It may be as well to point out how these talks differ from the usual non-Catholic method of sex-instruction. We say nothing of internal anatomy; we use no scientific terms; we take no examples from plants or animals. There does not seem need for any of this, and it is only making your task more difficult. Instead, we take our examples from the feasts and prayers of the Church, and keep the whole thing as simple and as spiritual as possible.

Study the talks, but only as examples of how it might be done. Both talks follow the same general pattern. The paragraphs to notice most carefully are those where we wish to indicate the marriage act and the parts used in it, in very delicate and yet very clear language. You must be delicate, yet at the same time you must be easy to understand. These paragraphs may seem indelicate when set out in print, but they will not be when used in conversation between yourself and your child.

Stress the fact that these acts and pleasures are good for married people. "In marriage sexual pleasure is good, lawful, in fact holy: this principle should be dearly taught to all adolescents" (Scottish Bishops). Even grown-ups are often mistaken on this point.

This duty of sex-instruction is certainly a difficult task. But pray about it and think it over beforehand. And remember that when you were married you received the sacrament of Matrimony. This is not a sacrament which is over and done with on your wedding-day; it lasts all your life, and gives you a right to all the graces you need to do your duty as parents, including this particular duty of sex-instruction and training in purity. The grace of God is there to help you.

If you do your duty, and help your children, you will always be thankful. By treating sex as a common-sense subject, and purity as a common-sense virtue, and by the very fact that you have talked to your children about them, you will have given them great help. Beyond this, your personal example, your home-life, and the grace they receive in the sacraments, will see them through successfully "from the unconscious purity of infancy to the triumphant purity of adolescence" (the Pope).