The Christian Home: A Guide to
Happiness in the Home
Conclusion
|
It is with a feeling of deep satisfaction that I bring this
little book on the home to a close. God grant that it may be the humble
instrument of accomplishing at least a small amount of the good for
which it was undertaken. To that end I can only beg the kind reader who
has had the patience to peruse the foregoing pages, not to put the book
aside for good after the first reading, but to pick it up again and
again until the lessons it contains become deeply engraven on his
heart. The substance of those lessons is this: that since society,
which should help the individual to lead a God-fearing life, has become
a means of leading him astray, to counteract this evil influence, the
family, which is the unit of society, must be reformed by being again
imbued with the spirit of Christianity. When religion once more
directs, controls, and permeates the family life, not only will the
individual have an effective safeguard against the evils of society,
but society itself will be reformed.
The means to accomplish this end are the simple but efficacious ones
that I have pointed out. Think not lightly of them, dear reader, on
account of their simplicity, and despise them not for that they are
old. Parents above all, fathers and mothers, see to it that these
old-fashioned manifestations of Catholic life once more come into honor
in your homes. You cannot have religion without religious exercises, as
little as you can have fire without fuel. Nor can you make of your
religion a purely church affair, because it is something that touches
life at every point.
To children, and especially to those young men and young women who will
soon be looking forward to establishing homes of their own, I say: If
you hope to have a truly Christian home when you marry, you must lay
the foundation for it now. Be faithful to the practice of daily prayer
and frequent Communion in the years of young manhood and young
womanhood; be chaste during the time of courtship, and you may justly
expect God to bless your future home. But if you neglect your religion
and incur the wrath of God by your liberties in keeping company, you
run great risk of building your Christian home upon sand. Avoid the
occasions of sin, therefore; for he that loveth danger shall perish in
it. Let me warn you especially against following that custom, as
pernicious as it is widespread, which accords young unmarried couples
the privilege of almost as complete privacy and seclusion as if they
were already married. The proper place for keeping company is in the
presence of the father and mother or some other member of the family.
These nightly tete-a-tetes and long drawn out private interviews
between two young persons of opposite sex are occasions of sin and a
source of many other evils, not the least among which are hurried and
unhappy marriages. It is during the time of courtship, I repeat, that
the foundation is laid for the future home. Let it be made of religion
and virtue, my dear young men and young ladies, and then you can
securely build up thereon that beautiful edifice, that bulwark of
religion, that fortress of morality, that pillar of society, that
citadel of peace and happiness--the model Christian home.
Home, sweet home! What a multitude of tender thoughts and feelings are
associated with the utterance of that sweet word! What a host of happy
memories it conjures up of the innocent days of childhood, of the
carefree days of youth, of the toilsome days of maturer age. The home
is, indeed, the center of the sweetest and purest of all earthly joys,
the starting point of all that is best and greatest in human history.
Our Divine Savior Himself gave the home a special consecration by
gracing the humble home of Nazareth with His presence during thirty
long years; and He thereby gave us also the first and the supreme model
of the truly Christian home. Yes, so sacred is the word home that it is
commonly used to designate even that eternal dwelling place that God
has prepared for those that love Him.
Love your home, then, dear reader, and try to make it worthy of that
sacred name. You can adopt no surer means than to establish religion in
your home by enthroning the Sacred Heart as its King and by conforming
it as closely as possible to the home of the Holy Family. If the father
seeks to imitate St. Joseph; if the mother emulates the loving care of
Mary; if the children are docile and diligent after the example of the
Child Jesus; and if all seek first the Kingdom of God and His
justice,--be it ever so humble, yours will be a happy home. What, then,
if those foes of your salvation, the devil and the wicked world, storm
and rage without,--you and yours will be safe within the walls of your
Christian home. For, built as it is on the rock of Faith, we may truly
say of it what Our Blessed Savior said of those who hear His words and
do them: "And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew;
and they beat upon that house, and it fell not; for it was founded on a
rock" (Mt. 7, 25).
Continue:
Introduction
Chapter I: Necessity of
Religion in the Home
Chapter II: Prayer in the Home
Chapter III: Catholic
Atmosphere in the Home
Chapter IV: Good Reading in
the Home
Chapter V: Harmony in the Home
Chapter VI: Necessity of Home
Life
Conclusion
|
|
Back to Domestic Church: The
Catholic Home
Back to Being
Catholic
Index
|