Josep Torras i Bages

“ One communicates it to the other, no other way is possible; for not only faith, but also science, virtue, art, fortune and all other human excellencies, which nobody is born with, nor are the work of one man, but of a succession of men. Humanity's heritage is an accumulation that is transmitted from one to the other, from generation to generation; and the one who thinks he does not need the others, that he is born learned, that he does not need a teacher, that with his own intelligence can pierce the mysteries of life and seize them, does not know himself. ”

“ Through you human life comes to the world and through you it is perfected. The Spring of Life, of the body as of the soul, is God; but He communicates it through you, and even immortal life, the immortality of perfect life, was transmitted to the world through a Woman, the Immaculate Virgin Mary, glory of your sex, to whom all us Christians must regard as Mother; and you look her as your model, your consolation, your fortitude, your protector in troubles, that, naturally, as everyone, you have to endure fulfilling your ministry, while going through this vale of tears. ”

“ You have formed many human generations, you have illuminated many minds, you have lit many hearts, you have communicated life's discretion, you have taught virtue, and the arrogant who scorns the humble communication of faith, which comes from God, which Jesus commended as a treasure to one mother, the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church, will never do anything worthy; not only he will not form a people, but he himself will lack a solid foundation for his life. ”

“ Religion, then, to become beneficial to the soul, is to be learned with love, for by love it exists: Christianity is the son of love, and so it follows that its most natural and effective transmission is made through the ministry of the mother, who knows how to sweeten all things, even the most difficult and high, which our poor and weak nature is barely able to reach. And as true love is strength, we see in the history of the Church different examples of heroism that have its origin, as its spring, in motherly love. ”

“ Jesus is the typical man, in which we always have to put our eyes onto, for he is the eternal Wisdom manifested to the world as the light of life, and the law of his life was self-sacrifice, and such great lesson must be learned by all, for there is no greater fecundity than that of self-sacrifice. Through Jesus self-sacrifice the world is saved, and without his adorable sacrifice nobody would be saved. Every perfection demands a mortification, even in the natural order of things: knowledge demands study, wealth demands work, victory demands struggle. ”

“ From childhood you must teach them that delight is not the law of life, practically, by not letting them blindly follow their instincts. The one who takes delight as the law rule of life becomes the most unhappy and falls down the cliff of passions, and is placed by himself in the insatiable throat of vices. Today, unfortunately, children education can be said to be founded mainly on pleasure, on delight, on doing not what must be done but what fancies you. And many christian mothers fall in this error, contrary to the doctrine of Jesus Christ. ”

“ How sad it is to witness such great number of boys and girls, who, without any notion of religion, without knowing the existence of God, the Lord's prayer nor the Credo, as if they had no mother; and to witness so many mothers worried about dresses, hairdressing and jewels, who do not think about adorning the souls of their little children by educating them with the only religion that saves! Poor mothers will be more excused before God's court than rich mothers: the poor ones must make a living and most often lack time ”

“ It is sad to see so many children that do not know the most simple prayers nor the easiest of Catechism questions. The christian mother cannot forget such a sacred obligation, but with constancy and care teach her children the first notions of religion. Nobody will teach them better than her. Communication between mother and child is the gentlest and, therefore, the easiest of all. If they go to the parish or school doctrine lessons, even those run by monks or nuns, without knowing the principles of religion, they will learn it as a study lesson, not with love, maybe even with disgust ”

“ And if caring for children has always been the main obligation for a mother, and a life dedicated to their formation has always been worth of the greatest praise a woman can receive, how much more today, when the perils of youth are so many, so difficult to avoid and so seducing, and cause so many victims of temporal and eternal perdition? ”

“ Without a doubt, the appearance of feminism, with all its exaggerations, is the result of the diminishing influence of Religion in current society. Jesus, truly God and truly man, is the only one capable of preserving human balance. If He were to cease to be at the helm of humanity, men would be left in the confusion in which those men who have estranged themselves from his divine teachings are. ”

