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Dear Friends and
Benefactors,
One of the things that
always strikes me most in visiting our priories, schools and chapels throughout
the District, is the numerous young families and the many children
—
and I can see that there stands the future. It is mainly through educating the
youth in a profoundly Catholic manner that we will best work towards restoring
everything in Our Lord Jesus Christ.
But this is for no one
an easy endeavor, particularly for you parents, since educating is “the art
of arts, the science of sciences”, according to St. Gregory Nazianzen. If
this is so, then we all, parents especially, need to learn this art and science.
Many believe that just because they are parents, they know how to bring up
children as if this were an infused knowledge or ability. But as a matter of
fact, like any other science, it is not and thus we have to learn it. Even if
one has natural talent in this area, it remains a skill which we must learn to
improve on, and thus we must be humble enough to acknowledge this fact.
Education is a matter
of developing all the faculties of a child in order to enhance all his abilities
so that he becomes an adult. We are talking about physical education,
intellectual education and moral education. Physical education means simply to
develop good health and good physical conditions for the body to grow;
intellectual education means, of course, to raise the intellect to the highest
level possible according to each individual’s capacity. But it is important to
specify that it is not merely the acquiring of a certain level of knowledge or
level of academic studies (this is important but not sufficient)
—
It is mostly and above all to form minds turned towards the Truth and steeped in
a Catholic spirit. By moral education we refer to the training of the will
(which is not an easy task); that is to develop virtues (good habits), so that
the will can follow the light given by a well-formed intelligence.
It would be a mistake
to believe that these abilities could develop by themselves, without being
guided or helped. Because of original sin, the body and soul of every newborn
child are weakened. The body needs to be taken care of in order to grow up
properly and the mind needs to be educated, in order to be corrected by good
natural principles and by the true Faith. Also, the will being weak needs to be
strengthened and trained. Therefore, to believe that children can be raised
without being corrected in all their weaknesses and faults is to deny, in
practice, original sin and its consequences in us.
That is one of the
reasons why the Church has received the mission to teach all nations; to teach
the Revelation, to teach how to practice the Faith, to teach how to live saintly
lives, and therefore, how to educate. Consequently, the Catholic Church has
always built schools, universities, etc. to fulfill this duty and it is the
obligation of the priests to help and advise parents in educating their
children.
I would like to
express my support of all those who work in the education field of the Society
of St. Pius X —
particularly the priests, brothers, and various sisters who give their lives,
time and efforts in educating the children of our faithful
— and
also to the teachers and all those who assist in any way in our schools,
dedicating themselves for the good of the students. I commend as well the
parents, of course, who make so many sacrifices in order to place their children
in true Catholic schools.
I would also like to
thank the generous benefactors of our schools in particular. Schools are very
expensive to run and we absolutely depend upon your help. Thank you sincerely
for your generosity and kindness.
The final goal for
every one of us is of course Heaven. Thus it is also our duty to lead the
children entrusted to us there, and in so doing, to deserve a place in Heaven
ourselves. On this point we will certainly be judged, as St. John Chrysostom
wrote: “The parents who will raise in a Christian way their children, will be
rewarded. They will be harshly punished if they neglect that education.”
Knowing that this work is not easy, but bearing in mind that by educating our
children we contribute to the restoration of all things in our Lord Jesus
Christ, let us be generous in undertaking this great task.
With my blessing
and prayers, in the Immaculate Heart,
Fr. Arnaud Rostand |
