Growing up in a Catholic School in the 40`s

It was 1942 when I first started my Catholic School. A thin little chap I was terrified. But I soon settled in with the help of a very nice teacher called Miss Harkins. I was on he bright side so I picked up reading and writing very quickly. At 12 o`clock every day we would stop and say the Angelus and for the next half hour we would have our religious lesson. I loved hearing about Jesus and Mary, the lives of the saints, and we were taken through the stories of the bible. We also had the penny catechism and we learned to repeat the answers. In later life I was to be thankful for this since in difficulties the wisdom of the catechism comes back to my mind. One such occasion happened to my wife. We had a boy with learning difficulties who had to be removed into care. My wife suffered much and one day cried out in despair "Why did God allow him to be born? The answer came to her `To Know Him, love Him, and serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him forever in the next" This has proved prophetic for Kevin who now really loves going to Mass and visiting Churches, often on his own. But what about other quotes like "Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire which was prepared for the Devil and his Angels" Was Jesus really referring to the Jerusalem rubbish dump? And did we Catholic children really run around in fear and trembling? Well there was one teacher who announced if we did not go to Church we would go to Hell, but I do not remember this causing us any concern. There is so many positives in the catholic Faith. The beauty of the Blessed Sacrament, the motherhood of Mary, the angels and saints, Youth clubs, the beautiful things in our Churches. Yes, and good and holy priests. Fear of Hell? What utter tripe. There was one thing I was unhappy about and that was the use of corporal punishment in both Catholic and non-Catholic schools. The shameless way that this has been portrayed as something Catholic is disgraceful. It was the relic of the British way "Spare the rod and spoil the child. But many people have so much to answer for as they put into practice their revolution.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Translation of Luke 1: 28 in the Latin Vulgate by St Jerome.

.......et ingressus angelus ad eam dixit have gratia plena Dominus tecum benedicta tu in mulieribus..... If indeed we are to have a Year of the Bible and indeed praise St Jerome, as indeed he deserves to be praised, for translating the texts approved by the Church into Latin, the language of the Mass, then surely we should check what the Latin says according to St Jerome before we rush into translating into other languages.    In this case translating  from the Gospel of Luke, St Jerome wrote the above, which translates  "..and entering the angel said to her 'Hail full of grace the Lord is with you and blessed are you among women".   Now you do not have to be a scholar to realise that this means much more than 'highly favoured'.   So why I ask myself does the translation we read in our Catholic Church at the gospel read 'highly favoured' rather than 'full of grace'  Why is this important?   Because if she was born 'full of grace' t
Read more

FAIR AS THE MOON, BRIGHT AS THE SUN, TERRIBLE AS AN ARMY SET IN BATTLE ARRAY

'Who is she that comes forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in battle array'. The above quote will be familiar to only a few Catholics today,   It was once on the lips of members of the Legion of Mary which was present in many parishes.    Fair as the moon and bright as the sun certainly describes Our Lady of Fatima but who exactly is meant by 'terrible as an army set in battle array?'   Certainly Our Lady appeared to ask us to pray for the conversion of sinners many of who were going to Hell for their sins as forewarned by her Son Jesus when he preachedHis Gospel.  Often we are trying and feel we are succeeding in living good lives when suddenly everything goes wrong  Like St Paul we often do the things we do not want to do rather than those that we want to do.   It is because we are involved in a war between Good and Evil and we are the children of Mary that the red Dragon wishes to devour in Revelations 12    We
Read more

The meaning of 'virgo Immaculata'

Image
As you will see from the stained glass window the name given to the image is Virgo Immaculata.   Mary was the virgin who remained sinless and spotless.  Yes she would have been tempted by Satan, but as the image shows she kept close to God in prayer and all the wiles of Satan, the forbidden fruit he offered, depictdd by the apple, ended up stuck in his throat while the right foot of Mary crushed his head. "I will put enmity between Thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed", God tole the serpent in Genesis   Satan was no match for Jesus who was God made Man but he had overcome a mere mortal before in Eve, What a triumph it would have been to destroy she whom Jesus loved above al others - his mother.   But Mary kept close to Jesus and to God, the new Eve, and mother of the new children that the death of Jesus brought into being.    And as Revelations 12 tells us having failed to destroy the birth of Jesus Satan  went after her other children - us.       When
Read more