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I.
Primary End of the Family
In accordance with
the words spoken by God to our first parents, "Increase and multiply and
fill the earth," the primary purpose of the family is the propagation of
the human race. Now without religion, this purpose will be only imperfectly
attained. All history witnesses to the fact that there can be no enduring
morality without religion, and the history of the family is no exception
to the rule. The suffering and labor, the difficulty and disappointment,
the grief and vexation incident to the bearing and rearing of children demand
so much patience, love, and self-sacrifice, that no one not imbued with a
religious sense of duty and buoyed up by the hope of an eternal reward, will
be willing to endure them. Hence where these religious motives are wanting,
the primary end of the family will be either wholly or partly neglected,
and matrimony degraded to the low level of a selfish partnership or a sinful
pastime.
Perverting Marriage
We need not have
recourse to pagan lands, where infants are deliberately exposed to die, for
proof that such is the inevitable result of the absence of religion in the
family. The absence or scarcity of children in many families of our own land
is sad and sufficient evidence. Nay, even in Christian families, where religion
no longer exerts the sway it should, are found those immoral practices that
pervert the sublime aim of the family. One might, and in charity one would
be bound to, ascribe the absence or scarcity of children in such families
to other causes, if wives and mothers did not openly advocate artificial
restriction of families on the theory that it is better to have one or two
children and bring them up well than to have a larger number and be unable
to take proper care of them. That theory in itself, of course, is unassailable
so long as no law of God is violated by having only one or two children,
and so long as the expression "proper care" is rightly understood. But just
the way this theory is understood and put into practice by most of its advocates
shows into what errors man falls when he is not restrained by the salutary
curb of religion.
Educating for Heaven
What is meant by
bringing up a child well? From the standpoint of religion, as far as essentials
are concerned, it means to bring up a child in such a manner that it will
be enabled to attain the end for which God created it--eternal happiness
in Heaven. Such an education even the poorest parents will be able to provide
for their children, no matter how many they have; and their own happiness
in Heaven will be increased by every child that they have added to the number
of the elect. There is always a possibility of a child going wrong despite
the best parental care; but the probability of its going wrong from neglect
because of the large number of children is far less than the probability
that it will be spoiled if it is one of a limited few. The very action of
the parents in thwarting nature by limiting their offspring will militate
against the proper religious training of their children; for it is not likely
that parents who themselves disobey the law of God in so grave a matter will
be at great pains to rear God-fearing sons and daughters.
"Proper Care" Relative
But even from a
material point of view, the assumption is false that parents cannot take
proper care of many children. "Proper care" is to be understood relatively,
not absolutely; for while parents are bound to provide for the material as
well as the spiritual needs of their children, the extent of that provision
must vary with the parents' resources. If the best possible training and
the best possible care were required for every child, few persons would be
allowed to marry at all; since few, if any, could be found whose circumstances
could not be improved on.
Pope Pius XI on the Rearing of Children
"We are deeply touched by the sufferings of those parents who, in extreme
want, experience great difficulty in rearing their children. However, they
should take care lest the calamitous state of their external affairs should
be the occasion for a much more calamitous error. No difficulty can arise
that justifies the putting aside of the law of God which forbids all acts
intrinsically evil. There is no possible circumstance in which husband and
wife cannot, strengthened by the grace of God, fulfill faithfully their duties
and preserve in wedlock their chastity unspotted." --Encyclical on Christian
Marriage.
Periodic Continence
If really serious
financial straits or imperative considerations of health should discountenance
the addition of another child to the family at a given time, truly Christian
parents will know how to meet the situation by mutually agreeing to practice
continence over a certain period. So much, with a good will and God's grace,
they will always be able to do. But no combination of untoward circumstances
can ever justify the misuse of the sacred rights of marriage. (See quotation
above.) I realize most keenly that faithful adherence to the law of God will
sometimes require great sacrifices of God-fearing parents. But every state
of life, as it confers certain rights and privileges, also demands its peculiar
sacrifices; and God will always grant sufficient grace to enable one to make
them. If God enables those husbands and wives to keep His holy law who are
deprived of the legitimate pleasures of wedlock by the premature death or
the life-long illness of their spouses, He will certainly do the same for
those whom poverty or other trying conditions place in a similar predicament.
With St. Paul, every Christian can say in time of trial: "I can do all things
in Him that strengtheneth me."
