I spent a lot of time yesterday thinking about how the people I love treat me and whether or not I properly reciprocate their gentle charity and affection. How often do I criticize those I love? Do I let my loved ones know how much I love and appreciate them? I know that my husband, children, and some other dear ones are always ready with an encouraging word or warm smile. Am I ready to do the same? When we let negativity control our relationships, we can often "get our way" in the short term. But when we let patience, love, and devotion guide our actions, we motivate our loved ones to become the people we know that they can be, because they are secure in our love and see themselves with our loving eyes.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
A slowly blooming flower...
God has been unfolding this lesson to me for the last five years, like a flower blossoming. Sometimes it was painful, but now it brings me joy.
"Our present life is given only to gain the eternal one and if we don't think about it, we build our affections on what belongs to this world, where our life is transitory. When we have to leave it we are afraid and become agitated. Believe me, to live happily in this pilgrimage, we have to aim at the hope of arriving at our Homeland, where we will stay eternally. Meanwhile we have to believe firmly that God calls us to Himself and follows us along the path towards Him. He will never permit anything to happen to us that is not for our greater good. He knows who we are and He will hold out His paternal hand to us during difficulties, so that nothing prevents us from running to Him swiftly. But to enjoy this grace we must have complete trust in Him." St. Padre Pio
"Our present life is given only to gain the eternal one and if we don't think about it, we build our affections on what belongs to this world, where our life is transitory. When we have to leave it we are afraid and become agitated. Believe me, to live happily in this pilgrimage, we have to aim at the hope of arriving at our Homeland, where we will stay eternally. Meanwhile we have to believe firmly that God calls us to Himself and follows us along the path towards Him. He will never permit anything to happen to us that is not for our greater good. He knows who we are and He will hold out His paternal hand to us during difficulties, so that nothing prevents us from running to Him swiftly. But to enjoy this grace we must have complete trust in Him." St. Padre Pio
Friday, March 23, 2012
Teenagers, an excellent article
"What Plato thought no parents would ever do, turn over their own children to others to be reeducated, the parents of America did after World War II. Before then there were no TVs, a few disk jockeys, and some movie stars, but they were seldom allowed in the home, and certainly not allowed to educate the children. Suddenly after the War, into the American home came hordes of them. Few parents would have invited these persons in as guests and yet they turned over the souls of their own children to them to be educated."
http://www.home-school.com/Articles/myth-of-the-teenager.html
http://www.home-school.com/Articles/myth-of-the-teenager.html
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
The Parton saint of Teachers!
"'Your total ignorance of that which you profess to teach merits the death penalty. I doubt whether you would know that St. Cassian of Imola was stabbed to death by his students with their styli. His death, a martyr's honorable one, made him a patron saint of teachers.'" -- Ignatius Reilly, in John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces [1]
As the second semester begins, 'tis well to think of the lot of the teacher. I had not known that there was a "patron saint" of teachers. And if there was one, I presumed, at least for the college and graduate crowd, that it was Thomas Aquinas. But Aquinas, even though he spent a good deal of time dealing with beginners, is usually considered the patron of the more heady philosophical types. We know that Aquinas was not a martyr, even though he died rather young at 49, leaving several unfinished works, including the famous Summa Theologiae.
So when I returned to Washington after Christmas from California, I wanted a book to read on the Alaska Airline Flight #6 from LAX to Reagan National. I was staying with my niece, who lives some twenty minutes from LAX. Among the books on her shelves, I spotted John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces, a title from Swift. I began to read this novel last summer but only covered a few pages. My good niece let me have it to read on the five-hour flight to D.C. Since the Introduction was by Walker Percy, I figured it would be a pretty good read.
Somewhere over the eastern United States, I came to the passage that I cited above, about St. Cassian of Imola, the patron of teachers. Needless to say, I had not heard of St. Cassian before, at least not this one. As I recall, another Cassian, a medieval abbot, wrote something called The Spiritual Meadow. So I looked up Cassian of Imola (a town near Ravenna) on Google. I found a reference to his Feast Day, August 13, from Butler's Lives of the Saints.
