Category Archives: Catholic Teacher’s Companion

Stubbornness ~ The Catholic Teacher’s Companion

29 Tuesday Mar 2022

Posted by in Catholic Teacher's Companion, Parenting

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Painting by Henry Hintermeister

This book was written at the turn of the 20th century for Catholic teaching nuns. It is called The Catholic Teacher’s Companion  – A book of Inspiration and Self-Help by Rev. Felix M. Kirsch, O.M.C. (1924). The lessons between the covers are valuable for parents, educators and all who work with children.

STUBBORNNESS

Most of the stubbornness among children can probably be traced to false methods of education either in the home or in the school. Many parents and teachers are forever issuing orders without once pausing to consider whether all their orders can be carried out.

Again, they will never offer a word of praise, but instead are liberal of reprimands no matter how hard the effort of the child may have been. With such treatment the child will finally come to disregard all commands and to take a peculiar delight in acting contrary to the wishes of his superiors.

But pupils spoiled in this way are not at all hopeless. Proper treatment is all that they require to be cured. They must be led to realize that they must submit to authority.

Before giving a command the teacher must make sure that she is right, but after that she must insist on obedience to her order.

The stubborn child may never be allowed to triumph over the teacher. Instead, he should be trained to spend his strong will power on the proper objectives, and he may then prove a leader among men.

The teacher should discriminate between the stubborn and the independent boy. The independent boy acts contrary to the teacher’s commands not for the mere satisfaction of following his own sweet will, but rather because he is convinced that he knows the matter in hand better than the teacher.

He feels very keenly the “humiliation” of being compelled to follow in all things the teacher’s guidance. He is eager to break away from the leading strings and to follow his own initiative.

Such a boy may be very gifted and may possess the invaluable asset of having both a keen mind and strong will power. Properly directed he will make his mark in the world or in the Church.

On the other hand, it is difficult to give him, when found in a large class, the special training required for the full development of his powers. Yet it is a safe rule for the teacher to give him as much opportunity for personal initiative as is consonant with class management.

He should not be nagged at for trifles but should be kept busy with tasks that make real demands upon his ability and industry. He should feel that the teacher is glad to assist him in his laudable ambition, yet may not demand that the teacher attend to him to the neglect of the rest of her class.

The proud pupil offers peculiar difficulties to the teacher. If his pride is only a form of vanity springing from the consciousness of good looks, pretty clothes, etc., the check will come naturally enough from his companions, who are not apt to tolerate in their midst any such priggishness.

But where the pride springs from the consciousness of superior ability, the remedy is not so near at hand. Though the boy is proud he may not be censured undeservedly, but may be reformed by exposing certain faults of which he is guilty but not conscious.

But it is rarely advisable to reprimand him in public. It will generally be more effective to direct his attention to what is truly great and admirable, and in this way he may be encouraged to make virtue and saintliness the goal of his striving.

The lazy pupil may be the despair of the zealous and ambitious teacher. But she must be on her guard lest she mistake dullness for laziness. If the Lord has not given a boy sufficient ability to pass the sixth-grade examinations, it would be wrong to punish the pupil for the lack of talent.

Again, the teacher perhaps demands too much of the children, and the less gifted are discouraged in consequence and lack the stimulus to make any further effort whatsoever. The teacher and not the pupils are to blame for their apathy and listlessness. The pupils should not be punished, but should be encouraged to try anew.

Other cases of apparent laziness may be traced to physical defects of various kinds, and should be referred to the physician rather than to the teacher. But if the laziness be real and not merely apparent, the teacher will have a hard task.

She must, first of all, arouse the pupil’s interest and thus release his energy. She must make him work and work hard. This may require some time, but if in the end she brings him to appreciate the fruits of hard labor, she has done her part to fit him for life.

Treat your boys as young men. You want them to grow up to be hardworking and confident. Is it not true, that the more productive we are, the better we feel? Then structure your children’s day to be active and busy—they will thrive under these conditions. -Finer Femininity, Painting by Mark Keathley, 1963

Lecture on raising a man in a society of boys. Modern society has effeminate males even in their 40s & 50s so how do you raise a man to be an actual man of virtue?

 

Penal Rosaries!

Penal rosaries and crucifixes have a wonderful story behind them. They were used during the times when religious objects were forbidden and it was illegal to be Catholic. Being caught with a rosary could mean imprisonment or worse. A penal rosary is a single decade with the crucifix on one end and, oftentimes, a ring on the other. When praying the penal rosary you would start with the ring on your thumb and the beads and crucifix of the rosary in your sleeve, as you moved on to the next decade you moved the ring to your next finger and so on and so forth. This allowed people to pray the rosary without the fear of being detected. Available here.

Most wives possess a deep, existential intuition that they bear primary responsibility for creating the home environment, in cooperation with their husbands, who protect and provide for it. When Leila Lawler started out as a young wife and then became a mother, she had no idea how to keep a house, manage laundry, or plan and prepare meals, let alone entertain and inspire toddlers and select a curriculum to pass on the Faith.

She spent decades excavating deeply rooted cultural memories that had been buried under an avalanche of feminist ideology. Lawler developed and meticulously presented these on her popular website, Like Mother, Like Daughter, and has now collected them in this comprehensive, three-volume set to help women who desire a proficient and systematic approach to home life.

The Summa Domestica comprises three volumes: Home Culture, which delves into establishing a home and a vision for raising children; Education, which offers a philosophy for the primary vocation of parents to form their children and give them the means to learn on their own; and Housekeeping, which offers practical details for meals, laundry, and a reasonably clean and organized busy and thriving household.

All at once lively, funny, calming, and complete, The Summa Domestica an indispensable how-to book on making and keeping a home that will serve your family best.

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Teaching the Art of Study ~ The Catholic Teacher’s Companion

09 Wednesday Feb 2022

Posted by in Catholic Teacher's Companion, Education

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This book was written at the turn of the 20th century for Catholic teaching nuns. It is called The Catholic Teacher’s Companion  – A book of Inspiration and Self-Help by Rev. Felix M. Kirsch, O.M.C. (1924). The lessons between the covers are valuable for parents, educators and all who work with children.

TEACHING THE ART OF STUDY

The scholar who cherishes the love of comfort, is not fit to be deemed a scholar. —CONFUCIUS

All teachers agree with Janet Erskine Stuart that children do not know how to learn lessons when the books are before them, and that there is a great waste of good power, and a great deal of unnecessary weariness from this cause. If the cause of imperfectly learned lessons is examined it will usually be found there, and also the cause of so much dislike to the work of preparation.

 Children do not know by instinct how to set about learning a lesson from a book, nor do they spontaneously recognize that there are different ways of learning, adapted to different lessons.

BOOKS ALONE ARE NOT ENOUGH

It is a help to the children to know that there is one way for the multiplication table and another for history and another for poetry, as the end of the lesson is different.

They can understand this if it is put before them that one is learnt most quickly by mere repetition, until it becomes a sing-song in the memory that cannot go wrong, and that afterward in practice it will allow itself to be taken to pieces.

They will see that they can grasp a chapter of history more intelligently if they prepare for themselves questions upon it which might be asked of another, than in trying by mechanical devices of memory to associate facts with something to hold them by; that poetry is different from both, having a body and a soul, each of which has to be taken account of in learning it, one of them being the song and the other the singer.

Obviously there is not one only way for each of these or for other matters which have to be learnt, but one of the greatest difficulties is removed when it is understood that there is something intelligible to be done in the learning of lessons beyond reading them over and over with the hope that they will go in.

