{"id":17622,"date":"2026-04-17T11:08:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T09:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/fiduciosi-come-bambini\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T11:08:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T09:08:44","slug":"trust-like-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/trust-like-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Trust like children"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Canisiuskirche<\/picture>
The church of St. Peter Canisius in Vienna.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

This summer, I substituted for a priest in one of the nearby parishes for a baptism. The large church in a Neo-Romanic style, dedicated to St. Peter Canisius, was full of the voices of children, the school-aged children of the families present at the ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gospel recounts persons who bring children to Jesus so that He can embrace them and bless them. Then the Lord addresses the disciples with these words: Let the children come to me, do not impede them: to those who are as they are belongs the Kingdom of God. In the homily, I described the scene, so similar to that of the baptism that we were participating in, and I spoke of the desire of the parents, that their little children encounter the love of God. Then I asked, \u201cBut, according to you, why did Jesus like little kids so much, to the point of saying that only those who are like them will enter into the Kingdom of God?\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cWhy did Jesus like little kids so much, to the point of saying that only those who are like them will enter into the Kingdom of God?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

After a moment of reflection, one parent exclaimed, \u201cBecause they are innocent!.\u201d The response was not convincing to me. I turned with a smile to the children present and asked, \u201cKids, are you really all that innocent?\u201d. One child of ten exclaimed naturally, almost enjoying it, \u201cNo, I am not!.\u201d This is what Jesus truly likes about kids: this ease of recognizing their need for Him, this trust, above all, the certainty that He will forgive them. It is good news because it is possible for us who are older too. In those days, I read in the Encyclical of Pope Francis on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Dilexit nos, <\/em>the beautiful phrase of St. Therese of the Child Jesus: \u201cSometimes, when I read certain spiritual treatises in which perfection is presented as beset by a thousand obstacles and surrounded by a host of illusions, my poor spirit grows weary very quickly; I close the scholarly book, which confuses my mind and dries up my heart, and I take up the Holy Scriptures. Then everything appears luminous to me: a single word reveals infinite horizons to my soul; perfection seems easy to me; I see that it is enough to know one\u2019s own nothingness and to abandon oneself like a child into the arms of the good Lord.\u201d The German text translates it even more charmingly: \u201cthrowing oneself into the arms of the good Lord.\u201d I imagine him taking a running start, just as a child does with his mother or father. Childlike trust in God\u2019s merciful love is the foundation of everything else. How wonderful to learn from a child as they do what they do best!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During a baptism in Vienna, a child reminds us what it means to entrust ourselves to God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"slim_seo":{"title":"Trust like children - Fraternity of St. Charles","description":"During a baptism in Vienna, a child reminds us what it means to entrust ourselves to God."},"footnotes":""},"categories":[378],"tags":[731,1010],"writers":[51],"regions":[384],"cities":[447],"class_list":["post-17622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-testimonies","tag-bambini-en","tag-battesimo-en","writers-matteo-dallagata","regions-europe","cities-vienna-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17622"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17625,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17622\/revisions\/17625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17622"},{"taxonomy":"writers","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/writers?post=17622"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=17622"},{"taxonomy":"cities","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cities?post=17622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}