Page:O'Donnell - Hail Holy Queen 03 - Mother of Mercy.djvu/7

 is the root cause. You can't run away from it, even though it does cost you a handsome sum to try.

So, to sinners who have strayed from the paths of righteousness, I say that although your sins may be many and heinous, although you may have sunk so low that you sometimes feel beyond redemption, you need not, you must not, despair. Remember always that a merciful God, through His merciful Mother, stands ready to lead you through the cleansing waters of penance and absolution if, like countless other Magdalenes and Pauls, you but seek out a priest of the Most High, who is willing and anxious, like the Master Himself, to restore you to spiritual health. Remember the words of Christ, "I am not come to call the just, but sinners" (Matthew 9:13).

In spirit, we return to the heights of Calvary. All things are now accomplished. The long agony is over, and Mary has stood at the foot of the cross to the end. Mercy has been enshrined with divinity in a holocaust of love. Christ did not permit the chalice to pass from Him, but died that we might live, not here, but hereafter. "Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lying down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). And this love perdures to the end of time. That we might be enriched by this love, sanctified by this love, ennobled by this love, Christ gave us a Mother of Mercy, His own Mother, for our solace, our comfort, and our help, if we but have recourse to her.

Truly could St. Bernard say: "Mary is Mother of the merciful, she is created to be merciful, she is made of what is most merciful. The duration of her mercy is unto the end of the sinner's life. The broadness of her mercy is unto the limits of the earth. The height of her mercy is unto heaven. The depth of her mercy is unto the lowest abyss of sin or sorrow. She is always merciful. She is only merciful. She is our Mother of Mercy."