 In his Collationes in Hexaemeron St. Bonaventure, the Seraphic Doctor, gives some helpful directions concerning the art of study.

Our study must, first, be orderly. In the second place, it must be persevering. St. Bonaventure finds desultory reading a great hindrance, for it betrays a restless spirit, which makes no progress, nor does it permit anything to take root in the memory. We learn to know a person minutely by looking at him often and by studying him, not by a mere glance.

In the third place, we must study with pleasure. God has proportioned both food and taste, so that both must correspond if the food is to be wholesome. He who finds the food distasteful, as did the Israelites with the manna, experiences but one taste. Spiritual men, however, find therein the sweetness of every taste.

 Finally, says St. Bonaventure, our studies must remain within proper bounds, and must be prudent. We must be discreet and moderate, and not attempt a learning beyond our strength. The exact limit for every student is drawn by his talents. Beyond this he should not seek to go, nor should he remain below it.

The Seraphic Doctor concludes his directions with an illustration from St. Augustine. Those who do not carry on their studies in an orderly manner are like colts which gallop hither and thither, while the useful beast of burden plods securely on, and arrives at its destination, because it proceeds steadily and perseveringly.

The teacher cannot give too much attention to the subject of teaching her pupils the art of study. Any student of waste in education realizes that the greatest source of waste is found in unintelligent methods of the pupils’ work.

One of our most needed reforms is found in this field. Much would be gained if all teachers could be brought to realize that, the formation of habits, rather than the acquisition of facts, is the dominant purpose of the school.

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Establishing clear-cut family rules requires complete agreement between father and mother. Few things disturb a child more than when his father establishes one standard of conduct and his mother makes continuous exceptions to it. Once a father and mother agree, neither should change the rules without consulting the other, or the child will not know what is expected of him. And both father and mother must share in enforcing them. – Rev. George Kelly, 1950’s

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Beautiful Wire Wrapped Rosaries! Lovely, Durable. Each link is handmade and wrapped around itself to ensure quality. Available here.

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We live in an age characterized by agitation and lack of peace. This tendency manifests itself in our spiritual as well as our secular life. In our search for God and holiness, in our service to our neighbor, a kind of restlessness and anxiety take the place of the confidence and peace which ought to be ours. What must we do to overcome the moments of fear and distress which assail us? How can we learn to place all our confidence in God and abandon ourselves into his loving care? This is what is taught in this simple, yet profound little treatise on peace of head. Taking concrete examples from our everyday life, the author invites us to respond in a Gospel fashion to the upsetting situations we must all confront. Since peace of heart is a pure gift of God, it is something we should seek, pursue and ask him for without cease. This book is here to help us in that pursuit.

Reverend Irala here addresses ways to promote mental and emotional well-being to help increase one’s health, efficiency and happiness. He speaks on topics such as how to rest, think, use the will, control feelings, train the sexual instinct, be happy, and choose an ideal. Included are also many practical instructions on dealing with mental struggles of all kinds. This book is most useful in our present times of worldly confusion.

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The Pupils’ Success ~ The Catholic Teacher’s Companion

17 Friday Sep 2021

Posted by in Catholic Teacher's Companion, Education, FF Tidbits, Parenting

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This excerpt is a lesson for all educators…including, and especially, mothers and fathers. There aren’t many schools nowadays that are reputable (there are some, indeed), so mothers and fathers have had to take much of burden of educating their children, especially in their religion. Take heart, your reward will be great in heaven!

Some readers may be tempted to restrict the idea of the pupils’ success to what is seen on the night of the school commencement. But we have in mind the school commencement merely as the scene whence the graduates must pass to the larger stage of the world to play their parts.

The Rev. Daniel A. Lord, S.J.,  has brought out vividly the part that the Sisters play in both phases of the pupil’s success:

Back stage, hot in heavy habits that were never designed for work among canvas wings, the Sisters, tired, flushed, but happy, watched the end of their year’s work.

The next day they too were to leave; some for the motherhouse, some for the summer courses at Catholic colleges, all eventually for the annual retreat.

The curtain dropped for the last time, and the boys and girls surged out to greet happy relatives, some with a quick good-by to their teachers, others thoughtless and forgetful of all except that for them school was at an end and they were free.

Yet, though few children came to thank them, and fewer still of that seething audience gave a passing thought to the Sisters backstage, all that was epitomized in the entertainment just concluded, and the diploma just conferred was credited by a higher Power to them.

Because of their patient drilling some boy would rise higher in life. Later on some girl would come with the man who loved her, to seek out the Sister who had kept her feet straight in her youthful days.

Some boy in the grip of temptation would remember her insistent lessons of loyalty to God and put sin ruthlessly behind him. Perhaps in some distant day a wanderer from the faith of his fathers would on his deathbed murmur the act of contrition she taught him, and by that childhood prayer open for himself the gates of eternal bliss.

And perhaps before God’s altar some young priest, in the full tide of his newly-received priesthood, would pause at the Memento to whisper the name of the nun whose lessons and prayers had first turned his eyes toward the service of the Sanctuary.

Her work, unrecognized, unappreciated, but heroic with the heroism of patient unselfishness and devotion to a high ideal, is one of the loveliest things in the Church today.

She is the greatest asset of Catholic education. I crave your thanks for the teaching Sister.

The Rev. Robert Schwickerath, S.J., relates an incident of the life of Father Bonifacio, a distinguished Jesuit educator, who for more than forty years taught the classics.

One day he was visited by his brother, a professor in a university, whom he had not seen for many years. When the professor heard that the Father had spent all the years of his life in the Order in teaching Latin and Greek to young boys, he exclaimed:

“You have wasted your great talents in such inferior work! I expected to find you at least a professor of philosophy or theology. What have you done that this post is assigned to you?”

Father Bonifacio quietly opened a little book, and showed him the list of hundreds of pupils whom he had taught, many of whom occupied high positions in Church or State, or in the world of business.

Pointing at their names, the Father said with a pleasant smile:

“The success which my pupils have achieved is to me a far sweeter reward than any honor which I might have obtained the most celebrated university.”

Father Schwickerath justly adds to this account that “not all teachers have the consolation of seeing their pupils in high positions. It happens that the best efforts of a devoted teacher seem to be lost on many pupils. Even this will not discourage the religious teacher.

He will remember that his model, Jesus Christ, did not reap the fruit which might have been expected from such a Master. Not all that He sowed brought forth fruit a hundredfold, not even thirtyfold. Some fell upon stony ground, and other some fell among the thorns, and yet He went on patiently sowing.

So a teacher ought not to be disheartened if the success should not correspond with his labors. He knows that one reward is certainly in store for him, the measure of which will not be his success, but his zeal; not the fruit but his efforts.”

It is the prospect of this reward that inspires the devoted service of our Sisters.

Not long ago, in distant Algiers, an American tourist visited the lepers’ colony out of pure curiosity. These poor lepers were cared for by a Community of Sisters. The man was attracted by one of these self-sacrificing women because of her youth, beauty, and refinement, and to his surprise he learned that she was an American girl.

Being introduced to her, he said: “Sister, I would not do this work for $10,000 a year.”

“No,” said the Sister, “nor would I do it for $100,000 nor a million a year.”

“Really,” said the stranger, “you surprise me. What, then, do you receive?”

“Nothing,” was the reply, “absolutely nothing.”

“Then why do you do it?”

