t is why
righteousness is the ground of prevailing intercession, because
righteousness means sympathetic understanding of the mind of God.

And in none is there such sympathetic understanding because in none is
there such nearness to God, as in Blessed Mary. To go to her in our
prayers and to beg her to intercede for us is, of course, no more a
trenching upon the unique mediatorship of our Lord than it is to ask my
human friend to pray for me. We tend, do we not? to select from among
the circle of our acquaintance those whom for some reason we feel to
have what we call a special power in prayer when we seek for some one to
pray for us in our need. Is it not wholly natural then that we should go
to our Blessed Mother on whose sympathy we can unfailingly count and in
whose spiritual understanding we can implicitly trust, when we want to
interest those who are dear to our Lord in our special needs? We have
every claim upon their sympathy because they are fellow-members of the
same Body; and we know, too, that He Who has made us one in His Body
wills that we should receive His graces through our mutual
ministrations.

Mary, Maiden, mild and free,
Chamber of the Trinity,
A little while now list to me,
As greeting I thee give;
What though my heart unclean may be,
My offering yet receive.

Thou art the Queen of Paradise,
Of heaven, of earth, of all that is;
Thou bore in thee the King of Bliss
Without or spot or stain;
Thou didst put right what was amiss,
What man had lost, re-gain.

The gentle Dove of Noe thou art
The Branch of Olive-tree that brought,
In token that a peace was wrought,
And man to God was dear:
Sweet Ladye, be my Fort,
When the last fight draws near.

Thou art the Sling, thy Son the Stone
That David at Goliath flung;
Eke Aaron's rod, whence blossom sprung
Though bare it was, and dry:
'Tis known to all, who've looked upon
Thy childbirth wondrous high.

In thee has God become a Child,
The wretched foe in thee is foiled;
That Unicorn that was so wild
Is thrown by woman chaste;
Him hast thou tamed, and forced to yield,
With milk from Virgin breast.

Like as the sun full clear doth pass,
Without a break, through shining glass,
Thy Maidenhood unblemished was
For bearing of the Lord:
Now, sweetest Comfort of our