These essays are pastoral, to encourage parents to nurture and foster Christian family life. In an era of child abuse, and the scandal of Roman Catholic priests and cardinals, contrastive with the married priests and Patriarchs of the Orthodox National Churches, the direction forward for the reform of the Papacy is clearly to encourage married priesthood. Beginning with the mythopoetic story of Adam and Eve, and the fratricide of Abel by the envy of Cain, the stories of the sacrifices parents made, beginning with Abraham and Isaac, Ruth and her mother-in-law, Hannah and her son Samuel, Jeremiah the child prophet, all augur the promise of the Incarnation, with the birth of Jesus to Mary and Joseph. Then through the history of the Church the role of the Child is unfolded. It begins with Jesus teaching that to be as one of his disciples is to be a child. This is so radical that the subsequent churches have found it hard to follow. Perhaps a symbolic attempt was that of the monks' cowl which is a child's garment, and still worn in their monasteries.
