Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

O Virgin Mary, Mother blest!

O sweetest, gentlest, holiest !"*

The last act of life approaches, and at this moment the priest commands the soul in the following words: "Go forth, O Christian soul, from this world, in the name of God the Father Almighty, who created thee; in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, who suffered for thee; in the name of the Holy Ghost, who sanctified thee; and let thy place be this day in peace, and thy abode in the holy Sion."

But aught that is not pure, pure as Adam, when first he came from the hands of God, in the garden of paradise, cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven. If, therefore, there is aught of stain of sin on the soul, that has not been purified by sorrow and penance, it must undergo its purification before entering the realms of bliss, and the society of angels.

Once more, the Holy Church comes to the relief of the soul, in the place of purification, by its suffrages, and accompanies it by its prayers, till it is become all pure and bright, and prepared to stand before Him, who is purity, love, * Lyra Catholica.

light itself, and to gaze upon Him, "whose face is as the sun shineth in his power."

Thus, the Catholic Church, the Bride of Christ, the true Mother of our souls, receives the infant at its birth by Holy Baptism, yea, even before baptism, in preparing its birth by the sanctification of the marriage of its parents; and by her guidance through all the vicissitudes of life, and the helps of her holy sacraments, she leads it to the grave, and ceases not her hold upon her child beyond the grave, till she sees it safe and secure, a citizen of heaven, in its true home, in the bosom of God. She realizes the very ideal of a true and loving mother of souls.

Though the soul has reached heaven, the bond of sympathy between it and the Church is not broken; it still continues to be her child,-yea, more hers now than ever, for the triumphant Church in Heaven, the militant Church upon Earth, and the suffering Church in the place of Purification, are one, and united closely in sympathy as one body.

"Bond of strange union; when we kneel
With saints on earth, and saints on high

Bound in mysterious sympathy."+

[blocks in formation]

Such are the answers of the Catholic Church to the deep wants of man's heart; and in these answers, the heart finds full satisfaction, supreme repose, and perfect bliss. And we, on our part, have no fear, that the system of religion which satisfies fully the wants of the heart, is not strong enough to stand the severest tests of the most rigid logic. For, the affections of the heart are also guides to truth, and as unerring, when pure, as the logic of the understanding.

XXIII.

External Testimony.

"Art thou afear'd

To be the same in thine own act and valor

As thou art in desire."

SHAKSPEARE.

THE foregoing description of the Church may

appear to some as a mere sketch of fancy, or the fruit of an overheated imagination, having no truth, except in the brain of the writer. For such, we will let others speak, of whom no suspicion of this kind can arise in the reader's mind.

Let a gifted writer, whose only misfortune is that his will is not equal to his perception of truth, describe how the Catholic Church appears

to him, even though he is deprived of the sight of that which "is within," which, after all, constitutes her real beauty :-

66

How sublime is this thought of a spiritual organization, living from age to age through wide-spread nations, with a visible manifestation on the earth in outward forms as its body, and a moral union with the hosts of the just, orderly related in the eternal world, as its mind, and the Living God as its soul. How touching to the best feeling is the love with which this mighty mother takes to its nursing care each infant generation, and by holy rites assimilates the young as they mature into itself, and transmits a purifying influence by constant inspiration through all occupations and interests. The Church, so represented, stands in the position of a perpetual mediator, for ever bringing up her children to the Lord, that he may take them in his arms and bless them. And the effects which have through eighteen centuries been wrought by this guardianship, prove how wisely adapted such ministration is to the wants of man. Truly, the Church has been a quickening centre of modern civilization, a fountain of law and art, of manners

« PoprzedniaDalej »