Cassian comes from the time of Julian the Apostate, in the fourth century or so. It seems that the Emperor had ordered all teachers to take an oath to the local gods, which Cassian, good Christian that he was, refused to do. (Our modern teachers have to take an oath that they will not refer to any gods, pagan or Christian, something known as "cultural evolution".) Roman soldiers who were Christian had the same problem. It was a local form of swearing loyalty to the state which was identified with the gods. It seemed like state-supported blasphemy, which it was.
Cassian was evidently a pious professor and refused to make such an oath. Whereupon, the local magistrate promptly decided to make an example of him. Cunning man that he was, the official involved the man's own students in his punishment. The students, not having finished the course, evidently had no problem with this strange form of justice. Cassian was stripped and tied to a post. From whence, his students, mindful of the man's punishments for their own scholarly laxities, drew their iron styli—pens used to mark on wax tablets—and stabbed the man to death.
So, here we have it. A Christian teacher was stabbed to death, under orders, by his own students with their own writing instruments in the name of the state for refusing to offer sacrifices to pagan gods. Today we have a more cruel punishment. We do not grant tenure to such stubborn types! But what could be a more graphic example for the scholarly vocation? One shudders to think of the lessons that students may draw from this account of how to deal with teachers!
In recording this remarkable history, the famous Butler laconically remarks, "There is no record of his (St. Cassian's) becoming a patron of teachers in spite of his pre-eminent qualifications for the role." Well, from now on, St. Cassian is my man. Recently, I decided to forbid computers from being used in my classes. But, so far, I have seen no indication of my good students rising to bludgeon Schall to death with their laptops because he would not let them type e-mails to their friends during class. Ever since Ignatius Reilly referred to him, I have had a special devotion to St. Cassian of Imola, patron of teachers. It is probably worth noting that the "dunces" to whom Jonathan Swift referred were no doubt all of high academic standing.
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2008/print2008/schall_patronsaint_jan08.html
As the second semester begins, 'tis well to think of the lot of the teacher. I had not known that there was a "patron saint" of teachers. And if there was one, I presumed, at least for the college and graduate crowd, that it was Thomas Aquinas. But Aquinas, even though he spent a good deal of time dealing with beginners, is usually considered the patron of the more heady philosophical types. We know that Aquinas was not a martyr, even though he died rather young at 49, leaving several unfinished works, including the famous Summa Theologiae.
So when I returned to Washington after Christmas from California, I wanted a book to read on the Alaska Airline Flight #6 from LAX to Reagan National. I was staying with my niece, who lives some twenty minutes from LAX. Among the books on her shelves, I spotted John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces, a title from Swift. I began to read this novel last summer but only covered a few pages. My good niece let me have it to read on the five-hour flight to D.C. Since the Introduction was by Walker Percy, I figured it would be a pretty good read.
Somewhere over the eastern United States, I came to the passage that I cited above, about St. Cassian of Imola, the patron of teachers. Needless to say, I had not heard of St. Cassian before, at least not this one. As I recall, another Cassian, a medieval abbot, wrote something called The Spiritual Meadow. So I looked up Cassian of Imola (a town near Ravenna) on Google. I found a reference to his Feast Day, August 13, from Butler's Lives of the Saints.
Cassian comes from the time of Julian the Apostate, in the fourth century or so. It seems that the Emperor had ordered all teachers to take an oath to the local gods, which Cassian, good Christian that he was, refused to do. (Our modern teachers have to take an oath that they will not refer to any gods, pagan or Christian, something known as "cultural evolution".) Roman soldiers who were Christian had the same problem. It was a local form of swearing loyalty to the state which was identified with the gods. It seemed like state-supported blasphemy, which it was.
Cassian was evidently a pious professor and refused to make such an oath. Whereupon, the local magistrate promptly decided to make an example of him. Cunning man that he was, the official involved the man's own students in his punishment. The students, not having finished the course, evidently had no problem with this strange form of justice. Cassian was stripped and tied to a post. From whence, his students, mindful of the man's punishments for their own scholarly laxities, drew their iron styli—pens used to mark on wax tablets—and stabbed the man to death.
