Curam animarum habentes, per se vel alios idoneos, si legitimè impediti fuerint, diebus saltem dominicis et festis solemnibus plebes sibi commissas, pro suâ et earum capacitate pascant salutaribus verbis. :.. Si quis eorum præstare negligat, per censuras ecclesiasticas cogantur.

Præcepto divino mandatum est omnibus quibus animarum cura commissa est, oves suas verbi divini prædicatione

pas

cere.

CONCIL. TRID. DE REFORM.

FAMILIAR INSTRUCTION-ITS UNIVERSAL APPLICATION, NATURE, AND OBLIGATION, AS DEFINED BY THE COUNCIL OF TRENT-REMARKS OF THE BISHOP OF ORLEANS SPECIAL QUALITIES OF FAMILIAR INSTRUCTION, AND ITS LEADING SUBJECTS.

HILST the Set Sermon holds, as we have already shown, its own place, and that a S very clearly defined one, in the line of subjects with which it will be the duty and

the pleasure of the preacher to deal, it is plain that what is commonly called "Familiar Instruction," will form the great staple of the discourses which he will deliver to the flock of Christ. We are the light of the world-lux mundi-because we are the teachers of the world; and we are the teachers of the world, because we are its instructors in all those ordinary and daily duties, the sum of which makes up the Christian life. Later on we shall show that the Set Sermon, excellent and obligatory as it is in its own

time and place, can never suffice to teach the Christian people their religion as a whole. They require something more; and this something we call Familiar Instruction, because it embraces the whole scope and theory of the Church's teaching, and delivers that teaching with such unity of design, in language so simple, and in terms so elementary, as to adapt itself to the weak and uneducated capacity of those who have ever formed, and will ever continue to constitute, the great majority of the flock of Christ.

Whether, therefore, it takes the form of a simple homily, a discourse on any of the Commandments, the Sacraments, or other kindred subjects, the ordinary Sunday sermon of the missionary priest will probably not rise, and ought not rise, above a Familiar Instruction.

A Familiar Instruction, in this sense, has been well explained to be, the simple and earnest discourse of a pastor, who is zealous to teach his people all those things which are useful and necessary for their salvation. By those things which are useful and necessary for their salvation, we understand, in a special manner, all the great fundamental truths of the Catholic Faith; the Commandments of God and His Church; the Christian virtues, and the means of acquiring them, as well as of avoiding the contrary vices; Prayer; and the Sacraments.

Such, in a general way, are the subjects which will form the matter of the Familiar Instruction-of that instruction which must necessarily be the ultimate foundation upon which the boldest strokes, the loftiest

flights, and the warmest appeals of the sacred orator are built. It does not follow that he who, as an ordinary rule, confines himself to Familiar Instruction, will, therefore, neglect those appeals to the passions, and those oratorical movements, which have so intimate a share in the full and complete success of the preacher's efforts; but it does most surely follow that, unless we are to be as men beating the air, all those efforts must be raised upon the foundation of clear, plain, solid, and well-connected instruction.

It is not necessary to repeat in this place that the obligation of instructing our people is identical with, or, rather, is the reducing to action of that divine commission which has been intrusted to us: Euntes, docete omnes gentes. Neither is it necessary to show that this instruction or teaching must embrace the whole theory of Christian belief and practice, since this is clearly included in the words of our commission: Docentes eos servare OMNIA QUÆCUMQUE mandavi vobis. Least of all, need we lay ourselves out to prove that this instruction will, as an ordinary rule, be of the most simple and elementary character; since, so long as the obligation shall remain upon us of preaching the Gospel to the poor and the simple, and so long as these shall constitute the great majority of our flocks, it is evident that such must be, in thought and expression, the nature of our teaching: Pauperes evangelizantur.

If, however, we had any difficulty in clearly understanding the nature and scope of our duty, in regard to the instruction of our people, it would at once be set at rest by the attentive consideration of the precept in

which the Council of Trent lays our obligations before us, explaining the whole of this most important matter in a few words, that are as plain as they are full, as simple as they are complete :

6.

Quicumque parochiales, vel alias curam animarum habentes ecclesias quocumque modo obtinent, per se, vel alios idoneos, si legitime impediti fuerint, diebus saltem dominicis, et festis solemnibus, plebes sibi commissas pro sua, et earum capacitate pascant salutaribus verbis; docendo, quæ scire omnibus necessarium est ad salutem; annunciandoque eis cum brevitate et facilitate sermonis, vitia, quæ eos declinare, et virtutes, quas sectari oporteat; ut pœnam æternam evadere, et cælestem gloriam consequi valeant. Id vero si quis eorum præstare negligat; etiam si ab episcopi jurisdictione, quavis ratione exemptum se esse prætenderet; etiam si ecclesiæ, quovis modo exemptæ dicerentur, aut alicui monasterio, etiam extra diœcesim existenti, forsan annexæ, vel unitæ, modo re ipsa in diœcesi sint, provida pastoralis episcoporum solicitudo non desit, ne illud impleatur: parvuli petierunt panem, et non erat, qui frangeret eis. Itaque, ubi ab episcopo moniti trium mensium spatio muneri suo defuerint, per censuras ecclesiasticas, seu alias ad ipsius episcopi arbitrium cogantur, ita ut etiam, si ei sic expedire visum fuerit, ex beneficiorum fructibus alteri, qui id præstet, honesta aliqua merces persolvatur, donec principalis ipse resipiscens officium suum impleat.”—De Reform. sess. v. c. ii.

As we shall, when considering the subject of Catechetical Instruction, enter into a more minute exami