The Sister lifted the crucifix that was pending from her rosary and, sweetly kissing it, said, “I do it for the love of Him, for Jesus who died for the love of them and for the love of me. In the loathsome ulcers of these poor lepers I see the wounds of my crowned and crucified Savior.”

For the rest, we believe that the very choicest reward will be meted out to the School Sisters for that portion of their work that to human seeming is generally in vain. Our School Sisters may gain honor from their talented pupils; they will earn their bread (in a certain sense) by training the vast body of mediocre children; but they will merit heaven by the patient labors they devote to the dullards in their schools.

A holy house is one in which God is truly King; in which He reigns supreme over the minds and hearts of the inmates; in which every word and act honors His name. One feels on entering such a house, nay, even on approaching it, that the very atmosphere within and without is laden with holy and heavenly influences. -True Womanhood, Rev. Bernard O’Reilly, 1894 https://amzn.to/2PsM94w (afflink)

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Available here.

 

Hands Free Mama is the digital society’s answer to finding balance in a media-saturated, perfection-obsessed world. It doesn’t mean giving up all technology forever. It doesn’t mean forgoing our jobs and responsibilities. What it does mean is seizing the little moments that life offers us to engage in real and meaningful interaction. It means looking our loved ones in the eye and giving them the gift of our undivided attention, living a present, authentic, and intentional life despite a world full of distractions.

With his facile pen and from the wealth of his nation-wide experience, the well-known author treats anything and everything that might be included under the heading of home education: the pre-marriage training of prospective parents, the problems of the pre-school days down through the years of adolescence. No topic is neglected. “What is most praiseworthy is Fr. Lord’s insistence throughout that no educational agency can supplant the work that must be done by parents.” – Felix M. Kirsch, O.F.M. https://amzn.to/2T06u28 (afflink)

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“WHY I LIKE TEACHING” – The Catholic Teacher’s Companion

15 Friday Jan 2021

Posted by in Catholic Teacher's Companion, Education

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Every mother and every father is a teacher. How important it is to have enthusiasm for this noble profession, in spite of the bumps, which inevitably follow our instructing footsteps.

What a legacy we leave behind!

This book was written at the turn of the 20th century for Catholic teaching nuns. It is called The Catholic Teacher’s Companion  – A book of Inspiration and Self-Help by Rev. Felix M. Kirsch, O.M.C. (1924). The lessons between the covers are valuable for parents, educators and all who work with children.

“WHY I LIKE TEACHING”

Our teachers may derive inspiration from the prize essay on this subject written by Mr. John Dixon, school superintendent of Columbus, Wisconsin:

“I like teaching because I like boys and girls, because I delight in having them about me, in talking with them, working with them, and in possessing their confidence and affection.

“I like teaching because the teacher works in an atmosphere of idealism, dealing with soul and heart, with ideas and ideals.

“I like teaching because of the large freedom it gives. There is abundance of room for original planning and initiative in the conduct of the work itself, and an unusual time margin of evenings, weekends, and vacations in which to extend one’s interests, personal and professional.

“I like teaching because the relation of teacher to learner in whatever capacity is one of the most interesting and delightful in the world.

Teaching is attractive because it i-poses a minimum of drudgery. Its day is not too long, and is so broken by intermissions, and so varied in its schedule of duties, as to exclude undue weariness or monotony. The program of each school-day is a new and interesting adventure.

“Teaching invites to constant growth and improvement. The teacher is in daily contact with books, magazines, and libraries, and all the most vital forces of thought and leadership, social and educational.

It is work that stimulates ambition and enhances personal worth. There is no greater developer of character to be found.

Also, teaching includes a wide range of positions and interests, extending from kindergarten to university, covering every section where schools are maintained and embracing every variety of effort, whether academic, artistic, industrial, commercial, agricultural or professional.

“There is no work in which men and women engage which more directly and fundamentally serves society and the state.

Teaching is the biggest and best profession in the state because it creates and molds the nation’s citizenship. It is the very foundation and mainstay of the national life.

“The true teacher is, and may well be, proud of the title, for his work is akin to that of the Master Builder, the creation of a temple not made with hands.”

In the following poem Mr. Louis Burton Woodward answers a question frequently asked but seldom as beautifully answered:

WHY I TEACH

Because I would be young in soul and mind

Though years must pass and age my life constrain,

And I have found no way to lag behind

The fleeting years, save by the magic chain

That binds me, youthful, to the youth I love,

I teach.

Because I would be wise and wisdom find

From millions gone before whose torch I pass,

Still burning bright to light the paths that wind

So steep and rugged, for each lad and lass

Slow-climbing to the Heights above,

I teach.

Because in passing on the living flame

That ever brighter burns the ages through,

I have done service that is worth the name

Can I but say, “The flame of knowledge grew

A little brighter in the hands I taught,”

I teach.

Because I know that when life’s end I reach

And thence pass through the gates so wide and deep

To what I do not know, save what priests teach,

That the remembrance of me men will keep

Is what I’ve done; and what I have is naught,

I teach.

To preserve and increase her first love for teaching the Sister must be on her guard lest her interest in her work be based on other than idealistic grounds.

It is only with an enthusiasm based upon these grounds that she will be able to bear the thousand disappointments that every teacher is heir to.

But with an abiding love for teacher all labor will be light: Ubi amatur, non laboratur; aut si laboratur, labor amatur—”Where there is love, there is no labor; or if there be labor, it will be a labor of love.”

The teacher imbued with deep-seated enthusiasm for her profession will not think of the school-room as a field to work in, but as a force to work with.

“The study of Religion should be a regular part of the curriculum and taught just as thoroughly as Reading, Writing, Arithmetic and other subjects.

The child gains a deep and reverent understanding of the principles of his faith, and practicing his religion becomes second nature to him.

Parents who believe that Sunday School instruction is adequate for a religious education would protest vigorously if their child were instructed only one hour each week in geography, history or some other subject of considerably less importance in the long view.” -Fr. George Kelly, Catholic Family Handbook https://amzn.to/2ovgHpU (afflink)

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Drawing on the experience of dozens of saints, Fr. Plus explains sure ways we can recollect ourselves before prayer so that once we begin to pray, our prayers will be richer and more productive; he teaches us how to practice interior silence habitually, even in the rush and noise of the world; and he explains each of the kinds of prayer and shows when we should and should not employ each.

We all pray, but few of us pray well. And although that’s troubling, few of us have found a spiritual director capable of leading us further along the path of prayer.

Fr. Raoul Plus, S.J., is such a director, and reading this little book about the four types of prayer will be for you like hearing the voice of the wise and gentle counsellor you long for but can’t find: one who knows your soul well and understands its needs.

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The Spirit and Personality of the Teacher (Part Two)

26 Wednesday Aug 2020

Posted by in Catholic Teacher's Companion, Education

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Photo from the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

This book was written at the turn of the 20th century for Catholic teaching nuns. It is called The Catholic Teacher’s Companion  – A book of Inspiration and Self-Help by Rev. Felix M. Kirsch, O.M.C. (1924). The lessons between the covers are valuable for parents, educators and all who work with children.

Part One is here.

MODERN IRRELIGION

Especially in these latter days when religion has been crowded almost entirely even out of Catholic homes, must we turn to our Catholic teachers to imbue our children with a deeply religious spirit.

The Catholic teacher must largely take, in this regard, the place of a Catholic mother. The children in our schools must therefore not be put on starvation diet, getting but little bits and scraps now and then, but must wax strong on wholesome, substantial spiritual nourishment, and must, above all, breathe continually the ozone of a truly religious atmosphere.