An Extreme Case
The following example,
which is about as extreme a case as one might imagine, shows how God strengthens
and consoles those sorely tried consorts who place their trust in Him. I
condense the story narrated by the chief actor himself--an English Catholic
journalist named W. Gerald Young--in a letter to the London Universe. "Some
years ago I stood with a woman at the altar where God united us in the bonds
of holy Matrimony. She was all that man could wish for, and, with her, life
was a succession of sunny days. More than once did God give her that wonderful
blessing of radiant motherhood, and we were intensely happy. Today, however,
black clouds of sorrow have overwhelmed us, and we are no longer together.
"Once a week I make a pilgrimage into the beautiful hill country of Surrey,
where there is an institution known by the name of a mental hospital. Here
it is that my dear one spends her days,-- long, weary days, because she is
mad. Here is my shrine. Frail and pallid, she lies on a bed, dead to the
world of intelligence. Her once beautiful face is now disfigured; her old-time
smile superseded by a scowl. When I kiss her dear lips, there is no warm
response from the woman who loved me so dearly; and yet she still holds the
keys of my heart. "My journey back to London is a weary one; for how can
we call it home when the wife and mother is absent? Little voices will ask
when Mama is coming back, and Daddy cannot tell them. On my way back, I visit
a little church wherein the Blessed Sacrament is always exposed for adoration.
In this haven of rest where all is quiet and peaceful, I lift up my weary
heart to God and tell Him my troubles, and I come out a happier man, because
I have unburdened my soul to my Maker and He has given me new courage to
fight this weary battle of life. Some day God may see fit to answer my petition.
In the meantime I can only hope and pray." But whether God grants this brave
man's prayer here on earth or not, oh, how magnificently will He reward his
fidelity in eternity!
A Selfish Life
Now if a man can
be faithful to the law of God in such trying circumstances, how much easier
should it be for those whose happy homes are still unbroken and who need
only practice Christian self-restraint? The whole argument against large
families only shows the absence of the salutary restraints of religion. At
bottom it is not the desire to give their children a more excellent training
but the desire to lead a more selfish and comfortable life that clamors for
the unnatural limitation of the family. No one is more desirous of having
well-trained children than deeply religious parents; but such parents, regarding
their office in the light of Faith, are bent mainly on rearing their children
for Heaven; and they understand that, even should they be able to provide
them but scantily with the goods of this world, by training them for Heaven
the main thing is achieved and their principal duty performed. They realize,
too, that the success of all their efforts in behalf of their children depends
mainly on Heaven's blessing, and that if they merit that blessing by their
upright lives, He who feeds the birds of the air and clothes the lilies of
the field will also provide for their children.
Consolations of Parenthood
Happy the parents
who still retain this religious outlook on life; whose religion is their
guide, their support, and their consolation amid the arduous duties of their
state of life! They know that they are the chosen instruments of Divine
Providence for peopling the abode of the blessed. They know that in assuming
the office of parenthood, they cooperate with God himself in bringing into
existence beings destined to praise and enjoy him forever in Heaven. They
know that every child they receive is a gift of God; since, do what they
will, they can have no child that God does not give them. But above the solace
of all this knowledge, is the supernatural aid which the true religion affords
them. They have the actual graces of the sacrament of Matrimony, of frequent
Communion, and of daily prayer to strengthen them, and the example of their
suffering Savior to console them. Yes, with religion in their homes, they
can resist the evil example of those godless couples who seek only their
own gratification. And though eugenic wise-acres scoff, and even misguided
friends smile in derision at their old-fashioned families, they will never
thwart Heaven's designs concerning their families, but look upon every child
as a new token of Heaven's trust and Heaven's love.
The Parents' Pride
It is remarkable
how often God rewards parents of large families by making the children that
came last become the chief joy and pride of their life. The Little Flower
of Jesus was the last of nine children; St. Ignatius of Loyola, the thirteenth
and St. Catherine of Siena, the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth. Many parents
owe the honor of having a son raised to the priesthood to the fact that they
had large families. Had my own parents been willing to have five children
but no more, they would never have had a priest in the family. But because
they were blessed with eight children, they had the happiness of seeing the
sixth and seventh celebrate their first Mass on the same day; and though
they have gone to their reward, they are no doubt happy to know that two
sons of their eighth child are studying for the priesthood. A few years ago,
I received a letter from a young mother of two children, in which she related
how certain worldly-wise women try to induce mothers to limit the number
of their children. On the occasion of a social call, a lady acquaintance
of hers had remarked: "It is not a woman of refinement nowadays that has
more than two children." To which the young mother replied: "In that case
I hope to belong to the common herd, as I intend to take all that the good
Lord wants to give me." In replying to her letter, I commended her for her
truly Catholic stand, and then added: "I thank God that my own good mother
did not have such a false idea of refinement; for if she had, I should have
had no chance at all, as I was her seventh child." And the very first time
I related this incident, namely, to a group of Franciscan Fathers at St.
