Mater

“ Through the long centuries Nature has been the mother, nurse, and teacher of man.
Other Mother-Goddesses.
Among other "mother-goddesses" of ancient Italy we find Maia Mater, Flora Mater, both deities of growth and reproduction; Lua Mater, "the loosing mother," a goddess of death; Acca Larentia, the mother of the Lares (Acca perhaps = Atta, a child-word for mother, as Lippert suggests) ; Mater matuta, "mother of the dawn," a goddess of child-birth, worshipped especially by married women, and to whom there was erected a temple at Cære. ”

“ Let us take for our model dear Mater Admirabilis, and as near as possible imitate that divine Mother, making for ourselves a charmed existence by blotting out as far as possible the disagreeables of life; they will come, but they will only grow larger when we remember them, and constant thought of acts of meanness makes us more familiar with them. ”

“ If any mortal creature might be said to have entered into the sufferings of the great atonement with Jesus, it was his mother in those last hours. Never has sorrow presented itself in a form so venerable. Here is a depth of anguish which inspires awe as well as tenderness. The magnificent "Stabat Mater," in which the Church commemorates Mary's agony, is an outburst with which no feeling heart can refuse sympathy. ”

“ For long years the family of the benign and gracious mother, whose wisdom was lavished upon her children, consisted of sons alone, but now, with the advent of "sweeter manners, purer laws," daughters have come to her also, and the alumnae, "the sweet girl-graduates in their golden hair," share in the best gifts their parent can bestow. To Earth also, the term Alma Mater has been applied, and the great nourishing mother of all was indeed the first teacher of man, the first university of the race. ”

“ Sir, it is a Kingës Son,
That in heaven above doth wone. [28]
Mater, ora, &c.
Man to father he hath none,
But Himself God alone!
Of a maiden He would be born,
To save mankind that was forlorn!
Mater, ora, &c.
Three Kingës brought him presents,
Gold, myrrh, and frankincense,
To my Son full of might,
King of Kings and Lord of right!
Mater, ora, &c. [Pg 22]
Fair maiden, pray for us
Unto thy Son, sweet Jesus,
That He will send us of His grace
In heaven on high to have a place.
Mater, ora, &c.
[28] Dwell.
15. EYA, JESUS HODIE
EYA, Jesus hodie
Natus est de virgine.
Blessed be that maid Mary! ”

“ There were mothers who had never felt a pang so keen or a pain so sore, as when with hearts too full of anguish for the dry, red eyes to weep, they watched their sons pass from the threshold of the door, and knew that when the golden sunlight, falling so brightly around them, was purple in the west, they would look in vain for that returning step, and listen in vain for tones which were the first, perhaps, to stir the deep fountains of maternal love. ”

“ What a deplorable sight—an intemperate mother! What a soul-ruinous example to a daughter! When we consider the relation between the mother and the child, how great are the maternal responsibilities. The mother ought to attract the attention of the child by her love. ”

“ In their pictures of Mary, the virgin mother, the beauty which melts and subdues the gazer is that of the soul and the affections, uniting the awe and mystery of that mother's miraculous allotment with the irrepressible love, the unutterable tenderness, of young maternity,—Heaven's crowning miracle with Nature's holiest and sweetest instinct. ”

“ Let us contemplate at our leisure this delightful image of the maternal reverie—of that second childbirth by which she completes the invisible object of her love—the unknown offspring of desire.
A delightful spectacle, but even more sublime than delightful. Let us be modest here. With us the mother loves that which stirs in her bosom—that which she touches, clasps, enfolds in assured possession; she loves the reality, certain, agitated and moving, which responds to her own movements. ”

“ The Mater Speciosa is a Christmas hymn, and sings the overflowing joy of Mary at the cradle of the new-born Saviour. The Mater Dolorosa is a Good Friday hymn, and sings the piercing agony of Mary at the cross of her divine human Son. They breathe the same love to Christ, and the burning desire to become identified with Mary by sympathy in the intensity of her joy as in the intensity of her grief. ”

