Given at Rome from St. Mary Major's, August 15th, the
Festival of the Assumption of the same blessed Virgin Mary, the year of
our Lord 1832, of our Pontificate the Second."
How deplorable a change, how melancholy a degeneracy is here evinced
from the faith, and hopes, and sentiments of Christian bishops in days
of old! In the expressed hopes of Leo and Flavianus, you will seek in
vain for any reference or allusion "to the blessed Virgin Mary, as the
destroyer of heresies, the greatest hope, the entire ground of a
Christian's hope;" you will in vain seek for any exhortation for the
faithful "to raise their eyes to her in order to obtain a merciful and
happy issue." Equally vain would be your search for any "imploring in
humble prayer," of Peter and Paul, or any even distant allusion to help
from them. {327} To God and God alone are the faithful exhorted to pray;
on God and God alone do those Christians express that their hopes rely;
God alone they regard as the destroyer of heresy, the restorer of peace,
and the protector of the Church's unity. "Their greatest hope, yea, the
entire ground of their hope," the Being to be "implored in humble
prayer," is not Mary, nor Peter, nor Paul, but God alone, the Creator,
the Redeemer, the Sanctifier of Mary, and of Peter, and of Paul.
Thus Flavian writing to Leo says, "Wherefore (in consequence of those
errors, and heresies, and distractions, which he had deplored) we must
be sober and watch unto prayer, and draw nigh to God.
Pages:
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385