ABSTRACT
YOU can see in the picture above an elderly man instructing small children on their knees before him. 1 The sympathetic reader should take this to signify what has been customary in northern lands from very early times between laymen and their offspring, that is, that boys and girls, when they are about to go to bed and sleep, would in order of age repeat the Lord’s Prayer and Ave Maria and receive the blessing of their father, and to this day they retain that holy custom brought in by ancient piety after the faith had been accepted. 2 For parents are extremely concerned to restrain their children from evil company and prevent them becoming incurably corrupted. Faithful friends, no less than parents themselves, take responsibility for seeing that they are brought up, in and outside the home, to cultivate good habits and learning.
