LITTLE THINGS IN RELIGION.

New Zealand Tablet, 22 August 1918, Page 32

LITTLE THINGS IN RELIGION.

Can anything connected with religion be called a little thing ? It is true that some practices have a greater importance -than r others. Nothing can make up for the loss of Sunday Mass; nothing can take the place of the Sacraments of penance and Holy Communion. In comparison with these duties of paramount importance certain practices may in themselves be regarded as small; yet the omission of them may have serious consequences. When we find that grace at meals is habitually neglected in the home we cannot but regret it. When we see a person pass into a church without using holy water we feel that there is something wanting in that individual’s devotion. When a fumbling

movement of finger or thumb is made to do duty for the sign of the Cross, • and when a genuflection- to the Blessed Sacrament is scarcely perceptible, we deplore this slovenliness in little things. When Catholic men and boys pass a church without raising their hats we feel that though- they may have the faith there is something lacking in their respect'for the Divine Presence in the tabernacle, and when in speaking to a priest the title of Father is habitually omitted we know that the speaker is wanting in courtesyand something more. The list of these so-called little things .might be extended to many pages.