The Power of Children in the Last Times

it is yet known that God condescends German: condescendire; a theological term meaning God stoops down to reach human understanding. according to the measure and portion of each person; he becomes, as it were, a youth among youths, and deals with and works through children in a childlike manner.

§. 2. How can the great God ever satisfy the world’s desires so that they do not always find something to criticize in His works? But He does not let such things lead Him astray; rather, He continues in His deeds and purposes, and will surely justify Himself. He shall be justified by His children of wisdom against the children of the world when posterity learns from the judgment why God stirred these children in such a way, and made this otherwise immature German: unmündige; literally "under-aged" or "without a voice," referring here to those without legal or social standing. people mature. It has often pleased this holy and wonderful God to do great things and put the clever of the world to shame, not only through the "mystical" little ones—those who, by renouncing all their own high worldly wisdom, have recognized the hidden wisdom through the anointing of the Spirit in sincerity Original Greek: εἰλικρίνεια (eilikrineia); meaning moral purity or sincerity., simplicity, and purity of heart—but it has also been His good pleasure to appear wonderfully and work through those who are immature in years, and thus truly in small children. Through the grace of God, they are just as capable of this anointing in such years as the adults whom God deems worthy of it; indeed, they are often much more capable than others, because adults often resist through their natural reasoning and through

through their human reason. In contrast, little children, who do not resist, accept what God works in the simplicity of their hearts in a childlike way and without over-subtle brooding. Who would dispute the radiance of these children, whose angels always behold the face of their Heavenly Father? If they have faith, why should they not please God through faith, and through faith do such things that are divine and pleasing to God? Even John [the Baptist], while still in his mother’s womb, lived in faith through the Spirit moving within him, and showed honor to Christ his Savior with his leaping and rejoicing when the faithful Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting. Why then should the Spirit of the Lord not be able to work in a child who is already out of the mother's womb?

"Generally," writes a profound mystical teacher, "children are not hindered, nor distracted by any evil enticement; they strive and labor to return to that place from whence they came. Hence, in my opinion, the Greatest Doctor said: unless you become as little children, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; for namely, the souls of children contend to return there before they are infected [by sin]." Original Latin: Communiter Pueri non sunt impediti, nec aliquo malo à lenocinio distracti, affectant & satagunt, redire illuc, unde venerunt. Hinc, ut opinor, summus Doctor dixit, nisi efficiamini, sicut parvuli, non intrabitis in Regnum cœlorum, quia videlicet illuc redire contendunt puerorum animæ, antequam inficiantur. Francesco Giorgio, Sacred Problems, Volume 6, Section 3, Problem 101, Paris Edition, folio 393. Bernard of Clairvaux, in his book On the Order of Life, derives the word for child Latin: Puer. from "purity" Latin: puritas. and says that simplicity, innocence, and purity reign in a child. "Children are named for their purity, and it is fitting that simplicity, innocence, and puri-" Original Latin: Pueri à puritate dicti sunt, & decet, ut regnent in eis simplicitas, & innocentia, & puri-