Just as the cloister is built, arranged, adorned, to enable the individual religious to live his live more easily, so in Catholic concept, should be the Catholic home. There should be in it emblems of religion, especially a figure of the Crucified; that supreme emblem of unselfishness should adorn the walls of the home and be set over the marriage bed. There should be figures of the saints, prayer books, Catholic books, Catholic newspapers, holy water. People may laugh at these things. They may say: 'But we have parted with all that. That is no longer possible. Why will you force on us the superstitions of an older age?' We say, 'well, has it changed for the better? What is your married life like after all? Have you now found happiness? Has the world found happiness by removing these sacred things? Is the married life easier because they have forgotten the Holy Family? Is the married life easier with Nazareth forgot? 'Holy water and the old-fashioned gadgets, what have these to do with us?' Well their purpose is to remind you of the sanctity of the room where you live...
Sounds like it could have been written in the post-vatican II period right? Well it was actually written in 1930 in London by the excellent Domincan Fr. Bede Jarrett.
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