The Blame Game Part Three

I found out today from one of my friends of psychology generation that she had a school psychologist in the 1960s. WOW!

Needless to say, Catholic schools did not have school psychologist. I was amazed when I heard that public schools had these so early.

So, the damaging rot came into the schools exactly in the generation I call that of psychology. Can one imagine these kids growing up in a hot-house atmosphere of being  examined for psychological reasons for acting up, which in days earlier would have resulted in being refused cookies and milk, or staying in for recess, or having a note sent home to dad, and then, oh-oh.

Sin disappeared from the consciousness and conscience to the extent that kids were not allowed to suffer from consequences, which would have taught them natural law philosophy from little on.

One breaks something, one sweeps it up and pays for it. One causes a person to suffer, one apologizes. One steals something, one must not only give it back but do restitution for the sin.

One of the members of the generation of psychology did not know, even though he has been a Catholic all his life, and goes to daily Mass, that purgatory was punishment due to sin. Until our recent discussion, he had no idea that sin had consequences past the confessional box, or that one did not get into heaven unless one was purified.

It never occurred to him that sin had consequences beyond this life, and, as a NO Catholic, in his mid-50s, he claims that he has never heard any teaching from the pulpit on purgatory, except on All Souls' Day--sermons which were vague and confusing.

The priest of his parish is probably a member of the generation of psychology.

Some seminaries in America have psychologists and even psychiatrists on staff to meet with the young men on a regular basis. Some men actually see this counselor more often than they do their spiritual director, who may come from "off campus" only once a month.

We have fallen for this false religion of psychology, using it to explain sin, rather than teaching and forming the conscience through examination and reflection.

After several discussions recently with members of the generation of psychology, I have to admit I am ready to throw up my hands in frustration and walk-away from an entire group of people, who honestly believe they have never chosen sin.

Sigh....I think this cultural shift was a great victory for the evil one and part of the psywars, about which I have written in the past.

Enough, already...if one does not think one is sinning, but merely unhappy because of emotional upheaval owing to those actions of some who sinned against them, one will never take responsibility for one's own salvation-something we all must do, begging God for the grace of conversion, change, and final perseverance.

A simple view of the Illuminative State-I

Until one reaches a daily life of true humility, as I have noted before, none of the gifts are truly free to operate. This graph, from Garrigou-Lagrange, shows the

None of the virtues can be lived day by day without the purgation which brings the necessary purity of heart.

People think they are virtuous, but in reality, they are practicing natural, not supernatural, virtues.

A few priests I have met understand this-all but two are in Ireland.

These good men, who have allowed themselves to be put through the Dark Night, understand that the virtues are blocked by even one venial sin.

Habitual venial sins definitely block virtue. The first conversion is to Christ, The second conversion is one of humility.

All the supernatural virtues and gifts then grow and are manifested, but only then. See the other posts on this.

Here is the great Dominican's own reflection on this drawing.

As the drawing on the opposite page shows, from humility, the base of this excavation resting on Christ the foundation rock, rises the first column of the edifice, the pillar of faith, as St. Paul calls it. Faith is called a fundamental virtue, not only like humility in that it removes an obstacle, but in that all the other infused virtues rest positively on it.(1) Opposite the pillar of faith is that of hope, which makes us desire God, eternal life, relying on the divine help for its attainment.

These two pillars support the cupola of charity, the highest of the virtues. The part of the cupola which rises toward heaven symbolizes charity toward God, whereas that which slopes toward the earth is a figure of fraternal charity, which makes us love our neighbor for God because he is a child of God or called to become one. The cupola is surmounted by the cross to remind us that our love ascends toward God only through Christ and the merits of His passion.

St. Augustine, speaking of the beatitudes in his commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, and St. Thomas tell us that to each of the three theological virtues corresponds a gift of the Holy Ghost; these three gifts are symbolized by three lamps. From the pillar of faith is suspended the lamp of the gift of understanding, which renders faith penetrating. By faith we adhere to the word of God; by the special inspiration of the gift of understanding we penetrate it, as for example, when assailed by temptation, we comprehend that God is truly our last end, the one thing necessary, and that we must remain faithful to Him.

From the pillar of hope is suspended the lamp of the gift of knowledge, which, according to St. Augustine and St. Thomas, makes us know things, not by their supreme cause as wisdom does, but by their proximate, defectible, and often deficient cause. For this reason, according to these doctors, the gift of knowledge shows us the emptiness of earthly things and the vanity of human helps in attaining a divine end. In this sense, the gift, which perfects faith, also perfects hope and leads us to aspire more strongly toward eternal life and to rely on the help of God, the formal motive of hope, to attain it.(2)

From the cupola symbolizing charity is suspended another lamp, the gift of wisdom, which illuminates the whole interior of the spiritual edifice and makes us see all things as coming from God, supreme Cause and last End, from His love or at least by His permission for a greater good which we shall some day see and which from time to time becomes visible here on earth. In this spiritual temple, says St. Paul, dwells the Holy Ghost and with Him the Father and the Son. They are there as in a mansion, where They may be and are from time to time quasi-experientally known and loved.

more later....

Making Saints Part Three

One of the most deadly tendencies of pastors, teachers, and parents must be the denial of sin and the consequences of sin.

The false ideology of "universal salvation", very popular among those who have fallen away Catholic children or grandchildren, pushes Catholics into fake positions of mercy which ignores justice.

Those who suffer from evil people, (who make, even daily, evil decisions), hope and pray for justice, and share the recognition that consequences follow sin.

Temporal punishment due to sin is a teaching of the Catholic Church. Saints understand that hell is real and that even they could go to hell. The making of saints has become more difficult because of the clouding of minds, hearts, souls regarding who is saved and who is not.

Who is saved? Those who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, states John in the Book of Revelation.

Who is not saved? Those who refuse to acknowledge Jesus as Lord and keep His commandments, states Paul in the Epistle to Titus and in other places.

Simple....the saints are those who love and obey Christ.

Those leaders in the Church should be in the business of making saints.

Are they? Do they? Do we?  

Wake Up, Parents

One subject which has come up again and again in conversation with Catholic parents is the problem of lapsed Catholic children.

