ON CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

Love is one, but it can be expressed in three different modes: practical love, intellectual love, and spiritual love. Helping the poor, providing for the sick, taking care of the blind are ways of loving practically; taking care of the spiritual welfare of our neighbour by means of prayer, of the Sacraments, by real concern for the salvation of their soul are ways of loving spiritually; and lastly, using reason to enlighten the mind, to stimulate the right conduct, to know the truth and to live according to the truth are ways of loving intellectually. Rosmini embraced wholeheartedly the three modes of love, but he embraced intellectual love in a special way by means of the many books he produced on philosophy, theology, and spirituality. This book On Christian Education was the first of his published books, and he dedicated it to his beloved sister Gioseffa Margherita, who gave her life in the care of the poor and the orphans, and in the education of young girls. The great Italian writer A Manzoni said of the book: "It is like reading a book of the great Fathers of the Church".