List of points

My dear man: though you feel very much a child, and though you are one before God, don't be so simple as to put your brother 'on the spot' before strangers.

We've got to be convinced that God is always near us. We live as though he were far away, in the heavens high above, and we forget that he is also continually by our side.

He is there like a loving Father. He loves each one of us more than all the mothers in the world can love their children — helping us, inspiring us, blessing… and forgiving.

How often we have misbehaved and then cleared the frowns from our parents' brows, telling them: I won't do it any more! — That same day, perhaps, we fall again… — And our father, with feigned harshness in his voice and serious face, reprimands us, while in his heart he is moved, realizing our weakness and thinking: poor child, how hard he tries to behave well!

We've got to be filled, to be imbued with the idea that our Father, and very much our Father, is God who is both near us and in heaven.

Outside events have placed you in voluntary confinement, worse perhaps, because of its circumstances, than the confinement of a prison. You have suffered an eclipse of your personality.

On all sides you feel yourself hemmed in: selfishness, curiosity, misunderstanding, people talking behind your back. All right: so what? Have you forgotten your free-will and that power of yours as a 'child'? The absence of flowers and leaves (external action) does not exclude the growth and activity of the roots (interior life).

Work: things will change, and you will yield more fruit than before, and sweeter too.

Try to know the 'way of spiritual childhood' without forcing yourself to follow this path. Let the holy Spirit work in you.

Way of childhood. Abandonment. Spiritual infancy. All this is not utter nonsense, but a sturdy and solid christian life.

In the spiritual life of childhood the things 'children' say or do are never puerile or childish.

Spiritual childhood is not spiritual foolishness or flabbiness; it is a sane and forceful way which, due to its difficult easiness, the soul must begin and continue, led by the hand of God.

Spiritual childhood demands submission of the mind, more difficult than submission of the will. In order to subject our mind we need not only God's grace, but also the continual exercise of our will, which says 'no' again and again, just as it says 'no' to the flesh. And so we get the paradox that whoever wants to follow this 'little' way in order to become a child, needs to add strength and virility to his will.

Be a little child; the greatest daring is always that of children Who cries for… the moon? Who is blind to dangers in getting what he wants?

To such a child add much grace from God, the desire to do his Will, great love for Jesus, all the human knowledge he is capable of acquiring, and you will have a likeness of the apostles of today such as God undoubtedly wants them.

Be a child. Even more so. But don't stop at the show-off stage: have you ever seen anything sillier than the little fellow playing the man, or a grown man acting like a baby?

A child, with God: and just because of that, very much a man in everything else. Ah! and drop those lap-dog manners.

Sometimes we feel inclined to act as little children. What we do then has a wonderful value in God's eyes and, so long as we don't let routine creep in, our 'little' actions will indeed be fruitful with the unfailing fruitfulness of Love.

Before God, who is eternal, you are much more a child than, before you, the tiniest toddler.

And besides being a child, you are a child of God. — Don't forget it.

When you feel oppressed by your weaknesses don't let yourself be sad. Glory in your infirmities, like Saint Paul, for children need not fear being laughed at when they imitate great men.

Don't let your imperfections and defects, nor even your more serious falls, separate you from God. A weak child, if he is wise, tries to keep near his Father.

Don't worry if you become annoyed when you do those little things he asks of you. Eventually you will smile…

Have you never seen how reluctantly a little child gives his father — who is only teasing him, — the sweet which he has in his hand? But he gives it: love has conquered.

When you want to do things well, really well, it's then you do them worst. Humble yourself before Jesus, saying to him: don't you see how I do everything badly? Well, if you don't help me very much, I'll do it all even worse I

Take pity on your child: you see, I want to write a big page each day in the book of my life. But, I'm so clumsy!; and if the Master doesn't guide my hand, instead of graceful strokes my pen leaves behind blots and scrawls that can't be shown to anyone.

From now on, Jesus, we'll always do the writing together.

My clumsiness, Beloved, is so great, so very great that even when I wish to caress I cause pain. Refine the manners of my soul: within the sturdy manliness of this life of childhood, give me — I want you to give me — the gentleness and affection that children show towards their parents in their intimate outpourings of love.

You are full of weaknesses. Each day you see them more clearly. But don't let them frighten you. He well knows you can't yield more fruit.

Your involuntary falls — a child's falls — show your Father-God that he must take more care and your Mother Mary that she must never let you go from her loving hand. Each day as our Lord picks you up from the ground, take advantage of it, embrace him with all your strength and lay your wearied head on his open breast so that you will be carried away by the beating of his most lovable Heart.

One pinprick. And another. And another. Suffer them! Don't you see you are so small that in your life — in your way — you can only offer him those little crosses?

Besides, just think: one pinprick and another, one cross on top of another,… what a huge pile!

When all is said and done, child, you have learned to do one really big thing: to Love.

When a child-like soul tells our Lord of its desires to be forgiven, it can be sure that it will soon see those desires fulfilled: Jesus will free the soul from the filthy tail that it drags in punishment for its past miseries. He will remove the dead-weight which still remains from all its impurities and drags it down to the ground. He will free the child from all the earthly ballast in its heart so that it can rise up towards God's Majesty, and be enveloped in the living flame of his Love.

The discouragement produced by your repeated lack of generosity, your lapses, your falls — which perhaps are only apparent — often makes you feel as if you had broken something of exceptional value (your sanctification).

Don't be worried: apply to your supernatural life the wise way simple children have of solving such a conflict.

They have broken — nearly always because of its fragility — something their father values greatly. They are sorry, perhaps they shed tears, but… they go to seek consolation from the owner of what has been damaged by their awkwardness, and their father forgets the value — great though it may be — of the broken object and, filled with tenderness, he not only pardons, but consoles and encourages the little one. Learn.

Let your prayer be manly. To be a child does not mean to be effeminate.

For the person who loves Jesus, prayer, even prayer without consolation, is the sweetness that puts an end to all sorrow: he goes to pray, eagerly, like a child going to the sugar-bowl after a bitter dose of medicine.

You are distracted in prayer. — Try to avoid distractions, but don't worry if in spite of everything your mind still wanders.

Don't you see how in ordinary life even the most considerate children play with the things about them, and often pay no attention to what their father is saying? This does not imply a lack of love or respect: it is the weakness and littleness peculiar to a child.

Then, look: you are a child before God.