Now, who will charge the classroom with religious influences if not the Sister who there presides? And how can she do so unless she first of all has been fully charged with this spirit?

It is an old-time truism, Nemo dat quod non habet—”No man can give that which he has not himself.” Teachers cannot impart what they themselves do not possess: For they must have the truth themselves, If they the truth would teach.

We shall realize the urgency of this problem when we consider how much of the temporal and eternal welfare of the pupils depends upon the teacher’s example and instruction:

A pebble on the streamlet bank

Has shaped the course of many a river,

A dewdrop on the baby plant

May warp the giant oak forever.

The teacher is unconsciously an object lesson to her pupils. From morning till evening occasions are constantly arising that will put to the test her patience, her gentleness, her prudence, her charity, her self-control, and a number of other virtues which are the natural offspring of a good religious character.

Nor is it simply in the more important actions of the day, when she is supposed to be more on her guard, that she will thus have a chance to reveal herself, but even in the most minute actions, in her every stir, and look, and word, and gesture, even in the very tone of her voice, will she proclaim whether she is a deeply spiritual woman or still amenable chiefly to natural and human impulses.

Corresponding impressions and lasting impressions, favorable or unfavorable, will naturally be produced on those who are the constant witnesses for years of every detail of her conduct. All this calls, on the part of the teacher, for unceasing efforts of self-education.

The teacher, however, who does not consider self-education and self-improvement part of her daily task, can never hope to understand the import of the education of others. The fundamental aspect of the matter was grasped by the devout and relatively unlearned religious teacher whose motto was “Since to make saints is my mission, I must be a saint myself.”

We gladly admit that, all else being equal, the teacher of religion, for instance, who knows a great deal about biology and child psychology and dogmatic theology has an ad-vantage over her learned sister; but there is not one of us who, commissioned to select a teacher of religion for a given class, would prefer a biologist or a theologian to a zealous and unassuming saint.

We all realize that the best woman to teach religion is the woman who lives religion, and that though her methods be antiquated or uncertain she still has a power in the Catholic school because she is possessed of the spirit of religion and the spirit of Jesus Christ.

THE TEACHER’S MAINSTAY

But it is not only for the sake of her pupils that the teacher must cultivate a deeply religious spirit. She needs this spirit for herself. Only great women can weather the great storms of the soul. And the great women are they who cherish the high aspirations, the visioning dreams, the deep yearnings that spring from religion.

Religion must be the mainspring of the teacher’s life. What the spring is for the watch, that religion must be for her life. Of what use a gold case, a jeweled set of works, artistic engravings, etc., if the spring be missing, or broken?

Professor Frederick Paulsen, though not a Catholic, confesses that a truly religious life is the only foundation of assured peace of soul. And the celebrated educationist, Frederick William Foerster, admits that Christ Crucified is the best solution of a teacher’s difficulties. But a greater Teacher than these has said.: “Cast all your care on Him, for He hath care of you.”

It might be well for the teacher to give special attention to what St. Francis of Sales calls the little virtues: humility, patience, meekness, benignity, bearing one another’s burdens, condescension, mildness of heart, cheerfulness, cordiality, compassion, forgiving injuries, candor, and simplicity.

Would that all our teachers would practice the virtue mentioned last, in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi! Yes, Franciscan simplicity would mean the end of so many needless worries.

Here is a teacher breaking her head over many problems. The Superior seems to be displeased with her. The Pastor, too, evidently has a bone to pick with her. Then, one of the Sisters did not greet her this morning with her usual cordiality. Many of the pupils are likewise, as it seems, losing confidence in her. And so the weary list continues, and robs the distressed Sister of all her peace of soul.

St. Francis was not disturbed by any such vanities. He would under the circumstances regard his Superior with the same reverence as before. He would cooperate with the Pastor as though nothing had happened. He would treat his fellow-Religious with the same brotherliness as heretofore.

He would continue to regard the pupils with ever increasing affection. He would, in a word, be disturbed by nothing. He would continue ever the same Brother Joy. For in his eyes all was infinitely simple.

Let the teacher act likewise. Let her not bother about others, but be herself. There will always be some to approve and some to disapprove, no matter what she does or does not do. In all her needs the religious teacher should have recourse to prayer.

Sr. M. Giralomo, a successful teacher of teachers, was in the habit of telling the candidates for the profession: “A Christian teacher should speak a hundred times as much to God about her pupils, as to her pupils about God.”

Another teacher worded the same advice thus: “When in doubt play trumps.” One with God is a majority, and as long as the Sister prays she need fear no difficulties no matter how formidable.

Shakespeare paid his tribute, in Measure for Measure, to the potency of the Sister’s prayer:

Not with fond shekels of the tested gold,

Or stones, whose rates are either rich or poor

As fancy values them: but with true prayers,

That shall be up at heaven, and enter there,

Ere sunrise: prayers from preserved souls,

From fasting maids, whose minds are delicate

To nothing temporal.

Yes, the praying School Sister is a wonderful power for good, and her influence endures long after her boys and girls have passed out of her schoolroom. It is she who inspires letters like the one written by a soldier-boy on the eve of his departure from France: DEAR SISTER:

I have seen much of the evil side of life. I have come close to things that you know nothing of. But I want to tell you that I haven’t done one thing of which you would be ashamed.

The memory of such a Sister has been the mainstay of thousands of men and women fighting the grim battle of life. Hence we do not find it strange that a British Inspector of Schools expressed his conviction that “it would be ideal if all England could be taught by nuns.”

If our Catholic young men and women, who are aiming to lead a virtuous celibate life in the world, understood how much spiritual comfort, strength and consolation they would derive from the monastic or conventual life, by consecrating themselves to it in lowliness of mind and uprightness of heart, our monasteries and convents would not have to be clamoring for candidates to do the work of God and religion they are most eager to do, much of which must be left undone because of the lack of laborers. -Rev. Fulgence Meyer, 1924, Painting Ferdinand Georg Walmuller, 1700’s

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This booklet contains practical advice on the subjects of dating and choosing a spouse from the Catholic theological viewpoint. Father Lovasik points out clearly what one’s moral obligations are in this area, providing an invaluable aid to youthful readers. Additionally, he demonstrates that Catholic marriage is different from secular marriage and why it is important to choose a partner who is of the Catholic Faith if one would insure his or her personal happiness in marriage. With the rampant dangers to impurity today, with the lax moral standards of a large segment of our society, with divorce at epidemic levels, Clean Love in Courtship will be a welcome source of light and guidance to Catholics serious about their faith.

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A Frank, Yet Reverent Instruction on the Intimate Matters of Personal Life for Young Men. To our dear and noble Catholic youths who have preserved, or want to recover, their purity of heart, and are minded to retain it throughout life. For various reasons many good fathers of themselves are not able to give their sons this enlightenment on the mysteries of life properly and sufficiently. They may find this book helpful in the discharge of their parental responsibilities in so delicate a matter.

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The Spirit and Personality of the Teacher (Part One)

24 Monday Aug 2020

Posted by in Catholic Teacher's Companion

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This book was written at the turn of the 20th century for Catholic teaching nuns. It is called The Catholic Teacher’s Companion  – A book of Inspiration and Self-Help by Rev. Felix M. Kirsch, O.M.C. (1924). The lessons between the covers are valuable for parents, educators and all who work with children.

Part Two is here.

THE SPIRIT AND PERSONALITY OF THE TEACHER

No one can be educated by maxim and precept; it is the life lived, and the things loved, and the ideals believed in, by which we tell one upon another. -JANET ERSKINE STUART.

