Traveling the path to God as a child

Anna Hurdle (left) and Allison Seay in one of the atria at St. Stephen’s Church

Carriers of God’s secret Traveling the path to God as a child

Help us, O God, to enter into the secret of childhood, so that we may know, love and serve the child in accordance with the laws of thy justice and following thy holy will. When Maria Montessori articulated a vision for how best to companion children in their formation, she insisted that the power of silence was far greater than a facility of speech, that observation was profoundly DR. MARIA MONTESSORI, THE ABSORBENT MIND different from supervision, and that the work of being heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest with children was work requiring “the spirit of the Maria Montessori, 20th century Italian physician and scientist”—that is, patience, persistence and humility— education reformer, offered this prayer as “an invitation, rather than the mechanisms or machinery of the scientist. a kind of syllabus.” What could she mean when By Anna Hurdle speaking of the “secret” of childhood she had discovered through In her book, Listening to God with Children, Montessori educator her work and observation of children? Why is she asking God’s and trainer Gianna Gobbi offers a prayerful reflection on a lifetime help to enter into it? Perhaps Jesus knew of this secret. of experiences with children. She shares her observations of prayer

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the with profound simplicity. As adults, we are invited to enter gently greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a child, whom he and respectfully into the child’s joyful encounter with the mystery put among them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change of God’s silent self-revelation made tangible through ancient biblical and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of images, liturgical signs and celebrations. in children, of how children hear God speak to them personally and in the kingdom of heaven.” MATTHEW 18: 1-4 In collaboration with Dr. Sofia Cavalletti, biblical and Hebrew scholar, Gobbi was instrumental in applying Montessori’s principles When Jesus implores us to become as children, what does he to the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, a method of religious mean? What characteristics and attributes of childhood are we to formation wherein the mystery of the child meets the mystery of rediscover, change and become? God in joyful, often silent encounters. It is within this mystery that we might begin to respond to Cavelletti’s question: “Might not the To “enter into the secret of childhood” requires a willing spirit and pathway of the child open unknown perspectives of the religious a particular discipline that comes as a result of patient observation world, capable of enriching us as adults? Can only the adult be a of children and careful preparation of ourselves. theologian?”