Catholic Marriage & Parenting

Straight answers for a Catholic household, from the first courtship to the last child's wedding, in two short books that treat you as an adult.

Fr. Gerrard takes a couple from the courting to the nursery. He tells a young woman what to look for in a man and when to break it off, tells a young man to marry early and poor rather than stay single and tempted, and says plainly what the Church permits in the marriage bed and why. He wrote, he says, because false ideas about marriage had reached Catholic homes before the true ones were there to meet them.

Fr. Girardey's book starts when the baby arrives. He speaks to parents directly, "dear Christian parents," and in eighteen short chapters tells them what to do at each age, from baptism within the week, through the schooling, the correction and the watching, to the courtship of their own sons and daughters. He ends at their wedding and tells the parents to keep out of the young couple's affairs. Gerrard's book is the one to hand them.

The two priests agree on the small things, which is a good sign. Never take a child's side against the teacher. Keep a good religious picture on the wall and a Catholic paper in the house. Have no favorites. Read Gerrard before the wedding and Girardey after the baptism, and keep both.

What you get

Two EPUB files, delivered by download, with a ZIP of both: Marriage and Parenthood: The Catholic Ideal by Fr. Thomas J. Gerrard, set from the revised edition of 1911 published by Joseph F. Wagner, and Popular Instructions to Parents by Fr. Ferreol Girardey, C.SS.R., from the 1897 Benziger Brothers edition.