“ Money cannot replace love, and the formation of children, we insist, is a mission of love, that only a mother can perfectly fulfill. Because love is fire, religious teachings from a mother are more deeply stamped, and forever stamped in the child's soul. We have witnessed cases while exercising our ministry that clearly show so. We have found elderly people who, at time of death, in the last grave moments of life, with a marvelous spontaneity have addressed God with simple and fervent prayers that her mother taught them in childhood. ”

“ The rich mother will have the means to educate her child without the risk of losing religion: she will be able to provide private teachers, teachings different from those of school; but the poor mother does not have the economical means, and has to trust her child to the school, and if this is without religion, her child will lose the faith; and the christian conscience that she had formed in him will vanish, and will be a godless man with a lost soul. And, what consolation could you hope from a son who does not believe in God, nor rewards, nor punishments for the actions of his life? ”

“ To the son of the poor, poverty is in itself a school of self-sacrifice; but the sons of the rich are more needy to learn to overcome their desires, due to the great ease they have in satisfying them. A material step forward demands a spiritual step forward, for, if not, the spirit is left surrendered before the powerful teasing of sensuality. And this is what happens today with so many youths, to whom parents did not properly prepare for life struggles. ”

“ If only you would consider the savior influence you have over your children, and the mission God himself has given you, Creator of all things, how much would you struggle to infuse in those tender souls the principles of christian faith, that afterwards the Church, through his ministers, will explain and complete, to make them worthy children of the heavenly Father! ”

“ It is true that the soul and the body of a child that comes into this world are created by God, but the mother has an important role in the rearing of the body and the soul of her child. Divine Providence has made the mother its auxiliary, that makes the body of the child grow with the nourishment of her breasts, substance of the body of the mother, and she unfolds the faculties of the soul, lovingly exercising them until he reaches full knowledge. The dignity of a mother comprises several trades, and one of the main is teacher, priestess in some way, of her child. ”

“ The mystery of love, God has mainly trusted it to women: the Church itself, in its liturgy, expresses so,13 and, therefore, you, beloved daughters, must cooperate to extent the gospel among men, always leaded by that sublime affection that determined the eternal Word of God to come down from heaven to earth and dress itself in our humble nature, taking human flesh. And so both sexes contribute to the propagation of our lineage, bodily and spiritually; and the social perfection that Christianity proposes, that is the preparation of eternal happiness, must be collaborated by both man and woman. ”

“ The Holy Fathers notice how Sacred Scripture uses "mother" not only to refer to the woman who by the disposition of divine Providence bears children to life, but also to that great mother of the human lineage, of God's people on earth, that is the holy Church. So as to save and transmit to all generations the treasure of divine Truth, the eternal Word made flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ, did not found an academy, he did not choose a philosophical school, he did not trust a group of wise men: he founded the holy Mother Church, he established a mother who would rear and educate children ”

“ Imitating the Virgin Mary, who presented her Son Jesus in the temple of Jerusalem, the christian mother, when leaving the house, pays her first visit to the temple, carrying in her arms her child, holding a lit candle with her hand, and there she is received by the priest who blesses her, and presents the child she has begotten to the Lord and dedicates it to his service. All those ceremonies and religious acts, those sweet blessings of which Sacred Scriptures talk about, are the ones that protect man and dispose him to the love of God, the substance of Christianity. ”

“ That you shall love each other as I have loved you, that as such you may love each other."5 But this love, which, as a precious treasure, God has placed in your hearts, must lifted to the supernatural order, deify it, sublime it, identify it with the love of God, the true spring of human love. Even gold, which earth breeds in its entrails, has to be purified by fire, in the melting pot, to become a precious metal and be ready to be used to make elegant and exquisite jewelry. God wants man and woman cooperating in the work of creation so as to give them a participation of his sovereign dignity. ”

“ Life is a great topic nowadays, they say things should be lived; and if there is a human thing which is life, that is religion. So that Saint John apostle identifies the Word of God made flesh, Jesus, with life, and wants that in Him all of us be life. And nobody gives life to himself: we have to receive it from others; our conscience demands it, our spirit seeks it, but him alone would never find it; that is why Jesus came to the world to teach it, and He is and will eternally be the teacher of religion of the sons of men. ”

