joy of nine9

• children are open to the Spirit in a simple and natural way

Children are like sponges; they absorb values, attitudes, culture and spirituality simply through osmosis. However, it goes deeper than that. Children’s spirituality is not simply taught, it rises from within as they listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit in their own hearts. Often what came out of our children’s mouths surprised and startled us. Yet both my husband and I were often aware of the deep spirituality that flowed from our children to us as well as from us as parents to our offspring.

For example, I was rocking newborn Mara, one afternoon, while eighteen-month old Melissa sat on her Dad’s knee, slowly waking up from a long nap. The topic of discussion for the last hour had been, ”How on earth can we manage to get to church as a family with three little ones, all on different schedules?” Every choice of service or church had some complication or difficulty that seemed insurmountable. It seemed an impossible situation and I resigned myself to simply staying at home on Sundays for the time being.

Suddenly, we were both startled as a flushed and distraught three-year old Matthew came running into the kitchen. He was still groggy from his nap but was able to yell in very loud voice, “Jesus says come, Jesus says come!!!

We were both stunned into silence. The deep discussion was over. This episode really seems to be a mystery at first glance but perhaps but this was a simple demonstration of the power of God living in all of us, adults as well as little children. As a family we chose to live, move, breath and have our very being in Him. He took charge of this particular dilemma by using the most open, articulate member of our family, a three-year old.

• Polish Madonna, Our Lady of the Laundry