The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1899-10-28
Points Out the Consequences of
Irreligious Training.
DUTIES OF PARENTS TO OFFSPRING
Origin, Purpose and Influence
of the Married State.

Sunday night, Oct IS, at the Cathe-
dral i'll St. Cloud. Mimi, the Rev.
Father Pernadin, C. p, OF St. Paul,
Kansas, preached on the subject. Mat
rimony as an Institution by God" His
warned in sleep Hc retired into the
text was the following: "And being
quarters of Galilce And coming, He
dwelt in city called Nazareth" Math.
2: 22-23
Father Bernadin said in part: The
family life as it should be exhibited in
our homes, is fruit OF Christianity.
'In the beginning God had consti-
tuted the married state and through it
the family life, as the foundation and
corner stone OF terrestrial life and soci-
ETY.. FIe had created the first family in
Adam and Eve, in sanctity and peace
ard holy love. According to this model
their descendants we're likewise to be
united IN the bonds of matrimony, for
their own sancti6cation and that of
their offspring. But through sin and
its frightful consequences, concupis-
cence and all the other vicious in
clinations of the heart, family life, as
it was ordained by God, was destroyed,
and in no sphere did the curse of evil
manifest itself more frightfully than in
this.
1T is true there have always been
some few examples OF family life as
divinely constituted, but in the mass Of
mankind it was lost and degraded more
and more as time went on, and the
heart of man became callous to the laws
and warnings of his Creator. Even
among the chosen people OF God we
find this degradation. The Jewish wife
was absolutely under the dominion of
her husband. When the Jewish nation
drew near the end OF its existence as
such, the husband could give his lawful
wife bill of divorce for the most trivial
reasons. The degradation of the family
life among the heather was great be-
yond description
christianity elevated the state OF
matrimony and the family life to its
primitive sanctity and purity Jesus
Christ, the Eternal Son of God, in as
suming human power became a
member of human family in order to
raise the family out of the corruption
OF sin and restore to it that meaning
of grace and happiness and purity and
sanctity which it had in the beginning.
"Christianity gave the family even a
higher conservation, for through the
grace of Jesus Christ it became the
picture OF His Holy Church, and mat
rimony was elevated to a sacrament.
Husbands, love your wives as Christ
also loved the church and delivered
Himself up for it, Eph. S: rs. The
husband is the head of the family as
Christ is the head of the church.
"The more an anti Christian spirit
manifests itself the more the sanctity
of marriage is lost sight of, as We see
unfortunately at the present day, when
anti-Christian governments legalize the
degradation OF the sacrament of matri-
mony into mere civil contract in spite
of the voice of the Eternal Son of God
ringing in their ears saying: What
therefore God hath joined together let
no man put asunder.' The Catholic
Church alone upholds the sanctity and
indissolubility of marriage as command
ed and intended by the Creator. This
is plain from the Scriptures (Matthew,
10: ~: After Christ had told them
that it was not allowed to put away
ones wife, the Pharisees asked Him:
why, then, did Moses command to
give bill of divorce and to put away?'
He saith to them, because Moses by
reason of the hardness of your hearts
permitted you to put away your wives,
but from the beginning it was not So
GAS we have JUST seen the bond that
binds husband and wife is an indissol-
uble one, one that can only be severed
by death. And where the love that
binds man and wife is not founded in
faith and religion, where there is only
sensuous or animal love, it cannot en-
dure. The cause of it is transient.
The passion excited by outward appear
ances or personal advantages soon dies
out and gives way to disgust, contempt,
hatred. Hence far from finding any
sympathy between the two, we witness
repulsion, unhappiness and the seeking