The Christian Home


A Guide to Happiness in the Home


by Celestine Strub, O.F.M.

If the social reform that is being demanded on all sides is to 
have any hope of success, it must begin with the reform of the 
family.

--Victor Cathrein, S.J.

Franciscan Herald Press, Chicago
1938


                       Nihil Obstat

Fr. Conradin Wallbraun, O.F.M.     J. F. Green, O.S.A.
Censor Dep.                                C. L.
                                      April 7, 1934

Fr. Liberatus Presser, O.F.M.
Censor Dep.

Imprimi Permittitur:
Fr. Optatus Loeffler, O.F.M.               Imprimatur:
     Min. Prov.                     +George Cardinal Mundelein
     Die 2 Martii, 1934                    April 7, 1934.


                                 TO
                             CHRISTIAN
              FATHERS AND MOTHERS, HUSBANDS AND WIVES
                                AND
                 TO ALL HOME LOVERS THE WORLD OVER
                         THIS LITTLE VOLUME
                    IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
                       UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF
              THE SUPREME MODELS OF THE CHRISTIAN HOME
                      JESUS, MARY, AND JOSEPH


                                    
                            INTRODUCTION

THE world to-day is full of reformers. Society, we are told, is 
sick with many ills, and a radical remedy is imperative if the 
utter breakdown of Christian civilization is to be averted. Yet, 
while the urgent need of reform is quite generally conceded, 
there is a wide divergence of opinions as to the proper means of 
bringing it about. As Catholics, possessed of the divinely 
revealed truths that should regulate all human action, we know 
that many of the remedies proposed for the cure of social ills 
are inadequate, because they do not reach the root of the evil; 
and that many a well-meant reform movement is foredoomed to 
failure, because it is not based on the only true and solid 
foundation of all social reform; namely, the principle that there 
can be no real, permanent social justice and morality without 
private justice and morality; and that there can be no enduring 
private justice or morality without religion.


A Truism

So much is agreed upon among Catholics: religion and morality 
must form the basis of all true reform; and it is a truism to say 
that if all the individuals that make up society were morally 
good and religious, the ills that afflict society would 
disappear. It is furthermore agreed among Catholics that the 
Catholic Church offers the individual all that is necessary for 
leading a good life. Why then do so many of her children fail? 
They have the true Faith; they have the Commandments, which tell 
them what they must do and what they must avoid; and they have 
the means of grace, prayer and the Sacraments, to help them to 
avoid sin and practice virtue. Why, then, are they not all 
morally good and religious?


The Sin of Adam

The fundamental reason is simply that they do not choose to be 
so. Sin is apparently so pleasant, at least for the moment, and 
the constant practice of virtue is so hard, that men often choose 
the former in preference to the latter. Even in Paradise, where 
all circumstances were so favorable, Adam and Eve abused their 
free will by disobeying God. But in consequence of that first sin 
of Adam, there exists in all his descendants a strong inclination 
to evil, which makes the practice of virtue still more difficult. 
And added to all this is the example of the wicked world in which 
we live.


The Enemy Without

It is this latter, the bad example of the world around us, which 
forms the great obstacle to social reform even among Catholics. 
If man were merely an individual living by himself, he would have 
only the enemy within to fight against; but being a social being, 
destined by God to live in society with others, he has also an 
enemy outside himself--the evil example of many of those with 
whom he lives. How to overcome this evil example is the great 
problem of social reform. It is easy enough to say that the bad 
example must be offset by good example; but how and where is the 
good example to be had?


Catholic Societies

Many there are who say that since it is mainly social attractions 
that lead Catholics into dangerous company and dangerous places 
of amusement, we must have our own societies, our own social 
agencies, club rooms and recreation centers, so that our people 
can satisfy their craving for company and amusement in a harmless 
manner. While admitting that our people should be provided with 
ample opportunity for healthful and innocent recreation; while 
admitting, too, the importance and desirability of Catholic 
societies, both secular and religious, and attesting that, when 
properly conducted under proper auspices, such societies can do 
an immense amount of good, I am nevertheless of the opinion that 
it is not by means of these societies that social evils will be 
greatly reduced. Let us have these societies by all means; but 
when we have established them and made them flourish, let us not 
imagine that our task is done. In all such societies something is 
wanting,--namely, the intimate daily association of the members 
in all the important affairs of life.


The Best Catholic Society

Happily, however, there is a society that has this all-important 
requisite; a natural society in which the great majority of men 
spend their lives; a society that is capable of exerting a 
lifelong influence on its members. That society, dear reader, is 
the family. In the family we have all the essential things that 
man requires as a social being for his physical, moral and 
intellectual well-being and advancement. And since the family 
rather than the individual, is the unit of society, to reform 
society one must begin with the family. Restore religion to its 
rightful place in the home; let religion direct, control and 
permeate the family life, and not only will the individual have 
the safeguard he needs against the evils of society, but society 
itself will be transformed. This, then, religion in the home, is 
to my mind, the best of all remedies for the reform of society; 
and the purpose of this little book is to explain the remedy and 
to induce all Christian families that can be reached to adopt it.


_________________________________________________________________

"For the love of our Savior, Jesus Christ, we implore pastors of 
souls, by every means in their power, by instructions and 
catechisms, by word of mouth and by written articles widely 
distributed, to warn Christian parents of their grave 
obligations. And this should be done not in a merely theoretical 
and general way, but with practical and special application to 
the various responsibilities of parents touching the religious, 
moral, and civil training of their children, and with indication 
of the methods best adapted to make their training effective, 
supposing always the influence of their own exemplary lives." 

               ---Pius XI, "Christian Education of Youth"
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            CHAPTER I: Necessity of Religion in the Home


                    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.


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              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.


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         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."
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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.


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                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."
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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."
__________________________________________________________________



                   CHAPTER II: Prayer in the Home


Irreligious Atmosphere

IN our day, irreligion may be said to pervade the very air we 
breathe. Just as our lungs inhale the germs of disease, and our 
bodies are coated with minute particles of dust, whenever we go 
abroad in a crowded city, so our souls, our memory and 
imagination, are exposed to an atmosphere tainted with irreligion 
whenever we go abroad into the world. To counteract the evil 
effects of a day's exposure to the smoke and dust of the city, we 
wash the stains from our bodies when we return home, we restore 
our lost vitality by partaking of wholesome food; and we fill our 
lungs with air free from the impurities that vitiate the 
atmosphere in factories and the busy marts of trade.

We must pursue a like course if we wish to render our souls 
immune from the contagion of irreligion. We must cleanse our 
souls from the dust of earthy and irreligious impressions that we 
acquire from contact with the wicked world. We must move about in 
a pure atmosphere from which all taint of irreligion is excluded. 
We must strengthen the Faith within us by nourishing our souls 
with wholesome mental food. To drop the metaphor, we must offset 
the irreligion that we daily encounter abroad, by prayer, by a 
Catholic atmosphere, and by good reading in the home.


                          I. Daily Prayer

The simplest, the easiest, the most ordinary, and still, for the 
individual, the most important exercise of the virtue of religion 
is prayer. Hence, if religion is to occupy that place in the home 
which we have seen it deserves, the members of the family must be 
faithful to the time-honored custom of daily prayer. No matter 
how old-fashioned and childish it may seem to some to insist on 
morning and evening prayer, grace before and after meals, and 
family prayers at certain seasons, it is these very things that 
establish religion firmly in the home, bring down Heaven's 
blessing, and give the home its true consecration. Show me a 
family where all the members are regular in saying their daily 
prayers, and. I will show you a home where religion flourishes 
and peace and contentment reign. Show me a home where prayer is 
habitually neglected, and I will show you a family whose 
religion, if any still exist, is merely a matter of form.


Natural Place for Prayer

How, indeed, could it be otherwise? We have the duty of saving 
our immortal souls not only at the moment of death but all 
through life; and that duty necessarily implies keeping ourselves 
in the state of sanctifying grace. No one will remain long in the 
state of grace, if he is careless about his daily prayers; and 
few will pray daily, if they do not pray at home, because the 
home is the most convenient as it is the most natural place for 
one's regular daily prayer. What could be more natural for a man 
who believes that God is his Creator and Sovereign Lord his 
greatest benefactor and best friend; who believes that we are in 
this world solely to do God's holy will and thus merit an eternal 
reward; what could be more natural, I ask, than for such a one to 
remember and to acknowledge this fact the first thing on awaking 
in the morning; to turn his first thoughts to God by blessing 
himself and making the good intention, and then to kneel down to 
pay his homage to his Creator, to thank Him for His endless 
favors, to renew his fealty to Him, and to implore His blessing? 
And what more natural as well as more wise and fitting than for 
him to do the like in the evening before he commits himself to 
the night's sleep from which he never knows whether he will 
awaken?

It is not necessary to devote a great deal of time to one's 
morning and evening prayer. For the ordinary layman five minutes 
will usually suffice; and, if necessary, one can say a really 
devout morning or evening prayer, embracing all the essentials, 
in two or three minutes. The important thing is to be regular 
about it; to have a regular formula or number of prayers to say; 
to say them at a regular time, and in a certain regular manner. 
If you like to use a book, you will do well to do so. The use of 
a book helps to fix the habit of praying. But such is in nowise 
necessary. Only have some definite prayers to say as the minimum 
and say that minimum well.


