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| Aunt Margaret's bookmarks |
I found these all marking the same page in Aunt Margaret's An Explanation of the Baltimore Catechism of Christian Doctrine, Fifth edition, by Rev. Thomas L Kinkead, published by Benziger Brothers (New York, Cincinnati, Chicago) and copyright 1891. The marked page begins an explanation of The Lord's Prayer.
Please do click on the image to enlarge. The bookmarks are quite lovely.
I have a justified true belief that my beliefs are my own. Yours are yours.
That said, I've posted several things lately that are religious in nature. I don't think a person of my age, raised as I was-- and I might add, living where I now do-- could not pause at Christmas to reflect on Christmas. This, I think, is why I found James Taranto's thoughts on Christopher Hitchen's death so sad.
No Better Place: An atheist meets his maker. No, make that his end.
All we really needed to know about atheism we learned in kindergarten. We grew up in a nonreligious household with unobservant parents of dissimilar backgrounds. We celebrated Christmas with a tree and gifts but no religious overtones. The concepts of God and religion were completely unknown to us before we started school.
And this, I think, is why I found this passage in Bennett's The Book of Virtues, so right.
To parents who are themselves insecure in their faith and, like the nineteenth-century English radical John Thelwall, think it "unfair to influence a child's mind by inculcating any opinions before it should have come to years of discretion, and be able to choose for itself," there is an enlightening anecdote in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Table Talk for July 27, 1830. "I showed [John Thelwall] my garden, and told him it was my botanical garden. 'How so?' said he, 'it is covered with weeds.' -- 'Oh,' I replied, 'that is only because it has not yet come to its age of discretion and choice. The weeds, you see, have taken the liberty to grow, and I thought it unfair in me to prejudice the soil towards roses and strawberries.' "
Your Aunt Margaret's bookmarks used to be called holy cards, and were available for free in the back of every Catholic church. They were usually printed in honor of a particular saint or to honor a particular feast.
ReplyDeleteOften, they had prayers on the back, but not always.
That's the rectangular ones. The cross shaped ones _were_ bookmarks, but all were intended to be used in a way that directed your mind with reminders during the day.