So, here we have it. A Christian teacher was stabbed to death, under orders, by his own students with their own writing instruments in the name of the state for refusing to offer sacrifices to pagan gods. Today we have a more cruel punishment. We do not grant tenure to such stubborn types! But what could be a more graphic example for the scholarly vocation? One shudders to think of the lessons that students may draw from this account of how to deal with teachers!
In recording this remarkable history, the famous Butler laconically remarks, "There is no record of his (St. Cassian's) becoming a patron of teachers in spite of his pre-eminent qualifications for the role." Well, from now on, St. Cassian is my man. Recently, I decided to forbid computers from being used in my classes. But, so far, I have seen no indication of my good students rising to bludgeon Schall to death with their laptops because he would not let them type e-mails to their friends during class. Ever since Ignatius Reilly referred to him, I have had a special devotion to St. Cassian of Imola, patron of teachers. It is probably worth noting that the "dunces" to whom Jonathan Swift referred were no doubt all of high academic standing.
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2008/print2008/schall_patronsaint_jan08.html
20 books to read by the time you are 80...
Just today, I received an e-mail from a student who had been in my class a couple of years ago. He confessed to me that he had not read carefully all the books that I had assigned in class, but now with a little experience—he tells me he is a stand-up comedian in New York!—he realizes that he missed things that would be useful and important him now after a little experience. This is just what Plato said to young men in book seven of the Republic. He wanted to know if I had any books I might suggest to him! Well, I did. I told him to look up the lists in Another Sort of Learning but in particular to read James Thurber's My Life and Hard Times and Chesterton's Orthodoxy.
An interview with Father James V Shall, SJ
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2008/print2008/schall_orderthings2_jan08.html
An interview with Father James V Shall, SJ
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2008/print2008/schall_orderthings2_jan08.html
Saturday, March 10, 2012
The Divine office of a Wife and Mother
Your Divine Office
Your duty now, and the expression of your love for God, is to be fully present to your family. Your "Divine Office" is to cook, and clean, and change dirty diapers, and run errands, and keep the littlest ones amused, and find time to listen to the older children, and to bandage cuts, and look after bruises, and welcome guests -- and every now and then -- to steal a moment or two alone with your husband. Is this incompatible with your desire as an Oblate of our monastery to offer yourself to Our Lord in adoration, in reparation, and in supplication for the holiness of priests?
http://vultus.stblogs.org/2012/01/letter-to-a-novice-oblate-ii.html
Your duty now, and the expression of your love for God, is to be fully present to your family. Your "Divine Office" is to cook, and clean, and change dirty diapers, and run errands, and keep the littlest ones amused, and find time to listen to the older children, and to bandage cuts, and look after bruises, and welcome guests -- and every now and then -- to steal a moment or two alone with your husband. Is this incompatible with your desire as an Oblate of our monastery to offer yourself to Our Lord in adoration, in reparation, and in supplication for the holiness of priests?
http://vultus.stblogs.org/2012/01/letter-to-a-novice-oblate-ii.html
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Children at Mass
"We need to celebrate the noise of children. What a beautiful noise to hear at Mass. It’s the sound of a living, breathing, growing Church."
http://www.ncregister.com/blog/what-you-should-be-thinking-when-you-hear-noisy-kids-at-mass
The Woman's Masterpiece
The woman's masterpiece is the child.
Fr Stephane-Joseph Piat, OFM
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
The ideal conduct of Christian Mothers
"Above all, during the months immediately preceding the birth of her child, the mother should keep close to God, of whom the infant she bears within her is the image, the handiwork, the gift and the child. She should be for her offspring, as it were, a temple, a sanctuary, an altar, a tabernacle. In short, her life should be, so to speak, the life of a living sacrament, a sacrament in act, burying herself in the bosom of that God who has so truly instituted it and hallowed it, so that there she may draw that energy, that enlightening, that natural and supernatural beauty which He wills, and wills precisely by her means, to impart to the child she bears, and to be born of her."
Monsignor Gay
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Real life benefits of home schooling!
There are many excellent reasons to home school. This article outlines a lot of the real life benefits. But my favorite reason is one discovered by accident:
Homeschooling Builds Family Bonds.
Homeschooling brings families closer together. Kids thrive under parental attention, and parents get to really know their kids. Homeschooled siblings tend to be more kind and helpful to each other, also.
