THE BODY IN THE LIBRARY
                       "The flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh."

IN THIS modern day it is difficult to be pure of heart. One of the greatest dangers to purity, especially to growing youngsters, is the cheap immoral literature which fills our bookstands. There is danger to your soul in these books.

How the student died was a mystery. They found him dead, still seated in the reading room of the library, his head fallen forward onto the ancient book that he had been reading. He had died suddenly and without any outcry. The police could find no cause of death and were plainly baffled. They promised the arrest of the criminal in a few days. They caught the criminal, but were not able to arrest him, so they put him to death on the spot. Out of curiosity a detective looked to see what the book was which the student had been reading. He picked it up, but dropped it quickly just in time. From behind the folds of the leather binding of the ancient volume came a black widow spider. The detective put his big foot on it and that was the end of the criminal. The mystery was explained.

The spider had hidden itself behind the leather folds of the binding and had bitten the student as he opened the book. The bite of the black-widow spider means instant death. For that student there was poison in the book.  In many other books there is poison which can kill your soul.

"The flesh lusts against the spirit," and evil books are evil's most evil weapon. Whatever you read becomes anpart of you. Your eye lifts thoughts from the printed page. This thought becomes a picture in the art gallery of your mind. If you keep taking in evil pictures and no good ones, then your mind becomes evil. You have heard of people who are evil minded. That is how they got that way — by not being careful of the thoughts which they allowed to enter their minds. Do not let that happen to you. For the student there was poison in the book. It caused his death. For you there can be poison in books whose sting is more dangerous than the black widow. It can cause the death of your soul.

Your safeguard in all matters of purity is constant prayer to Mary, for she is the Mother most pure. Ask her daily to cast her blue mantle around you and keep you safe from harm. She it is who crushed with her heel the head of the serpent just as the detective crushed the spider. While you ask her to keep you constantly in mind you must also keep her constantly in mind and adopt as your motto,

"I will not do anything which the Mother of God could not watch me doing."
                                                              Source:  Heirs of the Kingdom, Imprimatur 1949

             Extreme Unction

Who can give the catechism answer to this question:
What is the sacrament of Ex- treme Unction?
Extreme Unction is a sacrament which, through the annointing and the prayer of the priest, ngives health and strength to the soul and sometimes to the body, when we are in danger of death through sickness.

When you think of Extreme Unction you usually think of a priest hurrying to a deathbed on a race with death. That is not quite correct. Unless it is a case of accident or sudden sickness, there should be no need for the priest to hurry. He should be called in time. It is a wrong idea to think that we must wait until the last minute before calling the priest. Extreme Unction is a help to the body as well as the soul. As soon as a person is dangerously ill, a priest should be called. When he comes he will anoint the senses of the person one by one, asking God to forgive whatever sins have been committed through that sense. Then he will recite the beautiful prayers of the Church for the sick and dying. It is a well-known fact that a priest will face any danger even death itself to be with a dying person.

There was once a priest named Father Maturin. He was a famous priest and had written many books on the spiritual life. Father Maturin was sailing on that ill-fated ship, the Lusitania. You have certainly heard your parents talking about the Lusitania at one time or other. At about two o'clock on the afternoon of May 7, 1915, Father Maturin was walking up and down the deck saying his breviary. Suddenly there was an explosion. The ship had been torpedoed. The newspapers said that it sank twenty minutes after it had been struck. During that twenty minutes Father Maturin moved among the crowd, quieting fear, giving absolution, helping people into life belts, gathering the children into lifeboats. Just before the boat went down Father Maturin was seen walking down into the engine room to anoint a man who had been injured by the torpedo. Any priest will risk his own life to be with the dying.

The priesthood is proud of its record in that regard and everyone of us is proud of Father Maturin, who faced death himself to make death easier for others.

"Greater love than this hath no man that he lay down his life for his friends."
                                                                                        Source: Heavenwords, Imprimatur 1941