God

In a child’s words. When sources disagree, ask who said it, in what kind of act, and when. And never mix up the Creator and a creature without saying so.

The Institute habit

At the Institute every word from above counted as truth, whoever said it, in whatever form, on whatever date. S.Q. Pedalian trusted Mr. Curtain over his own conscience.

The book

The prequel’s end: a stranger’s kindness after he runs away by train, and Nicholas turning back to help the other orphans instead of only escaping.

Week 1 · the kind of answer

Rank, form and date. Take six sources (a verse of Scripture, a creed, an encyclical, the Catechism, a theologian’s book, an interview) and give each its rank, form and date. Which can settle a question, and which can only weigh on it?

Week 2 · the essay

Christ in the Carriage, in the register of Caryll Houselander, read whole. Ask: who would be the hardest person for you to see that way?

Week 3 · the case

The Immaculate Conception. In 1800 the question is open: St Bernard and St Bonaventure had held otherwise, and St Thomas Aquinas is usually read the same way. Pius IX defined it in 1854, and by 1860 it is settled; the three Doctors stand noted as having held against what was later defined, and are not condemned for it. A saint can be wrong on an open question, and an act of the right rank and form can close it. Set it beside Unit 3: the censure of 1616 failed because it laid heresy on a fact; this definition stands because it is the right kind of act on the right kind of question.

The workshop · suggested

For a child taking the workshop strand, Project 4, the machine’s language. It ends with Mult, Fill, and a program of the child’s own that draws on the screen, kept to run again later on the computer they build.

The end first

Beneath every school of thought is what the Church defines, which no school edits: the persons are distinct, and the last end of the rational creature is God, seen (Benedictus Deus, 1336). If the child is preparing for confirmation, ask which lines of the Creed they will profess belong there.

Fridays

The end-of-term trial: see Mr. Benedict’s tests on the page for parents.