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Catholic Character Formation - Interior Harmony
"Character formation implies organization of the interior life of man and harmonization of his powers of thinking, feeling and willing... but this unity cannot be long maintained without supernatural aid. Man cannot attain to complete integration of personality without the assistance of God and His grace."
Fr Franz de Hovre in "Catholicism in Education: ...the Catholic Priniciples of Education...", trans Fr E. Jordan, New York, Benzinger Brothers, 1934, p364
posted by Holly at 3:17 PM
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This small little quote is the heart of 'Catholic education', but it is also the heart of our own 'spiritual lives'. As Rex Murphy, a prominent journalist in Canada once said at a conference in my area - "Education is nothing more than trying to restore what was lost through Adam and Eve."
In MROL, we discussed the interior order God willed for humans at creation - that their intellects know truth, their wills freely choose it, and the emotions ought to follow along, providing energy and power to those decisions.
Both for us and for our children, the 'education' of all of our 'persons', is to re-establish this interior order. The methods are basically: filling the mind with truth; choosing good with our wills; and establishing the supremacy of reason and will over the emotions and passions.
For us or for our children, as Moms, we are called to ensure our minds have all that is 'true and good' to reflect upon; to encourage our children and ourselves to choose that which is 'best' for us and others; and to learn to calm the emotional uproar that may ensue, especially if we have let our emotions run loose for too long, or if we have let our children perform emotional stunts and temper tantrums in order to get their own way.
As Moms, we are thus called to 'inspire and motivate', both our children as well as ourselves. And the success of this, as well as our internal harmony, will be sustained only through grace. To eliminate prayer and the sacraments from education or the spiritual life is a fruitless venture into futility...
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