The thought of the Broher Gabriel Taborin
“If it is true, dear Brothers that “there where you have your treasure, you will have the heart”, the heart of a Christian and especially that of a religious of the Holy Family should often be, rather, always, under the humble roof of Nazareth, amid this august Family that gathers in itself all the divine and human virtues.
Happy us, Brothers, since, for vocation, we have chosen this treasure! Let us never lose it of view…
The party of the Holy Family will take place this year in our community with the accustomed solemnity… It will have this time a special splendour, thanks to the presence of our venerable one bishop who always shows us their paternal affection with so much enthusiasm.
The called ‘mass of Avignon’ will be sung; thus, the Brothers that know the Gregorian song and they know music, they can already get ready to sing it.
We should estimate this party for a double reason: because it contributes to narrow the knots that unite us in Jesus, Mary and Joseph and for the spiritual goods that it provides us”.
(Circular n. 2 – XI)
“To be devoted to form good citizens for the society and intelligence worthy of God i, ace to famous author said, to sublime mission. Who surrenders responsibly to it, it is the greater man of the country and the noblest of the eyes of God, of the religion and of the humanity. Another author adds: “From now on it will be the teacher, not the weapons, the judge of the destinies of the world “. The soldiers’ services are great, but they are less compared to the ones of the teacher, thus the former ones are sometimes glorious but not forever.
The ones of the virtuous citizen who devoted his life to the education of the youth are less bright, but one can say that any mission is nobler here on earth than that of acting on the human spirits inspiring in them light, truth and virtues.”
(New Guide, 637)
“People who are consecrated to the teaching should above all intend the glory of God, the sanctification of their soul, the youth’s salvation, the neighbor’s construction and the people’s goodness.
They should be vigorous people, exempt of corporal defects; not to be neither very young neither of lots of age; to have pleasure and a natural strong inclination for the teaching, to be very capable for the study and for this state of life; and they should have very pure customs.
They should be compassionate, edifying, humble, modest, wise, jealous, workers, honest, kind, patient and affable with all, without familiarizing with anybody. They have to possess all the required knowledge to teach; because if one cannot give what one doesn’t have, neither he can teach the other ones what one doesn’t know.
The best teacher is not, however who possesses more knowledge, but who knows how to transmit better the children what they need and who has talent to educate them, that is to say, of forming their will and of directing them toward the good. These are the most important qualities that should possess those who are consecrated to the teaching. A good teacher is a gift from heaven, a real treasure for the youth.
(The guiding angel of the pilgrims to Ars)
“The Brothers in their classes will abide to the program that corresponds at the level in which they teach. They will make an effort in order that the students’ progress and they will take much care of having preferences with some of them, because all those who attend the school are entitled the same attention to the teacher and he, in turn, to all owe their time and their attention during the hours of class.
The cause of the scarce progress of the students frequently is in the teacher. So that there is progress in learning, it is necessary that the Brother dedicated to the teaching must be kind and fear the rejection of his students to have an excessive severity. Try to make them take pleasure for the study. Give the clear and exact definitions. Raise the interest by means of questions, requesting summaries or making concrete applications of what explained to the moral and to the public life. But the most important thing is to provide food for the spirit as far as they can assimilate it: so that the child rises to our height, we have to know how to descend where he is.
Neither is it necessary to try the students to advance too quickly; each thing at its time. Before wanting to go farther it is necessary to secure well the foundations. It will even be necessary to return to them time to time, because they will never know anything if they don’t know it perfectly. The teacher should know his students in order not to demand more than what they can, otherwise they would be discouraged. It is not necessary to abandon the majority to assist only the small group of those who can progress with more speed”.
(New Guide, 651 -653)
“In his mission of Catechist, the first thing that must do a Brother is to learn how to give catechesis, thus it is a big mistake to think that is an easy thing and so it requires little study and lack of preparation to teach in a profitable way the catechism to children and young people. On the contrary, to teach the Catechism is required a special talent, and few people possess it. To deserve the name of Catechist is necessary:
1st To have the art of catching the attention of children and other people, to captivate them and make them listen to nicely.
2nd To know perfectly the Christian doctrine and be filled of it with a daily and long study.
3rd To have acquired, with the reflection and experience, the capacity to be at the same level than the audience, speaking with clarity and accuracy.
4th To know very well how to put forward the holy doctrine in an interesting way, and especially in order that it reaches the hearer’s heart, so that holy wishes and pious sentiments may be born in him; in a word, we ought to have at the same time the gift of teaching, being pleased and being interesting”.
(New Guide, 900)
“The second important thing to teach well the Catechesis is to prepare it very well. There are two types of preparation: The immediate preparation and the remote one. The latter is the deep study of the religion, its dogmas, moral, liturgy and history. This study has no limits. It must be daily and last for all life, because religion is, by its own nature, the greatest of all the sciences, and as more you know it as bigger is the capacity that one has to teach it and make it love.
The immediate preparation consists on:
1st To learn by heart, as possible, the chapter of the Catechism to be taught.
2nd To prepare real questions in order to develop the questions and answers of the Catechism.
3rd To organize the explanation, that is, the theme that one wants to teach, resuming it into two or three basic points.
4th To choose the deeds of the history and the best examples to clarify or confirm the explanations.
5th To prepare the useful activities to give after the explanation.
6th To put in the hands of God, of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the Guardian angels the success of the catechesis”.
