Essays on Catholic Life

These essays are: THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGIOUS HOME TRAINING THE OFFICE AND FUNCTION OF POETRY A WEEK IN ROME THE IRISH DRAMATIC MOVEMENT CATHOLIC JOURNALISTS AND JOURNALISM THE RELATION OF THE CATHOLIC JOURNAL TO CATHOLIC LITERATURE WHAT IS CRITICISM? THE RELATION OF THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL TO CATHOLIC LITERATURE CATHOLIC INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITIES THE CATHOLIC ELEMENT IN ENGLISH POETRY The first essay commences: The Church, the Home and the School these are the trinity that mould our lives, fashion our character and fit us for the knighthood of heaven and the knighthood of earth. Each of this trinity has its great work to do. The Church pours upon the new-born the regenerating waters of baptism and makes it a child of God and heir to the Kingdom of Heaven; the home represented in the father and mother keeps watch over the seedlings of grace implanted at baptism in the garden of the infant heart and nourishes those seedlings, while the school trains will and heart and mind to follow the precepts of truth and hearken to the voice and admonitions of God. Now, the nearest representative of God in regard to the child is the Church, but the Church during the first five years of the child cannot exert her care directly over it, so that the life of grace implanted through baptism must remain without nourishment unless the parents-unless father and mother watching over the seedlings of grace implanted by holy baptism in the heart of the child, foster by piety, precept and prayer the tender buds of faith and love that later will bear beauteous blossoms in the full summertide of the garden of life.