A story for every day...
Consolation for the loss of a favorite son.
Some parents were inconsolable over the death of a little boy who was as pious as he was talented. The mother confided her grief to her parish priest, who opened the Bible and read the following passage from the Book of Wisdom: “As it pleased God, he became His favorite child, and as he lived among sinners, God took him away. He was taken up so that evil would not corrupt his understanding, and error would not deceive his heart… Perfect in a short time, he filled many years, for his soul complied with the Lord, who hastened to separate him from the society of vicious men.” (Wisdom 4:10ff.) The parish priest gave the mother the explanation of the sacred text, and she promised not to complain again, so as not to offend the goodness of God. She then returned home, filled her husband’s soul with the same consolations and animated him with the same feelings of resignation.
God, knowing all things, foresees that more than one righteous person would be corrupted by the evil of the world, and takes him away in the flower of his age. This is a thought that should be meditated upon by those who mourn a beloved deceased, prematurely taken away by death.
The prayer of a schoolboy.
The little boy of a brave craftsman had grown cold. When he wanted to go to school the next day, his father said to him: “Dear, you are indisposed, you can’t go to school; stay in the warm room and work here. Take your pencil and slate and do a writing exercise.” The child obeyed and wrote the following prayer: “My Jesus, I beg You, make me a pious child. If I should not become one, take me from this earth, receive me into heaven, make me like the angels.” Soon after the child complained of a violent sore throat and was forced to be put to bed; the next day diphtheria broke out, and the day after that he had ceased to live. The parents kept their child’s slate as a precious relic and took comfort in the thought that the Savior had answered the prayer of their beloved child.
God calls more than one infant back to Himself to be an angel in heaven, because He foresees that this child would have been spoiled in this world and damned in eternity.