Now, in my house growing up, and in my own house, the rule was this. If an adolescent or adult child expected financial help from the parents, the child would abide by the rules of the house.

As the rules of the house were based on the Ten Commandments, the child had to accept these.

Simple. While one is getting financial support from one or both parents, the child would be expected to not commit any serious sins on purpose, or to be living in sin.

No fornication, no skipping Mass on Sunday, no missing one's Easter Duty....

While a child, no matter what age, is under the roof and care of the parents, the parents are the authorities. 

Too many parents have given up teaching or demanding Catholic behavior while the young person lives under their roof and protection.

Wake up, Parents. God makes us responsible for our children as long as they are dependent on us. Once they are no longer dependent, our role can be relinquished to a certain extent. 

In fact, some priests have told me that it is a mortal sin for parents to interfere with the adult lives of their children who have left home and are married or established. The busy-body mother-in-law may very well be in serious sin for interfering in a marriage or the raising of children not her own. But, if the adult children are still dependent financially on the parents, that changes the scenario. 

Why the difference? Financial aid means that a parent is not only supporting that young person, but supporting the lifestyle. As a parent, can you honestly say that you support the live-in girlfriend, or homosexual partner, or the shunning of Sunday Mass? Sadly, I know parents who spend thousands a year on adult children who have left the Church. This does not make sense, and it means that the parents are mediate material cooperators of evil. There is also negative cooperation, which means one could have done something to stop an evil and did not. Withholding funds until someone changes for the good should be considered. 

I know of one man who gave up a life of crime and was destitute. He phoned his dad and he allowed him to come back home, but with rules. This man converted to Catholicism because of his dad's insistence that he pray and not follow his old evil ways. This happened many, many years ago, when parents understood their roles better. The dad knew his place as the authority over an adult child now back in his care. God blessed that use of authority.

We shall be judged on how we raised our children and if they are still at home, we are responsible for their bodies and their souls.

We cannot separate that responsibility. It is fake love to give financial help without giving spiritual guidance. And, if an adult child does not want to live by the house rules, it is time for that person to accept responsibility for their own decisions in life. Do we not call that "consequences"?

Parents who say they cannot force their children to go to Mass or not be promiscuous lie to themselves. They have the God-given authority to ask for obedience and expect it.

All of us have to be obedient to God. No one gets a pass. Not you, not me....

As parents and adults, we are in charge of our own house, our own space. When I had my own house, no one who was fornicating was allowed to do so in that house. If guests objected, I explained that they could sin elsewhere, but my house belonged to God and He has rules for all of us.

How is it that Catholics have become lax about sin in others, in themselves? This is why societies are literally crumbling about us. Few want to stand up to natural law, which is the same as the Ten Commandments.

Proverbs 22:6

6 Train children in the right way,
    and when old, they will not stray.

Munds, Part Three

Dowry money in the Hebrew is called מֹהַר, or mohar. This is the money paid to the family of the woman, the wedding money. This word is found in many contexts in the Scriptures, such as in Genesis, Esther, Malachi, and the Song of Songs, to mention some.

Another word is similar, the zebed, or זֶבֶד, the wedding money or gift given by the woman to the man.

Now, remember that the name Zebedee comes from this word, zebed, gift. 

John and James were the Sons of Zebedee, the sons of gift. This word is also found in numerous books of the Bible, including some of the above.

Now, the name implies that the man is the gift given back to the husband by the woman, the wife and mother. So, the Sons of Zebedee are the children of the man of the dowry, the endowment or gift.

Nice. And, Zebedee becomes the name Edmund in the Anglo-Saxon.

Every child is a gift. Every child is an endowment and receives in baptism an endowment of grace.

It is the duty of the parent to protect that endowment, and like any investment, make it grow.

Such is virtue training.

Gifts are to be cherished and given back to God.

Have you given your children back to God? Are you training them to be gifts to the world?

A long time ago, I gave my child to God and to Mary. And, I heard God answer me, "I give you England in your son. You will always have England." God knows how much I love England. Why, I do not know.

I just have to get back there to claim my dowry, which is really Mary's Dowry, England. She just wants to share a little bit of England with me. 

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/walsingham-drama-in-three-acts.html

One more comment on the Vitz book

Two positive points of Vitz encouraged me.

The first is that atheists have positively encouraged Catholics to debate the Faith from the standpoint of Reason, one of the main topics on Etheldredasplace. One can trace the myriad posts under the tags or labels of thinking like Catholics, and the others at the end of this post.

The second is that being a Catholic demands that we do not have idols. Atheists create their own gods, as Vitz notes, but the Catholic enters into the "spiritual journey (that) commonly requires the 'refiner's fire', which is the burning away of narcissistic constructs that obscure our understanding of God or are psychological substitutes for God. The very painful burning away of defenses, projections, and other 'comforts' eventually permits a love of God in the absence of rewards for the self".

That quotation, obviously, supports the long, long series on the Doctors of the Church and the seeking of perfection, over 500 posts, on this blog.

I hope people take advantage of these posts, which will not only help one's self, but also help defend the ideals and teachings of the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church.

I shall  have one more post referring to this book.

Who Is The Elite? Who Is Transforming Your Children?

Why did Italy put this man on one of the national stamps? This happened in 1987. The world was very asleep then. Now, more Catholics are waking-up to the tyranny which is and has been forming the minds, the souls of your children.

I do hope, as I noted on this blog a few weeks ago, that Antonio Gramsci converted on his deathbed. I use to keep two lists on my dorm door at college. One was the list of home-schooled greats-like Dorothy Sayers. The other was a list of deathbed conversions. These lists were reminders to me and to my hall-mates that an alternative lifestyle was better than conformity to the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Many posts on this blog are about the cleansing of the imagination. Many posts on this blog are about the necessity of moving out of the world in one's mind and spirit, even though one has to work in the world.

As laity, we are in the world, but not of the world.

The culture has moved beyond saving in the areas of morals. It is highly unlikely, unless there is a huge catastrophe, that people will change.

Let me go back to Gramsci again.

He wanted education to be taken out of the hands of the "elite". Now, what we see as the elite are the atheists and agnostics who have taken over the universities, colleges, high schools and elementary schools. In Gramsci's time, the elite were Catholic intellectuals, not Marxists. They were men, mostly, who were educated in the classical tradition and who were conservative.