How Much Must One Pray?

But what should be the minimum for a good morning or evening 
prayer? That depends on various circumstances--one's age, one's 
leisure, one's needs, and also on the extent to which one makes 
use of the other means of grace--the Mass and Holy Communion. It 
is plain that not all have the time for the same amount of prayer 
in the morning. Some find it more convenient to say only a short 
prayer in the morning but a long prayer at night. Others are 
accustomed to say the greater part of their prayers in church 
during the day. A certain doctor of my acquaintance has the very 
praiseworthy habit of praying for about a quarter of an hour in 
church on his way home every evening. Nor do all need the same 
amount of prayer. Persons exposed to greater temptations, or 
subject to evil habits, as well as persons bound to a more 
perfect life must pray more than persons not thus circumstanced. 
But all must pray enough to enable them to live habitually in the 
state of sanctifying grace. So much is certain: if one falls into 
mortal sin, the reason is to be sought in the insufficiency of 
one's prayers or in the infrequency of one's reception of the 
sacraments. While it is impossible, therefore, to determine just 
what prayers each one should say in the morning or in the evening 
or even each day, it seems to me that our daily prayers should 
always include the acts of Faith, Hope, Charity, contrition and 
thanksgiving, the Apostles' Creed, and several Our Fathers and 
Hail Marys.


Pray on Your Knees!

In regard to the manner of praying, it is best to say your 
morning prayer after you are dressed; your evening prayer before 
undressing, and both on your knees. This last point is of great 
importance. In the first place, the act of kneeling is itself 
equivalent to a prayer, being an act of adoration, and it is 
unquestionably the most becoming posture in which to address 
ourselves to our Creator. Then the practice of kneeling to say 
our prayers has the good effect of reminding us of that duty. If 
we want to say our prayers only while dressing or undressing or 
when in bed, the chances are that in many cases they will be said 
poorly or be altogether forgotten. And lastly, the habit of 
kneeling at our morning and evening prayers will have a most 
edifying effect on others in the household. Even though each one 
prays in the privacy of his room, it will be generally known in 
the family that one is accustomed to pray on bended knees, and 
that knowledge will be of inestimable value in mutually 
encouraging one another never to abandon the practice. When 
brothers occupy the same room, or sisters share the same 
apartment, the practice is of still greater importance for their 
mutual edification. Yet most important of all is that parents who 
are still able to kneel, do so and thus give a good example to 
their children.


The Parents' Example

Setting a good example in this matter of prayer is a part of the 
religious education which parents owe to their children. And what 
a beneficial influence it will have upon the children all through 
life, if the parents not only teach them from their tenderest 
years to pray but also pray with them; and even when they are 
grown up, let them always be aware of the fact that their 
parents, too, prostrate themselves morning and evening on their 
knees in order to pay homage to their God. Nothing will impress 
more deeply on the child that prayer is not merely a child's duty 
but a duty for life; that religion is something not only for the 
church but for the home as well; that there is nothing about 
praying or kneeling for anyone to be ashamed of; but rather that 
it would be a cause of shame for any Christian, be he old or 
young, to be obliged to admit that he did not daily lift his 
hands and his heart to God in prayer.

How well do I remember the splendid example that my own father 
gave in this respect. Every evening without fail he would kneel, 
entirely free of any support, before a Crucifix in the living 
room, and with devoutly folded hands, and body as upright as a 
mountain pine perform his evening devotions.


                         II. Grace at Meals

But it is not enough that each and every member of the family 
have the habit of saying his morning and evening prayers. Where 
religion flourishes in the home as it should, if the family is 
truly to deserve the name Christian, there must be found also the 
age-old Christian custom of saying grace before and after meals. 
This venerable custom is the inevitable consequence of a 
Christian outlook on life. If we believe that God is the author 
and sustainer of life, that "every best gift and every perfect 
gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights" (Jas. 
1, 17) then surely we should be mindful of our indebtedness to 
our Heavenly Father at least as often as we partake of the food 
by which our mortal life is sustained. Our blessed Savior 
expressly teaches us to pray: "Give us this day our daily bread"; 
and what time could be more fitting for the fulfillment of that 
duty than the hour of our daily meals?


A Profession of Faith

There is, however, yet another important aspect to the practice 
of saying grace in the home. To pray in the presence of others is 
a profession of one's Faith; and for that reason alone, if for no 
other, the practice should be fostered. You simply cannot make 
your religion a strictly interior affair, just as little as you 
can make it exclusively a church affair. If you sow good seed in 
a fertile soil and take care that it receives the necessary 
warmth and moisture, the seed will not long remain hidden but 
will sprout forth and give unmistakable evidence of the living 
principle within. It is exactly the same with religion. The man 
that really has deep religious convictions will also show them 
exteriorly at the opportune time and place. Only those Christians 
whose Faith is not deeply rooted or who have been misled by the 
unchristian fashion of the day will say: "I believe in praying 
without attracting notice. There is no use making a show every 
time a person wants to pray." Indeed not; and it is to be 
presumed that thousands of Catholics pray frequently, even in 
company, without others being aware of it. I am willing, too, to 
pardon them if they offer that excuse for not praying openly in 
public eating houses, but not when there is a question of meal 
prayers in the privacy of one's own home.

But someone might say: "I don't see the value of such a 
profession of Faith in the home. Everyone at home knows my 
religious convictions; so why need I manifest them by blessing 
myself or saying grace at table?" One might argue with just as 
much logic: "I don't see the need of showing the members of my 
family that I love them. They know that I love them, and that 
love is an affair of the heart. So why should I give token of my 
love by my looks, manner, words, or actions?" Just as the person 
who shows little love for the members of his household really has 
little love for them; so he, too, who cares not to manifest his 
religion to them very likely has precious little religion left in 
his heart. Interior virtues must needs be exercised by exterior 
acts; otherwise, they will wither away and finally perish 
altogether.


Prayer Necessary for Salvation

It is quite true that there is no positive law commanding us to 
pray before and after meals. Neither is there such a law 
requiring us to say our morning and evening prayers. But nothing 
is more certain than that we are obliged to pray, and that, for 
adults, prayer is an indispensable means of salvation. And since 
a more fitting time for prayer can scarcely be found than the 
hour of rising, the hour of retiring, and the meal hours, it is 
much to be feared that those who do not pray at these times do 
not pray at all, or at least not enough to satisfy the obligation 
of prayer. It will doubtless be found that usually those that are 
most conscientious about saying these customary prayers are also 
the ones that pray most at other times and make the most frequent 
use of the Mass and the sacraments.

Let me beg the reader, therefore, not to dismiss the question of 
saying grace as a trifling matter. A drop of rain is also a small 
matter; yet every rain, the heaviest as well as the lightest, is 
made up of drops. In particular as a means of making religion 
flourish in the home, the value of prayer at meals can hardly be 
overestimated. To say grace before and after every meal means to 
worship God, to profess your Faith, and to edify your neighbor 
six times a day, 180 times a month, and more than two thousand 
times a year. Small as the single prayers may be, and 
insignificant as may seem their effect, the total sum will amount 
to a great deal and is sure to bring down a shower of blessings.


                         III. Family Prayer

"Where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there 
am I in the midst of them" (Mt. 18, 20). By these words our 
blessed Savior clearly ascribes a special power and a special 
blessing to prayers said jointly with others; and we may be sure 
that if this is true of any group of persons gathered together in 
His name, it is doubly true of the Christian family, which is 
knit together not only by the strongest ties of mutual love but 
also by the consecration of a sacrament. All the good effects 
that flow from prayers said by the individual, will accrue in 
still greater abundance from family prayer. In their pastoral 
letter to all American Catholics some years ago (1920) our 
Bishops expressed themselves on this point as follows: "We 
heartily commend the beautiful practice of family prayer.... The 
presence of Jesus will surely be a source of blessing to the home 
where parents and children unite to offer up prayer in common. 
The spirit of piety which this custom develops will sanctify the 
bonds of family love and ward off the dangers which often bring 
sorrow and shame. We appeal in this matter with special 
earnestness to young fathers and mothers, who have it in their 
power to mould the hearts of their children and train them 
betimes in the habit of prayer."


Example of Tobias

It is to young parents, too, nay, to newly married couples, that 
I would appeal not to await the appearance of children, but to 
begin to pray in common from the very outset of their wedded 
life. While everything is new and family traditions are only in 
the making, it will be an easy matter for them to establish the 
custom of family prayer; whereas early neglect may allow a 
contrary custom to get so firmly rooted that it will be hard to 
break. Would that all newly married couples would follow the 
beautiful example of the younger Tobias and his wife Sara. "We 
are the children of saints," he said, "and must not be joined 
together like heathens that know not God" (Tob. 8, 5). 
Accordingly they did not wait until the wedding festivities and 
their honeymoon were over before thinking of praying in common 
but the very first night after their marriage "prayed earnestly, 
both together, that health might be given them" and that God 
would bless their union.


