available.
Cultivate and safeguard the mind and heart of young girls well and attentively, while they
are still tender, so as to prevent evil’s influence as much as possible, for it is better to
forewarn them with advice than to liberate them with corrections. Keep young girls away
from anything which might spoil their mind and their hearts, even minimally and corrupt,
their moral behavior in any form. Make sure to achieve this zealously and effectively,
using exquisite prudence, however, for this is delicate especially when we are dealing with
young girls who, knowing what is evil, might find an incentive in that knowledge to desire
it and get it for themselves. In this matter the greatest of caution and reserve should be
used, and no one should ever fear that this caution and reserve are too much.337
The significant features of Verzeri’s education system centre on these principles. The religious element has primacy. “In managing young girls, you should be extremely discrete. Keep the objective firmly in mind, namely to educate them to acquire virtue and to lead them to God. As for as the choice of means for successfully achieving this objective, you should be mindful of adapting yourself to their temperament, their inclinations and to each one’s circumstances...Some may want to be treated seriously, others amiably, some rigidly and still others gently, some with reserve, others in an easy, confidential way”.338 “Instill the holy fear of God in your girls and a feeling of confidence in him. If your girls have the fear of God, they will also fear of sin, which is opposed to God’s holiness”.339 “Suggest only a few practices of piety to them, but the good, substantial ones... Help the girls to develop a strong devotion to the Blessed Sacrament in their heart (...) and nurture in them love and confidence in Mary Most Holy”.340
But everything should be done with much discretion and reasonableness, “in order not to pretend to be able to lead others along the path that you yourselves walk on”. Do not expect too much from your girls and do not hope to harvest immature fruits from them... Keep the following principle in mind: follow grace and try not to go ahead of it. Since the Lord is right and gentle, in much the same way you should be very gentle when you demand anything or invite the girls to do anything, and absolutely right in the exercise of authority and in asserting your position”.341
The methodological primacy of love is expressed both in human relationships and in achieving moral and religious formation. “Generally, use gentleness, kindness, vigilance, discretion and zeal”;342 “do not present them with denial as something sad and bitter, as it appears, but as something reasonable, softened by delight and grace, and rendered light by the hand of the Lord”.343”Be kind and gentle. With gentleness and a spirit of sacrifice you will obtain twice as much as you would by using severity and fear”.344 “Show that you love them with tenderness: this will win over their love and you will have their esteem and a powerful access to their souls and thus a wide open room to persuade them to
Figlie del Sacro Cuore di Gesù di Bergtamo, ed. a religious from the Institute, (Bergamo: Institute of the Daughters of
the Sacred Heart 1946); C. Boccazzi, La spiritualità della B. Teresa Eustocchio Nob. Verzeri., (Cremona: Pizzorni
1947); E. Valentini, “Il sistema preventivo della Beata Verzeri”, in Salesianaum 14 (1952): 248-316; A. Saba, Una
pedagogia dell’Ottocento: Teresa Verzeri, Master’s dissertation presented at the Istituto Universitario Pareggiato di
Magistero Maria Assunta, Rome, academic year 1954-1955; R. Sani, Indirizzi spirituali e proposte educative dei nuovi
istituti religiosi dell’Ottocento in area lombarda, in Chiesa, educazione e società nella Lombardia del primo Ottocento,
ed. R. Sani. Milan, Vita e Pensiero 1966, 77-137.
337 T.E. Verzeri, Dei doveri vol 1, 434.
338 Ibid., 416.
339 Ibid., 436.
340 ibid., 423.
341 T.E. Verzeri, Dei doveriVol 1, 418-419.
342 Ibid., 421.
343 Ibid., 422.
344 Ibid., 425.