“ How beautiful, then, in its adaptation to the situation in which she is placed, and the duties she has to perform, is that instinct of maternal love, which, from its intensity and depth, its all-pervading and inextinguishable vitality, so lives and breathes through every act, thought, word, and look of the fond mother, that sooner would her infant doubt its own existence, than question that of her untiring love! ”

“ A proud young mother was dandling her infant at a shop door, as if desirous that the whole street should be aware of the important fact of her maternity—to be sure, there never was such a beautiful baby before! ”

“ And as his mother became to him the very type of maternity in things, its unfailing pity and protectiveness, and maternity itself the central type of all love;—so, that beautiful dwelling-place lent the reality of concrete outline to a peculiar ideal of home, which throughout the rest of his life he seemed, amid many distractions of spirit, to be ever seeking to regain. ”

“ One of the most important of these devotional subjects proper to the Madonna is the "Mourning Mother," the Mater Dolorosa, in which her character is that of the mother of the crucified Redeemer; the mother of the atoning Sacrifice; the queen of martyrs; the woman whose bosom was pierced with a sharp sword; through whose sorrow the world was saved, whose anguish was our joy, and to whom the Roman Catholic Christians address their prayers as consoler of the afflicted, because she had herself tasted of the bitterest of all earthly sorrow, the pang of the agonized mother for the loss of her child. ”

“ Agdistis or Agdus, Mater Phrygia from the greatest stronghold of her cult; while others were reflections of her character as a great nature goddess: e.g. Mountain Mother, Great Mother of the Gods, Mother of all Gods and all Men. As the great Mother deity whose worship extended throughout Asia Minor she was known as Mā or Ammas. ”

“ Little by little the usefulness of the mother was prolonged, the brooding mother, the feeding mother, lastly the nursing mother, highest of all. Order mammalia stands at the top, type of efficient motherhood.
When human development began, new paths were open to mother-love—new tasks to maternal energy. The human mother not only nursed and guarded the child, but exercised her dawning ingenuity in adding to its comfort by making things. ”

“ A votive Mater Misericordiæ, with the Child, in her arms, is often standing with her wide ample robe extended, and held up on each side by angels. Kneeling at her feet are the votaries who have consecrated the picture, generally some community or brotherhood instituted for charitable purposes, who, as they kneel, present the objects of their charity—widows, orphans, prisoners, or the sick and infirm. The Child, in her arms, bends forward, with the hand raised in benediction. ”

“ I then determined that I would never marry until I had found another middle-class girl who should be just as beautiful, just as virtuous, as she was, and who could sing the 'Stabat Mater' just as nicely. ”

“ Yet, on the strength of this feeling, mothers are apt to believe that the very fact of maternity confers on them the knowledge of how best to rear their offspring. They resent almost as an insult the suggestion that a certain amount of study is absolutely necessary to obtain this knowledge. ”

“ Twice blessed rather, for virginity and fruitful maternity are woman's greatest blessings, and Mary, the virginal Mother of the Man of men, became in the birth of her first-born the spiritual Mother of us all. ”

“ When the mother of Christ shall be made the true model of womanhood and motherhood, when the office of maternity shall be held sacred and the mother shall consecrate herself, as did Mary, to the one idea of bringing forth the Christ-child, then, and not till then, will this earth see a new order of men and women, prone to good rather than evil. ”

“ While perceiving, scarce believing,
we bring them perilously near to the absurd.
In a word, free translations do not catch the delicate pathos of the Stabat Mater, and are not echoes of its melody. I have hitherto had an occasion to say that a translator may well make three translations of a poem; one to portray its structure, that is, its measure, melody, movement and rhyme ”

“ But when we consider woman from the point of view of her maternal functions, her physiological, psychological, and intellectual nature assumes an entirely changed aspect; for maternity is the natural function of the female, the end to which she has been created. Lofty sentiments, complete altruism, and far-sighted intelligence develop all of a sudden when she becomes a mother. ”

“ THE Stabat Mater, with the Dies Iræ, possesses the power of imparting a shadowy impression of its meaning by the melody of its verse. Its soft, sad cadence echoes the feeling of its pathetic words. In fame it ranks next to the Dies Iræ, yet is neither so simple nor so grand; nor does it rise, like the Great Hymn, above sectarian faults. It has attracted the same great admiration, and been praised and repeated by the fame great admirers, but always in a lesser degree. As the Dies Iræ has been pronounced the greatest, so the Stabat Mater universally is deemed the most pathetic of hymns. ”

