As Dominicans we pride ourselves on having a special devotion to our Lady. If that means that we consider ourselves to have more devotion to her than other orders or other Catholics generally, then our pride is foolish and based on a manifest untruth. It is hard to think of a single order or organization in the Church which doesn't pride itself on a special devotion to the Mother of God. But surely we are not reduce to infantile competition on ‘who loves Mother most'. What our special devotions ought to mean is that we all love her in different, characteristic, ways. And our characteristic Dominican way, I would suggest, of loving our Lady, is to give her the service of our minds as well as of our affection.

The Holy Family is our God-given model of domestic perfection, but because the gospel tells us so astonishingly little of the hidden years we have to build up our exemplar with the aid of thought and imagination. There is no dearth of devotional writing on the subject but we may find that, though suitable for pious reading or for abstract meditation, it does not lend to practical application. We are in danger of falling between two stools. If we are theologically minded we cannot forget that the Holy Family was unique: it has no counterpart in our own experience. We cannot conceive what life was like in a family in which one Person was divine, one sinless and one, to say the least, a very great saint.

Why do we say, rightly, that sex is something that generally speaking, should not be talked about in public, in mixed groups, especially between boys and girls? Is it because sex is mean and shameful, perhaps even sinful?; Is it because sex is the private concern of men only, something therefore, that women need not bother about and are not entitled to know about? Is it because sex is something holy and sacred, something to be protected; a mystery whose secrets we penetrate only gradually; something, therefore, to be kept secret, in various measures, from the eyes of the uninitiated; and all this in order that this holy thing might not be abused by ignorant, careless, or wicked people?

Certainly not for the first reason. Sex is not dirty and shameful still less sinful. ‘God created man to his own image; male and female he created them.

Our Lord and Redeemer, my dear brethren, wishing to find us prepared, intimates what evils will attend the low world in its old age, in order to keep us from loving it now. He makes known the number of upheavals which will herald the approaching end, so that, if in times of tranquillity we do not want to fear God, we may at least fear his approaching judgment, when we are reduced to extremity by such catastrophes. Now, a little before the passage of the Holy Gospel which, brethren,you have just heard read, our Lord uttered these words: Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be great earthquakes, and in places plagues and famines.