Untitled - Rore Sanctifica

The Difficulties of lie-union. 103
of all these? One great cause no doubt is the
tindomnatic way in which religion has been
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taught amono; us, the absence of real catechizing,
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the loose wordiness of popular preaching, the
timid reserve of even good people.
But there
is another cause which I believe to have very
much to do with it. It is this : that our people
hare bam studiously taught to dishonour the
Blessed Vircfm. It is a moral impossibility for
any human being to adore the Son, who thinks
and speaks with 110 reverence of the Mother.
I have lived much in Italy and seen many
things in the devotion of the people there, which
have distressed and grieved me ; but the worst
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superstition that can be seen in Italy,
of which
the Blessed Virgin is the object,
is far less
shocking to the Christian heart than the
shameful scorn heaped upon the Mother of
God bv otherwise reliiriouslv-minded Pro-
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testants. The Italian superstition may, I
much fear most surely does, keep from Him the
fulness of loving trust; but this is an impassable
bar to anv real adoration of Him. It is
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impossible that irreverent thoughts of her can
coincide with adoring thoughts of Him. One
great test of the truth of what I am saying is,
that her incommunicable title, the name bv*
which the Church has ever expressed her
honour, by which so many generations have
hailed her Blessed, as alone
"
Theotokos," alone