Children and the Gospel

When they make fun of us – “One day I received zero in Maths and my classmates made fun of me. My teacher punished me and I wept. On another day my friends received zeros in Geography and I received ten. I went up to them and comforted them. I began to play with them and this is how I consoled them.” (Rita, 9 years old, Central African Republic)

Ask and it will be given to you – “One Sunday at Mass, the parish priest asked money for something. When I returned home I asked my Mum what it was about because I hadn’t understood it well. She explained to me that he had asked everyone to contribute money towards enlarging the church building which was too small for all the faithful. I didn’t have any money but would have liked to help. I asked Jesus. A short time later I received my report card. I was the first in my class. My father was very happy that I was so good. He gave me 2000 francs and I placed them inside an envelope as my contribution for the church building.” (Raissa, 9 years old, Central African Republic)

If God is Love, then we should also love each other – “In my classroom there is a girl who never shares anything with others, even when she could. A few days ago she came to school with one of her books broken. She asked our classmates: “Does anyone have some scotch that I could use to repair my book?” My friends answered her saying: “The scotch we have, but we’re not going to give any to you because you never give us anything!” But I said: “I’ll give her my scotch just the same, because God is Love. He loves us. We should also love each other.” And I said to my friend: “Here is the scotch. Can I help you fix your book? And I felt joy inside my heart.” (Rainatou – 8 years old, Central African Republic)

You don’t need to fear – “We spend painful days amid clashes in the streets and the peace that is constantly being threatened. A few families have organized to spread signs of harmony and the children have joined in. Eight year old Magda has begun to put some of her things together to share them with the refugees. Her friend began to do the same. They placed their things in a big bundle, in order to distribute them with the help of some adults. When the moment arrived for the distribution the situation in the city worsened. Magda’s family didn’t flee for safety because Magda wanted to finish what she had set out to do. There were clashes taking place beneath their house when Magda said to her Mum: “You don’t need to fear. Perhaps God is making us live through this so that He can let us see a miracle.”

Like the first Christians – “We are living through dangerous times, but in spite of this, a group of children, who have the children of Syria very much at heart, wanted to do something to help them. One idea was to bake biscuits and cakes that could be sold. When the parish priest heard of it he said: “You little ones, you are like the first Christians who helped each other when anyone was in need.” On the day of the sale they won over the hearts of all: from the lady who had prepared a cake at the bakery that had a Syrian flag, to the couple that sent 1.000 € even though they couldn’t buy a cake because they had all been sold after the first Mass. In Egypt the children have been the pioneers in the Focolare community at offering assistance to Syria.”

You are my sisters – “At the beach we met a lady who was carrying so many bags. She was tired. We invited her to sit on our deckchair. She was thristy and asked for some natural water. My mother only had carbonated water. So I asked some from our neighbour beneath the beach umbrella. The lady thanked us saying: “Thank you for everything! You are my sisters!” I looked up at my mother and said: “Mummy, remember that song? The person passing by us is Jesus. . .and one day He will say ‘thank you for when you smiled at me and took care of me!’?” And so I remembered that Jesus was inside that lady.” (Benedetta, Italy)