See many more excellent reasons below!
http://www.home-school.com/Articles/getting-started-in-homeschooling-the-first-ten-steps.html
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Catechism of the Catholic Church
Evangelicals or confessional Protestants who pick up the Catechism will find themselves in for a treat. Sentences, paragraphs, whole pages sound as if they could come from evangelical pulpits, including passages on topics such as the nature of Scripture or the meaning of grace and faith. These readers will also notice the depth of scholarship, worn quite lightly, with hundreds of references to Scripture but also citations from early theologians…. Readers familiar with standard statements of faith from the Reformation era… will quickly notice a different tone in this Catholic writing. While covering much of the same territory…, the Catholic Catechism is much more comprehensive. Moreover, it looks beyond the statement of doctrine to the care of souls. The Catholic Catechism is strikingly pastoral in tone. It is in part a book of worship—focusing again and again on the majesty of God, inviting readers to reflect on God’s character, to respond to his love, to live as he commands, and to devote themselves to his service. …Readers… may come to the Catechism looking for information. Finding information, they may also find themselves (as we did) stopping to pray. (page 116)
http://chnetwork.org/2012/02/how-not-to-become-a-catholic-part-1-conversion-story-of-james-tonkowich/
Fasting
Hunger is that state in which we realize our dependence on something else—when we face the ultimate question: "on what does my life depend?" Satan tempted both Adam and Christ, saying: Eat, for your hunger is proof that you depend entirely on food, that your life is in food. Adam believed and ate. Christ said, "Man does NOT live by bread alone." (Mt. 4:4; Lk. 4:4) This liberates us from total dependence on food, on matter, on the world. Thus, for the Christian, fasting is the only means by which man recovers his true spiritual nature.In order for fasting to be effective, then, the spirit must be a part of it. Christian fasting is not concerned with losing weight. It is a matter of prayer and the spirit. And because of that, because it is truly a place of the Spirit, true fasting may well lead to temptation, and weakness and doubt and irritation.In other words, it will be a real fight between good and evil, and very likely we shall fail many times in these battles. But the very discovery of the Christian life as "fight" and "effort" is an essential aspect of fasting.
http://usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-resources/lent/catholic-reflection-on-lenten-fasting-father-daniel-merz.cfm
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Saint Joseph
O great S. Joseph! Most beloved spouse of the well-beloved Mother, ah! how often hast thou borne in thy arms the love of heaven and earth, while, inflamed with the sweet embraces and kisses of this Divine child, thy soul melted away with joy while he tenderly whispered in thy ears (O God what sweetness!) that thou wast his great friend and his well-beloved father.
-St Frances de Sales
-St Frances de Sales
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Veiling...
“A woman does not acquire a man’s dignity by having her head uncovered but rather loses her own. Her shame and reproach thus derive from her desire to be like a man as well as from her actions.” -Chrysostom
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
I hate gossip!
Whenever people start to gossip to me or around me, I'm like a deer in the headlights with my mind racing: "oh, dear, how can I make it stop?"
I've tried it all, defending the person, redirecting the conversation, sitting silently, openly saying I don't want to gossip. None of them are fool-proof. My final solution is to avoid said gossipers, because they are often serial gossipers.
One of the worst, the easiest to get sucked into & the hardest to recognize, is the "concerned friend." I've been sucked into conversations like that before, but what I've come to find is the even if the facts are right, the spin is typically wrong. And unfortunately, once someone has been damaged, that IS how people see them, even if proven false.
I've recently been in close association with a couple of serial gossipers; nice, funny, interesting people. But after spending a few hours (or a day) with them, deflecting, redirecting, biting my tongue, picking my words SO carefully, I come away exhausted. And with my brain full of negative thoughts about many in our mutual acquaintance.
I've tried it all, defending the person, redirecting the conversation, sitting silently, openly saying I don't want to gossip. None of them are fool-proof. My final solution is to avoid said gossipers, because they are often serial gossipers.
One of the worst, the easiest to get sucked into & the hardest to recognize, is the "concerned friend." I've been sucked into conversations like that before, but what I've come to find is the even if the facts are right, the spin is typically wrong. And unfortunately, once someone has been damaged, that IS how people see them, even if proven false.
