V@LUE WHAT YOU HAVE Familiarity breeds contempt, that is true of persons or prophets. it is also true of institutions , customs and traditions, take the church for instance, the Catholic church some pple have being Catholic all their lives. The were born into Catholic families, baptised, confirmed, married in the church and so on. They were brought up on the various catholic devotion and liturgical practices: holy mass and Holy communion, may be on a daily basis, benediction, weekly confession, daily rosary and so on. If they are not careful their very familarity with these sacred things can lead to contempt. They can begin to take them for granted, not seriously any more. They wil go to mass out of sheer routine, recieve holy communion without adequate preperation and no thanksgiving afterwards, go to confession without real repentance and a firm resolve to quit sinning, they wil recite the rosary without realy praying it. The result is that none of those exercises will bring them any real spiritual benefits. Some others wil lose interest in their own catholic devotions and practics and become fascinated with the way other churches do their things. That is the situation when people begin to value prayer meetings and revival more than the Mass, when they abandon the catholic hymn Book in favour of choruses, some quite meaningless, when they begin to cast aspirations on the Rosary and even the person of our Blessed Mother. Thats the extreme of familiarity breeding contemp. But familiarity need not breed contempt. It can and should rather breed better appreciation and Love of what is ours. Familiarity between husband and Wife should not breed contempt, neither should familiarity parents and their children, between bosom friends, even between an employer and his employee. That is what should happen where our own catholic devotions and liturgical practices are concerned. We should appreciate them, cherish them, treasure them, seek to know and understand them better, and teach them to our children and youths. They have nourished the spiritual lives of countless generations of catholices for two millannia. They can still do the same for countless more generations of catholics for all the millennia yet to come.