Not that there is not room for genuine perplexity.  Often it happens that we are not at all certain in this or that detail of conduct.  In that case it is well to consider whether it is necessary to act before we can attain certainty through study or advice.  But if act we must, we can at least act with honesty, not making our will the accomplice of our passions or interests.

I do not believe that there are many cases in which we shall go wrong if we make use of all the means at our disposal.  A diligent doing of the will of God does undoubtedly bring light on unknown problems and unexpected situations in which we from time to time find ourselves.  If our constant attitude has been one of free and glad obedience we need not fear to go astray.  “Behold the handmaid of the Lord,” Blessed Mary said; and such an attitude has never failed to meet the divine approval and call out the help of God.  Just to put ourselves utterly at God’s disposal is the clearing of all life.  “Into Thy hands,” is the solution of all difficulties.

     I sing a maiden
       That is matchless;
     King of all kings
       To her Son she ches.

He came all so still
To His Mother’s bower,
As dew in April
That falleth on the flower.

Mother and maiden
Was never none but she;
Well might such a lady
God’s Mother be. 
English, Fifteenth Century.

PART TWO

CHAPTER IV

THE VISITATION I

And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Judah; and entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elizabeth.

S. Luke I. 39, 40.

Grant, we beseech thee, O Lord God, to us thy servants, that we may evermore enjoy health of mind and body, and by the glorious intercession of blessed Mary, ever a virgin, be delivered from present sorrows and enjoy everlasting gladness.  Through.

ROMAN.

Those who were faithful in Israel and were looking forward to the fulfilment of God’s promises would be drawn together by close bonds of sympathy.  It oftentimes proves that the bonds of a common ideal are stronger than the bonds of blood.  It was to prove so many times in the history of Christianity when in accordance with our Lord’s words the closest blood relation would be broken through fidelity to Him, and a man’s foes be found to be those of his own household.  But also it is true that the possession of common ideals becomes the basis of relations which are stronger than race or family.  We may be sure that the members of that little group of which we catch glimpses now and then in the progress of the Gospel story found in their expectation of the Lord’s deliverance of Israel such a bond.  We feel that S. Mary and S. Joseph must have been members of this group and that they were filled with the hope of God’s manifestation.  Another family which shared the same hope was that of the priest Zacharias whose wife Elizabeth was the cousin of Mary of Nazareth.  It is to their house in the hill country of Judah we now turn our thoughts.