CMP Review 2024-07-14

The first chapter of Essex Cholmondeley’s biography of Charlotte Mason is entitled “Preparation.” The most poignant paragraph of this chapter occurs on page 5:

The strain of poverty told upon the health of Charlotte’s beautiful mother and in 1858 she died. Mr Mason never recovered from this loss. He died soon afterwards, leaving Charlotte at the age of sixteen alone in the world. A friend gave her a home for a time; she was entirely without relations and without means, and she passed through a period of great desolation. In her mind remained one idea: she knew that ‘teaching was a thing to do, and above all the teaching of poor children.’ When she was eighteen she took the first step towards her life’s work.

It is hard to imagine what the young Miss Mason experienced during this time of desolation. While her future was hanging in the balance, she made a choice that would eventually touch the hearts of families and educators all over the world for generations to come. What gave this young sixteen year old the power to move forward?

On page 180, Cholmondeley describes a poem Miss Mason wrote called “Rest.” According to Cholmondeley, the poem was “the outcome of the bereavement caused by the loss of [Mason’s] parents.” The poem has a mystical quality and may even be describing a mystical experience from Mason’s youth. The last stanza of the poem includes these words in quotation marks (italicized by Cholmondeley):

As one is comforted, Whom comforteth his mother!

The words seem to be adapted from Isaiah 66:13. The implication is clear. God took the place of mother and father for this young girl, so that our lives and families could one day be blessed. Read or hear the full poem “Rest” here.

@artmiddlekauff