“ It is convenient, beloved daughters, to lift the spirit, to broaden the heart, to brighten your mind, to strengthen your will with the great truths of holy Religion, and to understand your purpose in the world, the role you must take in the complicated drama of human relations, your duties and responsibilities, of which you will be held accountable before the eternal Judge after departing this life, to your confusion, if deceived by the world, dazed by the vane complacence of the senses, when time comes to stand trial before the tribunal of Jesus Christ, were to be found unprepared ”

“ Devote, then, beloved daughters, the love God has given you, to do good to the neighbor: each one has to use the aptitudes received from Providence to communicate truth and good to others; angels lead and illuminate us in the paths of life; you must be angels to so many men strayed from the path of salvation as there are now in the world. Saint Vincent of Paul already instituted women associations dedicated to help the needy, and those associations, inspired by piety and love, have given God lots of children that human malice and feebleness had estranged from the heavenly Father. ”

“ They want to take your children, for there are political sects that state that children neither belong to parents nor to God, but to the State, and that it has the right to educate them as it feels; but it does not want to tell them about Jesus, nor for him to be mentioned, as if he was a dishonorable man, or a bad example, or a teacher of false doctrines. They say by word that they respect religion, but at the same time they suppress it everywhere: from school, from courts, from marriage, from births and from deaths. They say they love him, but they do not want to hear from him. ”

“ We will not get tired of repeating that the first element of your educative mission is to have an exemplar life: your modesty, the care of the household, the superiority of your character, not fooled by worldly vanities, the love to the poor, the love for all neighbor and the domestic worship of God. This way you will make your household worthy, and will obtain those universal blessings that Sacred Scriptures bestow on the strong woman. You will be blessed by your children, in the heart of which you will live even after death ”

“ The ministry of mothers is of a high dignity and transcendence, for God has made you his cooperators, and it depends on you that the people be worthy, virtuous, and God and neighbor loving. Most often it is said, and Plato already said that, and very true it is, that men make laws and women make customs; and what is interesting, what is practical, what is real, what determines the worth of a people, are its customs, which constitute the practice of human life, which show virtue, intelligence and merit, which are, in one word, the living and praying humanity. ”

“ And then, divine grace, the most impressive sight in human nature, is made even more graceful, for grace, when manifest in childish manners, is a sublime and tender manifestation of God. The Church venerates some infants among the blessed in glory, but we would like to talk, christian mothers, about one of them, not only because he is venerated in our diocese, and even more in many of France, but because it is and interesting story about the power of motherly love in children's hearts, when the mother is influenced by divine grace. ”

“ Inside the Church founded on earth by our Lord Jesus Christ there is, as well, a cast spiritual generation, that perpetuates in the world a state of men and women that dedicate themselves to the service of the Lord, to their own sanctification and to do good to their neighbor in the works of mercy, bodily and spiritually. Those institutions are called, and really are, religious families, and inside the Church of God they have had a honorable existence, and have practiced a beneficial influence in christian civilization in all aspects of life. ”

“ You must continue to work on the spiritual formation of your children, on his education, and fulfill your mission, that consists in making men. You must not to be satisfied in making boys and girls: you must make men and women; and if it seems to you that this is superior to the strength of a woman, see the example of Saint Monica. One may think that the influence of the mother over the child does not go beyond childhood, and if it does, is because the child is of a pusillanimous character, or a limited intelligence, for it is an easily dominated spirit. ”

“ The Catholic Church is an immense association of all the human lineage to worship God and serve the neighbor, and your associations are members of that immense association, and participate of the sap of love that runs through the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, that is his holy Church. Such associations are nowadays a necessity. The communication of the good must be made orderly, and needs a mindful management. The good we individually do is easily strayed, when following more our personal preferences, our own feelings, than common good and true needs. ”

“ Therefore, you, with your faithfulness to Jesus Christ, manifest not only a gratitude to the one who has taken you away from the slavery in which you were before his coming to the world, and still are where the Gospel has not yet pierced, but demonstrate to feel what it would be of you the day in which divine influence, disappeared from society, only men were to determine your fate: you would be slaves again, again subjected to the despotic aberrations of human sensuality. ”