His kulturkampf succeeded in removing the traditional elite and supplanting that group with those we see now in charge of all levels of education-ie. Core Curriculum.

Gramsci's vision is now American's vision, replacing the philosophies of Western Civilization, such as natural law philosophy, the Rule of Law, Catholicism, and so on.

Gramsci and his followers wrote that the elite would form the child. Of course, this is the duty of parents, not schools, who should be working with parents and not against parents in the formation of the child.

I have studied and shared on this blog the various Catholic educational methods of formation-see the links below. That the Marxists have succeeded in taking over what parents declined to do is obvious now.

However, Catholics are still not responding to this situation of the brain-washing of children by the State. The fact that all those dioceses have accepted the Core Curriculum, again noted on this blog earlier, demonstrates both the level of deceit and the level of complicity with the State in undermining both the authority of the parent over the formation of the child and the creation of a morally bankrupt generation, again.

Commentaries on Gramsci use the term "transformer" with regard to schools.

I hope readers are getting really scared. Your children are being transformed into persons who will not share your beliefs on natural law, the Rule of Law,

By the way, these ideas of Gramsci were disseminated around the world-not just in Europe. Marxists active in both North and South America, Central America, and, of course, parts of Asia and Africa have founded the new elite. To see who members of this new elite actually are, just look at the MPs in Great Britain, Ireland, the Hague.

Tyranny does not take over in a day. Two idols have been worshiped by some Catholics to bring us to this crisis in the culture. The first, the biggest idol, is money.

The second is conformity-the false American ideal of Americanism.

And back to my entertainment theme this month-look here for the source this phrase.

Certainly, nearly all major writers, artists and film-makers of post-Second World War Italy were to a greater or lesser extent influenced by his mighty presence in the recent past. 

And for those who tell me Marxism is a dead and spent ideology in Europe (rofl), check this out for one indication of new life. 

to be continued...

Where are the vocations?

St. John Bosco claimed that one out of every four men is called to the priesthood.

I am standing in a place where in all dioceses there is no longer any pretense of replacement rate for the next five to ten years for retiring and dying priests.

The Archdiocese of Chicago is below replacement rate, and so is the Davenport Diocese and the Dubuque Diocese. These are only three of many which will not have enough priests to minister to Catholics either in urban or rural areas. I have spoken with many young men this weekend who said their dioceses are way below replacement rate.

Why are not young men answering the call of God? I blame families for not passing on the Faith.

I blame parents who are not forming their children in the virtues-many articles on this blog help parents to do this.

I blame parents for not disciplining or inculcating the Ten Commandments, for not praying with their children.

In the Faith, there can be no compromises. Either one is a Catholic and practicing, or one is not.

If lay people complain about the lack of priests, I say, "How many of your grandchildren are in the seminary?"

To sacrifice a child to God is a joy. Hannah sacrificed Samuel. Elizabeth sacrificed John. Our Lady Mary sacrificed her Son.

Churches will be closing and sold, even heritage ones.

Those beautiful, empty churches built by our ancestors will be destroyed.

Remember, all those Churches in Revelation no longer exist. All those dioceses up and down the Levant in the early days of the Church are gone. All those great basilicas and cathedrals which served the huge Catholic communities in Northern Africa are long gone.

On Discernment Again

Someone asked me yesterday about the gift of discernment. Now, I have written about this several times on the blog. All Catholics who are baptized and who have been confirmed have discernment.

This is not a special gift. This is not a charismatic gift, as some think, but a gift necessary for the living out of the daily Catholic life. Discernment is connected to the virtue of Prudence, which helps each one of us decide on spiritual realities we meet daily.

Not only do we have discernment for ourselves, and for various situations, but we have it for others as well. For example, we have discernment for our children, if we are parents. As teachers, who are praying and living their faith, we can have discernment for our students.  Those in government, if they are living a life of virtue, can have discernment for the people they govern and so on.

See my other blogs on discernment.

Once Again On The Intellect And Faith

Briefly, Fr. Chad Ripperger, whose book highlighted this past week on this blog readers should get, notes several principles ignored by those who pursue emotional religion.

A sketchy list:

1) Fr. reminds us that one definition of faith from Aquinas in the Summa is this: a habit of mind, by which eternal life is begun in us, making the intellect assent to things unseen. Faith is not a feeling or some sort of gift outside the mind, memory and will.

2) Faith is in the intellect-Summa, II-II, q 4, a 2, and in faith, we give assent to virtue and hope for those truths which are unseen.

3) An act of belief is in the second act of the intellect of judgment, from Aquinas' Quaestiones Disputatae de Veritate

4) Fr. notes that as God is the Rule of Faith, knowledge about Him, which is revelation, is found in Scripture and Tradition. One does not come to know God outside of these.

5) God did not reveal all these truths to each one of us personally, but through the prophet, Apostles and disciples of the Apostles, thereby making God the remote rule of Faith and Scripture and Tradition the immediate rule.

6) "Orthodoxy is the only means to salvation."  And, the footnote from which this phrase is taken refers to the Epistle of James and the Summa.

I have stressed over and over and over in the perfection series that one must be orthodox in order to even begin the way of holiness. The reason is that one must follow the rule of Faith, involving Scripture and Tradition.

This book contains arguments against those movements and even, new orders, in the Church which only stress the emotions or the gifts and not the role of the intellect in following Christ.

Sadly, too many of the newer, non-traditional (as in Latin Mass) orders are stuck in emotional and sensational ways of prayer, liturgy and belief.

Sadly, false ecumenism has kept Catholics from preaching the truth to our Protestant brothers and sisters.
One cannot presume on the mercy of God with regard to those Protestants who reject the sacraments, especially Holy Eucharist, the nature of the Church, the role of the Church in establishing the Canon of Scripture, the role of the Church in passing down the Deposit of Faith, and the form of the Liturgy. What God has revealed cannot be denied.

To be continued...

On Fr. Ripperger's Book Again

Father Chad Ripperger writes that the break with Tradition involves serious sins perpetrated by the clergy at all levels.