The teacher makes or mars the school. The building is merely the shell. Text-books are merely tools. Charts and maps and black-boards and other teaching equipment are merely aids. But the prime factor for the success or the failure of the school is the spirit and personality of the teacher.

THE IMPORTANT THING

We teachers never had a better friend than the late Archbishop John Lancaster Spalding, and he assures us that what the teacher is, not what she inculcates, is the important thing. The life she lives, and above all what in her inmost soul she hopes, believes, and loves, have far deeper and more potent influence than mere lessons can ever have.

Hamilton Wright Mabie declares: “Personality is the divinest thing in the world, because it is the only creative thing; the only power that can bring to material already existent a new idea of order and form.”

Goethe may be quoted to the same effect: “Whatever a man accomplishes, he accomplishes because of his personality.”

To shape the personality of her pupils, the teacher must have a well-developed personality of her own. Each child has a personality of his own, and it is with this personality that the teacher has to deal. This means that nothing really matters about a teacher, when all is said and done, but her personality, and how it is likely to react on the child. In other words, it is a question, not of what she can do, but of what she is.

Quite apart from the well-known fact that a good student frequently makes a poor teacher, as far as mere instruction is concerned, a girl may do brilliantly at college, and be vain, selfish, and ambitious. She may be a splendid disciplinarian, and be hardhearted, with a mean love of power, and a streak of cruelty. In each case she will be totally unfit to have control of children.

Hence it is that the religious spirit of the teacher and her observance of religious duties are the most important factors for her success in the schoolroom. Young eyes are always upon her, ready to be influenced less by what she says than by what she is. Those eyes are keen and quick to detect whether her actions belie her words. We may say to our pupils what we please, but we thunder what we are.

They will be all too quick to draw their own conclusions about our teaching if they discover that we do not practice what we preach. Let the teacher therefore realize that she is imprinting herself, not her words, on the sensitive souls of the little ones before her. She is influencing them daily and hourly for better or for worse; for the lofty or the low; for strength of character or for flabbiness of will; for faith, hope, and charity, or for doubt, despair and hate.

THE POWER OF EXAMPLE

The example of the teacher is more potent than her word. Successful business men were relating experiences of their college days. One of the company remarked: “The professor whom the students respected most, was the Prefect, Father John. He was not the most brilliant man on the faculty. But we all were ready to canonize him after I discovered that he stole from the dormitory every night to spend an hour alone before the Blessed Sacrament.”

No precaution will cover, as Sister M. Fides Shepperson remarks in one of her books, innate falsity; no lip-loftiness will conceal low thought; no quotation-morality will hide a weak, unworthy life. Every word and act, every lesson of the year—be it the handling of a flower, the demonstration of a geometric theorem, or the interpretation of a poem—stands before the pupil in the mental and moral status of the teacher.

This is but paraphrasing the statement of Lowell: “After all, the kind of world one carries about within one’s self is the important thing, and the world outside takes all its grace, color, and value from that.”

The Holy Ghost gives this solemn admonition: “Drink waters from thy own cistern—then let thy springs stream forth and distribute thy water in the public places.” We must first practice before we may preach.

We must first practice the passive virtues before we can expect to succeed with the active virtues demanded in the schoolroom. The Imitation of Christ sums up all these points in the pithy sentences: “No one can safely appear in public if he has not learned to remain hidden. No one can safely speak if he has not learned to keep silence. No one can safely command if he has not learned to obey.”

Mother McAuley said with good reason that wheresoever a truly religious woman presides, peace, order, and harmony are sure to reign; and we all know how important these three fa-tors are in the schoolroom.

Is not religion, after all, a woman’s greatest ornament? Is it not her chief resource, and her greatest source of influence? Is it not religion that renders her truly amiable, truly estimable, that removes her natural foibles and enhances a hundredfold whatsoever she has that is generous, noble, and good?

In Measure for Measure Shakespeare has eloquently voiced humanity’s reverence for the nun:

I would not—’tis my familiar sin

With maids to seem The lapwing, and to jest

Tongue far from heart—play with all virgins so:

I hold you as a thing ensky’d and sainted;

By your renouncement an immortal spirit;

And to be talk’d with in sincerity,

As with a saint.

Our Catholic people are quick to recognize the nun’s loyalty to her high calling. The aged woman quoted in Mannix, Chronicles of the Little Sisters of the Poor voices the sentiments of a large class:

They are a fine community. Giving their whole souls to their work, they know neither fear nor favor; always courteous and gentle, yet having all the reserve and dignity necessary to true Religious; and remarkable above all things, I should say, for the spirit of detachment which preserves them from worldliness. Into that Congregation, at least, the spirit of the world had not yet crept—or had not when I knew them, many years ago.

“It is our solemn duty as Catholics, therefore, to be conscious of our duty to America, and to preserve its freedom by preserving its faith in God. . . But as we talk about patriotism, it might be well to remind ourselves that in a crisis like this even devotion to the stars and stripes is not enough to save us. We must look beyond them to other stars and stripes, namely the stars and stripes of Christ, by Whose stars we are illuminated and by whose stripes we are healed!” – Venerable Fulton J. Sheen

A must-read for the married and those considering marriage! This guidebook to finding a happy marriage, keeping a happy marriage, and raising happy children has been out of print for over 50 years…until now! From the master of the spiritual life, Raoul Plus, S.J., it contains loads of practical and spiritual advice on family life. Have you been looking for a handbook on marriage and raising children that is based on truth? You’ve found it!

The saints assure us that simplicity is the virtue most likely to draw us closer to God and make us more like Him.

No wonder Jesus praised the little children and the pure of heart! In them, He recognized the goodness that arises from an untroubled simplicity of life, a simplicity which in the saints is completely focused on its true center, God.

That’s easy to know, simple to say, but hard to achieve.

For our lives are complicated and our personalities too. (We even make our prayers and devotions more complicated than they need be!)

In these pages, Fr. Raoul Plus provides a remedy for the even the most tangled lives.

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Self-Reliance & Reverence – The Catholic Teacher’s Companion

12 Friday Jun 2020

Posted by in Catholic Teacher's Companion, Education, Parenting, Virtues

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This book was written at the turn of the 20th century for Catholic teaching nuns. It is called The Catholic Teacher’s Companion  – A book of Inspiration and Self-Help by Rev. Felix M. Kirsch, O.M.C. (1924). The lessons between the covers are valuable for parents, educators and all who work with children.

SELF-RELIANCE

The children of today must be trained to stand on their own feet. The temptations of the present age are so numerous, and the moral support that the young people receive from their environment is all too often practically nil so that the pupils must upon leaving school he fortified to stand four-square to all the winds that blow.

Here again the teacher’s personality is an important factor. If her life and conduct are governed by the teachings of Christ, if she acts on principle and is not subject to the whims of the moment, she may hope to make true Catholic men and women of her boys and girls.

Our age needs boys and girls who have back-bone enough to lead Catholic lives amid frightful temptations, who are trained to practice virtue and shun vice even if the watchful eye of the teacher, priest, or parent is not observing them. But they cannot be trained to such independence of conscience if the teachers will not give their pupils more liberty as they grow up to the beginning of manhood and womanhood.

Put your pupils therefore on their honor; give them motives other than working for good marks and gold medals; let them obey and be industrious at their books because they will thus serve their own best interests.