Family Worship a Duty

To anyone that gives the matter serious thought the neglect of 
family prayer in a Christian family must seem well-nigh 
impossible. It is to be sup posed, namely, that the head of a 
Christian family esteems the Faith as his greatest treasure, as 
worth more to himself and to every member of his household than 
any amount of earthly goods. It is further to be presumed that, 
valuing his faith as he does, he will be most solicitous about 
preserving it so as to insure its blessings for himself and his 
family. On such a supposition, is it possible that he will 
relegate all prayer to the privacy of each one's room and never 
have the family pray aloud in common? Just as little as he would 
have each member of the family take his meals alone and never do 
any work or have any recreation in common. As long as the family 
circle, family meals, family picnics remain in the families of 
civilized communities, so long will also family prayer be 
fostered in every truly Christian home. For, even apart from the 
value of family prayer as a means of securing the blessings of 
religion, it will ever be incumbent on the family as a specific 
duty. The family is a perfect natural society, a distinct entity 
in itself; and as such it owes God an act of common worship. It 
is not enough that the single members of the family practice 
their religion; the family itself as a society must pay its 
homage to the Creator and Lord of the family; and this is done by 
family prayer.


Saying Grace Aloud

How often this duty will be performed, will depend on each 
family's devotion, and more particularly on the religious zeal of 
the parents. In families where different members rise at 
different hours, it is usually unpractical, if not impossible, to 
recite the morning prayer in common; but the evening prayer could 
easily be a family prayer, especially in young families; and this 
practice is most heartily to be recommended. There is no valid 
excuse anywhere, however, for not saying grace at meals aloud 
together; and I hope that no father or mother who reads this will 
fail to introduce the practice, if it does not yet exist in their 
families. The prayer most suited for this purpose is without 
doubt the "Our Father," to which may be appropriately added the 
"Hail Mary" and, before meals, "Bless us, O Lord, etc." and after 
meals, "We thank Thee, O Lord, etc." To recite these three 
prayers aloud, slowly and distinctly, and to make the sign of the 
cross before and after, requires no more than one minute of time. 
Surely no Christian can be so niggardly with God as to say that 
that is too much; or to contend that to devote a minute to prayer 
before and after each meal would be to convert the home into a 
monastery. Yet I pronounce no anathema against the family that is 
content with less. Where appetites are especially keen, the 
chances are that the saying of a short prayer is more likely to 
become regular than the saying of a long one. And hence, as a 
compromise, I would suggest that the afore-mentioned prayers be 
said in common at least before and after the principal meal, and 
that a part of them be said at the other meals.


Seasonal Devotions

In addition to daily family prayers, there should be also 
seasonal prayers in common in all Christian families, especially 
during the months of May and October and during the holy seasons 
of Advent and Lent. There are, it is true, special devotions in 
church at these seasons, two or three times a week; but a good 
Catholic should not be content with these. If the family is to 
share the blessings of religion to the full, the changes of the 
ecclesiastical year, which are so striking a feature of the 
services in church, should be reflected also in the home. Very 
suitable for these seasonal devotions in the home are the 
approved litanies of the Sacred Heart, the Holy Name, the Blessed 
Virgin, and St. Joseph, and above all the rosary. The rosary, 
with its joyful, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries, is 
appropriate for every season; is made up of the best of all 
prayers; can be lengthened or shortened according to pleasure; is 
easily recited by even a small child, and is enriched with 
numerous indulgences. Consisting, too, as it does of a number of 
different prayers linked together by the consideration of a 
certain mystery for the purpose of praising God, the rosary is a 
fitting symbol of the Christian family, whose members are united 
by the bonds of blood and religion; who share joys, sorrows, and 
glories in common; and who work together for a common end--their 
temporal and eternal welfare and happiness.


Overcoming Bashfulness

I realize that in families where the custom does not exist, a 
certain bashfulness in regard to spiritual matters will have to 
be overcome in order to make a start; but once the ice is broken 
and a beginning made, it will be easy to develop the practice. 
Women and girls are usually less backward than men and boys in 
these matters; and as in so many other worthy causes, so here, 
too, let them take the initiative. They know how to coax the men 
folk in order to attain their own personal aims. Let them employ 
the same knowledge for the benefit of the entire family. God will 
most certainly reward them richly if they establish in the family 
this pious practice of saying the rosary; for to them will go the 
credit of enriching their home with those spiritual roses that 
fill it with the fragrance of Heaven's blessing.


The Golden Mean

It is hardly necessary to remind parents that even in fostering 
so praiseworthy a practice as family prayer, they should not 
attempt too much. As in all things, so here, too, one must 
observe the golden mean. Children cannot be expected to devote as 
much time to prayer as their elders do, or should do. They 
naturally take more to play than to prayer; and if they are 
indiscreetly obliged to take part in interminable prayers, there 
is danger of creating in them a distaste for prayer. Such a 
method defeats its own end. The object in accustoming children to 
say their prayers regularly from the time they begin to talk, is 
to develop in them a love of prayer and a realization of the need 
of it. This can be done while their hearts are still pliable by 
teaching them very short prayers as early as possible, and by 
gradually making them understand that when they pray they are 
speaking to the good God, from whom all blessings flow; to their 
loving Jesus, who came upon earth that they might come to Heaven; 
and to the Mother of Jesus or to their Guardian Angel and the 
Saints.


Making Prayer Spontaneous

This background of religious truth and Gospel story is of the 
greatest importance in teaching the young to love prayer and to 
feel the need of it; and it should not be hard for any mother who 
has a little piety herself to instill into her children such an 
appreciation of God's greatness, goodness and power that prayer 
will come natural to them as the spontaneous utterance of their 
grateful and confiding hearts. Or would it really be so hard, 
even before the infants are able to speak, to make the sign of 
the cross over them and to say a brief morning and evening prayer 
aloud in their stead, thus accustoming them to the sound of the 
words, so that "the good God" or "Jesus" or "Mary" might be the 
first word their innocent lips would utter?

Would it not be easy to show them pictures of Jesus and tell them 
stories of Jesus, as their understanding develops--stories of His 
childhood, of Bethlehem, the stable, Mary and Joseph, the singing 
angels and the adoring shepherds--stories of His public life--how 
He loved children, how the crowds followed Him, how He went about 
doing good? Remember, mothers, that your little ones' sanctified 
souls are hungry for knowledge of God and holy things. So tell 
them how much God loves them; that it is God who made all the 
good and beautiful things they see--the fruits and flowers, the 
trees and bushes and grass, the birds and the fishes, the soft-
furred kitten and the friendly dog. Tell them, too, how poor 
Jesus was; that He became poor for love of us. Speak to them of 
Jesus in the Tabernacle, and awaken in them a desire to visit 
Him. In this way, not by threatening or scolding but by gently 
leading and by instilling knowledge which will of itself yield 
motives for prayer, you will surely implant deep in them for 
life, if not a love, at least a strong feeling of the 
appropriateness of daily prayer.


Mothers of Future Saints

But to pursue such a course, some may say, would be to try to 
make a saint out of every child. Well, is that such an awful 
possibility to contemplate? Somewhere in the world to-day are the 
mothers of the saints of to-morrow; and not of the saints only 
but of the criminals also; of the great as well as the lowly, the 
heroes and the outcasts, the successes and the failures. You know 
not what latent possibilities are in your child. Of one thing 
only are you sure, that one day he will be numbered either among 
the elect or the reprobate. What his eternal lot will be, will 
depend largely upon his practice or his neglect of prayer. Have a 
care, mother dear, lest his neglect of it be laid to your charge.


Jacob's Ladder

When Jacob, the son of Isaac, fled from the anger of his brother, 
Esau, into the land of Haran, he pursued his journey until after 
sunset; and then, weary and footsore, he laid himself down to 
sleep, resting his head on a stone. While he slept God appeared 
to him in a wondrous vision. He saw a ladder that reached from 
earth to Heaven, and on it angels of God ascending and 
descending. And the Lord himself, leaning on the top of the 
ladder, spoke to him saying: "I am the Lord God of Abraham thy 
father, and the God of Isaac.... In thee and thy seed, all the 
tribes of the earth shall be blessed. And I will be thy keeper 
whithersoever thou goest, and will bring thee back into this 
land: neither will I leave thee, till I shall have accomplished 
all that I have said."

Upon awaking, Jacob trembled and exclaimed full of awe: "Indeed, 
the Lord is in this place.... This is no other than the house of 
God and the gate of Heaven" (Gen. 29).
The ladder which Jacob beheld in his dream, with angels ascending 
and descending, is an appropriate symbol of the prayers that 
ascend to Heaven from the Christian home and bring down God's 
blessing on its inmates. Would to God that such a ladder would 
rise to Heaven from the home of every family in the land! If you 
would have God's angels bear His special blessing to your homes, 
Christian parents; if you wish the Lord to be your keeper and to 
abide in your home; if you would be led back to your true home, 
the land of your Heavenly Father;--then let your prayers ascend 
to Heaven like a cloud of precious incense morning, noon, and 
night, and God will look down upon your home with special favor. 
In very truth may it then be said of your home what Jacob said of 
the place of his vision: "Indeed, the Lord is in this place." 
During life it will be a house of God, and at the end of life the 
gate to Heaven.



            CHAPTER III: Catholic Atmosphere in the Home

"In order to obtain perfect education, it is of the utmost 
importance to see that all those conditions which surround the 
child during the period of his formation, in other words, the 
combination of circumstances which we call enthronement, 
correspond exactly to the end proposed. The first natural and 
necessary clement in this environment, as regards education, is 
the family, and this precisely because so ordained by the Creator 
Himself."

