Our Lady the Model for Youth

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LI, Issue 34, 13 August 1924, Page 41

Our Lady the Model for Youth

(By Marian Nesbitt, in Catholic Truth.)

• We hear much in these days of the insubordination of children and of the very pronounced independence of young people generally. It is not without interest, therefore, to tfjiirn to" the records of past times, and to note with what v Scrupulous and unfailing assiduity devotion to the holy Maiden Mary, "purest of creatures," was inculcated by Catholic parents during the Ages' of Faith. This devotion to the Immaculate Mother of God is like a finely cut diamond, of which the many facets give forth rainbow gleams of exquisite, and often startling, brilliance. It had surely a great effect in inspiring the high chivalrous love and the deep and tender reverence so strenuously advocated by fathers and mothers, and actually practised by a great number of families in childhood and youth during centuries which we are sometimes told were periods of turbulence and extraordinary ignorance; the picture given by one who has carefully studied the subject is a very different one, and Mary's name constantly occurs. "British children," he says, "were diligently trained up in the love of our Lady." Turning the pages of old documents and manuals we see that after God Who made them, and the Saviour Who redeemed them, children were taught to love and honor Mary, the "Virgin bright," that tenderest of tender mothers, whom they early learned to recognise as their gentle, advocate with her Divine Son. In Spain, children have for centuries been called by the names of the feasts of our Lady such as Annunciada, Dolores, .Rosaria, etc., and at this day we meet with* Loreto, Immacolata, equally frequently. In fact, from the earliest days of Christianity, the name of Christ's Mother has been held in the greatest honor; although, curiously enough, this veneration "has differed widely," as says a trustworthy authority, "in its expression in different ages." At one- time the name of Mary was refused even to queens: at another, it was found in almost every family. It is said of Archbishop Thomas, the "Blissful Martyr," of Canterbury, that he grew up in London, "obedient to father and to mother, pleasing and gentle toward every man, bright and blithe of visage, and of a turn of countenance, as it seemed to wise men, that the sweetness of God's grace was, clearly seen in him." His mother, Maild, true type of-the pious women of her day, weighed her boy each year on his ■birthday, against money, clothes and provisions, which she gave to the poor. She was, moreover, "bothe wise and willing to give counsels to him. Concerning these counsels, there is this amongst other ' matters to be read, that she taught him to adore and reverence the Blessed Maiden, God's Mother Mary, beyond all other saints, and to select her as the wisest guide of his life and of all his ways." In an old book, Instructions for Parish Priests, written by John Myrc, about the year 1450, we find that children were taught the "Hail Mary," together with the "Our Father" and the Creed. The instructions are as follows: "Godfaders and godmoders of this chylde, we charge you that ye charge the fader and moder to kepe it from fire and water and other perils to the age' of seven years; and that ye learn, or see that it he learned, the Pater Noster, Ave Maria and-Crede." ■■ i. Again : an ancient font at Bradley, in Lincolnshire, bears the inscription: Pater Noster, Ave Maria,., and Crede, leren ye chylde et nede." '"% In a most interesting old work; entitled The Bbke of gwrtesy'j, printed by. Caxton, about the year 1477-8,, Lytyl John is admonished to "worshipe God" on rising in the morning: and ■••■•• -j ' ■ *, ■ ,/;■- With Ohryste's Crosse joke ye blesse you Ithrise,; (•; r ' Your Pater Noster saye in devout wise, , '<■'■. i;|* Ave Maria with the holy Orede; 0 / Thenne all the day,the better shall ye spede.

It would also appear that the Office of the Blessed Virgin was a devotion which English children were urged to practise as soon as they could read; for Lytyl John-"" in the book just mentioned, is told to say our Lady’s Hours “withouten drede” and to “use this observance every day.” At Winchester, founded by that learned man and devout client of Mary, William of Wykehanr—eitlier the Stella Cceli (an antiphon given in all the editions of the well-known “Libellus Precum”) or the Salve Regina was always sung in the evening; and the Prior’s charity boys in like manner sang an evening antiphon of our Lady together with the De Profundis. At Catholic Eton, the statutes prescribed that all the choristers, after the Matins and Prime of the day, should recite the Hours of our Lady according to the use and ordinal of Sarum. Besides many other daily devotions in honor of our Lord’s Mother, the whole of the Psalter of our Lady was said. After instructions as to the saying and hearing of daily Mass there is in the statutes of Magdalen College, Oxford, founded by Bishop Waynflete, a very definite statement in respect to the recitation of the third part of the “Lady Psalter” or rosary, by the President and each of the Fellows, who are ordered every day, (Cl. • in honor and remembrance of the Most Blessed Virgin Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, with all possible devotion, on bonded knees, to say fifty times over the Angelical Salutation, together with the Lord’s Prayer after every ten rehearsals of the Salutation aforesaid.” The statutes of King’s College, Cambridge, founded by Henry VI., are not loss exact on this point. Besides the Divine Office, the Hours of the Blessed Virgin were to be said “every day, at proper appointed times,” and the Provost and all the choristers with their choirmaster “shall sing before the image of the Blessed Virgin in the evening” one of her antiphons. In schools and colleges an antiphon of our Lady was also added to the grace before and after meals. Next in importance after their prayers, children were taught the lessons of courtesy, seeing that courtesy “from Heaven came.” When Gabryelle Our Lady grette. And Elizabeth with Mary mette.* J Clearly, then, our Catholic forefathers held Mary Immaculate ever before the eyes of their children, representing her, as in truth she is, as the tenderest of mothers, the true Morning Star of boyhood and of youth.