Elizabeth's Friary, Denver, Colo., each one of the five priests present declared
that he, too, was his mother's seventh child!
II.
Final Aim of Marriage
Necessary as religion
is in the home for the attainment of the primary aim of marriage and the
family--the propagation of the human race, it is equally necessary for the
attainment of the family's final aim--the education of children for Heaven.
Above all else it is the soul of the child for which parents will have to
render a strict account on the day of judgment; and it is the religious and
moral training of their children, therefore, that constitutes their paramount
duty to their offspring. When Catholic parents stand before their Divine
Judge, they will not be asked whether they did their utmost to enable their
children to prosper in this world--to wear the laurels of its honors, to
reap the fruits of its riches, and to quaff the wine of its sensual pleasures.
No; the question they will have to answer is, whether they did their duty
in enabling their children not only to save their immortal souls, but also
to reach that degree of holiness to which God destined them and to embrace
that state of life in which God wished them to serve Him.
Before the Dawn of Reason
To acquit themselves
of this sacred duty, parents must needs foster religion in their home. If
religion is to be planted deep in the heart of the child,--so deep that it
will defy all later attempts of the world, the flesh and the devil, to root
it out, it will not do to defer the child's religious education until it
starts to school. Its religious education must be begun not only at the first
dawn of reason, but long before the dawn of reason-- in very infancy, so
that a truly religious mind will be developed and become a veritable second
nature. It follows necessarily, then, that religion must exert the dominant
influence in the place where the child's first years are spent; namely, in
the home. Religion should surround the child as snugly as its infant clothing.
The child should imbibe religion at its mother's breast. It should be rocked
to sleep to the tune of religion, and its first lisping accents should have
a religious character. Only if religion rules the home, will the child get
the impression right at the start that religion is the most important thing
in life. If there is little or no religion in the home, the child will naturally
be led to suppose that wealth and position, secular knowledge and training,
or even worldly comforts and pleasures are the things most worth while; and
that religion, instead of being a vital force in life, is merely a polite
concession that man feels he must occasionally make to God, his Creator;
and hence that it is, like a badge or his best clothes,- -to be displayed
only in church and on special occasions.
Religion a Spiritual Food
Few parents who
send their children to a Catholic school will deny the necessity of religion
in the school. They know that even if a school should be entirely non-sectarian
and in no way opposed to religion, the mere absence of religion would itself
be a great evil; for, if education means the training and instructing of
a child for the performance of the duties of life, it must needs embrace
religious training and instruction, since the practice of religion is the
first and foremost of life's duties. Now what is true of the absence of religion
in the school, is equally true of its absence in the home. The supernatural
graces which the child received in Baptism, sanctifying grace and the infused
virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity, are awaiting nourishment and warmth
in order to blossom forth and yield fruit; and to deny the child the religious
food and atmosphere it craves is to stunt if not to thwart its spiritual
growth. To say that no harm is done the child so long as it is taught nothing
positively bad or irreligious, is just as false as to say that it will not
harm a child to deprive it of food so long as you do not give it poison.
Yet great as is the need of religion in the home for the proper molding of
the infant mind and heart, how frequently is the hungry little soul of the
child practically starved until it begins to attend a Catholic school! How
often, too, is it not taught things that are positively bad either by word
or by example! How often are not things said or done or permitted in the
presence of children and justified or excused with the remark that "they
don't know what it means," or "it won't do them any harm"! It may do them
incalculable harm. It is just this seed sown in the innocent child's memory
and imagination, from which later on evil will spring; and then the astonished
parents wonder where the child learnt it. Small children are the most
impressionable beings in the world, and the impressions which they receive
are the ones that sink deepest and that will leave their traces all through
life.
Shifting the Burden
One reason why
the child's religious education is often neglected at home, is the tendency
on the part of parents to disemburden themselves of the duty of educating
their children by committing that task entirely to others. The Catholic parochial
school is unquestionably a splendid as well as a necessary institution; but
it must be remembered that the education of children is in the first place
the duty of the parents, and that the purpose of the school is only to co-operate
with the parents, and in particular to take up the work at that point where
the parents are no longer able to accomplish it satisfactorily themselves.
