Page:O'Donnell - Hail Holy Queen 03 - Mother of Mercy.djvu/6

 plodding along weary roads, homeless, leading the children whom they bore they know not whither; sorrow to the children, ragged, hungry tots with pinched faces, whom privation has made far older than their years. May I appeal to all Americans to help these unfortunates by contributing to the campaign to feed Europe now? I ask you in the name of these starving innocents. I ask you in the name of Him who said "Suffer little children to come unto me," and "Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to me" (Matthew 25:45). May the Mother of Mercy intercede for them!

Sorrow has come to the war mothers of the United States: to those valiant women who are an inspiration to all who know them and see them, carrying their cross of separation bravely as they reflect on the loss of their dear ones who have made the supreme sacrifice and now sleep in glory everlasting in some foreign land. Sorrow has come to those mothers who have seen their own flesh and blood come back maimed and ill from the battlefields. And it has come to those brave wives who, through tears, have embraced with arms of tender mercy their husbands, whom war has broken in body, while murmuring inwardly, "for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health, till death do us part."

Noble women, valiant women all, women whose lot it has been to wait and hope and pray, we salute you as the real heroines of the war. Brave women, strong women, who gave those nearest and dearest to you, remember that in the person of the Mother of God, the Mother of Mercy, who gave her only Son for our redemption, you have a friend, a guide and a help, and a mediatrix in the long years ahead. She will never fail you, if you but have recourse to her.

The Mother of Mercy is also the Refuge of Sinners, and her refuge is much needed at present when the world is trying to devaluate sin. It just can't be done. And don't let the modern psychoanalyst, who doesn't believe in God, try to tell you otherwise. He will attempt to explore your inner life with a view to glossing over a troubled conscience. He will tell you about Freud's "libido," urges, and the necessity of self-expression. He will take you on an excursion of polysyllabic phrases that would puzzle the modern Webster. He's trying to give you an escape, but there is no escape from inner restlessness and discontent because sin