326 PRESENTATION TIDE. 



NOV. 21. PRESENTATION of Our Lady. 

 St. Columban of Ireland, abbot and c. a.d. 615. 

 St. Gelasius, pope and confessor, 496. 



Obf. It is an old tradition, that tlie Blessed Virgin Mary was presented 

 in the temple in lier infancy, and dedicated, according to the exceedingly 

 antient custom, to the service of Heaven. Tliis solemn ofTeriiig of Our Lady 

 to God when only a child is the foundation of the festival of today, which in 

 the Greek Church is called the fnirance of the Blessed Virgin into the temple. 

 This festival is inenlinned in the most antient Greek Menologies winch are to 

 be found. Germanus, the Patri.irch of Constantinople in the thirteenth cen- 

 tury, preached several sernnons on It, which have come down to our days. 

 The festival passed from the Greeks irto the west, and was kept at Avignon 

 as early as 137.;. Butler, speaking of me Presentation, observes, The tender 

 soul of Mary was then adorned with tlie most precious graces, an object of 

 astonishment and praise to the Angels. Mary was the first who set up the 

 standard of virginity, which so many have since followed. The religious 

 orders, and particularly the females, ought especially to take her for their pa- 

 troness, as her life was'the most perfect model of theirstate. They should 

 always have her example before their eyes, and imitaie her in prayer, humi- 

 litv, liiodesty, quietude, and retirement. She who has the company of good 

 thoughts, says St. Ambrose, is never less alone than when alone. It is a curi- 

 ou? fact, that virginitv has been from time immemorial respected in all reli- 

 gions, except certain heretical schisms, which have been levelled at Christi- 

 anity in the middle and later ages of the Church. In like manner the doctrine 

 of Intercession, however misunderstood or abused, has formed a feature in all 

 antient religions, and modern heresy alone has dared to gainsay it. But even 

 Milton, tainted as he was with the vile rubbish of Puritanism, is lavish in his 

 praises both of the great Christian virtue in question, as well as of the holy 

 doctrine to which we have alluded. His beautiful poem Comus illustrates 

 the truly Catholic turn of his great mind, which seems, as it were, to beam 

 through'the prejudices of his education. What can be finer than the follow- 

 ing lines, which would have been worthy of St. Teresa herself, and which ex- 

 press true Catholic sentiments: 



So dear to Heaven is saintly Chastity, 

 That when a soul is found sincerely so. 

 A thousand liveried angels lackey her, 

 Driving far off each ihing o'sin and guilt; 

 And in cl -ar dream and solemn vision 

 Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear; 

 Till oft converse with heavenly habitants 

 Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape, 

 The unpolluted temple of the mind, 

 And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence. 

 Till all be made immortal. 



The following passage is still more to the purpose, and expresses the senti- 

 ments of faith, of hope, and of devotion, rnised in a sceptical mind by the con- 

 templation of this great Christian virtue : 



O welcome, pure eyed Faith, whitehanded Hope, 

 Thou hovering angel, girt with golden wings. 

 And ihou,unblemislied form of Chastity, 

 "■ 1 see ye visibly, and now believe. 



The whole poem expresses the same sentiments, and the absurd mytholo- 

 gical beings invoked or alluded to only shew huw completely grounded in the 

 nature of the human mind is the tendency to believe in the intercession of an- 

 gelic powers, and how prone we are, when the ])0werful feeling is not in- 

 structed in its true objects, to be thereby led into numberless errors of credu- 

 lity. We shall resume this subject on the octave of this day, Nov. 28. 



Largefiowered Woodsorrel Oxalis grandifolia still fi. 



This being the eve of St. Cecilia's Day, in many places minstrels and oiher 

 pious musicians used to salute her with hymns; she being considered the 

 Patroness of Music. 



