from him, though simply their school mate, the boys heard these
things eagerly. He seemed well privileged to speak, as indeed he was.

To talk about pious things, and do it acceptably, is a mighty hard
matter. You have to know how. And the first part of knowing how is
to be at home with pious things, to have thought about them, often
and long, to have woven them into your life as Stanislaus had done.

The trouble with us is that we live so far removed from thoughts of
God, of His Mother, that they never cease to be strange to us. We go
blunderingly about mention of them, or we lack the courage to speak
at all. But why should they be strange or remote? We are destined
to live forever in heaven, we are the daily recipients of God's
favors, we are sheltered, protected, every way by our Lady's loving
care.

The things that touch us most nearly are the things of the spiritual
world; they are the most thrillingly important; they are the only
really important things. We are not afraid to talk baseball, or
politics, or business. Why be afraid to talk of God's power, His
dominion over us, His love for us, our duties to Him, the helps He
gives us, the reward He holds out to us? There is only one answer:
we don't think enough about these things. There is only one remedy:
do thing about them, as Saint Stanislaus did.


CHAPTER VI

IN THE HOUSE OF KIMBERKER