He is clear that the lack of passing on tradition, including ruining churches in wreckovation is sinful, noting that it is a sin against our forefathers, a sin breaking the Fourth Commandment, as well as a sin against the Church, the saints, and God. I have felt this myself when I saw the ruining of wood carvings in Iowa which had been made lovingly by immigrants to a high standard of art.

You can read all about this in his book. But, I shall briefly highlight one section on sinning against Tradition.

He writes: "One of the effects of novelty or heresy is that is tends to confuse the faithful rather than to clarify what the Church has always believed. Authentic development of doctrine always provides a clearer understanding of the constant teaching of the Church. Novelty does not.  But here we see that the lack of adherence to the tradition leads us to act against the intellectual virtues of wisdom, knowledge and understanding. Understanding is the gift of the Holy Spirit by which we intuitively grasp the truths of the faith. When we reject the tradition which passes on the object of tradition which is the truth of revelation, we cannot have an intuitive grasp of those truths."

Father then goes on to write about sins against the gifts of knowledge and wisdom. I hope you all see, again, the necessity for the purification of the intellect but also the use of the intellect on the road to holiness.

I hope these few remarks make you want to get the book.

I cannot express how good this book is

Father Chad Ripperger's book The Binding Force of Tradition should be read by every Catholic over the age of 14. This important book would help all of those who are struggling with how to understand the teachings which have broken with Tradition and how to deal with Modernism in the Church.

I can only cover a few points, in summary, but will do so for the benefit of those who will not get the book. I hope it tempts you to do so.

Firstly, Fr. Ripperger, as I have, squarely puts the onus of responsibility for passing on the Faith on the parents, which is what I have been writing since 2007. Father states that there is a sin of negligence in not passing on the Faith by parents who assume that "the members of the Magisterium and clergy would" do so.

As he and many popes have said, "The parents are the first educators of their children, and even though they should be able to rely on the Hierarchy to provide the proper education of their children, it does not take away their obligation to ensure that it is in fact being passed on to their children."

The breaking away from the tradition of the Church and not passing it on either as teaching or in the Liturgy is a grave sin of negligence.

I want to quote a longish section here.

"....in passive tradition when one receives the tradition regularly, a set of habits is established in the children, among the faithful and even among ecclesiastics, resulting in a recognition that tradition is a good thing and it becomes a joy, regardless if part of what is received is a discipline that requires self-denial. Our current generation, however, is in the habit of novelty and that is why tradition is so difficult for many of them, because the tradition is not just a thing, but an action, i.e. it is a way of living. Novelty ultimately militates against virtue because it does not seek good habits but intellectual or appetitive  delight in the new thing."

I have given talks in the past and written on this blog on the need for formation in children at a young age regarding virtues. Without a basis in the Tradition of the Church, the youth are lost.

To be continued....

Understanding the Four Cardinal Virtues in the Hidden Years.

Many good Catholics do not understand the cardinal virtues in daily life. Many can see how these operate in extreme circumstances, such as in martyrdom or the life of holiness. To understand how these virtues operate in the ordinary life of the Catholic, one can look to the Hidden Years of Christ in Nazareth.

God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, existed before time in Eternal Union in the Trinity lived in total worldly darkness, that is, in the unknown, for thirty years.

The Scriptures state, in Luke 2:51-52, that Christ, the Messiah, the Lord, the Son of God lived in subjection to Mary and Joseph, advancing in grace and wisdom before God and man.

Now, as God, Christ had all grace and all wisdom from before time, but as man, this was not manifested but slowly, and finally, in the epiphanies of the Baptism and the Transfiguration, culminating in the showing of His Godhead in the Resurrection.

Christ knew Who He Is from His Conception. In fact, it is a condemned heresy to state that He did not know He was God until His Baptism. One of the points of the narration of Christ being lost in Jerusalem and found explaining the Scriptures to the elders, was to show to all that He knew Who He Is.

But, we can meditate on the four cardinal virtues as lived out by Christ in those hidden years. In the next few posts, I shall go over these virtues, but before I do, I want to revisit St. Ignatius' clear definitions on the differences between sacrifice, penance and temperance, as temperance is the first virtue I want to examine in this context.  Temperance, Ignatius reminds us, is doing away with the superfluous. As in eating, one would not take seconds, for example. This is not the same as penance, which is denying something which we actually need.

Suffering and sacrifice involve penance, but temperance is a daily virtue. It is not extraordinary.

Penance actually causes some pain. Temperance does not. Penance would be feeling and being hungry or sleep deprived in order to pray more, which causes some discomfort.

Temperance is the denial of extras. Our example, of course, is Christ. He gave up all the extras. All the glory due to Him was given up in the Incarnation. Becoming a baby, a child, a man, He experienced the denial of the worship due to Him while He was on earth. He also denied Himself certain power.

Temperance in living the daily life of a carpenter and a poor one at that, would have entailed not having seconds, or large portions of food and working long hours, incurring fatigue, in order to meet His duties as the adopted son of a carpenter.

This is hard for us moderns, who rarely deny ourselves anything, to imagine.

That Christ endured more for us, that merely what was His to restrain or moderate, is obvious in the Passion and Death.

One can hardly imagine the Son of God in the humble home of Nazareth....

to be continued....

Parents Giving in to Peer Pressure: Forming the Mind of A Girl Against Vanity

Recommend Girl Books Age 6-8

This post is specifically on girls and the formation of the virtues to destroy the predominant fault.

Starting with vanity, one knows that the opposing virtue is humility. Charity is also a virtue which can overcome vanity.

But, the parent is the main formator of the child. This excuse that the peers form the child is ridiculous, as it is the parents who give in to the peer pressure not the child.

I see very young girls daily in clothes which can only be described as slutty or prostitute clothes. Even in churches, many mothers allow their young girls, ages six to ten, for example, to dress with midriffs showing, underwear showing, and wearing nothing but tights-no skirts.

Now, the child did not go out and buy these clothes, the mothers did. The mothers are creating a monster girl, a princess who thinks she can have anything she wants and who is being taught to be a slave to fashion.

Vanity is being encouraged.  To be vain, all a girl needs is to be taught that the exterior is more important than the interior life. Vanity is encouraged by giving the girl the right to think about her clothes, her hair, her nails, her shoes, etc. as more important than developing the virtues given to her at baptism.

