Angelus Press has completely re-typeset this Catholic classic from 1905. Our edition is printed on beautiful cream paper and encased in a gold-embossed hardback cover with a back ribbon. In this guide Fr. Lasance provides instructions and devotions for young ladies on acquiring Catholic virtues and living out their Catholic Faith. In this book Fr. Lasance counsels young ladies on choosing one's state in life, provides prayers, novenas, a discussion on sodalities, and a devotion for everyday in the month of May. Hardcover. 681pp.
This was one of the most profitable books I have read. Especially as I grow in my vocation as a wife and have a little one on the way. Very good, sound Catholic advice. Wonderful emphasis on virtue and domesticity. The devotions at the end are lovely. If God blesses me with daughters, I pray that they would read and imitate what they find. I definitely recommend to any lady, young or old.
While it had some nice prayers and some wise advice, I could not give this book two or more stars based on the number of untrue and offensive (not to mention unCatholic) things it said throughout. Judge for yourselves with the quotes below:
p 112 "God has ordained that young girls should especially practice obedience."
p 408 "But the Christian housewife, who knows that self denial is required of her, is content to lay her right[s] on the alter of peace and keep silence...If she wants to rule, let her cultivate a sweet and gentle disposition. She can do nothing, gain nothing, by force, whereas with patient wisdom and wise patience she will succeed in getting her own way."
p 113 "Yet you [women] must live in subjugation all your life long, whether you like it or not, for such has been the lot of every woman who has lived upon this Earth."
p 332 "Protestants on the other hand, regard marriage as a bond which can be dissolved."
p 330 "...the Protestant considers matrimony a merely civil contract."
p 403 "'Take religion away from woman and she is deprived of morality also, in that case she is nothing but a whited sepulcher wherein abide corruption and decay.'"
p 188 "The North American Indians hate work and leave it to women, as did also the Teutonic races."
I read an original copy earlier this year. Amazing how times have changed...this is a very precious writing from an era sadly gone by, but the advice can still be used today. It's not just instructions for the young, but lots of prayers and powerful devotional material as well. I really don't think any Catholic, especially tradtional Catholic, can go wrong reading Fr. Lasance!
I'm not sure if I ever actually made it all the way through this one--it was self-assigned spiritual reading, and I wasn't quite ready for it--but Fr. Lasance is wonderful, and this is a beautiful book of formation for young ladies.
A must read for every Catholic girl. Rev. Fr. Lasance (RIP) has compiled essays and prayers suitable for guiding young girls in growing into and deepening in their Catholic faith. As the reverend father has intended, this book is meant to be a guidance for young girls against the perils of the world, like a good father would to his young daughter.
Wonderful book and guide for Catholic girls. Wish I would have come across this book while I was a young girl. But it's God's will that I receive it now. I read it a few years ago, but it didn't help me as much as it helps me now for some reason.