r, respect, and
love her?

How we honor the sword of Washington! What a cluster of tender
recollections clings to the staff of Franklin! Is there a loyal American
citizen who does not think with feelings of love and respect of the
mother of our Revolutionary hero, or who would not doff his hat at the
unveiling of a statue of the sage of Monticello? And why? Is it on
account of their intrinsic merit? No. We honor them principally on
account of the relation they bear to those three brightest stars in the
American firmament. So it is with the honor we show to Mary, the Mother
of God. Although she was an example of all virtues, we honor her
principally because it was through her instrumentality He was born by
whom we achieved not civil liberty, but the liberty of the children of
God. She did not draw lightning from heaven, nor the scepter from kings;
but she brought forth Him who is the Lord of heaven and King of kings.

The principal reason, then, why we honor Mary is because she is the
Mother of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This honor consists of
love, respect, and veneration. We love her with an interior love, a love
proceeding from the heart; nor should we fear to let this love appear
outwardly. When others revile her, speak disrespectfully of her, we
should shrink from the very idea of acting similarly toward her. We
should then remember that she is the Mother of Our Saviour, and should
ask ourselves how we would have acted toward her had we lived in her day
and been witnesses of the honor shown her by her divine Son. By so doing
we will show her that love which is her due. Our respect, our veneration
for her, should be affectionate and deep. When we remember that it was
her hand that first lifted from the ground and received in maternal
embrace the sacred body of Jesus, just born and just dead; when we think
how respectfully Elizabeth greeted her; when we recall to mind the
reverent salutation of the archangel; when we consider the honor shown
her by the apostles and by her own divine Son, can we help feeling a
deep love, respect, and veneration for her? You see, dear reader,
honoring Mary is scriptural and reasonable.

But if we should honor her principally because she is the Mother of God,
we should also honor her because she is the peerless glory, the
matchless jewel of her sex. She constitutes a sole exception to a
general law. Sin never contaminated, never touched her fair soul. This
is what we mean by t