That point, I am inclined to think, is ordinarily not reached before the
child completes its sixth year, since there are few parents who are unable,
from lack of either time or knowledge, to teach their children all they need
to know on entering the first grade. There is, however, a growing custom
of anticipating that point by entrusting the child to others when it is only
five, or even only three or four years old; and the cause of the custom is
the existence of the kindergarten.
The Holy Father
on the Decline of Family Education
"We wish to call your attention in a special manner to the present-day lamentable
decline in family education. The offices and professions of a transitory
and earthly life, which are certainly of far less importance, are prepared
for by long and careful study; whereas for the fundamental duty and obligation
of educating their children, many parents have little or no preparation,
immersed as they are in temporal cares. "The declining influence of domestic
environment is further weakened by another tendency prevalent almost everywhere
to-day, which, under one pretext or another, for economic reasons, or for
reasons of industry, trade or politics, causes children to be more and more
frequently sent away from home even in their tenderest years." --Pius XI
in "Christian Education of Youth."
Kindergarten vs. Home Training
There are those
that favor the kindergarten; and it is easy to understand that, like the
day nursery, it is a most welcome institution to mothers who are obliged
to work away from home for the support of their families. While the use of
the kindergarten in such a case is certainly above criticism, the same cannot
be said in regard to its use by those parents who avail themselves of it
merely to have the children off their hands. And, even where there is no
lack of parental love and care, there is likelihood that parents will send
their children to the kindergarten simply because others do so; or from the
mistaken notion that they are supposed to do so. Now, without wishing to
dogmatize in the matter, I want to tell such parents that, in my opinion,
the kindergarten training is not superior to home training; and that nothing
is learned in the kindergarten that cannot be learned equally well at home.
It is quite true that the school mistress who specializes in her work may
be intellectually better equipped than many mothers for the education of
very young children; but it is none the less true that the mother is by nature
the child's first and chief educator; that the mother is nature's own specialist
just in the task of educating the child before it reaches the age of reason;
and that, as regards religious training, it is every mother's bounden duty
to acquire so much knowledge as will enable her to teach her children that
rudimentary religious knowledge that they should have before they complete
their sixth year. (See quotation above.)
A Work of Love
Yet it is not so
much duty, young mothers, that I would emphasize, as love, to induce you
to make the early education of your children your own personal task. Soon
enough, yes all too soon the time will come when your darlings will pass
from the sacred sanctuary of your home to spend the greater part of their
waking hours elsewhere. Should your mother's love not be anxious to have
them under your watchful eye as long as possible? During those first half
dozen years, when the child's heart can be molded like soft clay, should
you not desire to fashion it to the highest ideals with your own loving hands?
Should you not wish to be able to say that those essential prayers, which
you expect your children to recite daily through life, were first learned
and lisped at their mother's knee? Should you not aim to bind them to their
home by the strongest ties of interest as well as of affection? If so, then
the surest way is to make the home the fountain at which they first drink
the waters of wisdom; to make the home the attractive center of all their
earthly hopes and joys and the holy shrine round which will caressingly cling
the fondest of all the happy memories of childhood.
Harmony between School and Home
But even when parents
have done all in their power for the religious education of their children
before the latter begin to attend school, let them not imagine that their
task is accomplished. When they finally commit them to the charge of others,
at the proper age, they do not thereby divest themselves of all responsibility,
but must co-operate with the teachers by their interest, their discipline,
and their moral support. (See Holy Father's quotation below.) Here again
appears the necessity of religion in the home. If the child learns at school
that it is in this world to serve God and to save its immortal soul, and
that the things of earth are to be used merely as means to that end, that
lesson must have an echo in the home. What the school emphasizes as the most
important thing in life must likewise be regarded as such in the home. It
will not do for the child to find a disagreement between the religious truths
it learns at school and the views it hears expressed and defended at home.
The irreconcilable opposition between the maxims of Christ and the maxims
of this world will come home to the child soon enough; and if the former
are to take root in its heart as they should, the seed sown in religious
instruction in school must be nurtured by religion in the home.
A Puzzling Contradiction
It is true, the
child will come in touch with irreligion sooner or later outside the circle
of the home and school; but that is not likely to affect it so easily, since
it has been taught to look upon the world as hostile to its own best interests.
