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Page 1: Comment aimer pour être Heureuxby Anne-Marie Couvreur

Irish Jesuit Province

Comment aimer pour être Heureux by Anne-Marie CouvreurReview by: S. O'B.The Irish Monthly, Vol. 67, No. 796 (Oct., 1939), pp. 738-739Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20514611 .

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Page 2: Comment aimer pour être Heureuxby Anne-Marie Couvreur

788 THE IRISH MONTHLY

briand. He is not a Catholic writer, but he is respectful of belief. " One of the great joys one feels in loving God is to be able to love those who love God." He declares: " What the absence of religion has often made

me regret is the more tender union, created among friends, by a common belief." He recognises " the superiority of Christian wisdom over stoic wisdom ", and " the lasting happiness of really religious men, because they have put their love in God ".

S. O'B.

Comment aimer pour Ptre Hleureux. Par Anne-Marie Couvreur. (Editions Spes, Paris.)

Madame Anne-Marie Couvreur has written her book to prove that real happiness is to be found in home life. " The life of a true home, where one loves one another, one understands one another, where one upholds one another through the difilculties of the road. Is not that the most beautiful book that can be written by the generation of to-day for the generation of to-morrow? All our ambition is that these few pages should contribute, however modestly, to realise that ideal in the greatest number of families."

Modern life is opposed to home life. Newspapers, books, picture houses offer attractions that are like poison. " To recover full moral health our contemporaries have to make an effort; they have to choose between what is normal and what is abnormal. They have to eject the poison." It is a simple cure. It requires no heavy doctor's or chemist's bills, no expensive travels. Let them start it in the peaceful atmosphere of home, and they will be surprised to discover in themselves and in their family surroundings, sources of deep joys, the only ones than can create true happiness. "

To be happy, marriage must bring husband and wife together. Each must learn to give up something for the happiness of the other. The great question in our time is whether the wife should earn outside her home, or devote herself to her menage. There is the question of earning more. But the gain is more apparent than real. When the wife is away all day, there is no home life and expenses are increased. If the wife remains at home, she saves, and puts to better use the means at her disposal. She gives her husband more wholesome food than he can find in restaurants. This means for her continuous, monotonous effort. The husband must lighten it by cheerful appreciation and kindliness. On the other hand, the

wife must take an interest in her husband's occupation. He must find

sympathy and understanding at home. That makes his burden easier.

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Page 3: Comment aimer pour être Heureuxby Anne-Marie Couvreur

BOOK REVIEWS 739

Some women are jealous of the hold their husband's profession has on him. They cannot take an interest in it. They look on it as a necessary evil.

In a real marriage, husband and wife understand one another and appreciate the effort of each.

Life has new interest, new duty, new joy, when the child appears. Mother and father have to prepare for their new duty, and they have to learn how to bring up the little creature confided to their care. The saddest family is that of the only child, who in spite of much petting, is sad and lonely.

The family where there are several children is the happiest. How to amuse one's family is the subject of the last chapter. Parents

have to provide amusements for their young people. It is not always easy. Parents who have kept the ideas of their youth find their young people

reluctant to take their advice. Father and mother have to study the character of their children and adapt their views to those of the present generation. "All that has to do with leisure must be treated with good humour, in a spirit of joyous optimism and conciliation. ..

" There is a sign that proves parents have created a united and strong family: when the children like to be together for rest or amusement."

" It would be ridiculous to try and keep them always together." It is good to mix with others. " But there is joy in coming together again.

Where a family is really united, there is truly the joy of life." That is the

secret of: " How to love to be happy." S. O'B.

The Dominicans in Cork. By Margaret MacAuliffe, M.A. Cork: Paramount Printing House. Pp. 56. Price 6d.

This account of the Dominicans in Cork was written for the occasion of the Consecration of St. Mary's Church on September 16th, 1939.

Saint Dominic died at Bologna in 1221. The Dominicans came to Cork

in 1229. " Lying outside the city wall in the south-west suburb, was a

green island. Here it was that the Dominicans built their first convent and church which they dedicated to the mother of God. From its insular

position it came to be known as Sancta Maria de Insula-' Saint Mary's

of the Isle.' A little bridge with a gate-house or tower secured an

approach, and the gate-keeper, the Ostiarius, as he was called, had instruc

tions to allow the town's people, pilgrims, mendicants and wayfarers free

passage in and out. Across this bridge in the mornings flocked scores of

the town youths to the school, gratuitously provided by the Dominican

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