The Mystery of the Holy Innocents, Charles Peguy (selection from Part III, Session 2)

We now turn to a few poems from two great Catholic poets, which touch on themes of spiritual childhood (compare with filial adoption), fatherhood, how the Incarnation elevates human life into the Trinity, and the Blessed Virgin Mary.

You believe that children know nothing.
And that parents and grown-up people know something.
Well, I tell you it is the contrary.
…
It is the parents, it is the grown-up people who know nothing.
And it is the children who know
Everything.

For they know first innocence,
Which is everything.
…
Nothing is so beautiful as a child who falls asleep while saying its prayers, God says.
I tell you there is nothing so beautiful in the world.
I have never seen anything so beautiful in the world
And yet I have seen some beauty in the world
And I am a judge of it. My Creation overflows with beauty.
My Creation overflows with marvels.
There are so many one doesn’t know where to put them.
I have seen millions and millions of stars rolling at my feet like the sands of the sea.
I have seen days blazing like flames.
Summer days in June, in July, in August.
I have seen winter evenings laid down like a cloak.
I have seen summer evenings as calm and gentle as the descent of Paradise
All sprinkled with stars.
…
I have seen the dark, deep sea, and the dark, deep forest, and the dark, deep heart of man.
I have seen hearts devoured by love
Throughout a life-time
Lost in charity.
Burning like flames.
…
I have seen martyrs flaming like torches
Earning palms forever green,
And I have seen gathering beneath the iron claws
Drops of blood which glittered like diamonds.
And I have seen the dropping of many tears of love
Which will endure longer than the stars of the sky.
…
Well, I tell you, God says, I know nothing so beautiful in all the world
As a little child who falls asleep while saying his prayers
Under the wing of his Guardian Angel
And who laughs to the angels as he goes to sleep.
And who is already confusing everything and understanding nothing more
And who stuffs the words of the Our Father all awry, pell-mell into the words of the
Hail Mary
While a veil is already dropping on his eyelids
The veil of night on his face and his voice.
I have seen the greatest Saints, God says. Yet I say to you.
I have never seen anything so funny and in consequence I know nothing so beautiful in
the world
As the child who falls asleep saying his prayers
(As the little creature who falls asleep confidently)
And who jumbles his Our Father with his Hail Mary.

READING QUESTIONS:

1. What is beautiful about children falling asleep at their prayers?
What could be beautiful about martyrdom?

2. How are these aspects of beauty related to the beauty of Christ?