ENCYCLICAL OF OUR HOLY FATHER, PIUS X, BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE POPE
To the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops and other Ordinaries in Peace and Communion with the Apostolic See,
PIUS X., POPE
Venerable Brethren,
Health and the Apostolic Blessing.
An interval of a few months will again bring round that most happy day on which, fifty years ago, Our predecessor, Pius TX., Pontiff of holy memory, surrounded by a noble crown of Cardinals and Bishops, pronouneed and promulgated with the authority of the infaillible magisterium as a truth revealed by God that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary in the first instant of her conception was free from all stain of original sin. All the world knows the feelings with which the faithful of all the nations of the earth received this proclamation and the manifestations of publie satisfaction and joy which greeted it, for truly there has not been in the memory of man any more universal or more harmonious expression of sentiment shown towards the august Mother of God or the Vicar of Jesus Christ.
And, Venerable Brethren, why should we not hope to-day, after the lapse of half a century, when we renew the memory of the Immaculate Virgin, that an echo of that holy joy will be awakened in our minds, and that those magnificent scenes of a distant day, of faith and of love towards the august Mother of God, will be repeated ? Of all this We are, indeed, rendered ardently
desirous by the devotion, united with supreme g oratitude for benefits rece j ved, which We have alw: ays cherished towards the Blessed Virgin ; and We have a sure pledge of the fulfilment of Our desires i the fervor of all Catholies, ready and willing as they are to multiply their testimonies of love and reverence for the great Mother of God. But We must not omit to say that this desire of Ours is especially stimulated by a sort of secret instinet which leads Us to regard as not far distant the fulfilment of those great hopes to which, certainly not rashly, the solenm promulgat ion of the dogma of the [mmaeulate Conee ption opened the minds of Pius, Our predecessor, and of all the Bishops of the universe. Many, it is true, lament the fact that until now these hopes s have beeu unfulfilled, and are prone to repeat the words of Jeremias : “We looked for peace and no gocd came ; for a time of healing, and beheld fear’ (Jer. vin., 15). But all such will be certainly rebuked as * men of little faith,’ who make no effort to penetrate the works of God or to estimate them in the light of truth. For ho ean number the secret gifts of grace which Goa us bestowed upon His Church through the intereession of the Blessed Virgin throughout, this period ^ And even overlooking these gifts, what is to 2 said of the Vatican Council so opportunely convoked, « of the dogma of Papal Infallibility so suitably die ed to meet the errors that were about to rise ; or, finally, of that new and unprecedented fervor with which the faithful of all classes and of every nation have long been flocking to venerate in person the Vicar of Christ ? Surely the Providence of God has shown itself admirable in Our two predecessors— Pius and Leo—who ruled the Church in most turbulent times with such great holiness through a length of Pontificate conceded to no other before them Then, again, no sooner had Pius IX. proclaimed as a dogma of Catholie faith the exemption of Mary from the original stain than the Virgin herself began in Lourdes those wonderful manifestations, followed by the vast and magnificent movements which
ititude yished pledge of all ultiply ' great at this secret wit the ily not of the s, Our il now » to reice and | fear ” iked as netrate ight of grace igh the 18 peris to be ked, or oclaimfinally, ich the au been Jhrist ?
idmira- 10 ruled 1 great d to no us IX.
sinption herself ns, fol- | which
Jas ver aerei
have pr luced those two temples dedicated to the Immaovulate Mother, where the prodigies which still eontinue ake place through her intercession furnish splendid arguments against the ineredulity of our days. Witnesses, then, as we are of all these great bencfits which God has granted through the benign influence of the Virgin in those fifty years now about to be comieted, why should we not believe that our salvation is nearer than we thought : all the more since we know from experience that, in the dispensation of Divine
Providence, when evils reach their limit, deliverance 1s ar at hand, and her days
not far distant. “Her time is ne shall not be prolonged. For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob and will choose one out of Israel" (Isaias xiv., 1). Wherefore the hope we cherish is not a vain one, that we, too, ray before long repeat : “The Lord hath broken the staff. of the wicked, the rod of the rulers. The whole earth is quiet and still. it is glad and hath rejoiced” (Ibid. 5, 7).
But the first and chief reason, Venerable Brethren, why the fiftieth anniversary of the proclamation of the dogina of the [mmaculate Conception should excite a singular fervor of the souls of Christians lies for us in that restoration of all things in Christ which we have already set forth in Our first Eneyelical letter. For can anyone fail to see that there is no surer or more direct road than by Mary for uniting all mankind in Christ and obtaining through Him the perfect adoption of sons that we may be holy and immaculate in the sight of God ? For if to Mary it. was truly said : “Blessed art thou who hast believed because in thee shall be fulfilled the things that have bean toid thee by the Lord” (Luke i, 45); or, in other words, that she would conceive and. bring forth the Son of God ; and if she did receive in her breast Him who is by nature Truth itself in order that “He, generated in a new order and with a new nativity, though invisible in Himself, might become visible in our flesh” (St. Leo the Great, Ser. 2, De Nativ. Dom.) the Son of God made man, being the “author
and eonsuiumator. of our faith ;" it surely follows that
His Mother most holy must be recognized as participaes and as being in a manner
ting in the divine im ysteri her as upon a
the guardian of them, and that upon foundation. the noblest after Christ, rises the edifice of the faith of all centuries.
How think otherwise ?
us. in another way than throug mer of the human race and the Founder of the Faith ? But. since Divine Providence has been pleased that we should have the Man-God through Mary, who coneeived Him by the Holy Ghost and bore Him on her breast, it only remains for us to receive Christ from the hands of Mary. Henee whenever the Seriptures speak prophetically of the grace whieh was to appear among us, the Bedeemer of mankind is almost invariably presented to us ns united with His mother. The Lamb that 1s to rule the world will be sent but He will be sent from the rock of the desert : the flower wili blossom, but it will blossom from the root of Jesse. Adam, the father of mankind, looked to Mary crushing the serpent’s head, and he dried the tears that the maledietion had brought into his eves. Noe thought of her when shut up in the and Abraham when prevented from the slaving of his son ; Jacob at the sight of the ladder on which angels ascended and decended ; Moses amazed at the sight of the bush which burned but was not consumed ; David escorting the are o f God with daneing and psalmody ; Elias as he looked at the little cloud that [n fine, after Christ, we find in the fulfilment of the
Could not God have given h the Virgin, the Redee-
ark of safety,
rose out of the Sean Mary the end of the law and figures and oracles
And that through the Virgin, and through her
more than through any other means, we have offered us
a Way of reachinu the knowledge of Jesus Christ, enn
not be doubted when i i« remembered that with hei alone of all others Jesus was for thirty years united, as a son is usually united with a mother, in the closest ties
of intimacy and domestic life. Who could better than
ae
that | panner mm à e of
riven deeith ?
t we eived ust, it ids of hetic- 7 the ted to o rule m the it will jer of head, ‘ought in the m the der on zed at it conng and 1 that find in of the
gh her ‘ered us it, can
ith her ited, as yest ties
er than
won
knowledge of the admirable mysteries of the birth and ehildhood ot Christ, and above all the mystery of the Inearnation, which is the beginning and the foundation of faith ? Mary not oniy reserved and meditated on the events of Bethlehem and the facts which took place in Jerusalem in the Temple of the Lord, but sharing as she did the thoughts and the secret wishes of Christ she may be said to have lived the very life of her Son. Hence nobody ever knew Christ so profoundly as she did, and nobody can ever he
e competent as 9 guide and teacher of the knowledge
His Mother have an open
mor ot Christ
Hence it follows, as we have already pointed out that the Virgin is more powerful than all others as «a means for uniting mankind with Christ. Hence, too, since, according to Christ Himself, “Now this is eternal life : That they may know "Thee the only God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent” (John xvii, 8), and is through Mary that we attain to the knowthrough Mary also we most easily obtain Christ is the source and origin,
And if we set ourselves to consider how many and the causes by whieh this most holy Mother on us these precious gifts,
since 1t ledge of Christ, that life of which
powerful ure is filled with zeal to bestow oh. how our hopes will be expanded | For is not Mary the Mother of Christ ? Then she
is our Mother also And we must in truth hold that
Christ, the Word made Flesh, is also the Saviour of He had a physical body like that of any
other man : and again us Saviour of the human family, he had a spiritual and mystical body, the society, namely, of those who believe in Christ. “We are many, but one sole body in Christ" (Rom. xii., 5) Now the Blessed Virgin did not conceive the Eternal Son of God merely that He might be made man taking His human nature from her, but also in order that by means of the nature assumed from Her he might be the Redeemer of men. For | reason the Angel anid to the shepherds ; “To-day Saviour who is Christ the Lord"
mandkind.,
whicl there is born to you il
holy bosom of
same to Himself. the
Wherefore in the Mother Christ took xd by those who were to believe 1n the Saviour within her, those whose life
(Luke ii., 11), His most chaste spiritual body forme Him. Hence Mary, carrying may be said to have also carried all was contained in the life of the Saviour. Therefore all we who are united to Christ, and as the apostle says are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones (Ephes. v., 30), have issued from the womb of Mary like a body united to its head. Hence, though in a splritual and mystical fashion, we are all children of Mary, and she is Mother of us all. Mother, spiritually indeed, but truly Mother of the members of Christ, who are we (S. Aug. L. de S, Virginitate, €. 6).
If then the most Blessed Virgin ig the Mother at | and men, who ean doubt that she will work to procure that Christ, Head of the Body of the Church (Coloss. 1. 18), may transfuse His gifts into us, His m mbers, and above all that of knowing Him and living through Him (1. John iv., 9)? Moreover it was not only the prerogative of the Most Holy Mother to have furnished the material of His flesh to the Only Son of God, who was to be boru with human members (5 Bede Ven. L iy, in Lue. xl.) of which material should be prepared the Vietim for the salvation of men ; but hers was also the office of tendand nourishing that Victim, and at the appointed ing Him for the aneritice, Hence that uninnity of life and labors of the Son and t of both might have been uttei d the “My life 18 eonsumed in sorrow When the su heside the Cross of Jesus y His Mother, not merely occu pied in ele, but rejolein anl vation of mankin
once of Gor with all diligence
ing time, present terrupted commu the Mother, 80 tha sof the Psalmist, ars in groans f the Son came,
word: and my yé reme hour o there atood Mar contemplating the eruel speeta Only Son was offered for the ao entirely participating in His Passion, th been possible ahe would have gladly borne all ments that her Son bore (8. Bonav. k
Pa, xxx, 11)
the tor
yf that her |, and ut if it had
Sant, d. 48, ad
of the | in jer, life all are nes [ary spiary, »
leed,
e WE
er at work
{ the , His | :now- |
of the ial of 1 | born À ic. xl), à for the ‘ [ tendpointed t uninjon and !'uü d the
SOrrow
the su if Jesus upied n that her ind, and if it had
the tor à. 48, ad
ifie:
a oua cdi pose
Litt. dub. And from this community of will and 'hrist and Mary she merited to beorthily the Reparatrix of the lost world De Excellentia Virg. Maris, c. 9) and it Our Savious purchased
suffering between ( conie most W (Eadmeri Mon.
Dispensatrix of all the by His death and by His Blood.
lt cannot, of course, be denied that the dispensa-
tion of these treasures is the particular and peculiar
right of Jesus Christ, for they are the exclusive fruit of
His death, who by His nature is the mediator between
God and man. Nevertheless, by this companionship in
and suffering already mentioned between the Mother and Son, it has been allowed to the august Virhe most powerful mediatrix and advocate of world with her Divine Son (Pius IX, Ineffais Jesus Christ “of whose ful- (John 1., 16), “from whom and fitly joined togetaccording to the t, maketh inerease itself. in charity”
gilts the
for Us
sorrow
gin to be t the whole bilis). The source then, have all received” being compaeted
joint supplieth,
ness we the whole body, her by what every operation in the measure of every par of the body unto the edifying of (Ephesians iv. 16). But Mary, as St, Bernard justly remarks, is the channel (Serm. de temp. on the Nativ. B. V. De Aquæduetu n. 4); or, if you will, that connecthe funetion of which is to join the body to | to transmit to the body the influences and |.—We mean the neck. Yes, says St.
“ehe is the neck of Our Head, by tes to His mystical body all spide Evangel. stern. Serm. X. &.
ing portion t the head ant volitions of the hen« Benardine of Sienna, whieh He eomnmunien ritual gifts" (Quadra.
3, e, i) We are then, it will be seen, very far from attribut- Mother of God a productive power of gracews to God alone. Yet, since Mary holiness and union with Jesus Jesus Christ in the
ing to the 4 power whieh beloi carries 1t over all in Christ, and has been associated by « work of redemption, she merits for us de congruo, in the logians, what Jesus Christ merits for and she is the supreme Minister of the
language of thee us de condigno,
on the right hand b.) Mary sitteth at secure and à have nothing her patron:
Jesus “sitteth
distribution of graces.
(Hebrews 1.
| of the majesty on high the right hand of her Son—# refuge F0 help so trusty |] dangers that We
to fear or to desp: guidanee, her protection. Bull Ineffabilis ).
These prineiph to return to our
who will no that we have with good reason | Mary that—as the constant companion of | house at Nazareth to the height of Calothers initiated to the secrets of the distributor, by right of her Mothof His merits—she is, for all | efficacious assistance to à and love of Jesus E
against a ür of under her (Pius IX. in ,s laid down, and
& ü Ye, n
Ê design, t see ; claimed for j Jesus from the vary, as beyond all His Heart, and as of the treasures a most sure ant us for arriving the knowledge Christ. Those, alas : furnish us by their eonduet with a peremptory proof of it, who seduced by false doetrines think they can do without the help of the Virgin. Hapthey who neglect Mary under pretext of the id to Jesus Christ ! As if the Child could han witl i
erhood, these reasons, at
less are honor to be pi
be found elsewhere |
Under these cir
| the Mother :
a mstances, Venerable is this end whieh all the solennities that are everywhere being yrepared in honor of the holy and Immaeulate O0 ception of Mary should have in view. No homage is more agreable to her, none is sweeter CO her than that we should know and really love Jesus Christ Let the erowda fill the ehurehes let sole e celebrated and publie rejoieings he made ;
nently suited tor enlivening our faith, But unless heart ^
and will be added they will all be empty forms, mere d
appearances of piety. At such a speetaele, the Virgin, | Jesus Christ, would address us
Brethren, it
mn feasts b these are things emi-
horrowing the words of
with the just reproach » “This people honoreth me with
t their heart ia far from me" (Matt. Xv. 8), worship of the Mother of
acts of the body
the aeta of the
| i Wed their lips, bu Vor to be vieht and good, m i "P (rom the heart nor value if Now these |
God ought to spring ither utility
in them. atter ean have
have here ne soul have no part
nd | at da ing
