The Education of Catholic Girls | Page 9

Church will have the last word in any
controversy, and that she has nothing to be alarmed at, though all the
battalions of newest thought should be set in array against her; they
should be lovingly proud of the Church, and keep their belief in her at
all times joyous, assured, and unafraid.
Theology is not for them, neither required nor obtainable, though some
have been found enterprising enough to undertake to read the Summa,
and naive enough to suppose that they would be theologians at the end
of it, and even at the outset ready to exchange ideas with Doctors of
Divinity on efficacious grace, and to have "views" on the authorship of
the Sacred Writings. Such aspirations either come to an untimely end
by an awakening sense of proportion, or remain as monuments to the
efforts of those "less wise," or in some unfortunate cases the mind loses
its balance and is led into error.
"Thirsting to be more than mortal, I was even less than clay."
Let us, if we can, keep the bolder spirits on the level of what is
congruous, where the wealth that is within their reach will not be
exhausted in their lifetime, and where they may excel without offence

and without inviting either condemnation or ridicule. The sense of
fitness is a saving instinct in this as in 1 every other department of life.
When it is present, first principles come home like intuitions to the
mind, where it is absent they seem to take no hold at all, and the
understanding that should supply for the right instinct makes slow and
laborious way if it ever enters at all.
To know the relation in which one stands to any department of
knowledge is, in that department, "the beginning of wisdom". The great
Christian Basilicas furnish a parallel in the material order. They are the
house of God and the home and possession of every member of the
Church militant without distinction of age or rank or learning. But they
are not the same to each. Every one brings his own understanding and
faith and insight, and the great Church is to him what he has capacity to
understand and to receive. The great majority of worshippers could not
draw a fine of the plans or expound a law of the construction, or set a
stone in its place, yet the whole of it is theirs and for them, and their
reverent awe, even if they have no further understanding, adds a
spiritual grace and a fuller dignity to the whole. The child, the beggar,
the pilgrim, the penitent, the lowly servants and custodians of the
temple, the clergy, the venerable choir, the highest authorities from
whom come the order and regulation of the ceremonies, all have their
parts, all stand in their special relations harmoniously sharing in
different degrees in what is for all. Even those long since departed,
architects and builders and donors, are not cut off from it, their works
follow them, and their memory lives in the beauty which stands as a
memorial to their great ideals. It is all theirs, it is all ours, it is all God's.
And so of the great basilica of theology, built up and ever in course of
building; it is for all--but for each according to his needs---for their use,
for their instruction, to surround and direct their worship, to be a
security and defence to their souls, a great Church in which the spirit is
raised heavenwards in proportion to the faith and submission with
which it bows down in adoration before the throne of God.

CHAPTER II.

CHARACTER I.
"La vertu maitresse d'aujourd'hui est la spontaneite resolue, reglee par
les principes interieurs et les disciplines volontairement acceptees."--Y.
LE QUERDEC.
The value set on character, even if the appreciation goes no further than
words, has increased very markedly within the last few years, and in
reaction against an exclusively mental training we hear louder and
louder the plea for the formation and training of character.
Primarily the word character signifies a distinctive mark, cut, engraved,
or stamped upon a substance, and by analogy, this is likewise character
in the sense in which it concerns education. A "man of character" is one
in whom acquired qualities, orderly and consistent, stand out on the
background of natural temperament, as the result of training and
especially of self-discipline, and therefore stamped or engraved upon
something receptive which was prepared for them. This something
receptive is the natural temperament, a basis more or less apt to receive
what training and habit may bring to bear upon it. The sum of acquired
habits tells upon the temperament, and together with it produce or
establish character, as the arms engraved upon the stone constitute the
seal.
If