Part 26 (2/2)
All devout persons know that evil is a ”chain” for us, holding us down beneath the earth as in a tomb, and that sentiments hostile to love are so many obstacles which impede our expansion and our free contact with the divine essence which is within us The slightest alloy, the most minute infiltration, suffices to impair our brilliance and to cause our ejection froes our brother instead of absolving hiainst hi hatred and fury
”The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these:hatred, variance, es, witchcraft, , be it ever so slightly, froainst charity is vain; it is as if a wounded hare should rush to her forh; she goes, not to save herself, but to die in her forift to the altar, and there reo thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then coives an offense does not perforical act of justice, nor does he benefit the person he forgives; hence it is waste of time to consider whether the offense deserves pardon or not, and whether the person who committed it needs absolution from us or not We must pardon, not from a sense of justice nor for the benefit of the offender, but for our own sakes; he who forgives has divested himself of envy and resent it powerless to rise This is e ive: that so we may burst the bonds which impede our free movement, our ascent When we cut the cable of a balloon, we do not consider whether this is just towards the earth, and whether the cable deserves it; we do it because it is necessary, to enable the balloon to rise He who ascends, moreover, enjoys the marvels of a spectacle which cannot be enjoyed on earth Who would strike a balance between this gain and the sacrifice of the cable?
Forgive, and you will feel universal absolution rising to you from the whole world, in token of your ascent _Haec est vera fraternitas, quae vicit ious sentiment in children=--But few researches have been ious senti the reland, iosity in children occurred; it was after the little Nelly, aged five, asked for the Eucharist on her death-bed that Pius X allowed it to be ade But the subject forms a very inconsiderable part of the positive studies of to-day
The solitary study of this kind which has been brought forward in public congresses on psychology was that which was considered during the Preie, Bruxelles, aout, 1911: _Quelques observations sur le developpeieuse chez un enfant_, Ghidionescu, Doct en Philosophie (Bucharest) The child as the subject of observation had received no religious education whatever One day he was seen to burst into a sudden fit of weeping, for no apparent reason When his , the child replied: ”Because I reo, and at this moment I _feel_ it” A year and a half later a si at thefrom the hen he suddenly burst into tears ”Do not scoldat the rieved you, and I understood that I had offended God”
This interesting study reveals successive phases of a spontaneous phenomenon of moral consciousness: the first was the revelation of the lively feeling which provoked a fit of weeping two months after the event which distressed the child: he _felt_ the sufferings of the cruelly treated puppy And a long time after this activity of the conscience had been initiated couishes between good and evil actions, and recognizes the fact that he has incurred the displeasure of his parents; this displeasure was probably not very serious, indeed it was so slight that the child had been unconscious of it at the ti himself of these trivial impurities he feels God: ”I understood that I had offended God,” he said, and he kneell that he had not offended his parents Now, no one had ever talked to him about God, or trained hia siious education have necessarily been limited hitherto; indeed, in the Children's House kept by the Franciscan Sisters of the Via Giusti the religious education was given by the ordinary inal studies or observations On the other hand, the dominant political party in the ion froor which causes the word ”God” to be feared as bigots fear the word ”devil”
My experience has, therefore, been limited to some of the children I have received privately in ious faious influence [9]
One of my little pupils was just over seven years old, when a friend of his fa that he had been educated in ”freedo to hi to the principles of Lamarck and Darwin The child followed his explanation very attentively and then asked: ”Well, then, man comes from the monkey, and the monkey from some other animal, and so on; but from whom did the first creature come?” ”The first,” answered his friend, ”was for his mother, said excitedly: ”Just listen; what nonsense! Life was formed by chance! That is impossible”
”Then hoas life formed?” ”It is God,” replied the child, with conviction
[Footnote 9: At present soious education are being carried out in the ”Escola Montessori” at Barcelona, under the direction of the Provincial Deputies of that city]
This same child was prepared, with his ether with his sister; a highly educated young priest of e undertook the task I was curious to hear what objections the child had raised; but I was not admitted to his lessons I was only present on one occasion, when the course of instruction was almost at an end The priest spoke of the reservation of the wine and of the practical situations in which the celebrant ht such a dissertation entirely unsuitable for children, and one which was likely to distract their attention from the end in view; but I saith amazement that their faces were turned intently to the altar; they were evidently unfamiliar with such minute explanations, but they were penetrated by a sentiment which attracted them; the chalice with the divine blood appealed to these souls ready to receive it, as it did to the innocent Parsifal When they made their first Communion, I was convinced that their souls received the mysteries with the sweetest faith and with absolute simplicity, as if all that is of God were comprehensible to them, and only that which denies Him an absurdity Their spiritual conquest accompanied them in life
A little cousin of these children, as prepared to receive the Coious training in her own ho enthusiastically in class: ”How beautiful the anatoeo of all”
There was an older child in the school, whose parents, both father and ion This child, although she showed great interest in the school exercises, was always restless
Later, when soiven in the villa where she lived, which were arranged with great skill and were veritable works of art, she became stillfrom some disillusionment One day she called an orphan child from Messina, as one of our children who had come from the school in the Via Giusti, and took her away into a quiet corner, asking her to repeat the Lord's Prayer The orphan recited it, while the rich child gazed at her eagerly Then, as if in obedience to an inspiration, she went to the piano to play; but her hands trembled; she threw herself on one side, with her elbow on the keyboard and her head hanging, unable to conceal her agitation any longer Her soul was seeking to satisfy its yearning; nothing could give her peace but the one thing those who loved her wished to withhold froer: ”Like as the heart desireth the water brooks, so longeth my soul after thee, O God”
As yet the coarse scoria evolved from darkness, which makes it so difficult for the adult to embrace the mysteries of the spirit like a little child, had not formed around her Later, such mysteries become incomprehensible; as to Nicodeain? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb?”
But this rapid survey will suffice to make us understand that the little child has other needs, in addition to his intellectual wants, and that long before his intelligence is developed and satisfied, his pure and open spirit reflects the divine light He is perhaps the Parsifal for e are waiting, depressed and sick at heart, while because of the ier descend in the Holy Grail towards the chalice filled with the blood of Peace [10]
[Footnote 10: The moral question is barely indicated and is not even comprehensively indicated Such a work, indeed, represents an experience At present an experiious education of children has only just been initiated at Barcelona (Spain) A book on this subject should form a sequel to this voluues will be able to bring such a heavy task to a successful conclusion]