Approbation "I have carefully read over this Little Volume for Children and have found nothing whatsoever in it contrary to the doctrine of Holy Faith; but, on the contrary, a great deal to charm, instruct and edify our youthful classes, for whose benefit it has been written." William Meagher, Vicar General, Dublin Excerpt: ALMIGHTY GOD LOVES LITTLE CHILDREN 1. God loves little children so much that he wanted to be like them, so he became a little child in the arms of Mary his mother. Jesus used to lay his hands on children and bless them. "They brought infants to Jesus that he might touch them." Luke 18. He was very angry with those who would not suffer little children to come to him, and with those who scandalize them. Jesus says, "He that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depths of the sea.
" Matt. 18. 2. When the blessed Lucy of Narni was a very little child, her mother gave her a Rosary beads, with an image of the infant Jesus. She made an altar in her room, and put the infant on it. She loved to be in her room along with the image of the little infant. When she got into any trouble, she would go to her altar, and cry there, and sometimes the image of the infant Jesus, by a miracle would lift up its little hand, and wipe away her tears. One day her mother took her to the chapel, and she saw there a fine large image of a lady, with an infant in her arms, made of stone.
When her mother saw her looking at this image, she said: "Lucy, that beautiful lady is the blessed Virgin Mary, and the infant is the little Jesus, her son. If you like, you may come here sometimes and say your Rosary before the blessed Virgin Mary." Lucy was delighted, and whenever she could get away from home, she came with her beads, and said the Rosary. One day she thought that she would like very much to hold the infant in her arms, like she held her baby brother sometimes, so she spoke to the image and said: "Mary, my dear mother, I want very much to hold the infant Jesus in my arms." When she had said this prayer, the image of Mary stooped down, and put the infant really into her arms; but she found that instead of a baby made of stone, it was a living baby -- the real child Jesus. Full of joy, she got up off her knees, and went home as fast as she could with the infant Jesus in her arms.