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In the introductory words to two special articles on Mary the Mother which he was invited to contribute to The Catholic Times, ‘the present writer felt it imperative to point out that’ it would be a grave and lamentable loss if a Catholic’s appreciation of our Blessed Lady was no more than the largely sentimental emotion it often appears to be, or even no more than a solid but unpenetrating admiration for her spotless purity of soul and an awed wonder of her virginal Motherhood of God. These are not without their place and value; but it is yet more important to realise that both her immaculate purity and her divine motherhood play an essential part not only in the historic fact of the Incarnation whereby the world was redeemed, but also in the application of the fruits of that Redemption to all men throughout the world and throughout the ages. We need the wisdom of understanding if the full vision of the Motherhood of Mary is not to escape us............ We cannot properly appreciate the Mother except as inseparably linked with her Son; and there is a sense in which it is true to say that we cannot properly appreciate the Son apart from His Mother. There is no absolute necessity in this; but there is the necessity of God’s love, Who chose this way and no other for restoring humankind to His friendship..........so that only by finding the Child with His Mother can a man find also the wisdom of God which leads to everlasting love. For it is no mere physical necessity which linked these two ....
1 September 23rd, 1938.
2 Our Lady’s Place in Gad’s Plan. And other papers on Our Blessed Lady. By Father Stanislaus M. Hogan, O.P. With a Preface by The Very Rev. Fr. Vincent McNabb, O.P., S.T.M. (Gill, Dublin; 7s. 6d.)
3 All quotations not otherwise specified are from Father Hogan’s book.
4 Summa, IIIa, xxx, I .