Devoted teachers can do much in the school or college to instill deep manly piety into youth's receptive soul. But the privilege and duty of doing so devolves primarily on the parents. Without their example and cooperation much of the work of the Catholic school is neutralized and ruined. In the family at Nazareth there was an atmosphere of intense peace, the peace of God surpassing all understanding, because of the holiness in the soul of each member.
If you have gifts as an artist and you paint a really beautiful picture, you do not want to hang your masterpiece in the cellar or barn. If God has blessed you with a good voice, if you are an accomplished pianist, you do not, ordinarily, need much urge to sing and play. Now God's most precious gift is our Catholic Faith and that is why a religious atmosphere should permeate our homes. Far from wanting to cloak over the fact that we are Catholics, far from being foolishly timid of "showing off" our religion, we are eager, rather, to let everyone recognize, the moment he steps into our home, that we are Catholics and proud of it.
This is not to say that we are aggressive, that we try to "stuff religion down the throats" of our children or friends. But it does mean a quiet assumption that we love our Faith, recognize its divine truth, and practice it in our home. An Irishborn priest has set whole continents on fire with zeal for the Family Rosary; every rightminded Catholic will practice and propagate this magnificent campaign. A vigilant eye will be kept on the literature that finds its way into our home, to throw out what is offensive or dangerous or positively evil, and to insist on a regular supply of good Catholic papers and magazines. We have our night and morning prayers; our grace before and after meals; the Angelus three times daily; there is holy water; there are images and pictures of the Sacred Heart and Our Lady, and they are not kept only for the rooms where no stranger or visitor enters.
Parents sometimes explain at great length that they are very particular about seeing that the children go regularly to Mass and the Sacraments and say their prayers. But it must be underlined that an ounce of example is worth more than a ton of precept. It is good to remind them of their prayers, it is infinitely better to kneel and pray with them. It is praiseworthy to insist that they go to Mass and Confession and Holy Communion. But if parents go themselves only rarely or not at all, the growing child will soon begin to ask itself why. If religion is so important for itself, why is it not equally so for father and mother? And the child is logical.
We have read accounts of the dreary childhood of youngsters growing up in a home where Sunday was dreaded. It was the "Lord's Day" on which there were unending Bible readings and church services and one was expected to wear a smug expression and shun all innocent enjoyment. We have no brief for such a program, but it is still pertinent to ask if we have not gone to the other extreme. Is Sunday fast becoming a day entirely turned over to fun and amusement, except for the brief halfhour at Mass? Do we easily permit ourselves large views on the question of servile work? And is God relegated to the second or third or twentythird place in our crowded Sunday amusements?
Jesus, Mary, Joseph, sanctify our homes and families. Give us an esteem of prayer and the graces that flow into our souls through the Sacraments. Make our Catholic families redolent (look it up!) of the religious spirit that filled your perfect model family at Nazareth.