Part 1
“Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I proclaim your praises: what you have hidden from the wise and learned, you have revealed to the very humble.”
Spiritual childhood is an invention that comes from the Heart of God! It is a light that enables us to see life in His own way. It is a path traced out by Jesus throughout his Gospel to guide us towards the Kingdom of Heaven. Since spiritual childhood has its source in the Gospel, it is also called ‘Gospel childhood’. Here are a few excerpts from the Gospel in which Jesus clearly teaches us the path He invites us to follow:
– “At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, ‘Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’”(Matthew 18:1-4)
– Saint Luke, for his part, tells us these powerful words of Jesus: “For he who is least among you all is the one who is great.” (Luke 9:48)
– Finally, one of Jesus’ rare exultations of joy, the cause of which we know, is recounted by Saint Matthew: “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.” (Matthew 11:25)
If Our Lord Jesus spoke clearly of his love for those who make themselves as little as children, inviting his disciples to be like them “He wants to show them the way to the sources: the true and eternal child is the one who receives himself from the Father at every moment; he is the Son, he is only the Son (…) The child is the one who depends on another. Jesus depends on his Father, not as a slave, but in love.” (André Cabes, L’autre monde de Bernadette [Bernadette’s other world – Our translation], p.59, Editions du Carmel)
To enable us to contemplate this mystery of humility and dependence, the Son of God became man through his incarnation; he became a little child.
“And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:12)
This Face of God in the Infant Jesus has filled so many saints with wonder that, following in his footsteps, they wanted to follow the path of spiritual childhood!
Of course, we think of the best known: Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, known to many as “Little Therese”. Blessed Eugénie was her contemporary; they could not know each other, but the Holy Spirit inspired them to follow the same path to holiness. Blessed Eugénie also had a deep devotion to the Child Jesus. Her sisters remembered that at the end of November 1903, the Franciscan Fathers from the Ara Coeli Church had brought her a small statue of the Holy Child Jesus, as it is customary with sick people who ask for it. Sister Eugénie had been very happy about it, and had prayed for a long time before the statue. She had exclaimed: “Oh, how beautiful He was! And above all, how small He was!” (JVPJ p.37)
He was her only model of life: her ideal was to make herself small, ever smaller and dependent like Jesus, contemplated in his Infancy and in his relationship with the Father.
Echoing the Gospel, she wrote as early as during her novitiate retreat: “I want to make myself small, very small: I want to be the very small faithful sheep, I want to let myself be led by my Rule, by my Superiors, by obedience… Yes, I want to be very small! God has mercy on those who are humble, on those who go unnoticed, who do not take up much space.” (SEJ p.68)
From the Congregation’s House in Rome, close to the end of her religious life, exhausted by illness, she liked to sign her letters: “Your little Sister Eugénie”, and she said again and again: “I want to become a bambina”. (SEJ p.213)
Throughout this exploration of spiritual childhood, we will discover that Blessed Eugénie readily used images when she wrote. Her images sometimes came from the Word of God, or perhaps from one of the preachers at the retreat, or no doubt from personal inspiration… But when we read her notebooks, we discover that she always made images her own. For example, she used the image of the Good Shepherd in a meditation about mercy in relation to spiritual childhood. This may come as a surprise at first, but as we read her meditation we discover how personal and luminous was her choice of this biblical image. Indeed, the little lamb carried by the Shepherd evokes our fragility, our accepted smallness, our need to be protected, to be accompanied, to be cared for. The little ewe that is carried is trusting and abandoned, it is well, resting on the Shepherd’s heart.
This biblical image is undoubtedly highly relevant today. It invites us to strip ourselves of our self-sufficiency, of our mistaken desire for autonomy. In this way, we learn from the One who humbled himself to find our true greatness by making ourselves small, trusting and abandoned.
Let us meditate on the beautiful text she offered us in her notebooks:
“Marks of love from the Good Shepherd for the sheep he has just found… He does not talk to her about her unfaithfulness; she has suffered enough. He takes her in his arms without wounding her further (there is always a moment when the sinner approaches Jesus’ Heart in this way). He does not want her to walk… she is wounded, she would fall… This is how He treats the most wicked sheep; she is walking but not walking herself, the Good Shepherd is carrying her, and so she is making her way to the fold. There, the Good Shepherd lovingly binds up the wounds of his unfaithful sheep; he does not want us to humiliate her: that is enough. Rejoice with me, he said arriving, for I have found my sheep that was lost. Here is the triumph of love.
O my good Master, this is what I have been to you and this is what you have been to me! How can I thank you for the excesses of your tenderness? Oh, I know, I want to make myself small, very small, I want to be the tiny faithful sheep, I want to let myself be led by my Rule, by my superiors, by obedience!” (Notebook 9)
This image of the Good Shepherd has introduced us to an aspect of spiritual childhood.
Another aspect is given to us in a poem: the only poem we have discovered in Blessed Eugénie’s writings is about this spirit of Gospel childhood!
It is a naive composition in seven stanzas, each of which begins with the phrase ‘’Like a little one who…‘’: ‘’Like a little one sleeping‘’, ‘’Like a little one trotting‘’, ‘’Like a docile little one‘’, “Like a little one revealing oneself”, “Like a little one radiating”…
At the heart of each stanza, Eugénie applied this description of the child to herself, writing: “So I want…”
We invite you to discover and meditate on the first stanza of this poem, which can be found in full in the appendix:
“Like a little one sleeping
Not listening to the wind,
Knowing that his mother is watching over him
To preserve him from evil and noise:
So, I want in my misery
Without fear or worry,
To hand over everything to my Mother
Whispering low: ‘Thank you!’” (SEJ p.68)
Following in the footsteps of Blessed Eugénie, we understand that spiritual childhood is far from being childish! It is a decision taken from the depths of our being (‘I want’) which, while remaining adult, makes us become children in our relationship with God. The Lord Jesus, the beloved Son of the Father, is a unique Model.
But how can an adult become a child?
The following parts present the main virtues of spiritual childhood.
In this way, our journey will take shape by deepening humility (Part II), fidelity to little things (Part III), purity and simplicity (Part IV) and trusting abandonment (Part V).