           --"Pius XI in "Christian Education of Youth."


Need of Healthy Atmosphere
To enjoy the great boon of good health, it is not enough for one 
to be cleanly in one's person, to partake of sufficient wholesome 
food and drink, and to take a proper amount of exercise. Many a 
child in the crowded districts of our great centers of industry 
has plenty of good food and exercise and has been taught by a 
loving mother to cultivate the habit of personal cleanliness, and 
yet is far from enjoying good health. Living in the shadow of 
huge buildings, breathing in constantly the smoke and dust of 
near-by factories that becloud and bedim the small portion of 
sunlight that it receives, instead of attaining the full vigor 
and sprightliness of the normal child, it must languish and pale 
like a flower in a sterile soil. But take this child from these 
unpropitious surroundings place it in the country far from the 
dusty city; let it bask in a glory of sunshine and drink deep 
draughts of pure country air; and the bloom that will redden its 
cheeks, the sparkle that will light up its eyes, and the lilt 
that will appear in its gait will proclaim the beneficial effects 
of such a change. The one thing that was wanting to the child was 
a healthy atmosphere; and such an atmosphere we must all have in 
order to remain in a state of perfect health.

Now what is true of the body and natural life is equally true of 
the soul and the religious life. If the vitality of a Catholic's 
Faith is not to be gradually weakened by the contagion of 
irreligion that infests practically our entire public life, he 
must be able to spend the greater part of his private life in a 
place where the moral atmosphere is not only not tainted but is 
positively religious; and this he will be able to do only if he 
have a morally healthy and religiously bracing atmosphere in his 
own home.


Atmosphere of the Home

The reader will readily understand that in homes where family 
prayer is regularly practiced, much has already been done to 
create a religious atmosphere; for by the atmosphere of the home 
I mean, broadly speaking, the aggregate of external influences in 
the home, affecting the spirituality of the members o the family, 
and, in a narrower sense, the sum-total of sensible objects in 
the home capable of exerting a favorable or unfavorable influence 
upon the religious or moral life of its inmates. Just as we are 
variously affected as regards our bodies by the material 
atmosphere in which we live,--by its heat and cold, by the gases 
and germs and minute particles of dust that it holds: so, too, 
are our souls affected by the sensible objects around us; and the 
aggregate of such objects is accordingly quite appropriately 
called moral atmosphere.


Effect of Environment

That the moral atmosphere or environment, as it may also be 
styled, exerts a strong influence upon a man s habits and the 
formation of his character, no one that has the slightest 
knowledge of human nature will presume to deny. It is a principle 
of sound philosophy that there is no conception in the mind which 
is not preceded by a perception of one o the five senses; and 
since it is the mind and will that govern our rational actions, 
it follows that our sense-perceptions, notably those of seeing 
and hearing, must have a powerful influence upon our actions. 
Absolutely speaking, of course, a person may shake off this 
influence; but the important thing to be noted is that the 
influence is there and is felt even though it be withstood; and 
since we must be guided by what ordinarily happens and not by 
what is theoretically possible, parents and other responsible 
persons should see to it that the moral atmosphere in their home 
is such as will exert a wholesome influence on all in the 
household. It is true, the influence exerted by environment 
produces its effects slowly and perhaps imperceptibly; but it may 
not for that reason be belittled or ignored, any more than the 
slowly but constantly dripping water which little by little 
hollows the stone.


A Worldly Atmosphere

To state in the first place what the moral atmosphere of the home 
should not be, if it is to meet the requirements of a truly 
Christian home, I would say that it should not be worldly. 
Worldliness is diametrically opposed to religion. The spirit of 
the Catholic religion is the spirit of the Gospel, and the name 
for that spirit is unworldliness. The whole purpose of the 
Catholic religion is to turn our thoughts, our hopes, our 
aspirations and our efforts away from this world to the other 
world; and we are good Catholics only in so far as we realize 
this end. Christ tells us plainly: "You cannot serve two 
masters." We cannot serve God and the world. Yet one of the two 
we must serve. Hence we are oblige to choose either the one or 
the other. If we choose to serve God, if we want to rule our life 
according to the precepts of the Gospel, then we must banish 
worldliness from our homes. If we fail to banish worldliness even 
from our homes, which we are free to fashion to suit our own 
tastes and to meet our own wants, then we plainly show that the 
world still has a place in our hearts.


Extravagant Furnishings

But how does this worldliness manifest itself in the home? When 
may the atmosphere of the home be said to have a worldly 
character? First of all, when its dominant note is luxury or 
extravagance. If the Christian's attitude towards wealth must 
square with those two statements of Our Lord: "Blessed are the 
poor in spirit," and "How hardly shall they that have riches 
enter into the kingdom of God" (Mk., 10, 23), then it is plainly 
an evidence of worldliness, or opposition to the spirit of 
Christianity, if wealth obtrudes itself in the home from every 
nook and corner. I do not say that a rich Catholic may not have a 
splendid home, furnished in a manner suited to his station in 
life. But there should be no boldly conspicuous display of 
wealth, evidencing an inordinate love of worldly magnificence and 
a disposition to glory in it. That would show a worldly spirit.

But it is not only the rich who may sin b extravagance. Families 
of the middle class are just as often guilty. The homes of such 
families betray a very decided spirit of worldliness when they 
are quite evidently furnished more richly than the owners' modest 
means can afford. We are in conscience bound to make a discreet 
use of our earthly goods and to make our expenditures in 
proportion to our means. The endeavor to match the splendor of 
one's own home with that of the homes of one's more well-to-do 
acquaintances proceeds from pride and leads to other unchristian 
practices besides the misapplication of one's earthly goods. In 
order to be able to earn more money to spend on luxuries, some 
young wives persist in retaining the gainful positions which they 
had before marriage, and for the sake of this filthy lucre 
sinfully postpone the task of rearing a family. That is the worst 
kind of worldliness--the kind that weighs duty and worldly goods 
in the balance and deliberately chooses the latter. Beware of it, 
my dear young couples. Beware! (See quotation below)


Extravagance in Dress

What has been said of excessive expenditures for the furnishing 
and decorating of one's home, is equally true of extravagance in 
ornamenting one's person. The home may be given a worldly touch 
by the unduly rich or extremely stylish apparel of the persons 
that dwell in it. One is certainly allowed to dress well and 
becomingly within the limits of one's means and according to the 
requirements of one's station in life; but in no station in life 
is there an excuse for extravagance. There may be no injustice to 
anyone if a woman buys all the exquisite gowns, rare jewels, and 
costly footwear and headgear that she can possibly pay for; but 
neither is there any charity in it or Christian moderation; and 
justice is not the only virtue that must regulate the use we make 
of our worldly goods. We are bound also by the law of moderation 
and of charity; and it is sinful to waste money for the 
extravagant decoration of one's person or one's home when there 
are thousands of deserving poor who have not even the necessary 
food, clothing, and shelter.


_________________________________________________________________

                  Pope Pius XI on Mothers Who Work
                           Away from Home

"Mothers will above all devote their work to the home and the 
things connected with it. Intolerable and to be opposed with all 
our strength is the abuse whereby mothers of families, because of 
the insufficiency of the father's salary, are forced to engage in 
gainful occupations outside the domestic walls, to the neglect of 
their own proper cares and duties, particularly the education of 
their children."

       --Encyclical "Quadragesimo Anno," on the Social Order.


N.B.--If His Holiness condemns the abuse whereby mothers are 
forced to work away from their homes, what must he think of those 
mothers, who, without any compulsion whatever, entirely of their 
own accord, pursue gainful occupations outside the domestic 
walls?
______________________________________________________________


Keeping a Family Budget

The best way for parents to avoid excessive or ill-advised 
expenditures is to keep a family budget. Let them make a careful 
study of their resources and a classified list of their needs; 
e.g., housing, food, clothing, running expenses, improvement, and 
savings. Then let them fix a certain percentage of their income 
for each of these items of expense, and hold their disbursements 
strictly within the budget allowance, unless real necessity or 
charity require otherwise. It is hardly necessary to remark that 
also such expenses as church, school and club dues, charity and 
amusements must be figured in the budget, and that according to 
the aforesaid classification these, together with all outlays for 
reading material, could be put under the heading improvement; 
that is, mental, moral, or physical. Keeping a home and family is 
just as much a business as running a store; so why should it not 
be kept on a business basis? Many couples have had their eyes 
opened by keeping an itemized account of disbursements. They 
found that they had been extravagant without realizing it. But if 
keeping tab on one's expenses teaches economy, it should be done 
in every Christian home; for economy, supernaturalized, is 
nothing but the Christian virtue of moderation.


A Touch of Paganism

Another indication of worldliness in the home is the unchristian 
and sometimes even pagan character of the objects with which it 
is equipped. Let us enter such a home. What do we see? At our 
very entrance, perhaps, a painting of Apollo dancing with thin-
clad muses on the lawn; there a lamp or candelabrum supported by 
the nude figure of Cupid; in a corner, perhaps, a statue of Venus 
of Milo; on the library table various gay-colored magazines 
displaying bathing girls or notorious "movie" actresses on the 
front covers; on the mantle a snow-white bust of Pallas or some 
other mythological deity; and here and there as we wander through 
the various apartments, sundry other ornaments and articles of a 
like character. Will any Catholic maintain that such objects are 
appropriate in a Christian home? Yet there are Catholic homes, 
and not a few of them, in which such ornaments are quite common. 
In some cases their presence is due to mere thoughtlessness or 
sheer worldly-mindedness, and no conscience is made of it. In 
others, however, a sense of guilt is manifested by the care with 
which such objects are removed when a visit of the pastor or some 
other clergyman is expected.


Regard for Modesty

To be in thorough accord with its profession of Christianity, the 
home of a Catholic family should be free from all things of this 
kind. The home is not an art museum; and statues of pagan deities 
that may be tolerated in museums are out of place in a Christian 
home. And so, too, are all images not in conformity with 
Christian modesty. It will not be enough to limit them to a small 
representation. Neither will it suffice to confine them to one 
place, say the reception room, in order that there at least you 
may show your broadmindedness to the non-Catholics who enter your 
home. No, a Catholic home should contain nothing that proclaims 
sympathy with the spirit of the world. One picture, one statue, 
one ornament may mar the character of an entire room and thwart 
the good effect that other images are calculated to produce. 
Away, then, Catholic fathers and mothers, with all worldliness 
from your homes! You are exposed enough to its contagion when you 
go abroad. At least be quit of it when you enter the sanctuary of 
your own home.


An Insidious Propaganda

If pictures and statues of persons insufficiently clad give an 
air of worldliness to the home, what must be the effect of such 
lack of modesty in the living inmates? There is an insidious 
propaganda abroad in our day to tear down the conventions that 
Christian civilization has established as safeguards of the 
virtue of purity. Despite the specious reasons advanced in its 
defense; e.g., that one should become familiar with the nude in 
order not to be affected by it, the plain purpose of this 
propaganda is to substitute a pagan code for our Christian code 
of morality. This purpose is the more evident since some of the 
more outspoken adherents of the movement have declared that the 
Ten Commandments are antiquated and that there is no longer such 
a thing as sin. In view of this threat of paganism, the duty of 
Catholics is clear. Neither in the home nor elsewhere may there 
be any letting down of the bars of decency and Christian 
propriety. And mothers should so train their children from 
childhood on that they will never presume to appear in the 
presence of others without being modestly covered Those girls who 
make no conscience of exposing themselves in the presence of 
their sisters, will gradually come to make nothing of wearing 
insufficient clothing in public. And when modesty is thrown to 
the winds, purity will not be slow to follow.


                     II. A Catholic Atmosphere

Worldliness, then, must be banished from the Christian home, if 
the latter is to fulfill its mission of helping the individual 
Catholic to resist the enticements of the world. Yet when we have 
purified our homes of worldliness, our task is not yet completed. 
We must provide also a distinctly Catholic atmosphere. There are 
Catholic homes, or I should say rather, there are homes of 
Catholics, that do not contain the slightest evidence of the 
religion of those that dwell in them. You may see there pictures 
of beautiful birds and horses and dogs; of landscapes and 
castles; of distinguished authors, musicians and statesmen; but 
you will look in vain for any religious token of a distinctly 
Catholic character. The occupants of such homes justify this want 
by saying that they do not believe in parading their religion 
before the world. I agree that ordinarily we need not parade our 
religion before the world; but are we doing that when we give it 
scope within the sacred precincts of our own homes? The Catholic 
who fails to avail himself of the external aids to religion 
provided by religious objects in the home shows that religion is 
not a dominant factor in his life.


Portraits of Your Friends

By all means, therefore, let there be some distinctly Catholic 
images in your home, if you wish to enjoy the advantages of a 
healthy Catholic atmosphere. Far from being singular or 
obtrusive, nothing could be more natural or more appropriate. If 
you hang portraits of your relatives and friends and of eminent 
men and women on the walls of your home, should you not do as 
much for the best of all your friends and the greatest of all 
illustrious men and women--Our Blessed Lord and the saints? There 
is no valid reason why these latter should be restricted to the 
bedrooms or to some obscure corners. It is true, the home is not 
a church; and if one has a special place at home for prayer, a 
little shrine to which one can withdraw for undisturbed communion 
with God, it is quite proper that it be in a somewhat secluded 
spot. Neither is the home a church goods store; and it may be no 
impiety, therefore, if some one expresses his dislike of a home 
so crowded with religious pictures that they seem to be on 
display for sale. Allowance must he made in this matter for 
individual tastes. Some delight in a profusion of ornamentation, 
while others are for using it very sparingly. But whether your 
taste favors much or little decoration in the home, see to it 
that the religious element is not stinted.


The Chief Symbol of Your Faith

Foremost among the religious articles that should have a place of 
honor in every Catholic home is the Crucifix, the image of our 
crucified Savior. The Cross is the principal emblem of the 
Catholic religion; it is the symbol of our Faith, the source of 
our hope, the incentive to our love, the sign of our redemption, 
the pledge of our salvation. A beautiful and also moderately 
large Crucifix should be one of the finest and most cherished 
ornaments in the home. But there should be at least a small yet 
properly fashioned Crucifix also in each one of the bedrooms. It 
is deplorable that so many Catholics are satisfied with any kind 
of Crucifix, no matter how poorly it is made. They can afford to 
have large and expensive portraits of their parents and children, 
but balk at spending a few dollars for a worthy image of their 
crucified Savior. Let them remember that just as their taste is 
betrayed by the other objects, so the depth of their Faith is 
indicated by the quality of the religious images with which their 
home is equipped.


Image of the Sacred Heart

Other images that should be seen in every Catholic home are a 
picture of the Holy Family and of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Pope 
Leo XIII prescribed that all Christian families should be 
consecrated to the Holy Family; and Our Lord revealed to St. 
Margaret Mary that He would bless all houses where an image of 
His Sacred Heart would be exposed and honored. The choice of 
other pictures must be left to each one's individual taste and 
devotion, always, however, in entire accord with the teaching of 
our holy religion and the spirit of Holy Mother Church. A picture 
of the Child Jesus or of the Guardian Angel would be very 
appropriate for the children's apartments; and one of the Blessed 
Virgin and of St. Joseph in the rooms of the larger girls and 
boys respectively. In each bedroom, at least, there should be a 
vase with holy water, which should be religiously used on rising 
and before retiring. And in a becoming place, one should preserve 
some blessed palm branches and at least two blessed candles, the 
latter in suitable candlesticks.


Unedifying Pictures

While, as I have said, the selection of the different images must 
be left to each one's own taste, one quality must be insisted on 
as indispensable: the images must be such as will edify. If they 
are not of a nature to edify, then they cannot possibly produce 
the effect that they are employed to produce; namely, a wholesome 
Catholic atmosphere. The requirement that the pictures be 
edifying may seem to be rather vague and indefinite; but it 
furnishes a working rule that will answer all practical purposes. 
The main thing is to eliminate all images that are not edifying; 
and such one may call all those that represent Our Lord or the 
saints in a manner unworthy of them; that is to say, in an 
attitude or attire or in circumstances in which they themselves 
would certainly not wish to be pictured or seen. If no one would 
feel himself honored to find a caricature or other unworthy 
representation of himself on the wall of your home, how can you 
expect by means of similar pictures to please Our Lord and the 
saints?


Untrue to History

It is no excuse to say that a certain picture is true to history, 
that it merely represents an actual fact in the life of the 
saint. That an immoral pagan judge subjected a saint to 
indignities does not justify us in repeating the indecency on 
canvas. But many representations lack even this flimsy excuse, as 
they are positively untrue to history. In the Gospel story of the 
birth of our Savior, for example, we are told that the Virgin 
Mother wrapped the Babe in swaddling clothes; yet we find 
pictures inscribed "The Nativity" in which the Divine Child is 
not only not wrapped in swaddling clothes but not clad at all. 
The same is true of the Christ Child on many Madonnas. No one 
will maintain that such a representation is true to history. 
Neither is it true to the highest standard of Catholic art; and 
least of all is it true to that reverent delicacy of treatment 
due to the august person of the Child Divine.

I realize quite well that strict insistence on this rule will 
debar many a picture from the Catholic home. Be it so. There are 
hundreds of other sacred pictures to choose from,--pictures that 
are in every way satisfactory, in point of art no less than in 
point of propriety. Let such only adorn your walls, and the sight 
of them will be to you a source not only of edification in your 
daily life but of consolation and encouragement in days of sorrow 
and distress; and a daily reminder that if you but imitate the 
example of the saints whom they represent, you too will one day 
share their happiness.


Good Example

In the foregoing pages, I have dwelt only on the visible objects 
that give character to the home--on what I have called its moral 
atmosphere in the narrow sense. It will be remembered, however, 
that I defined the home atmosphere also in a broader sense; 
namely, as the aggregate of external influences in the home 
affecting the spiritual life of the inmates. In this broader 
sense, the words and deeds of the inmates also contribute 
essentially to the moral atmosphere, and if the latter is to be 
thoroughly Catholic, the general tone of conversation and conduct 
in the home must reflect a Catholic mentality. The Holy Father 
emphasizes this point in the following passage of His Encyclical 
on the Christian Education of Youth: "That education, as a rule, 
will be more effective and lasting which is received in a well-
ordered and well-disciplined Christian family; and the more 
efficacious in proportion to the clear and constant good example 
set first by the parents and then by the other members of the 
household."