Teach them the principles of manhood, and give them opportunities to translate these principles into their daily lives. In the higher grades of the elementary school and throughout the high school the teacher has many opportunities for allowing her pupils scope for the exercise of self-reliance. But even in the primary grades she should be on the alert to train the pupils to be self-active.

When assigning tasks, she should afford opportunities for the pupils’ initiative; for instance, when giving themes for compositions, or when controlling the reading of authors. She may also train the pupils to self-reliance by encouraging them to make collections of stamps, plants, insects, bugs, butterflies, etc.

Another means for training them to be self-reliant is to encourage them to tutor some of the weaker pupils of the class. By placing mite boxes for the missions or by starting a school savings bank, she will encourage her pupils to make sacrifices of their own accord, and to deny themselves the enjoyment of sweets or the use of tobacco.

It goes without saying that the campus and the playground offer untold possibilities for the development of self-reliance, and the teacher should make her influence felt in this direction also.

The charge is sometimes made that boys brought up in orphan asylums fail as soon as they are given the liberties of the world. The boys will undoubtedly fail if they have not been trained to use the liberties aright.

Though guarded scrupulously against all that might prove a temptation, they are not prepared for the battle that is unavoidable in the world at large, and hence in their later lives are at the mercy of the snares that beset their path on every side.

The boys and girls attending our schools are exposed to dangers enough, but what must be insisted upon is that they be trained in self-help for the greater struggle that is certain to be theirs.

Let them be taught the practice of living in the presence of God. Let their minds be impressed with the idea that we all are soldiers, that life is a warfare, where each must face for himself the eternal enemy of our souls and his accomplices among wicked men and in our own lower nature.

Men keep sacred the memory of those teachers of their boyhood days who appealed to them to be little men, little soldiers against the devil and his wily temptations. Act in this way with your pupils, and in their adult lives they may be bruised and scarred in many a battle, but they will bless the memory of their teachers for training them to stand to their guns.

It might be mentioned in this connection that the teacher should not neglect to train her pupils’ sense of honor. She will do this most effectively by giving praise and blame in just proportion. She must use praise and blame more frequently with very young pupils, as they are not capable of judging themselves, and have no standard other than the teacher’s word for evaluating their work or conduct. But the more mature pupil must be habituated to perform his tasks out of a sense of duty.

While a judicious admixture of praise and blame will probably produce the best results, we feel safe in saying that praise is, on the whole, more effective than blame.

REVERENCE

Educators are complaining quite generally about the decay of reverence among young people. There is therefore need for training our pupils to practice reverence. They should learn to reverence their fellow-men, who are made after the image of God, and are prospective citizens of heaven.

They should be taught to reverence themselves as being temples of the Holy Ghost. They owe special reverence to their father and mother; to their teachers, who are their foster-parents; and to their priests, who are their fathers in God.

The reverence that our pupils owe to their superiors is grounded on the principle that human authority takes the place of God among men.

Special laws were passed in ancient Sparta to enforce the reverence due to the aged. When an aged man entered the room, a youth who might happen to be present had to give up his seat to him, and was not permitted to speak except when asked.

At Athens an old man came into the theater after all places had been taken, yet none of his fellow-citizens offered him a seat. But when he approached the Spartan ambassadors, they all arose to offer him a seat in the most honored place.

The Athenians applauded the respect of the Spartans, but one in the audience remarked truly enough: “Though the Athenians know what is right, they fail to practice it.”

Reverence, like all other virtues, must be taught by doctrine, practice, and example. Teachers should inculcate reverence by practicing it toward their pupils.

A Latin proverb tells us, Maxima debetur puero reverentia, “We owe very great reverence to the child.”

Every teacher must therefore in her own conduct be a model of politeness and refinement. She must, indeed, demand respect for herself, but if the precept is reinforced by her own refined demeanor and due reverence for all, she will undoubtedly receive universal respect.

She must, therefore, be courteous when asking pupils for service, and must not neglect to acknowledge their kindness. Thus she will prepare the way for insisting that the pupils, too, should be courteous to one another.

This will require special efforts in the case of boys as it is not ignorance or that is generally responsible for their bad manners, but merely the dread of being considered a “sissy” by the “other fellows.”

Punctuality exacts self-discipline and detachment; it often asks us to interrupt some interesting, pleasant work in order to give ourselves to another kind, perhaps less attractive or less important.
However, it would be a great mistake to esteem our duties and to dedicate ourselves to them according to the attraction we have for them or according to their more or less apparent importance.
All is important and beautiful when it is the expression of the will of God, and the soul who wishes to live in this hole he will every minute of the day, will never omit the slightest act prescribed by its rule of life. -Divine Intimacy

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My Disclaimer: This book is, in general, appropriate for ages 14 and up.

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Women historically have been denigrated as lower than men or viewed as privileged. Dr. Alice von Hildebrand characterizes the difference between such views as based on whether man’s vision is secularistic or steeped in the supernatural. She shows that feminism’s attempts to gain equality with men by imitation of men is unnatural, foolish, destructive, and self-defeating. The Blessed Mother’s role in the Incarnation points to the true privilege of being a woman. Both virginity and maternity meet in Mary who exhibits the feminine gifts of purity, receptivity to God’s word, and life-giving nurturance at their highest.

You’ll learn how to grow in wisdom and in love as you encounter the unglamorous, everyday problems that threaten all marriages. As the author says: If someone were to give me many short bits of wool, most likely I would throw them away. A carpet weaver thinks differently. He knows the marvels we can achieve by using small things artfully and lovingly. Like the carpet weaver, the good wife must be an artist of love. She must remember her mission and never waste the little deeds that fill her day the precious bits of wool she s been given to weave the majestic tapestry of married love.

This remarkable book will show you how to start weaving love into the tapestry of your marriage today, as it leads you more deeply into the joys of love.

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Enthusiasm for Teaching!

08 Wednesday Jan 2020

Posted by in Catholic Teacher's Companion, Parenting

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This article is meant, not just for teachers, not just for Religious, but for all of us who touch and teach the hearts of children. We women have an awesome responsibility…as mothers, as teachers, as single women, as Religious…to carry out the forming of those little minds and hearts to serve Our Lord in His Church to the utmost of our ability! Enthusiasm?? We must!

This is an excerpt taken from a treasure of a book published in 1924 called The Catholic Teacher’s Companion – A Book of Inspiration and Self-Help.

ENTHUSIASM FOR TEACHING

I ever held it sweet either to learn, to teach or to write.—SAINT BEDE.

Enthusiasm is the thing which makes the world go round. Without its driving power nothing worth doing has ever been done. Love, friendship, altruism, devotion to career or hobby—all these, and most of the other good things in life, are forms of enthusiasm.

THE DRIVING POWER

Real teaching is ninety-percent enthusiasm. Amid the numberless duties of her profession the teacher must be animated with the spirit that made Theodore Roosevelt spurn the sympathy of the visitor who pitied the President toiling, on a sultry afternoon in July, at his desk piled high with work.

Though the beads of perspiration stood on his brow, Roosevelt smiled his brightest and broadest smile: “Keep your sympathy; I am happy because I like my job.”

I like my job may well be the watchword of the teacher. A model teacher, like a model physician, will think her profession the finest in the world. She will possess for her noble calling the enthusiasm of the idealist and the firm faith that moves mountains, without either of which no good work was ever accomplished.

