TO FATHERS AND MOTHERS
The Heart of a child is as wax, capable of receiving any impression, good or bad; it is a plain white linen, upon which all colors may be stamped. It is to parents that God has entrusted the care of impressing on these young, pure hearts all true and virtuous feelings, those first impressions which are never completely effaced. If they are careful to inculcate in their children the sentiment of duty, the love and fear of God, a horror of sin, and the necessity of religion, they lay the foundation of the future happiness of these little ones whom the providence of God has confided to their care.
How often the sorrow and trouble by which fathers and mothers are overwhelmed toward the close of their lives is trouble which they have entirely brought upon themselves! They reap what they have sown by their neglect, their want of faith, and by the few good examples with which they surrounded the early youth of their son, or of their daughter. But, on the other hand, how happy and peaceful are the closing years of life to the father and mother who have spent their days in one lifelong endeavor to make their children true and earnest Christians! They, too, shall reap what they have sown; fruits of peace and joy and love, of which death itself shall not be able to deprive them, and which shall follow them even unto the bosom of their God.
~From Monseigneur De Segur~
"The Faith That Never Dies," Imprimatur 1900
The Heart of a child is as wax, capable of receiving any impression, good or bad; it is a plain white linen, upon which all colors may be stamped. It is to parents that God has entrusted the care of impressing on these young, pure hearts all true and virtuous feelings, those first impressions which are never completely effaced. If they are careful to inculcate in their children the sentiment of duty, the love and fear of God, a horror of sin, and the necessity of religion, they lay the foundation of the future happiness of these little ones whom the providence of God has confided to their care.
How often the sorrow and trouble by which fathers and mothers are overwhelmed toward the close of their lives is trouble which they have entirely brought upon themselves! They reap what they have sown by their neglect, their want of faith, and by the few good examples with which they surrounded the early youth of their son, or of their daughter. But, on the other hand, how happy and peaceful are the closing years of life to the father and mother who have spent their days in one lifelong endeavor to make their children true and earnest Christians! They, too, shall reap what they have sown; fruits of peace and joy and love, of which death itself shall not be able to deprive them, and which shall follow them even unto the bosom of their God.
~From Monseigneur De Segur~
"The Faith That Never Dies," Imprimatur 1900
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