Also, too many mothers are not honest with their girls about their outward appearance. A child does not have to think she is the most beautiful person in the world. In fact, saying that over and over creates a false view of the self and also creates false expectations.

The entire Walt Disney princess preoccupation, as I have noted before on this blog, is dangerous.

Not all girls are princesses, and the models for holiness are not those who hung on to worldly power, including the power of sexual attraction, money and status, but those saints who gave those up for higher goods.Young girls do not need to be spending allowances on clothes, make-up and jewelry. This type of laxity is dangerous to the formation of virtue.

An excellent book can help a girl move away from princess preoccupation which destroys the real beauty of the virtues.

St. Etheldreda, the patroness of this blog, and many in her family, gave up being princesses and even queens in order to pursue holiness. This is a movement completely in antithesis to the Disney brainwashing. A girl may be a princess of a day on her birthday, but the rest of the year, mom should be teaching her to be a servant.

One of the best stories for a girl is the life of Blessed Humbeline, the sister of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Now, the book I am recommending is a children's book, but parents can benefit from it as well. It is charming. And I have written about Humbeline on this blog under the label saints and martyrs. And, here and here...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.ie/2013/02/saints-of-february-continuedhumbeline.html

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.ie/2013/08/more-on-my-favourite-saints-family.html

I wish the publishers had used a different cover, as this depiction is not necessarily a true picture of what is inside the book. The one I had read, published in the 1950s, had child-friendly illustrations.

Humbeline was vain and gave it all up. She is only one example. But, her brothers challenged her to become holy. And, she did.

Obviously, a mother may have the same predominant fault as her girls or girls. When the Bible states that a woman is saved by child-bearing, one of the meanings of that pregnant (pun intended) phrase is that one sees one's one sins and flaws when one is raising children and one can respond in grace and gratitude for changing and converting in the second conversion, when one is working with the character building of one's children.

To be continued...

Virtues in Children Continued on The Predominant Fault

As the regular readers know, I did a long posting theme in the Summer on forming virtues in children. This is in the home schooling, home education series and quite detailed. The labels are on the side. Also, one can find many posts on the predominant fault in the perfection and perfection again series.

However, mothers and fathers are responsible, as I wrote in that series, on helping the child crush the predominant fault. I did not go into detail on how mothers can help their daughters not be proud, but be humble, and not be vain, but be humble, and shall do so now.

To start with, vainglory, or vanity, like pride, is one of the seven deadly sins. These sins form the roots of others sins and as predominant faults must be faced and uprooted, like briars. I am reminding the readers of Garrigou-Lagrange's definition of the predominant fault.

May I add, before quoting this, that to start young in determining what the fault is and dealing with it saves one from life of both mortal and venial sin.

The predominant fault is the defect in us that tends to prevail over the others, and thereby over our manner of feeling, judging, sympathizing, willing, and acting. It is a defect that has in each of us an intimate relation to our individual temperament.(1) There are temperaments inclined to effeminacy, indolence, sloth, gluttony, and sensuality. Others are inclined especially to anger and pride. We do not all climb the same slope toward the summit of perfection: those who are effeminate by temperament must by prayer, grace, and virtue become strong; and those who are naturally strong, to the point of easily becoming severe, must, by working at themselves and by grace, become gentle.

Before this progressive transformation of our temperament, the predominant defect in the soul often makes itself felt. It is our domestic enemy, dwelling in our interior; for, if it develops, it may succeed in completely ruining the work of grace or the interior life. At times it is like a crack in a wall that seems to be solid but is not so; like a crevice, imperceptible at times but deep, in the beautiful facade of a building, which a vigorous jolt may shake to the foundations. For example, an antipathy, an instinctive aversion to someone, may, if it is not watched over and corrected by right reason, the spirit of faith, and charity, produce disasters in the soul and lead it to grave injustice. By yielding to such an antipathy, it does itself far more harm than it does its neighbor, for it is much more harmful to commit injustice than to be the object of it.

Giving in is not a good

The predominant fault is so much the more dangerous as it often compromises our principal good point, which is a happy inclination of our nature that ought to develop and to be increased by grace. For example, a man is naturally inclined to gentleness; but if by reason of his predominant fault, which may be effeminacy, his gentleness degenerates into weakness, into excessive indulgence, he may even reach the complete loss of energy. Another, on the contrary, is naturally inclined to fortitude, but if he gives free rein to his irascible temperament, fortitude in him degenerates into unreasonable violence, the cause of every type of disorder.

Now, the predominant fault is what makes each one of us a slave to sin. Also, it is the evil which sometimes is confused with our character. We do not and should not identify with our predominant fault.

Habits of sin are formed early in the child. We have all met children who lie, for example, at an early age. This child is giving in to her predominant fault of deceitfulness. The parent has a duty to turn the child away form encouraging the predominant fault and moving that child into the virtues received at baptism.

I shall go through the seven deadly sins, each one which could be a predominant fault even though on is not in mortal sin, but has the tendency to commit sins from that basis.

A good parent sees these, and parents must be very careful not to identify the child with the predominant fault. 

For example, one does not preach the gospel of negativity, saying over and over, "You are so lazy. You are a lazy person" and so on. That is actually encouraging the predominant fault thinking so that the youth, the child would identify with sin rather than with virtue.

The predominant fault is sometimes the dark side of one's strength of character which must be developed in the child. Again, a good parent has discernment for their children to help them find their strengths and cultivate those.

Below is a repetition of what I have quoted in other posts, but read it from the viewpoint of a parent. 

Here is Garrigou-Lagrange again:

But how can we discern it? For beginners who are sincere, this is quite easy. But later the predominant fault is less apparent, for it tries to hide itself and to put on the appearances of a virtue: pride clothes itself in the outward appearances of magnanimity, and pusillanimity seeks to cover itself with those of humility. Yet we must succeed in discerning the predominant fault, for if we do not know it, we cannot fight it; and if we do not fight it, we have no true interior life.

That we may discern it, we must first of all ask God for light: "Lord, make me know the obstacles I more or less consciously place in the way of the working of Thy grace in me. Then give me the strength to rid myself of them, and, if I am negligent in doing so, do Thou deign to free me from them, though I should suffer greatly."

