July 14, 1918 - The Mirror of True Womanhood

Today, after going to Sunday mass, Mary spends part of the afternoon reading Rev. Bernard O'Reilly's The Mirror of True Womanhood, a voluminous 466 page book first published in 1877 and by 1882 was already in its 16th edition.  With chapters like : "The True Woman's Kingdom: the Home" O'Reilly in his preface offers his purpose in writing the book: "...making of every mother a supernatural woman, living a life of faith, above all things self-denial and self-sacrifice, fondly attached to the heroic ways and virtues of our ancestors, -- the Home, in our midst, will bring forth supernatural men and women, unselfish, pure, truth-loving, trustworthy, and devoted to the best interests of country and religion."

The book was and apparently continues to be a inspirational text especially to Roman Catholics and is still in print, at least through CreateSpace Publishers, as recently as 2017.  The full text can be found at archive.org.

Mary was inspired by reading the book and vowed that she would start "with the rule of Regularity", "trying my willpower from today on".