It will be quite different if irreligion is met with in the home. A child
implicitly trusts its parents. It believes that they have its welfare at
heart; and it will be confronted with a puzzling contradiction if its parents
by word, deed, or omission countenance or counsel anything that it was taught
at school to regard as wrong. Just because of its confidence in its parents,
the child is more likely to follow the example of the home than the precept
it learned at school. Example is always more powerful than precept; and it
is of the highest importance, therefore, that the religious instruction of
the school be seconded by the example of sterling Christian conduct in the
home. Only when home and school work hand in hand, mutually supporting,
complementing, and encouraging each other, may we hope that our children
will receive the kind of education that will enable them to bring forth the
fruits of a truly Christian life.
Pius XI on the
Status of the School
"Since, however, the younger generations must be trained in the arts and
sciences for the advantage and prosperity of civil society, and since the
family of itself is unequal to this task, it was necessary to create that
social institution, the school. But let it be borne in mind that this institution
owes its existence to the initiative of the family and of the Church, long
before it was undertaken by the State. Hence, considered in its historical
origin, the school is by its very nature and institution subsidiary and
complementary to the family and the Church. It follows logically and necessarily
that it must not be in opposition to, but in positive accord with those other
two elements, and form with them a perfect moral union, constituting one
sanctuary of education, as it were, with the family and the Church. Otherwise
it is doomed to fail of its purpose and to become instead an agent of
destruction." --Encyclical on "Christian Education of Youth."
Non-Catholic Schools Forbidden
The very fact that
the school is supposed to continue the education of the home and that both
must be pervaded by the same Christian spirit, shows the obligation that
Catholic parents are under of placing their children only in a Catholic school.
In his encyclical on the Christian Education of Youth, Pope Pius XI emphasizes
this duty in unmistakable terms "There is no need," he writes, "to repeat
what Our predecessors have declared on this point, especially Pius IX and
Leo XIII.... We renew and confirm their declarations, as well as the sacred
Canons, in which the frequenting of non-Catholic schools, whether neutral
or mixed, those namely which are open to Catholics and non-Catholics alike,
is forbidden for Catholic children, and can be at most tolerated, on the
approval of the Ordinary alone, under determined circumstances of place and
time, and with special precautions. "Neither can Catholics admit that other
type of mixed school...in which the students are provided with separate religious
instruction, but receive other lessons in common with non-Catholic pupils
from non-Catholic teachers. For the mere fact that a school gives some religious
instructions (often extremely stinted) does not bring it into accord with
the rights of the Church and of the Christian family, or make it a fit place
for Catholic students.
Religion Must Pervade All Schools
"To be that, it
is necessary that all the teaching and the whole organization of the school,
its teachers, syllabus, and textbooks in every branch be regulated by the
Christian spirit, under the direction and maternal supervision of the Church;
so that religion may be in very truth the foundation and crown of the youth's
entire training; and this in every grade of school, not only the elementary,
but the intermediate and the higher institutions of learning as well. To
use the words of Leo XIII: 'It is necessary not only that religious instruction
be given to the young at certain fixed times, but also that every other subject
taught be permeated with Christian piety. If this is wanting, if this sacred
atmosphere does not pervade and warm the hearts of masters and scholars alike,
little good can be expected from any kind of learning, and considerable harm
will often be the consequence.'"
Exceptional Cases
It is true, indeed,
that Catholics who have had the very best religious schooling and come from
the finest Catholic families sometimes fail nevertheless to turn out well;
but that is certainly not because of, but despite, their religious education.
Such cases, too, are relatively rare; and I think that on investigation it
would be found that most of them were thrown too suddenly upon the world,
or passed at too early an age beyond the sustaining and restraining influence
of Christian surroundings. The great majority of men stand in need of the
support and encouragement of a good example throughout their entire life;
and as they cannot find this encouragement amid the hustle and bustle of
the world, they must find it in their homes. It is not enough, then, that
the child have the advantage of an early religious home training. The steadying
influence of religion in the home must continue all through life.
The Grown-up Children
This phase of our
subject, the necessity of religion in the home also for the children that
have graduated from school and for the grown-up members of the family, ought
perhaps to be emphasized most, because it is so commonly disregarded. It
is with religion as with all other things that influence our lives: it must
be fostered if its influence is to last; and once the child is beyond the
school age, there is great danger that it will gradually limit its religious
practice to the hour in church on Sundays, if a truly Christian home life
does not continue the beneficial religious influence previously exerted by
the Catholic school. The home is really the only place, besides the church,
that can be made to conform to one's daily religious needs; and it is here,
therefore, that one must provide what cannot be had abroad. If abroad, amid
the enforced companionship of unbelieving fellow-workmen, it is not always
possible to avoid hearing one's religion set at naught and ridiculed, in
the home one can insist that it be held in honor and esteemed the most vital
thing on earth. If abroad the open practice of any act of religion would
ordinarily be viewed with silent wonder or unconcealed contempt, in the home
the act of folding the hands or kneeling to pray must be regarded as natural
as eating and drinking. If abroad one is often powerless to prevent irreligion
and immorality from having access to the press, bill-boards, art galleries
and places of amusement, one can at least refuse admission to them when they
knock on the door of our Christian homes. Give me truly Christian homes,
homes in which Christianity is not merely tolerated but revered and fostered,
and homes that are homes and not only sleeping quarters, and I will give
you a race of Christian men and women who will cling to their Faith despite
the insidious machinations of a corrupt and irreligious world.
