The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 219to be snatched from her fair brow, it is because weare unwilling that a single feature of Christ s sacredhumanity should be obscured, and because we wishthat He should ever shine forth in all the splendorof His glory, and clothed in all the panoply of Hisperfections.But you will ask :Why do you so often blendtogether the worship of God and the veneration ofthe Blessed Virgin ? Why such exclamations as,Blessed be Jesus and Mary? Why do you so oftenrepeat in succession the Lord s prayer and the Angelical salutation ? Is not this practice calculatedto level all distinctions between the Creator and Hiscreature, and to excite the displeasure of a God everjealous of His glory?Those who make this objection, should rememberthat the praises of the Lord and of His Saints arefrequently combined in Holy Scripture itself.Witness Judith. On returning from the tent ofHolofernes, she sang : "Praise ye the Lord, our God,who hath not forsaken them that hope in Him, andby me His handmaid, He hath fulfilled His mercywhich He promised to the house of Israel ....And Ozias the prince of the people of Israel, said toher : Blessed art thou, daughter, by the Lord themost high God, above all women upon the earth.Blessed be the Lord who made heaven and earth. . .because He hath so magnified thy name this day, thatthy praise shall not Jdepart out of the mouth of men."1Judith xiii.