{"id":835,"date":"2013-06-03T14:00:53","date_gmt":"2013-06-03T13:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/?p=835"},"modified":"2014-01-04T12:02:56","modified_gmt":"2014-01-04T12:02:56","slug":"and-a-little-child-shall-lead-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/?p=835","title":{"rendered":"And a little child shall lead them"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"images-1\"<\/a>As a way to unwind in my last parish, I loved to walk along a disused railway line just outside Northampton. One day coming in the opposite direction was a young family: mum, dad and young daughter, maybe five or six years old. The little girl was running ahead of her parents so, not wanting to frighten her, I left the path to let her run past. Imagine my surprise when the little girl ran straight up to me. Enjoying my obvious embarrassment she asked, \u2018You don\u2019t know who I am, do you?\u2019 She quickly took pity on me explaining, \u2018I\u2019m a princess!\u2019 I laughed out loud! \u2018Of course, your Royal Highness, how could I have been so stupid?!\u2019<\/p>\n

In that chance encounter I was overtaken by what never fails to charm us about children. That little girl put me in mind of someone whose statue I caught sight of when I first walked into your lovely little church in March. The one on the right hand side of the sanctuary as you look at it. The one of my favourite saint: Th\u00e9r\u00e8se.<\/p>\n

\"sttherese\"<\/a>Whenever you look at that statue I want you to think of the child I met out walking that day. Like that child, Saint Th\u00e9r\u00e8se has so much to teach us: about living in the present moment; about trust; and about our royal dignity as God\u2019s sons and daughters.<\/p>\n

Like that child, Th\u00e9r\u00e8se invites us to live in God\u2019s own time: today. Not paralysed by what may have happened in the past. Not fretting about the future. Now is the only world little children know. Th\u00e9r\u00e8se teaches us that \u2018now\u2019 is the holy ground on which God wants to meet us.<\/p>\n

And trust is the way we tread that holy ground. I\u2019m sure that when the child\u2019s parents caught up with her they probably told her off for talking to strangers. But for children trust is second nature. Such trust is the trademark of Th\u00e9r\u00e8se\u2019s spirituality. Along with love, it is one of the wings of her Little Way to God.<\/p>\n

So why do children trust so instinctively? It’s because they know they\u2019re precious. \u2018I\u2019m a princess!\u2019 That little girl knew she was important, significant. Not a significance based on some achievement, mind you. She was far too young to have achieved anything. Her significance was a simple fact, a given, and not earned. That\u2019s a child\u2019s world, the one Th\u00e9r\u00e8se inhabits. The one she wants to take us by the hand and lead us into. The one where, as she loved to say, \u2018All is grace.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"images-2\"<\/a>One evening, out walking with her dad, Th\u00e9r\u00e8se noticed in the night sky a constellation tracing a \u2018T\u2019. \u2018Look, Papa, my name is written in heaven!\u2019 she said. Sheer precociousness? Surely! But isn\u2019t that precisely what delights us about children? It\u2019s certainly what charms God about his children. A line from the Scriptures comes to mind: \u2018And a little child shall lead them.\u2019 Let this little child Th\u00e9r\u00e8se, the one you look at each time you come to church in March, lead you. I promise you won\u2019t be disappointed.<\/p>\n

BY JOHN UDRIS<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a way to unwind in my last parish, I loved to walk along a disused railway line just outside Northampton. One day coming in the opposite direction was a young family: mum, dad and young daughter, maybe five or … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001003,"featured_media":839,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-previous-comment","category-previous-prayer"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/sttherese.jpg?fit=312%2C402&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001003"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=835"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1417,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835\/revisions\/1417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholicchurchmarch.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}