I've recently been in close association with a couple of serial gossipers; nice, funny, interesting people. But after spending a few hours (or a day) with them, deflecting, redirecting, biting my tongue, picking my words SO carefully, I come away exhausted. And with my brain full of negative thoughts about many in our mutual acquaintance.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Tertullian, on Marriage
"In the time of the early Church, Tertullian, believing his death to be approaching, wrote two books entitled Ad Uxorem, To My Wife. In the last chapter of the second book he gives an unforgettable picture of marriage. One cannot meditate on it too often.
He extols the happiness of marriage 'which the Church approves, the Holy Sacrifice confirms, the Blessing seals, the Angels witness, and God ratifies. What an alliance is that of two faithful souls united in a single hope, under a single discipline, under a similar dependence. Both are servants of the same Master. There is not distinction of mind or of body. Both are in truth one flesh. Where there is but one body, there is but one mind. They kneel in prayer together, they teach each other, support each other. They are together in church, together at the Banquet of God, together in trials, in joy. They are incapable of hiding from each other, of deserting each other, of annoying each other. In complete liberty, they visit the sick and help the poor . Without anxiety about each other they give alms freely, assist at Holy Mass and without any embarrassment manifest their fervor daily. They do not know what it means to make a furtive sign of the cross, to mumble trembling greetings, to invoke silent blessings. They sing hymns and psalms vying with each other to give God the most praise. Christ rejoices to see and hear them and gives them His peace. Wherever they are, Christ is with them.'
He extols the happiness of marriage 'which the Church approves, the Holy Sacrifice confirms, the Blessing seals, the Angels witness, and God ratifies. What an alliance is that of two faithful souls united in a single hope, under a single discipline, under a similar dependence. Both are servants of the same Master. There is not distinction of mind or of body. Both are in truth one flesh. Where there is but one body, there is but one mind. They kneel in prayer together, they teach each other, support each other. They are together in church, together at the Banquet of God, together in trials, in joy. They are incapable of hiding from each other, of deserting each other, of annoying each other. In complete liberty, they visit the sick and help the poor . Without anxiety about each other they give alms freely, assist at Holy Mass and without any embarrassment manifest their fervor daily. They do not know what it means to make a furtive sign of the cross, to mumble trembling greetings, to invoke silent blessings. They sing hymns and psalms vying with each other to give God the most praise. Christ rejoices to see and hear them and gives them His peace. Wherever they are, Christ is with them.'
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Daily Mass
I used to go to Mass daily, solo. It was a wonderful time of spiritual growth. Then I discerned that my kids needed to go. Another time of growth, but different. Now I see that I must leave God at the altar to find Him in my duties, as St Frances of Rome says. I think my time at Daily Mass was so beautiful, but now I offer my aching and longing as a gift. As a friend reminded me recently: 1 Samuel
15:22 "And Samuel said: Doth the Lord desire holocausts and victims, and not rather that the voice of the Lord should be obeyed? For obedience is better than sacrifices: and to hearken rather than to offer the fat or rams."
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
15:22 "And Samuel said: Doth the Lord desire holocausts and victims, and not rather that the voice of the Lord should be obeyed? For obedience is better than sacrifices: and to hearken rather than to offer the fat or rams."
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
A moving civil war love letter
July 14, 1861
Camp Clark, Washington
My very dear Sarah:
The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days—perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write again, I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more . . .
I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American Civilization now leans on the triumph of the Government and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and sufferings of the Revolution. And I am willing—perfectly willing—to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this Government, and to pay that debt . . .
Sarah my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me unresistibly on with all these chains to the battle field.
The memories of the blissful moments I have spent with you come creeping over me, and I feel most gratified to God and to you that I have enjoyed them for so long. And hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when, God willing, we might still have lived and loved together, and seen our sons grown up to honorable manhood, around us. I have, I know, but few and small claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me—perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar, that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, and when my last breath escapes me on the battle field, it will whisper your name. Forgive my many faults and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless and foolish I have often times been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness . . .
But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the gladdest days and in the darkest nights . . . always, always, and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath, as the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again . . .
