The Principle Catholic Practices

My association with converts has taught me that they are so much happier in the True Faith if they are familiar with the devotions and practices that are essentially Catholic. Experience has also demonstrated that not a few who were born and reared in the Faith betray a lack of thorough instruction, or have simply forgotten the meanings and purposes of many Catholic practices. For such readers I have endeavored to gather in the following pages the most salient features of Catholic life. My aim has been to give interesting and profitable reading in plain words. And thus I hope that this book will find favor with all classes of Catholics. In our busy American life we lose so easily our hold on the things that are eternal. There is, therefore, all the more need that from time to time we refresh our souls with the contemplation of the service, the wealth of consolation, and the brilliant hopes for the future which are afforded us by the beautiful devotions and practices of our religion. Let us consider this on devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary: "To me it has been one of the most baffling mysteries of the world that the propriety of honoring and venerating the Mother of God should ever have been brought into question. On that memorable day when the Saviour hung on the cross, a bruised and crushed victim for the world's crimes, some of the last words spoken by Him were addressed to His Mother and St. John: "Woman, behold thy son. After that He saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother." (John xix. 26-27.) It has always been the belief of Christians that hereby the Blessed Redeemer constituted His Mother as the Mother of all Christians, and placed the faithful of His Church under her special guidance and protection. But one might object that this interpretation is forced and not implied in the words. If not, how can we explain that Our Lord chose such an important moment, if He merely desired to provide for His Mother. An ordinary human being makes many requests upon his deathbed because he realizes that he will be unable to counsel and provide after the hand of death has touched him. But surely, no one will suggest that Our Saviour just happened to think of the needs of His Mother as He saw death approaching. No indeed. The solemnity of the occasion, as well as the publicity of the act indicated that here was something important and of interest not only to those who stood beneath the cross, but to the whole world."