After thus asking sincerely for light, we must make a serious examination. How? By asking ourselves: "Toward what do my most ordinary preoccupations tend, in the morning when I awake, or when I am alone? Where do my thoughts and desires go spontaneously?" We should keep in mind that the predominant fault, which easily commands all our passions, takes on the appearance of a virtue and, if it is not opposed, it may lead to impenitence. Judas fell into impenitence through avarice, which he did not will to dominate; it led him to impenitence like a violent wind that hurls a ship on the rocks.

A second step in discerning the predominant fault, is to ask ourselves: "What is generally the cause or source of my sadness and joy? What is the general motive of my actions, the ordinary origin of my sins, especially when it is not a question of an accidental sin, but rather a succession of sins or a state of resistance to grace, notably when this resistance persists for several days and leads me to omit my exercises of piety?" Then we must seek sincerely to know the motive of the soul's refusal to return to the good.

In addition, we must ask ourselves: "What does my director think of this? In his opinion, what is my predominant fault? He is a better judge than I am." No one, in fact, is a good judge in his own case; here self-love deceives us. Often our director has discovered this fault before we have; perhaps he has tried more than once to talk to us about it. Have we not sought to excuse ourselves? Excuses come promptly, for the predominant fault easily excites all our passions: it commands them as a master, and they obey instantly. Thus, wounded self-love immediately excites irony, anger, impatience. Moreover, when the predominant fault has taken root in us, it experiences a particular repugnance to being unmasked and fought, because it wishes to reign in us. This condition sometimes reaches such a point that, when our neighbor accuses us of this fault, we reply that we have many bad habits, but truly not the one mentioned".(4)

The predominant fault may also be recognized by the temptations that our enemy arouses most frequently in us, for he attacks us especially through this weak point in our soul.

Lastly, in moments of true fervor the inspirations of the Holy Ghost ask us for the sacrifice of this particular fault.

To be continued....in the next post on the choice of books, models and the destruction of vanity and pride.

Home Schooling Q and A One Answer Begun in Comments

One can look at the comments on the last post in this series, but I shall continue answering a complicated question here. Remember I said that the two most common reasons for misbehaving as this age, outside a physical illness, would be that the child is bored from either not being stimulated enough or over stimulation with tv. computer, noise, too much parental running around. Obedience comes right about the age of two and a half to three.

This post will help with obedience. This is a continuation of a question and comment begun in comments on the last post on home schooling advice. First of all, this author has done a great job synthesizing Montessori on the will.

The will, as Montessori observed, is best divided into three parts. 

   The first part of the will occurs for the child before three years of age when the child is unable to ‘obey‘ unless what is asked corresponds to one of his/her vital urges. The child is not capable of making a decision to ‘obey.’ 

   The second level of the will shows us that the child can obey when told to do something, and most of the time will in order to please the adult. Many teachers stopped here with ‘blind obedience’. But Montessori believes, we as Directresses, should take the will to the third level. 

   The third level of the will obedience has been internalized and the discipline has become self-discipline or self-guided. The child sees clearly the value of the obedience. This type of obedience is called ‘joyful obedience‘ by Maria Montessori. With this third level of the will also comes elf-respect and consequently respect for others. 

   The child then is free to develop within an environment of self-respecting individuals who build a community with one another.   

http://amismontessoriexperience.blogspot.ie/2011/11/theory-paper-on-freedom-and-discipline.html

Check this paper out as well, although I have not read the whole thing, there are good sections.

http://pmswebsite.fatcow.com/teacherarticles/Prybylska,Normalization.pdf

And, as I posted before, here is an outline of deviancie, which must be corrected asasp. Here is the list of deviancies and why from here.


Dr. Montessori classified deviations in two categories: deliberate (adult-fostered) and non-deliberate (those not fostered by adults). Deliberate deviations are caused by the lack of purposeful activities in the home and/or school environment. These children feel the need to be constantly entertained. They are continually bouncing between toys, TV, and computer time to alleviate boredom, but nothing holds their interest for very long. These children may also have the tendency to cling to a parent or older sibling well beyond the developmental plane of letting go. This is because their independence has been denied and they are unable to recognize themselves as a separate person.

There are several deviations that are not fostered by adults and are often seen as "normal" stages of development. Dr. Montessori referred to these as deviations as fugues and barriers (The Secret of Childhood) and deviations that are demonstrated by the strong and the weak (The Absorbent Mind).

• Fugues – A fugue is when a child "runs away" from a task. While they are never still, they lack purpose. They begin a work, leave it unfinished, and rush to another.
• Barriers – A barrier is a deviation which is strong enough to keep a child from engaging in his surroundings. It may be disguised as disobedience or obstinacy. It manifests itself as dependence, possessiveness, power struggles, feelings of inferiority, fear, lying, and psychosomatic illness.
• Strong – Being strong means being able to overcome obstacles. When children are not strong, they are prone to aggression, violence, rage, insubordination. They can be destructive and unable to concentrate. They are termed naughty, disobedient. Dr. Montessori observed that "They have difficulty in coordinating their hands. They are generally noisy, unkind, and often greedy at the table."
• Weak – Children who are demonstrating a deviation in the weak give in to unfavorable conditions. They cry easily, are passive, manipulative, and easily bored. Rather than do something for themselves, they exert effort in trying to get others to do it for them. They are afraid of the world around them and cling to adults

So how is an adult to help a child overcome these deviations and help them along the path to normalization? Dr. Montessori stated that first the Montessori teacher must practice patience rather than anger. An adult who is impatient or angry cannot build confidence or independence in a child. She recommended interrupting the misbehavior because it is an obstacle to development, and to offer interesting and purposeful activities to re-channel that energy in a productive way. She believed the only way to re-direct misbehavior was to return to the work cycle. Once the child has returned to a state of normalcy, the adult must not interrupt while the child is focused and concentrating. By observing and protecting those moments, they will become more frequent and the child will not have to deviate as much. His energy will have found a new outlet in his work.

http://montessoritraining.blogspot.ie/2008/04/deviations-in-normalization-process.html#.UiW7TTasim5

Also read this and this if you want more help with deviancies and order in the home schooling classroom, or serious disobedience.

 http://montessoritraining.blogspot.ca/2008/04/montessori-philosophy-normalization.html#.UiW8xzasim4

http://montessoritraining.blogspot.ca/2008/04/stages-of-normalization.html#.UiW89Tasim4

Home Schooling Advice Part 30 Q and A

I want to use this last post in this series to answer questions. So please ask. Thanks for following.  And here are some statistics for those who still have not decided....