(New Guide, 901)
“A good catechist knows to explain the most important things with the simplest expressions, and is able to teach with sensible forms and already known by his disciples the most abstract truths and the most difficult to understand…
As Jesus, the Teacher, he speaks often with parables. He knows how to draw the virtue with attractive features and to describe the vices as they are in reality: as a tyrant who only pays his slaves with sorrowful things.
The children must see in the catechist as a loving father, who knows how to put to his height in order to elevate them to the highest contemplation and to make them know with kindness and without much effort all the knowledge which he knows and wants to teach to his children.
Finally, a good catechist never forgets that is useless to plant and to water if God gives no life”.
(New Guide, 912)
“If one does not know the Catechism, there is no true faith or religion, and without religion there will be never happiness, neither public nor private. The ignorance not only is something bad, but also is very dangerous. To leave the children in the ignorance is to cancel the ministry of the priests; is to deprive them of the possibility of being able to understand some day the explanations of their pastor; is to deprive them of the means of salvation. Persuaded of these truths, the Brothers will never forget anything to provide the children, who are in their schools or in the Parish Church catechesis, a solid religious education”.
(New Guide, 909)
“The second important thing to teach well the Catechesis is to prepare it very well. There are two types of preparation: The immediate preparation and the remote one. The latter is the deep study of the religion, its dogmas, moral, liturgy and history. This study has no limits. It must be daily and last for all life, because religion is, by its own nature, the greatest of all the sciences, and as more you know it as bigger is the capacity that one has to teach it and make it love.
The immediate preparation consists on:
1st To learn by heart, as possible, the chapter of the Catechism to be taught.
2nd To prepare real questions in order to develop the questions and answers of the Catechism.
3rd To organize the explanation, that is, the theme that one wants to teach, resuming it into two or three basic points.
4th To choose the deeds of the history and the best examples to clarify or confirm the explanations.
5th To prepare the useful activities to give after the explanation.
6th To put in the hands of God, of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the Guardian angels the success of the catechesis”.
(New Guide, 901)
“A good catechist knows to explain the most important things with the simplest expressions, and is able to teach with sensible forms and already known by his disciples the most abstract truths and the most difficult to understand…
As Jesus, the Teacher, he speaks often with parables. He knows how to draw the virtue with attractive features and to describe the vices as they are in reality: as a tyrant who only pays his slaves with sorrowful things.
The children must see in the catechist as a loving father, who knows how to put to his height in order to elevate them to the highest contemplation and to make them know with kindness and without much effort all the knowledge which he knows and wants to teach to his children.
Finally, a good catechist never forgets that is useless to plant and to water if God gives no life”.
(New Guide, 912)
“If one does not know the Catechism, there is no true faith or religion, and without religion there will be never happiness, neither public nor private. The ignorance not only is something bad, but also is very dangerous. To leave the children in the ignorance is to cancel the ministry of the priests; is to deprive them of the possibility of being able to understand some day the explanations of their pastor; is to deprive them of the means of salvation. Persuaded of these truths, the Brothers will never forget anything to provide the children, who are in their schools or in the Parish Church catechesis, a solid religious education”.
(New Guide, 909)
“The main things that a Catechist must teach are:
1st – The most important mysteries of our religion, after repeating every day, especially with the little children.
2nd – The life of Jesus Christ, his virtues, his sufferings, what he did and what he is doing actually in order to save the people. It is very important to remember frequently this point, because to know Jesus Christ is to know our religion. So, all the explanations must have as ending point Jesus Christ, to show him as God and Man, as Saviour and Ruler, Light of the world, Model, Benefactor, Mediator, Food, Judge and Happiness of every person.
3rd – The great truths of our religion, such as the fate of the man, the important and necessity of salvation, the death, the judgment, the heaven, the hell, etc.
4th – The Church: what is the Church, the features of the true Church, the necessity to be under the Church and her pastors and to be united to the Pope in order to be saved.
5th – What is allowed and prohibited in each commandment of God and the Church.
6th – The required dispositions to receive with fruit the Sacraments, especially the Reconciliation and Eucharist.
7th – The way of participating piously in the Holy Eucharist and to pray in the celebrations of the Church.
8th – The excellence, necessity, obligation and conditions of the Prayer.
9th – The mortal sin: its gravity, the unfortunate thing of committing it, the punishments that one can receive, the way of obtaining the forgiveness of God.
10th – The way of sanctifying the action in order to be fruitful to God and worthy of Heaven”.
(New Guide, 909)
The humility must be the ornament most valued by a Brother of the Holy Family. In practicing this virtue, he will imitate the Saint Patrons of the Institute, he will guard the chastity, he will give thanks to God and he will draw to him the love of all the people instead of hatred. The good religious respects the humility; he practices it interior and exteriorly; he is conscious that an act of this virtue is worthier than hundred miracles, and that, before God, substitutes all the other virtues, while the proud man changes all the virtues in other many vices. God withstands the superb people and gives his grace to the humble ones. The proud men are like high mountains upon which God throws his wrath; the humble are like smooth valleys that receive the heavenly dew of this grace. Which religious, then, will not do the greatest efforts to practice the humility during all his life?
(New Guide § II n. 27)
“To talk about the extraordinary virtues and the sublime sanctity of Saint Anna, there is not other idea more noble, more sublime and at the same time more just than to tell that she is the mother of the mother of God. This august title has within it all the titles of honour; it has all the praises; and, because the Holy Spirit could not say anything greater of Mary than to express that she was the mother of Jesus Christ, then, the same, we cannot say anything more glorious of St Anna than expressing that she was the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary.”
(Manuel des Confrères de Sainte Anne, p. 5)