Spiritual direction: reverence for the Infant Jesus

I spent a little time this afternoon and evening printing some holy cards on my new little Canon Selphy printer. I've not had a working printer for a quite a long while so I've had a backlog of longing to have printed visual art, especially antique holy card art. Some of my favorites are those that depict the Infant Jesus. I have one of him sitting in his bed of straw, holding out his little hands, with a prayer. Another one shows infant angels opening the door of the tabernacle from which the Infant Jesus emerges. I love that one!

There used to be many holy cards depicting reverence for the Infant Jesus. The best known shrine images of the Infant Jesus are Infant Jesus of Prague and Niño de Atocha (honoring the apparition of the Infant Jesus who miraculously fed and gave water to starving prisoners in Spain). But for the most part until recently Christians had a very prayerful attentiveness and tenderness toward not just the grown man Jesus, but also for the Infant Jesus. The holy card art work by Catholics is one way to monitor and observe this attentiveness.

I've often mentioned that one of the things I am most fond of regarding the Qur'an is that it records the fact that the Infant Jesus could and did speak for himself. And the Gospel records how Jesus spoke for himself and taught at the Temple of Jerusalem as a child around the age of twelve.

Grown men carried Infant Jesus holy cards and venerated his memory. But today we have that overall deterioration of respect for life and love for infants so that not only is it hard to recall the memory of the divine Infant Jesus, human babies themselves are aborted, abused and devalued. Instead of a treasure many pre-born and born babies are an inconvenience and a punching bag, even being sexually assaulted in their own families.

It is pointless to argue which came first, the abuse of infants or the deterioration of the veneration of the Infant Jesus, since they are a coupling of part of the overall pattern of the coarsening and anti-life depressive and angry stance of the world as a whole. But I need to point this out since fewer and fewer people are old enough to remember the times I speak about in this blog and my postings.

People who are not overcome with wonder at the Infant Jesus are certainly not likely to be full with the rapt love that their own human infants deserve. I think Lent is an appropriate time to ponder this in addition to pondering the sacrifice of the grown Lord, Jesus Christ.

I wish to make another point. In apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it is known that the most rarefied and delicate honor given by Mary to the holy person to whom she appeared was visions of the Infant Jesus, by himself, held by her or sometimes actually given to the holy person to hold. St. Anthony of Padua was so honored with actually being given the vision of the Infant Jesus to hold. The best gift that Mary can give a human is to share the love and veneration that she felt herself for the Holy Infant Jesus. Mary does not appear to be an oracle to future wealth and power, or to show off the wonder of heaven for those who merit eternal life in the presence of God. She always points to Jesus and always teaches how to see Jesus through her eyes, and perceive even a portion of the love she has through her God given fullness of grace. Mary was infused with the Holy Spirit, and that did not leave her upon the baby Jesus being birthed. Mary continued to be the human ark that had held the Infant Jesus. She continues to have perfect love, knowledge and understanding of how to love the Savior, and her perspective is so full and perfect that humans can only hope for a fraction of what she feels. But it is there for anyone with the open heart and comprehension to claim.

This is another way you can easily depict phony prophets who claim Marian apparitions. Mary never appears or speaks without an infusion of her fullness of pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. Words that fakes pen to supposedly represent "messages" that they have receive from Mary fall like the rusty bits of metal that they are, since they are not infused with love of the Infant Jesus, which is Mary's true hallmark.

I'd like to see people include in their homes a depiction of the Infant Jesus year around, and not only during the Christmas holiday when the Nativity scene is displayed. It is for humans' own good since they cannot recover love for their own innocent children without recalling that it was as an Infant that Jesus entered and lived day to day within the physical world of earth. This is also a great help for those who suffer from spiritual aridity and/or a darkness of the soul. Many of the great saints pondered and loved the memory of the Infant Jesus and gained great refreshment. People are so power and message oriented nowadays and that is like choking on dirty dust. Reconnecting with the love of the Infant Jesus is like rediscovering the goodness of life and regaining refreshment and restoration of the soul (along with one's own humanity).

I hope this helps.