religion into contempt. Therefore, examples ought to be true or at least highly probable.
“2. The anecdotes narrated should be free from superfluous or irrelevant matter. It has a ridiculous effect if the account of some trivial and insignificant occurrence begins with a formal statement of the place, the year, the day of the month when it took place, or by the (sometimes grandiose) baptismal and family names of the individuals concerned, the date and place of their birth, etc. In some instances the minutest details are entered into. When, on the other hand, really important historical events are related, it is well to mention date and place.
“3. Furthermore, the examples should be interesting, and of an edifying and elevating character. If this is not so, it is tantamount to giving the children stones instead of bread. Noble deeds, worthy of imitation, should be proposed to them as examples.
“Some persons will perhaps say: ‘When the examples have been once narrated, they are of no further use.’ That is a mistaken idea. Are Our Lord’s parables, I ask, to be set on one side because they have been already related, or read aloud in public? Assuredly not; the Church recalls them to our remembrance year by year in her services. The priest is, of course, expected not to content himself with the simple repetition of the parables; he must expound them, choosing at one time this, at another that, special point to be brought into prominence and proposed for the consideration of his hearers, and drawing practical lessons from it. In this way he will, as Our Lord says, be ‘like to a man that is