• Dr. Gary Knowles (1991) studied more than 1,000 Michigan adults who had been homeschooled.A full 94% said that homeschool helped prepare them to be independent persons, and 79% said that it helped them to interact with those from other levels of society.

• Dr. Delahooke (1986) showed that homeschooled students are significantly less peer dependent.

• Dr. Montgomery (1989) showed that homeschooled students are just as active in extracurricular activities that promote leadership as were privately-schooled students.

• Andrews University in Michigan showed that the average home schooled student scored in the top third of the PIERS-HARRIS SELF CONCEPT SCALE, a standard test of social adjustment, and over half scored in the top 10 percent.

• Thomas C. Smedley used The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale as a diagnostic tool to assess the competence and/or "mental age" of a subject.The mean Adaptive Behavior Composite score of 115.55 for the home schooled children puts them in the top 16%! In terms of the socialization subcategory score, the home schooled students rank in the top 27%.

http://www.homeschooling-family.com/homeschooling-and-socialization.html

And

Brian D. Ray, Ph.D. shared his study of adults who were home schooled in his book "Home Educated and Now Adults."

He interviewed 5,254 people who were home schooled for 7 or more years, ranging in age from 16-69 with 74% of them being age 18-24.
He got his data for the general U.S. population statistics from the National Opinion Research Center General Social Survey, filtering it by ages 16-29

http://lindyhomeschool.blogspot.ie/2012/08/why-would-anyone-homeschool.html

Home Schooling Advice Part 29: The Virtues and Sociability

Moving to the fourth characteristic of the normalized child, one see that social qualities come naturally and the virtues are strengthened. A child learns confidence through her work, on her own, accomplishing all the things in the curriculum. That confidence breeds generosity and kindness. Very young children do not need a lot of sociability, especially if they have siblings. This is huge, deviant idea not based on the 40 years of research done by Montessori on the very young child. The child needs time to herself, for work and reflection, and even play. Go back to the earlier posts and the graphs on the sensitive periods.

The child who is respected in her love of learning, her time of concentration, and her self-discipline, will allow other children to do the same, recognizing their needs. Sociability comes naturally. Now, if a home schooling parent wants to bring their child to swimming class or exercise class to be with others, this does not have to be done until a later time. I had coffee mornings in my house and with a round robin plan so that all the mums took turns, and my son, who was being home schooled, would sometimes leave the group and go do his Montessori work. It was so cute and so predicable.

However, by age four and a half, socializing becomes a real need, or even at five, but really it is not necessary before that age.

The modern world is full of lies begun by the socialists and communists as what the child really needs. Their ideologies form deviant people who are only created to be sheep and not thinking members of a vibrant society. One reason why every Pope has condemned socialism since 1845 are the false teachings concerning the formation and respect of the individual. You can go to my other posts on that; but the over-socialization of the child creates deviancies and does not allow for the natural growth of the other three marks of the normalized child. In a big family, the toddler is well-socialized, and this newish idea that a toddler needs other toddlers is not based on research but ideology.

Most mothers want socialization themselves if they only have one or two children and they push this for their own needs, which can be very detrimental to the growth of the child. A parent knows by instinct when the child needs sociability. And the virtues are there because of the other three stages. This one builds on the other three.

(4) Sociability. 

There is only one specimen of each object, and if a piece is in use when another child wants it, the latter—if he is normalized—will wait for it to be released. Important social qualities derive from this. The child comes to see that he must respect the work of others, not because someone has said he must, but because this is a reality that he meets in his daily experience.(The Absorbent Mind, p. 223).

And I add; virtues of kindness, generosity, patience, , mercy, humility, compassion, forgiveness, selflessness, justice, charity, forbearance, integrity, bravery, love, faith, hope. 

I have witnessed rooms of children working separately quite happily, then stopping for songs or prayers, as in the schedule. Do not ignore the needs of your toddler because of the needs of the older children. That stage forms her for life. 

To be continued....

Homeschooling Post 28-The Virtues and Self-Discipline

Continuing this series, I return to the third category of the normalized child and add the virtues learned through self-discipline.

Now, once the child has learned the home schooling procedure for the day, such as making the bed, eating breakfast, maybe daily Mass, morning prayers and the set-up for work, this should happen automatically. One of the biggest problems in the teaching or rather the EMERGENCE of self-discipline, is the lack of discipline in the parents.

Because I had Montessori training, and because I had worked and taught for years before getting married and having a child, I perhaps was use to discipline more than some. Also, I had been in a strict lay community for seven years.

In addition, I am an INTJ as we are naturally prone to schedules and self-motivation. But, so are ALL children.

These virtues, which come in the setting up and following of daily routine, form character.

I cannot imagine a parent who does not want to see strong self-discipline in the children. Unthinkable for a Catholic is a lack of discipline, and interior discipline can be formed with little exterior punishment. Here is an example from another site, to which I added my own experiences

Preschool Daily Schedules

0830-0915                        morning greetings, prayers, Mass

                                             & free work; several mornings we went to the markets, so the day started later

0915-1030                        Montessori lessons

1030-1045                        morning snack

1045-1130                        individual job which means work on one's own

1130-1200                        circle time or exercises, dancing, singing with movement

1200-1220                        outdoor play time and does not have to be complicated

1220-1300                        hand wash, lunch time; child helps with prep and clean up

1300-1400                        art, craft, story time, such as painting, clay work,  like making of dioramas for dinosaurs, etc.

1400-1530                        nap time but my son never napped to we just did more things; the day ended with afternoon tea

The key is order. Order in the house, the schedule and so one creates or rather, helps bring out the natural self-discipline.

Here is the huge change in perspective parents need for home schooling. All of these traits, including self-discipline come from within if the environment allows this natural progress.

