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Since I made these extracts from the learned and celebrated doctors and
canonized saints of former ages, my attention has been invited to the
language now {381} used in forms of devotion, the spirit of which
implies similar views of the power and love of the Virgin Mary, as the
fountain of mercies to mankind, and the dispenser of every heavenly
blessing.
At the head of these modern works, I was led to read over again the
encyclical letter of the present sovereign pontiff, from the closing
sentences of which I have already made extracts. And referring his words
to a test which we have more than once applied in a similar case--that
of changing the name of the person, and substituting the name of God, or
his blessed Son, I cannot see how the spirit of his sentiments falls in
the least below the highest degree of religious worship. His words, in
the third paragraph of his letter, as they appear in the Laity's
Directory for 1833, are these:--
"But having at length taken possession of our see in the Lateran Basilic
according to the custom and institution of our predecessors, we turn to
you without delay, venerable brethren, and in testimony of our feelings
towards you, we select for the date of our letter this most joyful day
on which we celebrate the solemn festival of the most blessed Virgin's
triumphant assumption into heaven, that she who has been through every
great calamity our patroness and protectress, may WATCH OVER US WRITING
TO YOU, AND LEAD OUR MIND BY HER HEAVENLY INFLUENCE to those counsels
which may prove most salutary to Christ's flock.
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