Random Thoughts about Children

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Six thoughts about children (that came from homilies I have given over the years):

If you were caring for a beloved child who grew very sleepy, wouldn't you gently lay him down or cover her with a blanket, perhaps smooth his hair, or give her a light--oh so light--kiss on the forehead, and maybe even spend some time just standing there, watching over the child, lost in a moment of contemplation of beauty, of innocence, of caring, of love? In God's eyes, you are that child.

I saw a sign in a doctor's office this week that had a list of things a child was asking parents to do. One of the requests was this: Please stop and look at me while I am talking to you so that I know you are really listening to me and that what I am saying matters to you.  In other words, please contemplate me.

 

The pagan babies are not the poor children of third-world nations anymore. No The Pagan Babies are all around us, throughout the nation, baptized and affluent in many cases, but as regards the most important aspects of their lives, they are as impoverished and unequipped to face the trials and evils of the modern world as the undernourished naked children of the rain forest

The children of the godless are the poorest of the poor. The children of the immoral only know what they have seen. The children of the lazy, the pride, the arrogant, the unhappy, the critical, the stingy do not even know that there is an alternative way of living. The children of the joyless will spend a lifetime trying to find something they never knew existed. The children of those who do not actively and demonstratively search out for what is right or wrong move through life crippled by ignorance, and find no moral code except the code of the age, which was written not on a mountain top but rather in hell. 

Do you know what happens to children whose natural need to know about God is not fulfilled? Eventually they will find something to fill that need, something that sets them afire, that becomes a primary force in their lives, and unfortunately it will most likely be something that is a crock of nonsense, or evil.   

Do you want to bless your children more than you ever have before? Grow in your practice of prayer. Don't pray for your children or about your children--that too often turns into just more busy work. Forget the children for a time and fix your gaze upon the Lord and upon His word. Pray a rosary and offer it for your children as you meditate on the sacred mysteries.