III.
Religion Prevents Divorce
It remains yet
to touch briefly on a third reason why religion is indispensable in the home;
the fact, namely, that without religion in the home the very existence of
the family is in danger; for religion is the only sure safeguard of the
indissolubility of marriage, the only bulwark against the breaking up of
the family by divorce. Where there is no religion, no supernatural motive
to sustain and comfort them and no belief in the inviolability of the marriage
vow, it is but natural that when difficulties that demand mutual forbearance
arise, as they inevitably will, the husband or wife will have recourse to
divorce. God Himself knows that it is by no means always an easy matter for
husband and wife to bear with each other's shortcomings; that unaided human
nature cannot perseveringly fulfill all the duties of wedded life; and for
that very reason He supernaturalized Christian marriage, making it a sacrament
that confers all the special graces needed to enable the married pair to
perform their duties faithfully until death. It is mainly owing to the denial
of the sacramental character of Matrimony, that marriage is entered into
so lightly outside the Catholic Church, and that so little is made of the
wide-spread evil of severing the marital union. While we may rejoice that
divorce is not prevalent among Catholics, we must nevertheless admit to our
shame that divorced Catholics are not altogether unknown, and that not
infrequently the strained relations between husband and wife and the breakdown
of parental authority fall little short of the evils of actual divorce. It
is not enough, therefore, that the religious character and the indissolubility
of the matrimonial union be acknowledged. Religion must sanctify not only
the beginning but the entire course of wedded and family life. What a world
of difference it would make in our lives, if among the requisites for an
ideal home, the first place were assigned to religion! We say, "What is home
without a mother?" and it is true that the absence of a good mother makes
a gap that cannot be adequately filled. Yet how far, how unspeakably far,
short of the ideal mother does she fall who does not foster religion in the
home!
Religion a Gracious Queen
Why then are there
so many homes, even Christian homes, where religion is notably lacking? Is
it perhaps because religion is regarded as a tyrant ruling with an iron hand?
Undoubtedly this view is responsible for the attitude of many who style
themselves Christians. But no view could be farther from the truth. A real
tyrant in the home, a tyrant whom many serve with slavish care, is the insatiable
desire for ease, pleasure, or social standing, which forces families to live
beyond their means in order to equal their neighbors in sumptuousness of
board and luxury of equipment; while religion, whose sway would be that of
a tender mother and gentle queen, is shown scant courtesy or even barred
admission. Welcome religion to your homes, therefore, fathers and mothers,
sons and daughters, all ye who would be the possessors of truly happy homes.
Welcome religion with open arms and gladsome hearts. Grossly do they err
who look upon her as a tyrant. Religion is a queen, a most gracious queen,
whose sway is as gentle as it is salutary. Yield yourselves to her loving
influence so that the smile of her approval will ever beam upon you. Let
her rule your going out and your coming in! Let her occupy the place of honor
at your table! Let her sit with you in your study! Let her kindly eye restrain
you in time of joy! Let her tender hand wipe away your tears in time of sorrow!
Let her minister to you in time of illness and distress! Then, having received
your last breath, she will conduct you at the last from the threshold of
your earthly home to the eternal home of your Heavenly Father.
What A Great Enemy Of
The Church Said About The Family
Before his conversion,
a great infidel made the following admission to the eminent apostle of the
Sacred Heart, Father Mateo Crawley-Boevey, SS.CC.:
"We have only one
object in view-- to dechristianize the family. We are willing to let Catholics
have their churches and chapels and cathedrals. We are satisfied to have
the family. If we gain the family, our victory over the Church is assured."
Continue:
Introduction
Chapter I: Necessity of Religion in the Home
Chapter II: Prayer in the Home
Chapter III: Catholic Atmosphere in the Home
Chapter IV: Good Reading in the Home
Chapter V: Harmony in the Home
Chapter VI: Necessity of Home Life
Conclusion
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