War at Home and at the Front

An army chaplain offers plain advice to soldiers, with particular emphasis on the usual temptations of military life: grousing at authority or physical discomfort; fear; sexual misdemeanours. Prayers and short Scripture passages are also included. This is a practical book, with no illusions about the nature of army life. Mrs Blundell’s booklet began as a talk given in 1942 to the Union of Catholic Mothers. The normal difficulties of motherhood were amplified by the particular circumstances of wartime: rationing, the systematic evacuation of children from cities under threat of German bombing; separation from husbands and fathers. Mothers should practise the peacetime virtues (patience, discernment and encouragement, prayer) but also incorporate them into the great mission of prayer called by Cardinal Hinsley “The Sword of the Spirit”. She stresses the need to be united, in prayer even if not in person, with other Catholic women at home and abroad, and with husbands and fathers in peril of their lives.