When Our Lord was starting the Church, so to speak, at the Last Supper, He took care to give to it the Four Marks He wished it to have. In His discourse afterwards in the Upper Room, He told the apostles He was offering eternal life to all flesh (read John xvii, 1-3) ; that [...]
Two boys went to stay with their uncle, an auctioneer, and one day he let them come with him to a sale held at an old-fashioned country-house. All sorts of people crowded into a big room, farmers and shop-keepers and parsons’ wives, and dealers from London in fur-collared overcoats, smoking cigars.Various lots of furniture and [...]
On April 26, 1642, an immense crowd was gathered round the triangular gallows at Tyburn, and an elderly Welshman, who had come to be hanged, stood up in the cart to make his speech. He was Edward Morgan, a Flint-shire man who had been to school at Douai and made priest at Salamanca. He had [...]
Source: Ave Maria Readers: Book One (Barrett and Fanning, 1931)
A beach sand-building competition. One boy and girl finished a magnificent castle, and then wandered round looking at the other children’s efforts. When they came back they found a boy had occupied their castle and was making alterations and adding what he thought were improvements. ‘What are you doing—that’s our castle!’ ‘No, it’s mine now. [...]
Two girls came to the surgery for another bottle of medicine for their mothers. ‘It did your mother good, then?’ said the doctor to the first. ‘Here’s another bottle, then. Make sure she has it after meals.’ The other girl said her mother wasn’t any better. ‘Too bad,’ said the doctor. ‘I wonder if I [...]
During the French revolution, when nothing was esteemed unless it were new, a philosopher named Reveillere drew up plans for a new religion which he considered would be a real benefit to humanity. He went to Barras, then a member of the Government, and asked his advice as to the methods by which the new [...]
In the War, two friends were out with a night patrol together. When the party returned under heavy fire to their trenches, one of the friends was found to be missing. By this time it was getting light, and almost certain death to be out on top, but the one friend insisted on crawling out [...]
A young friend of St. Philip Neri came to see him, and knelt by the old priest’s chair as his custom was. In reply to inquires, he said he was studying for an exam. and hoped to do well in it. The saint listened attentively to his plans for the future, nodding encouragement, while his [...]
Some boy school-friends decided to start a new club. Several of them came to the father of one, and asked for the use of an empty shed in the garden. He asked what the club was for. ‘Oh, just to have as much fun as we can. It’ll be called the P.Y.L. — Please Yourself [...]