The Catholic Mind

One cannot, it is true, in view of human frailty, expect that the 
members of even the better Catholic families will never be guilty 
of wrong-doing of any kind. But what can be expected is that when 
wrong-doing does occur, it will be found to be out of keeping 
with the surroundings. In other words, should deviations from 
Catholic standards sometimes occur in practice, there should at 
least be no deviation from Catholic principles in theory. Should 
the conversation, for example, turn on such subjects as Sunday 
observance, frequent Communion, mixed marriages, cremation, 
forbidden societies and books, attendance of Catholics at non-
Catholic schools, the relations between Church and State and the 
like, the attitude of the Church will be accepted without 
question. The accepted stand of every member of the family will 
be the same as that of the Church; and if in any instance any 
member should mistakingly espouse a contrary opinion, he will at 
once recede from it when assured that it is not in accord with 
the teaching of Holy Mother Church. This is what is meant by the 
Latin phrase "sentire cum ecclesia," "to be of one mind with the 
Church," to have the Catholic mentality or the Catholic mind. In 
homes where such a mentality prevails nothing will be found that 
antagonizes the Church. No songs will be heard that offend 
against Christian virtue; no literature will be tolerated that 
openly or insidiously undermines Catholic morals; and no radio 
programs will be listened to that disseminate false doctrines of 
a religious or moral character.


Homes of the Early Christians

Would to God there were more Catholic homes of this kind 
scattered up and down our beloved land, homes that are in every 
sense Catholic and veritable strongholds of Christianity! Some 
will no doubt aver that it is an idle dream to expect an increase 
in the number of such homes amid the adverse conditions of our 
age. But are the conditions of our age any worse than were the 
conditions of pagan Rome? The moral atmosphere of Rome at the 
dawn of Christianity was so corrupt that vice was not only 
tolerated but even enthroned as a god in certain forms of 
religious worship. Yet, despite the universal corruption without, 
so pure, so holy and so heavenly an atmosphere pervaded the homes 
of the Christians that it not only kept their minds untainted and 
their hearts unsullied, but, by its own superior power expanding 
and radiating from those homes, gradually purified even the 
public atmosphere and in the end brought about the conversion of 
the entire Roman people.

Who shall say that what was accomplished in those days is 
impossible of accomplishment now? It would require perhaps a 
miracle of grace; but the days of miracles are not over. Catholic 
families, however, need not look so far ahead nor to such far 
reaching results for inducements to preserve a Catholic 
atmosphere in their homes. Such an atmosphere will offer them 
full and immediate compensation for the pains required to 
maintain it. It will keep their religion pure and undefiled and 
keep them unspotted of this world.



                CHAPTER IV: Good Reading in the Home


Culture an Ally of Religion

BECAUSE of the great emphasis that the Church incessantly lays 
upon the supreme importance of the supernatural goods and objects 
of life, a Catholic might easily be led to the conclusion that 
all merely natural attainments are to be despised and neglected. 
Such a conclusion would be unwarranted, as was pointed out to the 
present writer himself, when, as a small boy, he protested that 
there was no use in learning grammar, because one 'didn't need to 
know grammar to get to Heaven.' While it is quite true that the 
possession of sanctifying grace and of the supernatural virtues 
is of such tremendous importance that all other things of earth 
pale into insignificance by comparison; while we must admit that 
a rude and unlettered but upright and religious man will fare 
better on the day of judgment than the educated but unprincipled 
villain who passes in the eyes of the world for a refined 
gentleman; while, in fine, it is undeniable that genuine virtue 
can exist without the conventional graces of society, and that 
faultless manners do not imply interior worth; yet it is none the 
less certain that culture of mind as well as urbanity of speech 
are powerful allies of religion; that virtue will show to better 
advantage when coupled with good breeding; and that purely 
natural gifts can be supernaturalized and made the medium of the 
rarest Christian virtue.

For a Christian, therefore, to set at naught the natural virtues 
and secular learning is not only wrong but foolish as well. Even 
in God's own dispensation, the natural is always made the basis 
of the supernatural. Hence the true Christian policy is not to 
belittle the natural, which is also from God, but to cherish it 
and exploit it, and, by directing it towards higher ends, invest 
it with a supernatural character.


                    I. Value of Taste for Beauty

It is in view of this splendid teamwork that can be done by 
culture when yoked with religion, that I do not hesitate to 
advocate good reading in the home first of all for the purpose of 
cultivating a taste for beauty. A man may, it is true, love God 
with his whole heart without appreciating the beauty of an ode by 
Francis Thompson, a melody by Gounod, a statue by Michelangelo, 
or a painting by Raphael. But just as philosophy, which is a 
natural science, deserves to be styled the handmaid of theology; 
so also taste, or the ability to appreciate the beauties of 
nature and art, may be made subservient to religion or to the 
love of God. In other words, if theology is aided by philosophy 
because the object of both these sciences is truth, of the former 
supernatural, of the latter natural; then taste, whose object is 
natural beauty, will be a suitable ally of the love of God, whose 
object is divine beauty.


Beauty of Virtue

Let me illustrate this by a comparison. A human passion, such as 
anger, fear, love, is something indifferent, that is, in itself 
neither good nor bad. If anger is directed towards a proper 
object and kept within proper bounds, it is something good. It 
helps to intensify one's hatred of evil. Now a like effect is 
achieved by the capacity to appreciate beauty. There is nothing 
in man more beautiful than grace and virtue--than Charity, Faith, 
and Hope, than purity, humility, meekness; than fortitude in 
danger, forgiveness of injuries, cheerfulness amid suffering and 
pain. Hence, the more we have learned to appreciate what is 
beautiful, the more can our love of virtue be intensified; for by 
viewing virtue not only as something useful and obligatory but 
also as something beautiful, we shall have an additional reason 
for loving it, and we shall strive with greater eagerness to 
possess it.

As I shall devote this chapter not to a discussion of the 
beautiful arts in general but only to setting forth the reasons 
why Catholics should read good literature, the practical question 
to ask here is: How can a taste for good literature or good 
reading be acquired? The answer is: In the same way as any other 
taste is acquired. How does one acquire a taste for oysters or 
olives? By eating them. The way to acquire a taste for good books 
is by reading them.


Making Duty a Pleasure

Once a taste for good literature has been acquired, it will be of 
the greatest help in forming the habit of good reading; and hence 
parents cannot begin too early to cultivate this taste in their 
children and thus lay the foundation of the reading habit. To a 
certain extent, reading is a duty in our day; and nothing will 
make the fulfilling of this duty more agreeable than the ability 
to appreciate good books and well-written articles. It is much 
the same with reading as with eating. Few people would likely eat 
enough to preserve their health, if they had no relish for food. 
And even though we eat for the honor of God, as St. Paul exhorts 
us to do, it is when we have an appetite that we derive the most 
beneficial results from eating. So, too, it is with mental food. 
If we take pleasure in reading, we shall peruse many a useful 
book and many an informing article that we should otherwise not 
even look at. And even when we read from a sense of duty, we 
profit more by it if it gives us pleasure as well.


Refining Effect of Good Reading

Closely akin to good taste or refinement of mind is refinement of 
character; and this, too, is furthered by good reading. The 
reading of good literature has the same effect on one's character 
as the association with good and wise companions. A writer's best 
thoughts, most noble emotions, and finest imagery enter into a 
good book or good piece of literature; and the reader's character 
cannot but benefit, even though unconsciously, by coming into 
such intimate contact with them. The good thoughts kept in the 
storehouse of the mind become, sometimes even long after the 
author is forgotten, the mainspring of good deeds; the noble 
feelings strike a sympathetic chord in the reader's heart and 
attune it to lofty aspirations; the vivid pictures leave an 
indelible impress on the imagination and thus help to preserve 
both the ideas and the sentiments. Even as a handkerchief that is 
kept for a time in a perfumed casket takes on a delicate 
fragrance, so is a man's character sweetened by the reading of 
good literature. Especially is this true of books that depict the 
lives of great and holy men and women; for in such books we have 
in addition to the excellent thought content the inspiring 
example of real human beings who were the very embodiment of the 
noblest ideals.


A Splendid Recreation

Nor may we overlook the great benefit that good reading offers 
merely as a source of recreation. The ability to derive pleasure 
from good reading opens up avenues of wholesome recreation that 
would otherwise remain forever closed. We are so constituted that 
we must have relaxation of some kind; yet as rational beings and 
above all as Christians we should beware of choosing such forms 
of recreation as simply kill time. It is an awful thing to waste 
time, each moment of which can purchase the pearl of an eternal 
reward. And as we shall have to render an account of every idle 
word, so we shall have to give an account also of the use we have 
made of our time. Now there is no finer intellectual pastime than 
reading; no more entertaining companionship than a good author. 
It is true that reading always implies a certain amount of 
exercise of the mental faculties, and hence work; but what 
rational recreation does not require activity of one kind or 
another? Most of our recreations consist essentially in a 
diversion; not in a change from work to idleness, but in a change 
from one kind of activity to another: from manual work to mental 
work or contrariwise; or even from one kind of physical or 
intellectual activity to a different kind in the same order. Thus 
a cobbler, who does manual labor indoors all day, finds 
recreation in doing a little gardening in the evening; while a 
bookkeeper or stenographer, or even a student, after doing 
brainwork all day, nevertheless often recreates himself by 
working out crossword puzzles or writing verses at night. Far 
from being an objection to reading as a means of recreation, the 
mental activity implied in reading should rather be an 
inducement, since it stamps reading as recreation of a high 
order.