“ John Mason Neale, who published the original Latin with the translation a few days before his death, in August, 1866, thus closing his useful and brilliant hymnological labors.
The Mater Speciosa and the Mater Dolorosa are, apparently, the product of the same genius. They are companion-hymns, and resemble each other like twin sisters. The Mater Dolorosa was evidently suggested by the Scripture scene, as briefly stated by St. John, Stabat juxta crucem mater ejus; and this again, suggested the cradle-hymn as a counterpart. It is a parallelism of contrast which runs from beginning to end. ”

“ Had there been a Papist among the crowd of Puritans, he might have seen in this beautiful woman, so picturesque in her attire and mien, and with the infant at her bosom, an object to remind him of the image of Divine Maternity, which so many illustrious painters have vied with one another to represent; something which should remind him, indeed, but only by contrast, of that sacred image of sinless motherhood, whose infant was to redeem the world. ”

“ If the mother, with her harassing cares, the never-ending details of her never-ending work, can find time for studying her maternal relations and responsibilities, and comparing her experience with that of others for purposes of improvement and the highest efficiency, and for joining in social prayer for the blessing of God on her efforts, the father can find time for similar study, effort, and prayer. ”

“ A general course in pedagogy, especially its history and ideals, another in child study, and finally a course in maternity the last year taught broadly, and not without practical details of nursing, should be comprehensive and culminating. In its largest sense maternity might be the heart of all the higher training of young women. ”

“ The second of the new translations is by that accomplished author, two of whose remarkable renderings of the Dies Iræ already enrich this work. Of the version now given a distinguished scholar says, " The English double rhyme rarely expresses the melody and pathos of the Latin. Dr. Abraham Coles, of Newark, has probably best succeeded in a faithful rendering of the Mater Dolosa."—Dr. Philip Schaff.
A further exposition of the Stabat Mater is given in the newly found companion-hymn, Stabat Mater Speciosa, with its translation, the last work of Dr. John Mason Neale. ”

“ Poor Mary follows in the crowd, and, as she sees the bloody footprints His feet have made, her maternal heart can contain itself no longer. In a frenzy of despair and with a superhuman effort, she rushes frantic through the crowd. Men fall back in alarm before her fierce earnestness, and on she goes through the parted ranks until she stands face to face with her Son. " Mother," He sobs, " Mother," and at the word all her unnatural courage dies out, all the love and tenderness of her nature come back to her, and in a moment she is a helpless woman, a heartbroken mother again. ”

“ but, however all other feelings may be withered in a woman’s nature, there is always one bright smiling spot in the desert of her heart, and that is the shrine of maternal love. ”

“ The concluding lines of the extract given at page 4, are in the original:
"Si tua nuncia prævenit uncia, surge, fequaris;
Expete limina, nulla gravamina jam verearis.
Si datur uncia, stat prope gratia Pontificalis;
Sin procul hæc valet, hæc tibi lex manet est schola talis."
The ninth and tenth stanzas of the Stabat Mater are more literally rendered in the following than in the version of Lord Lindsay. They also show the inability of the English double rhyme to express the pathos which inverts the Latin. ”

“ My mother! mother of my soul! thou who, after God, lovest me and desirest my salvation more than all the world beside: O my Mother! show thyself to be indeed a mother.
Prayer of St. Bernard.
MOST sweet and amiable Mary, no one can pronounce thy name without feeling the greatest desire to love thee; and those who do love thee, cannot call thee to mind without being animated to love thee more. Pray for us to thy divine Son, that he may vouchsafe to strengthen our weakness: no one is better entitled to speak in our favour to thy God, and ours, than thyself, who art the nearest to him. ”

“ It is Mother, and again Mother who is called upon, if we need help, if we need support. The honour of motherhood lies in this, in the calling of her name in deep, sorrowful hours. Why do we not call upon our father—why just our mother? Because we feel from childhood, instinctively that Mother, means a world of love and devotion. ”