Woman

On February 11, the Holy Father delivered one of his practical homilies before the" Pious Union of Roman Women," one of the most flourishing of religious philanthropic societies in Rome. "It, vas a good and beautiful thing [he said] to see ladies devoting their time and their care to the poor, but, voman's greatest influence would always be exercised in her household. Mothers have a divine mission to see to the Christian education of their children; wives have a special power for good over their husbands: for what husband [asked his Holiness] can resist the tender and tactful appeals of a good 'wife, when she urges him to attend his religious duties? And sisters, by their piety and purity, exercise a chastening and subduing influence over brothers, who, otherwise, would be inevitably drawn into the vortex of the world." It is well to premise that there is no thought or intention of making little of woman-quite the contrary; or of supposing that men have not as nlany and as great imperfections as she has. Women seem to excel in at least two noble virtues, unselfishness and devotion. When all men fell away from our Lord in His darkest hour, a few faithful women bravely kept true and close to Him, and gave to Hin1 their full-hearts' sympathy, the help and comfort also which they could. This study will be confined to the ordinary mission of woman called by God to Iive in the world, not to exceptional or individual cases. Under the heading Woman, I place first of all the wife and mother, not excluding, however, daughter and sister. God it is true, as we shall soon see, speaks mostly of the wife, mother, mistress of the home; stil1, at times, of other phases of woman's life. Besides, the education of the daughter should be in the direction of wife and mother, whilst sisters are a great power for good in the home,