"Movies" No Substitute for Reading

A more subtle objection to reading as a recreation is advanced in 
our day. So many literary masterpieces, we are told, may now be 
seen represented by moving pictures that there is no need of 
reading the originals, since seeing the "movie" affords just as 
excellent a pastime. Whoever holds such a view labors under a 
gross illusion. Even if the literary work is only a novel--and 
hence one of the lowest forms of literary art,--some of the very 
finest elements are totally lost when it is reproduced as a 
movie; e.g.: the descriptions of character, the dialogues, the 
beauties of diction, the various figures of speech, and above all 
the beautiful thoughts sentiments, and images in which every 
truly literary work abounds. Take a moving picture like 
"Fabiola," which cost an untold amount of labor and expense and 
was proclaimed to be a picture of exceptional merit. For sheer 
artistry it stands infinitely below Cardinal Wiseman's great 
masterpiece from which it is taken. And as for edification, 
educational value, interest of narrative and charm of character, 
almost any three successive chapters of the book are worth more 
than the entire picture. And the same is true of any literary 
masterpiece. The moving picture most assuredly has its place in 
the field of education as well as recreation; but it can never 
fill the place occupied by literature in either of these fields.


Reading for Instruction

As far as the religious life of the home is concerned, by far the 
most important aim and fruit of reading is instruction. There are 
laymen who may claim with some justice that their tastes and 
characters are already formed, and that they do not need to read 
to improve them; but there is none that can truthfully say that 
he is beyond the need of instruction. When I speak of reading for 
the purpose of instruction, I do not mean solely for the sake of 
learning something new, but also for the sake of refreshing, 
confirming, and clarifying the knowledge we already have. The 
storehouse of the mind is the memory; but in our avidity to learn 
facts, and in our endeavor to acquire knowledge without taking 
pains, we often stack this storehouse with things in such 
disorder and confusion that we cannot find them when we want 
them. In other words we forget. The knowledge really exists 
hidden away in the recesses of the mind, but we are unable to 
recall it; or can do so only by dint of long and hard racking of 
our memory. This shows the truth of the saying that, as regards 
many things at least, we do not so much need to be told as to be 
reminded. We must be reminded again and again until the knowledge 
becomes readily available at our beck and call.


Deepening One's Religious Knowledge

It is true that religious instruction is imparted in church and 
in the Catholic school; but even supposing the most thorough 
Catholic schooling and the attentive hearing of a weekly sermon, 
no average Catholic is beyond the necessity of improving his 
knowledge of religion by frequent reading. It stands to reason 
that religious knowledge acquired when the mind is still immature 
is capable of increase, of widening and deepening as a person 
grows older. And grown-up Catholics need a far more reasoned and 
more perfect grasp of the truths of their religion; not only in 
order to strengthen their Faith amid the dangers of an ungodly 
world, but also in order to defend it against the attacks of non-
Catholics with whom they daily come in contact. For this reason 
it is important that they be reminded of the truths of their 
religion not only once a week but daily; that what their pastors 
tell them from the pulpit be repeated to them in different form 
by laymen like themselves; that they learn how to apply the 
standard of religion and the moral standards of the Church to the 
changed conditions of modern life and to the new problems that 
are being discussed; that examples be frequently placed before 
their minds of sterling Catholic men who held Catholic principles 
and fearlessly put them into practice in business, in politics, 
as well as in their professional, social, and private life; that 
they be kept informed of the most noteworthy local, national and 
international events affecting the Church; in a word, that they 
be kept abreast of the times in all important Catholic matters.


                                                                            
                                 II

The good results and advantages derived from reading which I have 
here set forth, should prove a sufficient inducement to anyone to 
cultivate the reading habit, and furnish a satisfactory answer to 
the question why one should read. Another question, a question of 
more practical importance, is: What should we read? My answer 
will be twofold. We should not read what is dangerous or 
injurious but what is wholesome and useful.


Drinking Filthy Water

If a doctor would give a lecture explaining and praising the 
highly beneficial effects of the frequent use of water for 
drinking, washing and bathing, none of his hearers surely would 
understand him to speak of the use of any but clean and pure 
water.

The same is to be understood of what I have said of the good 
effects of reading. The water that we drink and the food that we 
eat do not more truly enter into our system than what we read 
enters into our mind. Should we, then, not be at least as 
particular about what we read as about what we eat and drink? How 
fastidious many people are nowadays about the cleanliness of 
their bodies! How much time and care do they not devote to 
bathing; to removing blemishes; to rendering and keeping the skin 
soft and smooth! And what vast sums of money do they not spend on 
fine soaps and creams and powders and other cosmetics, only to 
keep that corruptible body of clay sweet and clean! And yet these 
same people, who would shrink with horror from drinking filthy 
water or from bathing in a polluted stream, do not hesitate to 
read things that fill the mind with sordid ideas, stain the 
imagination with filthy images and stir up impure emotions in the 
heart. The mind can be soiled just as easily as the body. As you 
cannot touch pitch without being defiled by it, so neither can 
you avoid besoiling your mind, if you allow it to tread the 
slippery paths of unclean literature.


Sugar-coated Poison

Nor is the danger of defiling and corrupting the mind to be found 
only in writings that are pronouncedly immoral or irreligious. 
Disease germs may prove fatal just as well when taken into the 
system in wholesome food as when received alone from contact; and 
poison is poison whether taken straight or with a coating of 
sugar. There is a vast amount of literature in our day,--books, 
magazines, newspapers,--that is more or less infected with the 
germs of moral disease and the poison of unbelief; and it is the 
more dangerous because the harmful matter is contained amid a 
deal of harmless matter, or concealed under a false show of 
humanitarianism, patriotism, equity, justice and the like. We 
must not forget that all literature, in the main, breathes the 
spirit of those that produce it; and as the great bulk of 
literature that appears daily is the product of religiously 
indifferent, agnostic and worldly minds, it quite naturally 
breathes the spirit of religious indifferentism, agnosticism and 
worldliness; and, say what you will, such literature is dangerous 
to ordinary Catholics because its spirit is contagious.


Source of Unchristian Views

Or whence is it that so many Catholics have decidedly unchristian 
and worldly views on certain subjects? Without doubt from seeing 
these views expressed and plausibly set forth, or simply assumed 
as self-evident, in current non-Catholic writings. The views that 
Catholic young folk often entertain in regard to marriage and 
courtship evidently come from this source. Some columnist in a 
daily paper dispenses advice to lovers, and it is accepted and 
acted on even though it runs counter to the warnings of confessor 
and pastor. In like manner another writer devoid of Christian 
principles descants daily on such weighty topics as evolution, 
capital punishment, free will, parental authority, self-
repression, education, canons of art, the fashion, science and 
religion; and from the very cocksureness of the author, his dicta 
are widely accepted just as of old the answers of an oracle.


Unchristian Outlook on Life

To keep your mind sweet and clean and to prevent the purity of 
your Faith from becoming gradually defiled, I would advise you 
not to read the popular non-Catholic fiction of the day--the 
short stories and serial stories that appear in the daily papers 
and in non-Catholic magazines, as well as most of the non-
Catholic novels that have appeared in recent years. I am far from 
maintaining that all this fiction is wholly bad, or that not even 
now and then something will appear that is wholly above 
criticism. The point I am trying to make is that most of this 
literature reflects an unchristian outlook on life; that the 
characters it depicts speak and act in a manner that makes this 
unchristian outlook attractive; and that frequent reading of such 
literature, just like intimate association with unbelievers, will 
by and by lead even a Catholic to adopt something of that same 
outlook and, all unconsciously, allow it to influence his 
actions.


Bad Company in Fiction

Indeed, in some respects, the mental association with the 
unchristian and worldly-minded characters in the secular fiction 
of the day is far more dangerous, because far more intimate, than 
association with such characters in real life. In real life one's 
contact with them is usually limited to business affairs, social 
gatherings, or at the most to private interviews; but in the 
world of fiction it extends often to the characters' most secret 
actions and even to their most hidden thoughts. Especially in the 
realistic stories of our day, there is no sanctum whither the 
reader is not permitted to follow the characters. He not only 
associates with them but mentally re-lives their lives, thinks 
their thoughts, is imbued with their philosophy of life, stirred 
by their passions, and is a secret witness of all their actions.
There is no getting away from the fact that frequent reading of 
such literature must, in the long run, have a baneful effect on 
the reader's mind and character. Hence whoever is in earnest 
about keeping his mind and heart uncontaminated, will regard the 
entire field of present-day non-Catholic fiction and popular 
magazines, as outside the range of his reading.


Catholic Periodicals Superior

I admit that this may seem unreasonable to those who have 
unthinkingly followed the great crowd without observing whither 
they have gone and whither they are tending. I am even willing to 
admit that it would be too much to ask you to give up the non-
Catholic magazines if there were nothing to offer you in their 
place. But there is an abundance of Catholic periodical 
literature not only equally good but better. Mind, I do not say 
better from every point of view. There may be and no doubt are 
points in which some Catholic periodicals are inferior; but it is 
equally true that there are points in which they are decidedly 
superior, chief among these points being the thought-content, 
tone and spirit. And since these latter points certainly outweigh 
any slight advantage that some non-Catholic periodicals may have 
in point of literary finish, it may be said without hesitation 
that, all things considered, present-day Catholic periodicals are 
better than the non-Catholic ones.