Sullivan Ballou was killed a week later at the first Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861.
http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/war/ballou_letter.html
Camp Clark, Washington
My very dear Sarah:
The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days—perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write again, I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more . . .
I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American Civilization now leans on the triumph of the Government and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and sufferings of the Revolution. And I am willing—perfectly willing—to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this Government, and to pay that debt . . .
Sarah my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me unresistibly on with all these chains to the battle field.
The memories of the blissful moments I have spent with you come creeping over me, and I feel most gratified to God and to you that I have enjoyed them for so long. And hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when, God willing, we might still have lived and loved together, and seen our sons grown up to honorable manhood, around us. I have, I know, but few and small claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me—perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar, that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, and when my last breath escapes me on the battle field, it will whisper your name. Forgive my many faults and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless and foolish I have often times been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness . . .
But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the gladdest days and in the darkest nights . . . always, always, and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath, as the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again . . .
Sullivan Ballou was killed a week later at the first Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861.
http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/war/ballou_letter.html
On the balancing the right to educate our children with the responsiblities
We often hear in the home schooling community about the parent's right to home school...or "unschool." Here is a quote from Pope Pius XI in the Encyclical On Christian Education that should guide our decision to school and in what manner we should school (emphasis added).
59. "Folly is bound up in the heart of a child and the rod of correction shall drive it away."[40] Disorderly inclinations then must be corrected, good tendencies encouraged and regulated from tender childhood, and above all the mind must be enlightened and the will strengthened by supernatural truth and by the means of grace, without which it is impossible to control evil impulses, impossible to attain to the full and complete perfection of education intended by the Church, which Christ has endowed so richly with divine doctrine and with the Sacraments, the efficacious means of grace.
60. Hence every form of pedagogic naturalism which in any way excludes or weakens supernatural Christian formation in the teaching of youth, is false. Every method of education founded, wholly or in part, on the denial or forgetfulness of original sin and of grace, and relying on the sole powers of human nature, is unsound. Such, generally speaking, are those modern systems bearing various names which appeal to a pretended self-government and unrestrained freedom on the part of the child, and which diminish or even suppress the teacher's authority and action, attributing to the child an exclusive primacy of initiative, and an activity independent of any higher law, natural or divine, in the work of his education.
And here is an article that will make you re-read the above quotes with greater interest:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the-hot-button/is-home-schooling-a-better-option-than-public-school/article2160188/
And an article that will make you re-read the above article with greater interest:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-caterpillar-ceo-says-company-cant-find-enough-skilled-workers-20110912,0,7463843.story
59. "Folly is bound up in the heart of a child and the rod of correction shall drive it away."[40] Disorderly inclinations then must be corrected, good tendencies encouraged and regulated from tender childhood, and above all the mind must be enlightened and the will strengthened by supernatural truth and by the means of grace, without which it is impossible to control evil impulses, impossible to attain to the full and complete perfection of education intended by the Church, which Christ has endowed so richly with divine doctrine and with the Sacraments, the efficacious means of grace.
60. Hence every form of pedagogic naturalism which in any way excludes or weakens supernatural Christian formation in the teaching of youth, is false. Every method of education founded, wholly or in part, on the denial or forgetfulness of original sin and of grace, and relying on the sole powers of human nature, is unsound. Such, generally speaking, are those modern systems bearing various names which appeal to a pretended self-government and unrestrained freedom on the part of the child, and which diminish or even suppress the teacher's authority and action, attributing to the child an exclusive primacy of initiative, and an activity independent of any higher law, natural or divine, in the work of his education.
And here is an article that will make you re-read the above quotes with greater interest:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the-hot-button/is-home-schooling-a-better-option-than-public-school/article2160188/
And an article that will make you re-read the above article with greater interest:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-caterpillar-ceo-says-company-cant-find-enough-skilled-workers-20110912,0,7463843.story
Saturday, September 10, 2011
On religious laxity
St. John of the Cross: "If at any time someone, whether superior or anyone else, should try to persuade you of a lax teaching, even though it be confirmed by miracles, do not believe or embrace it; rather, greater penance and greater detachment from all things. And do not seek Christ without the cross."
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