To succeed, the teacher must, day after day, enter the schoolroom live and fresh and active-minded. As soon as she discovers that her interest in her work is flagging, that she is growing weary of certain phases of her task, she must be alarmed over her fitness for her vocation, and she is in duty bound to use all means available to re-create in her soul the spirit that animated her on that first morning of her teaching career when her heart was singing a hymn of praise and thanksgiving to the Bridegroom of her soul for having called her to the most sublime work open to woman.

Nor should it be difficult for a religious teacher to glow with enthusiasm for her exalted mission. It might be difficult for her to grow enthusiastic about dress or other vanities. But it should be easy for her to glow with the idea of having committed to her care the mind and the will—the immortal souls—of boys and girls destined one day to constitute the main body of the Church Militant in the greatest country on earth.

Where is the Sister who could remain cold at the idea of having placed into her hand this clay plastic of Catholic manhood and womanhood, and to be told:

“Here is your material to work with. Each and every one of these children is a prospective citizen of heaven, and it is for you to make them all worthy of that high destiny.

This boy has talents that should enable him to do great things for God and America. His talents are entrusted to your keeping, and must be developed by you.

That other boy is less gifted intellectually, but has in him the making of a real man, and the material to inspire thousands with the example of his struggle against odds . . .

This girl has all the marks of a religious vocation, and it is for you to develop, by example and precept, her character, into one worthy of her sublime calling.

Those other girls may someday be nurses, teachers, or mothers of families; and one and all should be trained by you for the best that they are capable of.”

WORKING FOR ETERNITY

To the Catholic teacher the eloquent words of Daniel Webster may mean more than the orator ever dreamed of: “If we work upon marble, it will perish; upon brass, time will efface it; but if we work upon immortal souls, if we imbue them with principles, with the just fear of God and love of our fellowmen, we engrave on those tablets something which will brighten to all eternity.”

She may in a similar way attach a deeper meaning to Frank W. Simonds’ appreciation of the teacher’s profession:

“If an Agassiz finds pleasure among fossils in order that he may interpret the great story of pre-historic life; if a Thoreau by Walden Pond is delighted with his studies of bugs and beetles; if a John Burroughs on his little patch of ground in the valley of the Mohawk gloried in his life among the birds and bees; if a Burbank is enraptured with his work of transforming a worthless desert cactus into an edible fruit, or in producing sweeter rose or fairer lily;

if these and other workers, whose names are legion, revel in the love of their work—then by what term shall we designate the joy that should be the teacher’s, who works not with mere fossils, nor with bugs or beetles, nor with birds, bees or flowers, but with the child; who is at once the most complex, the most plastic, the most beautiful, the most wonderful of all God’s creation?

Yes, it is a wonderful thing to be a teacher; it is a great thing to teach school.”

Responsibility is the trait of getting a job done that has been entrusted to you, and doing the job right, to the best of your ability, and having it done on time. This trait is especially needed when you have no one looking over your shoulder to make sure the job gets done.

This is what so many wives of today are lacking – a sense of responsibility for the work they do in their homes and for their families. You don’t have a time clock to punch or a manager coming by to check on you to make sure the job is getting done. Without this outside pressure, many of us just don’t do as good of a job at home as we would do somewhere else. What’s missing? That trait of responsibility. -Fascinating Womanhood, Helen Andelin

Coloring pages for your children…

E-book now available! Our attitude changes our life…it’s that simple. Our good attitude greatly affects those that we love, making our homes a more cheerier and peaceful dwelling! To have this control…to be able to turn around our attitude is a tremendous thing to think about!
This Gratitude Journal is here to help you focus on the good, the beautiful, the praiseworthy. “For the rest, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever modest, whatsoever just, whatsoever holy, whatsoever lovely, whatsoever of good fame, if there be any virtue, if any praise of discipline, think on these things.” (Philippians 4:8 – Douay Rheims).
Yes, we need to be thinking of these things throughout the day!
You will be disciplined, the next 30 days, to write positive, thankful thoughts down in this journal. You will be thinking about good memories, special moments, things and people you are grateful for, lovely and thought-provoking Catholic quotes, thoughts before bedtime, etc. Saying it, reading it, writing it, all helps to ingrain thankfulness into our hearts…and Our Lord so loves gratefulness! It makes us happier, too!

E-book is here.

Paperback is here.

S

In With God in Russia, Ciszek reflects on his daily life as a prisoner, the labor he endured while working in the mines and on construction gangs, his unwavering faith in God, and his firm devotion to his vows and vocation. Enduring brutal conditions, Ciszek risked his life to offer spiritual guidance to fellow prisoners who could easily have exposed him for their own gains. He chronicles these experiences with grace, humility, and candor, from his secret work leading mass and hearing confessions within the prison grounds, to his participation in a major gulag uprising, to his own “resurrection”—his eventual release in a prisoner exchange in October 1963 which astonished all who had feared he was dead.

Powerful and inspirational, With God in Russia captures the heroic patience, endurance, and religious conviction of a man whose life embodied the Christian ideals that sustained him…..

Captured by a Russian army during World War II and convicted of being a “Vatican spy,” Jesuit Father Walter J. Ciszek spent 23 agonizing years in Soviet prisons and the labor camps of Siberia. Only through an utter reliance on God’s will did he manage to endure the extreme hardship. He tells of the courage he found in prayer–a courage that eased the loneliness, the pain, the frustration, the anguish, the fears, the despair. For, as Ciszek relates, the solace of spiritual contemplation gave him an inner serenity upon which he was able to draw amidst the “arrogance of evil” that surrounded him. Ciszek learns to accept the inhuman work in the infamous Siberian salt mines as a labor pleasing to God. And through that experience, he was able to turn the adverse forces of circumstance into a source of positive value and a means of drawing closer to the compassionate and never-forsaking Divine Spirit.

He Leadeth Me is a book to inspire all Christians to greater faith and trust in God–even in their darkest hour. As the author asks, “What can ultimately trouble the soul that accepts every moment of every day as a gift from the hands of God and strives always to do his will?”

Purity, Humility – The Catholic Teacher’s Companion

21 Monday Jan 2019

Posted by in Catholic Teacher's Companion, Education, Virtues

≈ 2 Comments

This is an excerpt taken from a treasure of a book published in 1924 called The Catholic Teacher’s Companion – A Book of Inspiration and Self-Help.

I found and bought this particular leather-bound old book at a Catholic garage sale and am sharing some of it with you today. It spoke to me…as we are all teachers, whether it is of our own children, those around us or a teacher in an actual school.

It was originally written for teaching Sisters….

PURITY

This is a virtue which the teacher has much at heart, and yet she may often be puzzled about the best means for inculcating it.

The Rev. Dr. John M. Cooper has therefore rendered a real service not only to our young people but to our teachers as well by treating the delicate subject so very well in his book, Play Fair.

In order to induce the teacher to take up the book, we shall quote a few passages from the chapter on Purity.

“And God created man to His own image: to the image of God He created him: male and female He created them.”

We are men and proud of it. But God, who treats us as men, not as babies, expects us to play the man’s part. God trusts us. He puts us on our honor in the field of purity as in other fields of our lives.

Our sex nature and powers were given us as a sacred trust for the founding of homes and the protection and upbringing of helpless and defenseless childhood. Around these things cluster like stars many of the glories of life, above all, the hallowed name of mother.

But purity, fallen and dragged in the slimy sewers of sin, turns into something more hideous than rotting leprosy. “Here is a champion swimmer. Look at his broad massive shoulders, his deep chest, his muscles of iron.

Every stroke of his mighty crawl drives him through the water with engine – like force. Trained to the very pink of condition, his sun-tanned, brawny, robust body is a sight that makes you glad to look upon.