Unhealthy Appetites

The great trouble is that the relish for really good reading has 
to a great extent disappeared; and even many supposedly practical 
Catholics have got to the point where they no longer care for 
Catholic writings because the latter lack the sensationalism of 
the non-Catholic press. This is evident from the class of papers 
and magazines that these Catholics habitually read. It is not the 
high-class papers and periodicals that one finds in their homes, 
but such as appeal to the less noble instincts in man. Nor is it 
lack of literary excellence that they deplore in Catholic books 
and magazines. The stock complaint is that they are too dry; that 
they lack "punch" or "pep" or whatever the current slang word 
happens to be for that peculiar kind of spiciness which they 
imagine to be necessary to make a work interesting. But the fault 
really lies in themselves and not in Catholic literature. It is 
an unhealthy appetite that is appeased only by highly seasoned 
food; and such Catholics as have acquired a craving for spicy 
literary food can set themselves right again only by denying 
themselves such food and earnestly striving to develop a taste 
for more wholesome literature.


Choking the Good Seed

Deep down in his heart, I am convinced, every sincere Catholic 
has a love for the better things in literature. It is an 
essential part of the Catholic mind. But in many cases this love 
has not been developed. Like the good seed of the sower in the 
Gospel, it has been choked by the more abundant and superficially 
more attractive output of worldly literature. If from early 
childhood on, parents would allow their children to have only 
good books and magazines, their children would develop a taste 
that would endure throughout their adult life. Instead of doing 
that, many parents bring such trash as the metropolitan Sunday 
newspapers into their homes and themselves explain the miscalled 
"funnies" to their children who are unable to read. Doubtless 
there are many among my readers who have thus, without much fault 
of their own, become prejudiced against Catholic reading matter. 
To them I say: Give Catholic reading a fair trial. Select a 
number of Catholic books and periodicals and determine to read 
them to the exclusion of all others for one month. If you do that 
with a good will and an open mind, I feel sure that at the end of 
the trial you will be so convinced of the superior benefits 
derived from Catholic reading that your only regret will be that 
you have been so long a stranger to that wellspring of wholesome 
thought and noble inspiration.


A Parental Duty

As you are mainly responsible, dear fathers and mothers, for the 
kind of taste for reading that your children develop, let me urge 
upon you the duty of providing an ample supply of Catholic 
magazines, books and papers in your homes. You cannot be content 
with one Catholic paper or magazine; you should have at least 
three or four; something of a devotional and something of a 
miscellaneous character; and something, too, for every member of 
the family. While many Catholic periodicals have special 
departments for the young, there are excellent Catholic 
publications devoted exclusively to juvenile readers, and one of 
these should be taken by every family that is still blessed with 
youthful members. And if the subscriptions should seem too 
expensive, remember that it is a false economy to starve your 
children's minds while you spend more than is necessary for the 
feeding and clothing of their bodies. Far better would it be to 
retrench somewhat on expenditures for creature comforts and fine 
clothes than to save a few dollars by failing to provide your 
children with abundant and wholesome mental food. Besides, if you 
discontinued taking non-Catholic papers and magazines you could 
easily afford to take Catholic ones.


Good Catholic Books

While it is highly important nowadays to read Catholic 
periodicals, the very best Catholic thought is ordinarily still 
found in books--books that are the product of years of study and 
labor; books that have stood the test of time and have been 
handed down as a precious heirloom to posterity. For a birthday 
or Christmas present parents cannot do better than to present 
their children with a good book. Start early by giving a picture 
book to the children who have not yet learned to read. And let 
them be beautiful books, well-bound so that they will last; and 
thoroughly wholesome and edifying, so that they will be worth 
preserving. If you would make it a rule to give each child one 
book a year, a very respectable family library would gradually be 
established that would be a source of pleasure as well as of 
instruction for many years. A great advantage of a book over a 
periodical is that the book can more easily be preserved and will 
be read again and again; and thus its contents finally become 
part and parcel of the reader's mind.


Not Only Story Books

In purchasing books for the home or for their children, let 
parents not imagine that only books of an entertaining nature are 
suitable. They should occasionally make them a present also of 
books of a more solid character--books of instruction on the 
truths of our holy religion; books dealing with the moral 
problems of the present day; books of piety and devotion that 
explain how even the laity can lead a life of perfection and of 
closer union with Christ. There is a vast amount of such popular 
religious literature in existence, and it is daily growing more 
extensive. Nor is the cost such as would prevent any ordinary 
family from having a goodly supply in its home. While good 
Catholic story-books may also edify and indirectly also improve 
one's religious knowledge, it is mainly books that deal expressly 
with religious and moral subjects that are the main helps which 
parents should avail themselves of to inculcate in their children 
the principles of truly Catholic conduct and solid piety.


                  III. The Best Place for Reading

There remains yet one more question to answer: Where should we 
read? I answer, in the home. While persons who must travel far by 
street-car or by train to their place of work can profitably 
employ the time in reading, the home is usually the best place in 
which to do one's principal reading. To be able to read with 
understanding and profit and even with pleasure, a certain amount 
of leisure and quiet is necessary, and this can mostly be had at 
home. I speak from experience when I declare that the presence of 
children does not necessarily interfere with home reading. I was 
one of the three youngest children in our family, and although we 
were normally noisy, our parents used to read practically every 
evening. Sometimes we would be occupied with our school tasks; 
sometimes we would be playing; and as years went by we usually 
formed part of the reading circle ourselves. For a mother who has 
several small children the problem is less easy; but the children 
do sleep sometime, and then is the mother's opportunity. Can she 
not take up a book or magazine while putting the baby to sleep? 
And could she not even keep the children quiet by half reading 
half narrating a story to them?


Why Mothers Should Read

This is one of the main reasons why mothers should not neglect to 
read; namely, to be able to instruct and entertain their 
children. Stories from the life of Christ; the biographical parts 
of the Old Testament; the lives of the saints afford an endless 
source of excellent matter for the entertainment and education of 
the young, and it would be a pity if any mother, from failure to 
refresh her memory by reading, would be unable to turn this 
source to good account. When the children themselves are old 
enough to read, it is important that the parents set them a good 
example; for if the parents themselves do not read Catholic 
literature, they can hardly expect their children to do so.


Supervision Necessary

This brings me to another reason why reading should be done in 
the family circle. It is a strict duty of parents to watch over 
the reading of their children, and not only of the younger ones 
but of all that are in the household; and such supervision cannot 
be exercised unless the children do their reading where their 
parents can see them. As in most other things, so also in the 
choice of reading matter, children of school age are unable to 
decide what will be good for them, and hence their parents must 
make the selection for them. But even the older children must be 
watched lest they borrow or buy books or magazines the reading of 
which would do them great harm. Many a wayward youth was started 
on the downward path by the reading of bad literature. Hence it 
would be seriously sinful negligence on the part of parents not 
to exercise a careful censorship over the reading of their 
children.


Theodore Roosevelt's Example

Besides exercising great vigilance to keep improper literature 
out of the hands of their children, fathers and mothers should 
also make a free but discreet use of their parental authority to 
induce their children to read certain books or articles that are 
of special importance to them and to demand an account of their 
perusal. A very fine practice is to have a child read a short 
piece, say one of Aesop's fables, and then give it in its own 
words, or to learn a few lines of poetry by heart. The late 
President Theodore Roosevelt tells in one of his letters, written 
while he was in the White House, that, on one occasion when his 
wife was absent, he had to take her place, listen to the children 
recite a poem and award them a nickel in case they knew it well. 
This custom might well be imitated by Catholic parents. Even if 
the pecuniary award be omitted, the children will be amply 
rewarded by the benefit they derive from the practice. But they 
cannot be expected to do such things of their own accord. Play 
has more attraction for them than reading or learning by heart, 
at least until they have acquired a taste for more intellectual 
pastimes.

Hence their parents should accustom them to devote some time 
every day to good reading, and they will thus acquire a habit 
that will be to them a source of much joy and many blessings.


The Home Reading Circle

The last reason I wish to mention why reading should be done in 
the home, is that it serves as an additional reason for staying 
at home and thus fosters home life. Like family prayer, the 
family reading circle should be a cherished institution in every 
Christian home. How happy and easy are the hearts of those 
parents whose children, large and small, are gathered with them 
around the library lamp, each one intent on his or her own book, 
paper, or magazine. Knowing that what the children are reading is 
wholesome (for they will tolerate only such reading matter in the 
home) they know that they are usefully occupied; and their hearts 
will not be racked with anxiety, as is often the case when the 
children are absent from home.

For the same reason, parents should not allow their children to 
frequent public libraries and reading rooms. Apart from the grave 
danger of their reading harmful literature in such places, the 
practice also tends to disrupt home life. The home is the proper 
place for the children to read as well as for the principal 
reading of all the members of the family. When one member of the 
family is at the theatre, another at his club, a third and a 
fourth out joy-riding, it is quite natural that the others (if 
there be any) w ill be tempted to neglect their reading al