I well remember the huge portrait of Mater Admirabilis hanging before us in the Academics' Study Hall at Grand Coteau. The Religious had wisely – and quite deliberately – provided their students with their own greatest model of work, silence, and concentration. No girl could have cheated at her studies under Mater's meditation of peace and prayer.
Today, I have a lovely copy of that portrait on my wall here in New York City, and I have medals struck in the image, too, but, really, what I remember most fondly is the song we sang:
"Thou hast many portraits, Mother,All of them are dear to us.But our girlhood chiefly loves theeIn thy girlhood's beauty thus.And thy sweetest title this ..MATER ADMIRABILIS. MATER ADMIRABILIS."
Our favorite verse concludes with the prayer, "Make us like to thee in this," and we sang it diligently and loudly, for we loved thinking of the Mother of God as a girl like us. Even today, fifty-seven years (!) after my graduation from Coteau, the song and its lyrics come back to me without warning. "MATER ADMIRABILIS".
~ Clayelle Dalferes (Coteau, '56; Manhattanville, '60)
