17 AUGUST (Mt 19,13-15)

In the Old Testament of the children at the service of the Lord it is spoken only of young Samuel, consecrated to the Lord by his mother before he was even conceived.

During the time young Samuel was minister to the Lord under Eli, a revelation of the Lord was uncommon and vision infrequent. One day Eli was asleep in his usual place. His eyes had lately grown so weak that he could not see. The lamp of God was not yet extinguished, and Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was. The Lord called to Samuel, who answered, “Here I am.” He ran to Eli and said, “Here I am. You called me.” “I did not call you,” Eli said. “Go back to sleep.” So he went back to sleep. Again the Lord called Samuel, who rose and went to Eli. “Here I am,” he said. “You called me.” But he answered, “I did not call you, my son. Go back to sleep.” At that time Samuel was not familiar with the Lord, because the Lord had not revealed anything to him as yet. The Lord called Samuel again, for the third time. Getting up and going to Eli, he said, “Here I am. You called me.” Then Eli understood that the Lord was calling the youth. So he said to Samuel, “Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.'” When Samuel went to sleep in his place, the Lord came and revealed his presence, calling out as before, “Samuel, Samuel!” Samuel answered, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” The Lord said to Samuel: “I am about to do something in Israel that will cause the ears of everyone who hears it to ring. On that day I will carry out in full against Eli everything I threatened against his family. I announce to him that I am condemning his family once and for all, because of this crime: though he knew his sons were blaspheming God, he did not reprove them. Therefore, I swear to the family of Eli that no sacrifice or offering will ever expiate its crime.” Samuel then slept until morning, when he got up early and opened the doors of the temple of the Lord. He feared to tell Eli the vision, but Eli called to him, “Samuel, my son!” He replied, “Here I am.” Then Eli asked, “What did he say to you? Hide nothing from me! May God do thus and so to you if you hide a single thing he told you.” So Samuel told him everything, and held nothing back. Eli answered, “He is the Lord. He will do what he judges best.” Samuel grew up, and the Lord was with him, not permitting any word of his to be without effect. Thus all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba came to know that Samuel was an accredited prophet of the Lord. The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh; he manifested himself to Samuel at Shiloh through his word (1Sam 3,1-21).

However, we know that the Lord has chosen many persons even before their conception so that they remained at his service. Rather, it is the Lord who works their birth by a miracle, being the women infertile. The last great prodigy in such a sense is the birth of John the Baptist, who had always been all and entirely of the Lord.

There is no age to be of the Lord. One must be from the mother’s womb, from the first moment of conception. This happened only with the Virgin Mary. She was the only one to be conceived immaculate, without stain of original sin. She alone has always been full of grace. She has always been full of grace and virgin for her God. She has never been of evil, not even a slight one. She is light in the Light of God.

Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked them, but Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” After he placed his hands on them, he went away.

Every child must be helped so that he goes to Christ since the first day of his life. Parents hold a great responsibility. They are the ones in charge of this mission. It is they who must ensure that children breathe God, they breathe him through their breath and their respiration. If parents do not breathe themselves of God, never might they transmit their children this breathe. But if their children do not breathe God, they certainly breathe other breaths, but these only lethal; they are not of life, but of death. Today all the children breathe these breaths of death, because parents have stopped themselves to breathe the Lord. Life is from life, the divine breath is from the divine breath. In all children are from their parents.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us breath of God.