THE CATECHISM IN EXAMPLES VOL. II: HOPE (ePub)

St. Gregory the Great tells us that more men are drawn towards Heaven by the force of example than by the effects of argument. If this be true in reference to mankind in general, it is especially so with regard to the child. The child is formed on example. The truths of faith learned in the Catechism are for the most part unintelligible to him. He requires to have them sketched out as in a picture before he can take in their meaning. Children delight in stories, and they are not slow to catch the moral these are intended to convey. If these stories are lifelike, and within reach of their own practice, they try to imitate what is told in them. Long experience and the example of great and holy men, who have in this, as in other things, followed the example of Our Blessed Lord Himself, have convinced the author of this book of the necessity of bringing out in bold relief, by means of examples, the truths contained in the Catechism.

It was this that induced him to undertake this work. Each example has been carefully chosen to bring home to the mind of the child some one of the great truths of our holy Faith, and to fix it there. Each line of his book has been penned with scrupulous care, and in the simplest language, that religion might be made attractive, and that the child might see that it was in its power to do much for God in a humble way. He is conscious of many defects in his unpretending work; but he hopes that the result of his leisure moments, snatched from the continual turmoil of a laborious missionary life, may not be without its fruits. He had but one end in view-the greater glory of God and the sanctification of souls. If the perusal of this little work will make even one child more holy, or love our dear Lord more fervently, he will consider that he has not labored in vain.

478 pages