Book Reviews and More: Nurturing the Young - J.B. Midgley

Nurturing the Young

Thoughts for Parents and Educators

CTS Family Matters Series

J.B. Midgley

Catholic Truth Society
ISBN 9781860824555

CTS Booklet D688

A few years ago, I encountered the works of J.B. Midgley and was very impressed with his writing. I worked at tracking all his books down. And it took me a few years. This was one of the last to be read. I now have all the volumes and after this one have 2 others left to read and review. I still have a few to read but it has been well worth tracking down all 28 books by J.B. Midgley. Twenty-six of those books were for the Catholic Truth Society. And 6 of those were from the CTS Great Saints Series. I have also read many in the CTS Biographies and also Saints of the Isles Series. And have loved most of them. I first read a book by Midgley almost exactly 4 years ago. This volume is a great read but is very different than most of the other volumes by Midgley.

The description on the back of the book is:

“Motherhood, fatherhood, parenting and educating your children, are the principal themes addressed by this booklet. Turning to the timeless wisdom of the Christian faith and human experience, this little collection of thoughts and sayings is intended to inspire the parents and educators of today. The eternal demands of love, forgiveness, correction, education, family life, happiness, innocence, and patience, face us all, and require one thing only: a willingness to learn – even from our mistakes.”

The chapters in this booklet are:

Marriage

Family

Mothers

Fathers

Parenting

Children

Educating

Across the 7 chapters there is just shy of 200 quotes. There is no preamble, introduction. Either to the book as a whole or to the individual chapters. There is no index of contributors or sources. A list of contributors most contributors have one piece, a few 2, a couple have 11 and 13 from the documents of Vatican II.

Abraham Lincoln

Anna Maria Bidegain

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Archbishop Donald Coggan

Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Archbishop William Temple

Bernie Wiebe

Billy Graham

Bishop Jeremy Taylor

Bishop John Cosin

C. Myers

C.H. Spurgeon

C.S. Lewis

Cardinal Basil Hume (9)

Carlo Carretta

Charles Dickens

Daniel Webster

David Wilkerson

Don Marquis

Eberhard Arnold

Ecclesiasticus

Edith Schaeffer

Erich Fromm

Fitus Plautus

Fr F. W. Faber (3)

Fr Gerald Vann OP (2)

Fr Staretz Silouan

Francis Bacon

Franklin P. Jones

French Proverb

George Bernard Shaw

George Eliot

H.W. Beecher

Harold Loukes

Henri Amiel

Henry Adams

Henry Drummond (2)

Hilaire Belloc

Hubert van Zeller OSB

J. Heinrich Arnold

J.B. Priestley

J.C. Arnold

J.W. von Goethe

James M. Barrie

Jean Paul Eixhter

Jesus Christ

Jewish Proverb

Joseph Barth

Joseph Rice (2)

Kenneth Clarke

Leo Tolstoy

Leontine Young

Louise Guiney

Macarius of Optino (2)

Maria Bingemar

Mary ]oseph Rossello

Mary Slessor

Mgr Robert Hugh Benson

Michael Green

Olive Wyon

Pablo Cassals

Paul Tournier

Pope Benedict XVI (7)

Pope John Paul II (11)

Pope John XXIII (2)

Pope Leo XIII

Pope Paul VI

R. W. Emerson

Rabbi Brickner

Rainer Maria Rilke

Richard Baxter

Robert Ingersoll

Robert Lynd

Ruth Graham

Samuel

Samuel Johnson

Second Vatican Council (13)

Sheila Cassidy

Sigmund Frnud

St Anthony of Padua

St Athenasius

St Augustine of Hippo

St Benildus

St Charles Borromeo

St Francis de Sales

St Francis Xavier

St Gregory of Nyssa

St Ignatius of Loyola

St Isidore of Seville

St Jerome

St John Baptist de La Salle (11)

St John Bosco (7)

St John Chrysostom (2)

St John of the Cross (2)

St Joseph Calasanza

St Lawrence Giustiniani

St Paul (2)

St Therese of Lisieux

T. S. Eliot

Tbomas Traherne

The Mother of St Symphorian, Martyr

Theodore Hesburgh

Thomas a Kempis (2)

Thomas Merton

Tyron Edwards

Victor Hugo

W.L. Phelps

W.M. Thackeray

William Makepeace Thackerey

Winston Chuchill (2)

Y. Yevtushenko

I highlighted several of the quotes my first time reading this book. And a few I shared immediately with friends of family. The book begins with this quote prior to the first chapter:

“You always have joy in the evening if you spend the day fruitfully.”

-Thomas a Kempis

The other quotes I highlighted were:

“Successful marriage is always a triangle: a man, a woman, and God.”

C. Myers

“Love seeks one thing only: the good of the one loved. It leaves all the other secondary effects to take care of themselves. Love, therefore, is its own reward.”

Thomas Merton

“Love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“The sum that two married people owe to one another defies calculation. It is an infinite debt that can only be discharged through all eternity.

J.W. von Goethe

“Success in marriage is more than finding the right person. It is a matter of being the right person.”

Rabbi Brickner

“Christian marriage is a sacrament of salvation and the pathway to holiness for all members of the family. Let your homes be centres of prayer, where families are at ease in the presence of God, where others are invited to share hospitality, prayer and the praise of God.”

Pope John Paul II

“The task of handing on the faith to children is first the responsability of the parents to whom God has entrusted their children. The ways in which God speaks to us of His love - as a Father to His children - is in the language of family relationships. It is not for nothing that the family is called "the domestic Church.” It is the first school of life and love.”

Cardinal Basil Hume

“It is the purest sign that we love someone if we choose to spend time idly in their presence when we could be doing something more constructive.”

Sheila Cassidy

“It is easier for a father to have children than for children to have a real fat her.” Blessed Pope John XXIII

“The supreme happiness of life is the conviction of being loved for yourself, or more correctly, of being loved in spite of yourself.”

Victor Hugo

“The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.”

Theodore Hesburgh

“Train your child in the way in which you know you should have gone yourself.”

C.H. Spurgeon

“The language of faith is learned in homes where this faith grows and is strengthened through prayer and Christian practice.”

Pope Benedict XVI

I have read a few other volumes in the CTS Family Matters Series and as mentioned almost all the books from J.B. Midgley. Both are worth reading. This is an excellent volume for teachers, principals, parents and grandparents. You can randomly flip the book open to read a few quotes. Or read from beginning to end. There is a great deal of motivating and inspirational quotes in this volume. A great read, another one that was worth tracking down. I have already shared a copy with a friend who is a school principal. And have shared about a half dozen specific quotes with friends and family. It is another excellent resource from the Catholic Truth Society.

Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2022 Catholic Reading Plan! For other reviews of books from the Catholic Truth Society click here.