Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/470



Ex. : I.  Mary's  lowliness. II. Assumed, soul  and  body. III. Mary and  Martha.

I. House  built  on  faith:  1. One rock. 2. Indivisible. 3. Firm.

II. Walled with  hope :  1. Sustaining. 2. True. 3. Practical.

III. Roofed with  charity:  1. Mary's love. 2. Waiting. 3. Proofs  of  glorious  assumption.

Per. : Exhortation  to  Faith,  Hope,  and  Charity.

Brethren, the  feast  of  the  Assumption,  celebrated last  week,  gives  us  for  a  subject  this  morning one of  whom  I  love  to  speak,  and  one  whose  praises you love  to  hear — Mary,  our  Virgin  Mother. As we struggle  on  through  the  spiritual  life— on  through temptation and  sin — we  naturally  look  for  guidance and encouragement  to  those  that  have  gone  before. We look  at  Christ,  and  our  souls  recoil  from  the  task of imitating  Him;  we  look  at  the  saints,  and  weak human nature  rebels  against  the  austerities  they  endured— and  often,  God  knows  how  often! we are tempted to  give  up  the  struggle  in  sheer  despair. But then  we  turn  to  Mary,  and  there  we  find  consolation and  support. For she — that  little  village  maiden — she was  neither  God  nor  angel  but  a  poor  mortal like ourselves,  the  lowliest  of  the  low — who  trod  our earth and  hungered  and  thirsted  as  we  do. Through