primitive parents, being bone of our bone, and
flesh of our flesh, and who once trod the thorny path of life that we now
tread!

Though not of the household of the faith, Edgar A. Poe did not disdain to
invoke Our Lady's intercession, and to acknowledge the influence of her
patronage in heaven.

"At morn--at noon--at twilight dim--
Maria! thou hast heard my hymn;
In joy and woe--in good and ill--
Mother of God, be with me still!
When the hours flew brightly by,
And not a cloud obscured the sky,
My soul, lest it should truant be,
Thy grace did guide to thine and thee;
Now, when storms of fate o'ercast
Darkly my present and my past,
Let my future radiant shine,
With sweet hopes of thee and thine."

Some persons not only object to the invocation of Mary as being
unprofitable, but they even affect to be scandalized at the confidence we
repose in her intercession, on the groundless assumption that by praying
to her we ignore and dishonor God, and that we put the creature on a level
with the Creator.

Every Catholic child knows from the catechism that to give to any creature
the supreme honor due to God alone is idolatry. How can we be said to
dishonor God, or bring Him down to a level with His creature by invoking
Mary, since we acknowledge her to be a pure creature indebted like
ourselves to Him for every gift and influence that she possesses? This is
implied in the very form of our petitions.

When we address our prayers to her we say: _Pray for us sinners_, implying
by these words that she herself is a petitioner at the throne of Divine
mercy. To God we say: _Give us our daily bread_, thereby acknowledging Him
to be the source of all bounty.

This principle being kept in view, how can we be justly accused of
slighting God's majesty by invoking the intercession of His handmaid?

If a beggar asks and receives alms from me through my servant, should I be
offended at the blessings which he invokes upon her? Far from it. I accept
them as intended for myself, because she bestowed what was mine, and with
my consent.

Our Lord says to His Apostles: "I dispose to you a kingdom, that you may
eat and drink at My table in My kingdom and may sit upon thrones, judging
the twelve tribes of Israel."(268) And St. Paul says: "Know you not that
we shall judge angels, how much more things of this world?"(269) If the
Apostles may sit at the table of the Lord in heaven without p