Think about this. Too many parents think that discipline is merely exterior. No, it is primarily interior, and at an early age. The problem is not the child, but the adults raising the child.

I see this from my window in Dublin. I cannot believe that parents are outside talking to each other and their toddlers are running around the parking lot at 9:30 at night. I cannot believe that some parents tell me they have no schedules for their toddlers. This is against nature, and the parents are not cooperating with either nature or grace.

Children thrive with boundaries, and psychological studies have proven that children with boundaries are happier, more secure, and more confident than those who have no schedules, no rules, no guidance. Here is that third category below, and the virtues which flow from self-discipline.

This can happen early, as early as three to three and a half.

Make a schedule and keep to it. If you need help with schedule making, just ask me to help. One can schedule all the children in the home school to do those separately and partly together. Remember that the very young child wants and needs to work alone. 

3) Self-discipline

After concentration will come perseverance . . . It marks the beginning of yet another stage in character formation . . . It is the ability to carry through what he has begun. The children in our schools choose their work freely, and show this power unmistakably. They practice it daily for years.(The Absorbent Mind p. 217) 

And I add; virtues of perseverance, honesty, diligence, temperance, justice, prudence, obedience, purity, courage (bravery), self-control, rectitude, integrity, love. 

The child experiences an inner peace and confidence, which is natural and enhanced by grace. The normal rules of the home schooling environment which should be consistent and repeated daily, lead to this self-discipline. 

One of the most gratifying things which ever happened to me was the ability to walk outside my classrooms of high school students and let them continue Socratic discussion without me.

In fact, the director of one of the schools, use to purposefully bring potential parents to my door and then call me out into the hallway.

He would then merely ask the parent to watch the dynamic in the room.

Students carried on with their interest and discussion in, for example, Xenophon's The Persian Expedition, or the history of the heresies in my Isms class, or Civil War poetry, or Marx's Das Kapital. 

The reason why the students would continue without me is that they had discovered the marks of the normalized child within themselves-love of learning, concentration, self-discipline,and the last discussed in the next post, sociability. 

What parent would not want to see junior high boys discussing Antigone for two hours at an open house (YES, 11, 12 and 13 year olds), and then hearing them spontaneously saying at the end that they wanted to have summer school to finish the trilogy in order to go back and study the other two plays of Sophocles in the cycle. A good teacher teaches children how to learn on their own and how to be excited about the subjects. All parents can do this and they, too, will be rewarded by the shared excitement.

These are not miracles, but normal for children and young persons who are allowed to learn and love God through learning. The virtues literally pour out of the self-discipline.

To be continued....

Home Schooling Advice Part 27 Virtues and Concentration

The second state of the normalized child is concentration. Barring a learning disability, and in a house with no television, the normal time for a three year old to concentrate on one thing is 45 minutes.

(2) Concentration

To help such development, it is not enough to provide objects chosen at random, but we [teachers] have to organize a world of 'progressive interest' (The Absorbent Mind, p. 206)

And I add; virtues of peace, patience, diligence, temperance, purity of mind and heart, faith, hope, integrity, obedience, zeal.

What usually breaks a child's ability to concentrate is the parent herself. 

One thing about home schooling is that one cannot rush a child in early learning stages.

For example, I was making land forms with my three-year old son and he was learning vocabulary and the reality of peninsula, island, gulf, isthmus, cape, strait, bay, and lake with clay and water. There are myriad sites which tell you how to do this at home. I am delineating virtues and concentration. Now, after making and baking the clay forms, when these are dry, the child pours water into the small containers, (I used aluminium baking tins), and does this in silence first. Vocabulary and cards for labeling follow.

Well, the three-year-old wanted to do this over and over and over and over. Of course, the vocabulary was provided by me.

That is an island ....and so on.

Concentration went over an hour, and then longer. The child was basking in concentration, peace, patience (emptying the water and pouring again and so on). Zeal and integrity as well as confidence grew. Then, when I suggested it was time to do something else, the child was so happy, that he agreed. Of course, he helped clean up and obedience in that and putting away the items followed. 

But, one must give time to the natural love of learning and the natural concentration. Schools ruin these and once lost, these are almost impossible to regain.

When the Dorset Council education lady came for the first visit, as required, the child showed her the 1,000 chain which takes a long time to set up with the cards. At three and a half, he did it all by himself. She was delighted at both peace, concentration, zeal, order, confidence, and obedience.

The child showed her a portfolio of other things he had learned, such as parts of a bird, shapes, colors, numbers, and so on. I did not have to say a thing. He took her by the hand and showed her other things in the school room which he could do-I just watched.

Concentration, if not interrupted, lasts a life-time as do the virtues learned. And, when the child knows peace, he can share with others, and be charitable.

Obviously, older children helping with the younger ones teaches virtue as well. The great virtue of charity and the lesser one of generosity come when the older ones help the younger ones. Patience and hope are also encouraged by sharing and helping. The older ones cannot always see how their patience helps, but such activities build hope. 

Now, situations like illness interrupt the natural process, but not the supernatural process. The same virtues learned in doing studies pass over into other situations. 

My son contracted a serious illness at the age of nine. His life changed from one of a normal child to a child in pain and in a wheelchair off and on for four years.  For eleven years, he had health issues from that original illness. Thankfully, he was finally free of all of those. But, the virtues  the formation of patience and courage, learned in simple things, like early sensorial and practical life training, geography and math studies, helped him through harder times.

As a teacher, it was so hard for me to see students who no longer wanted to learn. Their natural gift of wanting to learn and find God had been destroyed by the school systems. 

One of the things I did was become a consultant for classical education and the Socratic method, helping schools either from scratch or change from newer forms of methodology back to classical and Socratic methods. Parents were shocked when they saw their children regain a love of learning after one half-semester.

All I did was see the drive which was latent and encourage that God-given gift. 

I have wonderful stories of even junior-high boys wanting to learn religion, Latin, and literature because the desire for learning was re-kindled in them. The same thing was done with high school students, young men and young women. All I did was fan the little sparks which became flames.

The key is respect for what God has given and cooperation with that gift.

God gives grace, but we have to cooperate with that grace. 

To be continued....