And as we to-day try to appreciate the place of Blessed Mary in the life of the Church of God must we not feel it to be our misfortune that our past has been so wrapped in clouds of controversy that we have been unable to see her meaning at all clearly?  Must we not feel deep sadness at the thought that the very mention of Mary’s name, so often stirs, not love and gratitude, but the spirit of suspicion and dislike?  We no doubt have passed beyond such feelings, but the traces of their evil work through the centuries still persist.  They persist in certain feelings of reserve and hesitation when we find that our convictions are leading us to the adoption of the attitude toward her which is the common attitude of all Catholicity, both East and West.  When we feel that the time has actually come to abandon the narrowness and barrenness of devotional practice which is a part of our tradition, we nevertheless feel as though we were launching out on strange seas and that our next sight of land might be of strange regions where we should not feel at home.  If such be our instinctive attitude, it is well to remember that progress, spiritual as well as other, is conquest of the (to us) new; but that the acquisition of the new does not necessarily mean the abandonment of the old.  We shall in fact lose nothing of our hold on the unique work of our Lord because we recognise that His Blessed Mother’s association with it implies a certain preparation on her part, a certain uniqueness of privilege.  There is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus; and all who come to God, come through Him.  But they come also in the unity of the Body of many members and of many offices.  And the office of her who in God’s providence was called to be the Mother of the Incarnate is surely as unique as is her vocation.  She surely is entitled to receive from us the deep affection of our hearts and the highest honour that may be given to any creature.

     THE GARLAND OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARIE.

     Here are five letters in this blessed name,
     Which, changed, a five-fold mystery design,
     The M the Myrtle, A the Almonds claim,
     R Rose, I Ivy, E sweet Eglantine.

     These form thy garland, when of Myrtle green
     The gladdest ground to all the numbered five,
     Is so implexed fine and laid in, between,
     As love here studied to keep grace alive.

     Thy second string is the sweet Almond bloom
     Mounted high upon Selines’ crest: 
     As it alone (and only it) had room,
     To knit thy crown, and glorify the rest.

     The third is from the garden culled, the Rose,
     The eye of flowers, worthy for her scent,
     To top the fairest lily now, that grows
     With wonder on the thorny regiment.

     The fourth is the humble Ivy intersert
     But lowly laid, as on the earth asleep,
     Preserved in her antique bed of vert,
     No faiths more firm or flat, then, where’t doth creep.