiful crown of Mary's roses, which we place upon her fair, queenly brow and salute her Queen of the Most Holy Rosary.