One day he ventures out in the river too near the falls, is sucked into its powerful draw, and is swept over the brink. A week later there floats up to the surface from down in the depths a bloated Thing with glassy, mud-filmed eyes, reeking with the stench of decomposition.

So changes purity sucked into the draw of sin.

“Be a man, and chaste,” challenged the old pagan writer. And a modern poet has put a still more stirring challenge into the mouth of the noblest of the knights of poetry, Sir Galahad:

My strong blade carves the casks of men:

My stiff lance thrusteth sure.

My strength is as the strength of ten,

Because my heart is pure.

“Your body is like a frisky, spirited colt or bronco. Treat it kindly and fairly and it will carry you galloping toward your goal in life. Give it a chance. But do not let it throw you or run away with you. Make good in the bronco-busting game. Either you must break the bronco, or the bronco will break you.

Any mollycoddle can get himself thrown over a horse’s head. It takes a man to break in a worthwhile colt.

Be a man, and chaste!”

“Unchaste thoughts and images will come at times, invited or without an invitation. Three things will help keep them out or shoo them away.

First, keep busy—with hobbies, collections, pets, sports, athletics, live games, books with much action in them, anything. It will be time to mope and daydream when you are ninety years old. Keep on your toes.

Secondly, if wrong thoughts come, say a short prayer to Our Lord, His Blessed Mother, your Guardian Angel, then turn your attention to some of the things just mentioned and in which you are interested.

Thirdly, stick to frequent Confession and Communion, weekly if possible. Be master of your thoughts and your tongue as well as of your body. Otherwise a boy becomes master of neither and the cringing flunkey of both.”

HUMILITY

Humility is the foundation of all virtuous living, and hence is of basic importance for character training. The normal child is predisposed to humility, as may be seen from the words of Christ wherewith He made the humility of the child the condition for entering into heaven: “Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the kingdom of heaven.”

But if the teacher should discover that a pupil is conceited, she must set about to correct the defect.

In the first place, she will insist on prompt obedience. She will also insist on the child’s showing proper respect to all his superiors.

  1. W. Foerster maintains that it is important in this connection for the children to arise when their elders address them, never to interrupt the conversation of their elders, and not to sing or whistle in their presence.

Religious education offers still more helpful means. The habit of prayer, insistence on original sin with its tragic consequences, consideration of our many sins and frailties, proper preparation for Confession and Communion—all these are means to impress upon the child the need of deep humility, and afford him an opportunity for practicing this very important virtue.

However, while training, her pupils to humility the teacher must be on her guard lest she teach them diffidence and faint-heartedness instead of humility.

Outside of religious motives, there is, indeed, no set of principles that will safely guide her pupils in observing the golden mean between pride and faint-heartedness.

The wisdom and training you give to your child will determine the outcome. It is not the time to give in to weariness, indifference, laziness or careless neglect. Their souls are in your hands…. Painting by Tasha Tudor

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book suggestions

Marva Collins offers a beacon of hope in the midst of America’s educational crises. MARVA COLLINS’ WAY recounts Marva Collins’ successful teaching strategies and offers inspirational advice on how to motivate children to fulfill their potential…

 

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Mental Hygiene – The Catholic Teacher’s Companion

20 Tuesday Nov 2018

Posted by in Attitude, Catholic Teacher's Companion, Education, Health and Wellness, Parenting

≈ 6 Comments

This book, The Catholic Teacher’s Companion, has been a real gem! It was written for teaching sisters and this excerpt touches on the mental state of a person and how it affects one’s physical health….

From The Catholic Teacher’s Companion, 1924

In his helpful book Health through Will Power, Dr. James J. Walsh has drawn attention to the surprising power of the will for preserving or recovering one’s health.

The author draws on his wide reading and long experience to prove that the simple exercise of natural will-power is all that is required to cure half the ills of life. All the “dreads” can be cured by scientifically strengthening the will, and recovery from such diseases as pneumonia and tuberculosis depends largely on the patient’s vigor of will.

He counsels the use of the saints’ ascesis, in hours of stress and strain, instead of the “good cry,” which, in his opinion, only weakens the character.

The teacher has a double duty to perform in this respect, one toward herself and another toward her pupils.

Professor La Rue therefore demands justly in his book Psychology for Teachers, that the teacher live a life of mental health in the presence of her pupils; she must daily show them a living example of a big, strong, purposeful, well-poised, good-humored, sympathetic soul.

To this end he gives the following rules of mental hygiene:

1. Look at life in the large. Take a big view of things.

2.Pursue a great purpose. Whoever seeks his own selfish will is traveling toward zero; but he who seeks to serve mankind and her God in the children, is facing toward infinity.

3.Practice mental hardening. Children should be taught to meet and conquer all their ordinary worries and troubles, and not to shun them.

4.Keep your poise. Many people fail because of over-anxiety lest they fail.

5.Form good mental habits:

Habits of the intellect:

(1) planning: there should be an ideal for life, a plan for the year, a program for the day.

“The difficulty,” says Judd, speaking of over-worked teachers, in Genetic Psychology for Teachers, “is not so much in the fact that teachers have to think and plan, as that they come to their work in a state of mental confusion and excitement which renders any task difficult.”

(2) Concentration, unit-mindedness, the one-thing-at-a-time attitude, distinguishes the master mind. Work when you work and play when you play. One must concentrate on recreation as well as on work.

Don’t spoil your game or your walk by carrying all through it a load of anxious thought.

And on going to bed, learn to turn off consciousness as you do your electric light.

Observe that the child in school is prevented from planning the larger features of his work, and that school conditions often favor distraction rather than concentration.

It is sad to think how many children are probably contracting bad mental habits in school.

II.Emotional health requires that we kill off the feelings that are bad for us and practice those that are good for us.

There is reason to believe that a large proportion, if not the major portion, of those who lose their positions do not lack either intellect or skill, but emotional control.

Many are egocentric, paranoid, have too much self-feeling; others are emotionally unstable; and still others, emotionally weak.

One’s prevailing mental state should be that of happiness and humor. It is surprising to find how much can be accomplished by just setting the mind to be happy whatever the circumstances.

Humor is like an application of mental massage which flushes out fatigue poisons and limbers one up all through. It lets loose the tensity of mental currents. The mind seems to relax, straighten up from its work, and take a long, fresh breath.

III.Quiet but effective determination must keep the mental machine running smoothly, rousing us to kill off some thoughts and feelings and promote others.

God’s grace coupled with natural will-power can accomplish wonders with a frail body.

Almost every Religious Order has cases similar to that of the Master General of the Dominicans, Father Cormier, who being professed as a preparation for death, outlived all his fellow-novices, and having joined the Order to efface himself, was from the beginning put upon the candlestick to be a light for his brethren.

But even the confirmed invalid has a real mission to perform in the Religious Community.

Canon Sheehan contended that there should be an invalid and an incurable one in every Religious Community, if only to bring God nearer to the Brothers or Sisters in His great love.

“Every effort we make to forget self, to leave self behind us, and to devote ourselves to the labor of making every person with whom we are bound to live, happy, is rewarded by interior satisfaction and joy. The supreme effort of goodness is,—not alone to do good to others; that is its first and lower effect,—but to make others good.” Rev. Bernard O’Reilly The Mirror of True Womanhood, 1893 https://amzn.to/2o35uN3 (afflink)

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Prince Martin, Outlaws of Ravenhurst, Come Rack Come Rope

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