Auntie Leila Comes to Town!

We were completely honored and privileged to have Leila Marie Lawler speak at our local parish last week!  She spoke on this topic, by request, and if I might humbly give my review, I'd say she totally rocked it!  (Of course she did).

I loved the series, Developing the Moral life of your Child, on her blog so much that I asked her to give a talk on that.  However, on her blog, the topic spans into a five part series.  Leave it to me to pick and easy one for Leila to talk about.

But she worked hard, cut out as much as she could, and ended up with a very meaty, very encouraging talk!

Meaty because it began with philosophical definitions and propositions.  Defining beauty, defining "imagination" as the property of the intellect that allows us to believe in things unseen, and therefore the faculty of reason that is necessary for faith.  My ex-PhD-student husband was tickled.  I saw him smiling to himself and nodding.  I was getting very nervous that this talk would get painful and I wouldn't understand it.

But no!  Then came the encouraging part.  The beautiful part.  The part where she said that children learn about morality by simply living with their family.  From the mother's womb, to her breast, to her lap.  From his father's shoulder to running alongside him.  Being told to obey, speak kindly, be nice.  These daily activities teach this child to be a moral human.  After the age of reason, we teach the ten commandments and the Catechism.  But before the age of reason, all of those daily repeated pleadings that exhaust us and threaten to make us crazy, are a sort of "catechesis".  Later, they will be taught of God and His law, the Ten Commandments and the teachings of the Church. But first, this work of ours lays a foundation that will make it easy for them to learn and understand the moral law after the age of reason.

I so needed that encouragement.  "No no, that's naughty".  It's high education!  A noble task!  Forming a soul!  I guess we knew that, or we wouldn't do it, but it sure makes me feel a bit more special about what I do alldayeveryday!



So much more was said, but that will be my little recounting.  You can read the series on her blog.  She says it best of course!

And a huge thank you to everyone who helped make this happen!