joy of nine9

A relationship to the living God is child’s play.  Children are open to the Spirit in a simple and natural way; their spirituality is not only taught, it rises from within them as they listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit in their own hearts.

St. Paul assures us that all men have the basic laws of God carved into their hearts. In modern language, we all have an awareness of good and evil or a conscience.The problem is tapping into and living out from my core where God has inscribed a moral code on my heart. It is  hidden in my deepest self. Actually, first we must recognize that our own ego and selfishness are a barrier between us and God. Thank God for Christ because He offers an easy way to love and easy way to live in His Spirit as saints.

Relax. Give up striving in your own strength, self-righteousness and pride and accept that you need Jesus as your Saviour. St. Paul understood that only Christ had the power to deliver him from himself. In Romans 7: 24

…but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! 

Surrender to Christ’s saving love,  and let it saturate every cell of your body.Then simply let His love flow through you. However, it ends up being a long journey to such carefree lifestyle because pride and ego get in the way. It is so simple that it seems complicated to our adult, logical minds.

“I assure you,” He said, ‘unless you are converted and become like children, , you will never get into the kingdom from heaven…’” Matthew 18:4

A relationship to the living God is child’s play.  Children are open to the Spirit in a simple and natural way; their spirituality is not only taught, it rises from within them 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 Mary, one afternoon, while eighteen-month old Claire 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 Mark 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.

No wonder Jesus said, “Unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church:

526 To become a child in relation to God is the condition for entering the kingdom. For this, we must humble ourselves and become little. Even more: to become “children of God” we must be “born from above” or “born of God”. Only when Christ is formed in us will the mystery of Christmas be fulfilled in us. Christmas is the mystery of this “marvelous exchange”: