A reader sent this quotation from his grandmother when he asked why she was a Catholic:
“All these sacred texts show quite clearly that Jesus Christ must live in you; that you must not live except in Him; that His life must be your life, and your life must be a continuation and expression of His. Also you have no right to live on earth except in order to bear, show forth, sanctify, glorify and cause to live and reign in you the name, the life, the qualities and perfections, the dispositions and inclinations, the virtues and actions of Jesus.”
Go for it!
I love the fact that you added St. John Bosco to your Saints on the website! I am down here in Quito, Ecuador at a class on Don Bosco. We are studying the days of Don Bosco’s early oratory and its development! It is all very interesting. Don Bosco sent missionaries to this country back in 1887 just before he died! We are blessed to have so many wonderful Saints in our Church! Keep smiling and God bless! Padre Steve
Fr. D,Nice quote there… something I absolutely agree with. I wish I heard more Catholics like that. Instead I a swamped with many hotheaded Catholics who are as Lewis said “The biggest evidence against the RCC” — That is probably a bit of a misquote, but I know I have read that approximate statement in his writings.I am popping back and forth between Mere Christianity and your More Christianity. I am enjoying it. You are a fine writer my friend.Thank you again for tat gift!May His peace be your peace,-g-
I will include the rest of the letter she wrote me:”We were brought up to observe the Commandments of the Church, confession every month. No singing or whistling in the house during Lent [I thought that was kind of fun].Another custom, the men sat on one side of the church and the women on the other side. I don’t know when they merged but I know your grandfather and grandmother sat together as time changed.I taught Christian doctrine but this is really to have a basic knowledge of religion. It is when you are older that love of Christ is part of you. I don’t want to weigh you down, but will help you always.”
I think the marriages of our former agricultural society were beautiful, better than the post industrial marriages of personal fulfillment that hallmark our present day. My grandparents were poor farmers. Grandpa fed, milked and slaughtered cows. He was uneducated, but had an amazing talent for repairing and building farm machinery. The barn he built still has the cobbled assembly of chains and pulleys he used to hoist manure out of the barn. He was also an amateur chemist, and the phosphorescent glow of some of his concoctions still burns on the tottering shelves of his barn to this day. Olga his wife, she ironed clothes with a 30 lbs iron, played piano and raised children. I’ve seen a few pictures of her; she’s a tough old Lithuanian broad. I know what I am describing are some rigid sex roles, but in them I hope to convey the necessity and unity of each of them. The point is then there were no third parties to provide for the needs of the married persons, each spouse needed the other. There was no present day Yellow Pages to meet their every need. Someone had to make their lunch, wash their clothes, fetch their beer and scrap the cow manure off the creaking floor—and no—there were no slaves in the North then either. My grandparents were the slaves; they had to work. Work kept them sane and it kept them together. They were too busy to think about how good the sex was, how they liked their job and what they felt like. You asked them how they were and they greeted you with silence because they knew the weight of the answer would crush them.