Salve Regina
May 24, 2016
Frank Duveneck (American artist, 1848-1919) Madonna and Child 1867
IT IS fascinating how rarely feminists mention the most powerful and influential woman in history.
This glaring failure to make much of how extravagantly she has been adored, prayed to, painted, represented in sculpture, praised in song, honored in edifices, written about, and held continuously in the hearts of untold millions ranging from peasants to kings, cannot be attributed solely to the fact that feminists generally do not recognize the supernatural. Even leaving her supernatural powers aside, Mary’s influence in world affairs is evident. Feminists ignore or downplay her because she, a woman, is the single, greatest enemy of feminism. She is the supreme, unparalleled example of femininity. From “The Influence of Mary on Modern Civilization,” by Rev. John Kelly (1897):
And this ideal of a delicate, fragile, modest and retiring lady, overtopping in her grandeur the sons of men, yet retaining supereminently a woman’s heart, has done more towards banishing the barbarism, allying the brutality, softening the hardness, developing the humanity of the native disposition bequeathed to Adam’s children, than all the teachings of philosophers, and all the projects and devices of statesmen and sages. [“The Influence of Mary on Modern Civilization,” Rev. John Kelly, 1897]
While I respectfully disagree with those who say that women were nothing more than the slaves of men before Mary — that is to say that mothers and daughters and wives had no hold over the hearts of men, which would be contrary to human nature — there is no question that Mary elevated the regard for women and civilized the world. The person of Mary, and her influence, contradicts virtually all of the dogmas of modern feminism. While feminism says women become powerful by seeking positions of power, Mary’s example shows that women become powerful by embracing littleness, or humility.
The knights indeed of mediaeval days have passed in their gleaming armour, with nodding plume and twinkling lance-head, into the shadows of the melancholy past; but that sworn courtesy to the weaker sex, that sweet simplicity of heart, in doing them honour; that self-forgetful devotion to the cause of the oppressed and the helpless, that vowed reverence and affection for Mary’s name, which reigned in their hearts and dictated all their duties and functions of honour, kindliness and true knighthood did not die with them, but fructified through the ages, the same essential spirit in other outward forms.
Yes, beloved Brethren, the love of Mary, the study of Mary’s character and the imitation of her virtues, is no debasing influence, as her enemies pretend, rather it is a stimulus to every good quality that owns a root in the soil of our nature. She is the woman, who (according to the first recorded prophecy), was marked out in the designs of God to crush the serpent’s head. And in the breasts of her faithful children and votaries, her heel is upon that malignant crest, and the poisonous tongue of Satan plays vainly in his jaws.
Pope Pius XII wrote:
If life reveals to what depths of vice and degradation women can at times descend, Mary shows to what heights she can climb, in and through Christ, even to ascending above all other creatures. What civilization, what religion has ever raised to such heights the ideal of womanhood, or exalted it to such perfection? Modern humanism, laicism, Marxist propaganda .. non-Christian cults, have nothing to offer which can even be compared with this vision .. so glorious and so humble, so transcendent and [yet] so easily accessible.
[Pope Pius XII, Allocution, Woman in the Modern World, 10 September 1941]
[Painting above courtesy of It’s About Time]
— Comments —
Tom writes:
Words from an interview with Lucia, one of the children to whom the Blessed Mother appeared at Fatima in 1917:
“The Blessed Virgin said to my cousins as well as to myself that God is giving two last remedies to the world.. These are the Rosary and prayers to Mary… These are the last two remedies which signify that there will be no others.
When God sees that the world pays no attention to His words, He offers us, with a certain concern, the last means of help, His beloved Mother.
It is with a certain concern, because if we neglect this final help, we will not have any more forgiveness from Heaven, because we will have committed the sin against the Holy Spirit. This sin consists of openly rejecting, with full knowledge and consent, the salvation which He offers.”
(From an interview with Lucia by Father Augustin Fuentes, December 26, 1957)
Paul A. writes:
Feminists:
If you summed up their movement, the slogan would be “Non Serviam!” (I will not serve!)
Our Lady, on the other hand, gives her life away with the words “Behold the Handmaid of the Lord. Be it done to me according to His will…”
Women have always held positions of power. But they have rarely held positions of glory.
Power is the hand that rocks the cradle. Even in the military, there is a saying that a (female) hair can pull a battleship.
Female glory gets you Kim Kardashian, etc.
Kardashian will be unknown within a decade. A mother will live for at least three generations. And Our Lady is still honored, admired, and emulated two thousand years later. On top of which, she ranks just below the Most Holy Trinity for all eternity.
I wish I could emulate her. Closest I can come is to be sure that, as long as I do not abandon her, she will not abandon me…
Women simply have no idea how powerful they are before men, if they seek to fulfill their own, special, God-given roles.
