Since God made us, we belong to Him
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. You left it.’ ‘But it’s our castle!’ ‘What do you mean, yours? You didn’t pay for the sand, did you?’ ‘But it’s our castle—we MADE it and we can do what we like...
Read MoreThe Church makes people holy
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 ought to change the medicine.’ ‘She said it didn’t make her cough any better, though she rubbed it on her chest night and morning.’ ‘Rubbed it on! No wonder she isn’t better. Can’t she read the...
Read MoreA Sign from God
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 religion could best be spread. Well,’ said Barras, ‘my advice is to get yourself killed on Friday, and rise from the dead the following Sunday.’ The philosopher’s answer is not recorded. - Rev. F.H. Drinkwater, Catechism Stories Part I: the Creed (1939)
Read More‘Greater love than this’
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 to look for the other, and reluctantly the officer gave permission. He was watched slowly working his way into no-man’s-land, from shell-hole to shell-hole, and at last could be seen no more. When it became dusk again he crawled back and dropped into the trench, himself mortally wounded. While the...
Read MoreThe one thing necessary
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 hand played with the lad’s hair. ‘And after the exam.; what then?’ ‘Then I shall try for a degree in law.’ ‘And then?’ ‘I want to be a barrister: everyone tells me I’m cut out for it.’ ‘And then?’ ‘Well, if I make a name as a...
Read MoreAny Society needs a head
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 League.’ ‘Any committee, or rules?’ ‘No, we can’t be bothered with those things.’ ‘Which of you is the secretary, then?’ ‘Nobody wants to be secretary. Besides, we don’t need one, nor a president. That’s the whole point of the club. We don’t...
Read MoreMary's place in the Creed
A Protestant clergyman was visiting an orphanage, and the children were each reciting their prayers for him to hear. On little boy, who had previously been at a Catholic school, after finishing the Our Father began the Hail Mary. ‘No, no!’ said the clergyman. ‘We don’t want to hear about her — go on to the Creed.’ The little boy did so, but stopped suddenly when he came to ‘born of the…’ and said: ‘Here she comes again — what shall I do now, sir?’ Indeed we cannot have Jesus without Mary. - Rev. F.H. Drinkwater, Catechism
Read MoreDescendit de caelis
A few months back, while going through some materials around the office, I came across a series of small books by a certain Fr. F.H. Drinkwater containing stories illustrating certain points in the Abbreviated Catechism of the Diocese of Birmingham (England). The stories themselves are charming and, on occasion, I may reprint one here (as near as I can tell the copyright on the books has expired). This story, appropriate for the season, offers an excellent lesson on the meaning of the Incarnation: There is a story of a young king in the olden days who really cared about his people, and was...
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