Reflection for September 5

God says: I like little children because my image has not yet been dulled in them. They have not botched my likeness; they are new, pure, without a blot, without a smear. So, when I gently lean over them, I recognize myself in them. I like them because they are still growing, they are still improving. They are on the road, they are on their way But with grown-ups there is nothing to expect any more. They will no longer grow, no longer improve. They have come to a full stop.

It is disastrous—grown-ups thinking they have arrived.

(“I Like Youngsters” in Prayers by Michel Quoist, translated by Agnes M. Forsyth and Anne Marie de Commaille)