The Catholic Family

[11] The Christian father, as a matter of course, uncomplainingly devotes his energies to provide for the family over which he rules with a firm, yet gentle, hand. The Christian mother is the heart of the family. Her influence pervades the home like a continuous benediction. Christian children recognize in their parents the true representatives of the God of authority, counsel and love.

IN the Christian home, God and the things that are God, are always spoken of with respect and veneration. There is deeply implanted in the childish mind that first and above all things comes duty to God. In a home where that policy is pursued, where religion is always spoken of with respect and with affection, where the priesthood is honored, where prayer is regularly said, where God is thanked constantly for the blessings of health and strength, where reverence for the Church and sympathy for her hard fight in the world is freely expressed, where solemn warning is given at frequent intervals against the dangers of the times and the conditions and surroundings, where children are continually impressed with the importance of being truthful and good—there, in that home, is an atmosphere which has its inevitable effects on the soul, heart and mind of the child as cold or heat has on its body.

That is the Catholic Christian atmosphere; and that is the atmosphere of the truly Catholic home. Though Christian parents are necessarily solicitous for the physical welfare of the children, they never permit matters of the soul to be made secondary or subservient to other matters; and above all, they take precautions against anything which might lead the children into temptation or sin. St. Blanche's words spoken to St. Louis in his youth: "I had rather see you dead at my feet than guilty of mortal sin," were engraved on his heart and influenced him throughout his entire life.

The home is the primeval school, and the mother the most influential of teachers. History is full of examples of great men and women who owed practically all that was in them to good religious mothers. And many wonderfully edifying examples may be found in fathers who were true devotees of St. Joseph, the Patron of Family Life, and whom the Divine Child fondly addressed as "father." Even among the saintly, the Holy Family of Nazareth is immeasurably transcendent, uniting heaven with earth and clothing with love unfathomable the names of "father" and "mother."

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Source: D. J. McDonald, "Prize Winning Essay—'The Christian Family'," National Catholic Welfare Council Bulletin 10, no. 4 (Sept. 1928): 11.