CMP Review 2025-04-01

April 1, 2025

“Young faces are not always sunny and lovely,” writes Charlotte Mason; “even the brightest children in the happiest circumstances have their clouded hours. We rightly put the cloud down to some little disorder, or to the weather, but these are the secondary causes which reveal a deep-seated discontent. Children have a sense of sin, acute in proportion to their sensitiveness.”

Children are born persons, so much so that “few grown-up people, alas! have so keen and vivid a sense of sin as a little transgressor say of six or seven.” Unfortunately, says Miss Mason, “the ‘peace, peace, where there is no peace,’ of fond parents and friends is little comfort.” What the children need, she explains, is to know “that there is a Saviour of the world, who has for him instant forgiveness and waiting love.”

Perhaps the themes of temptation, repentance, and forgiveness, so characteristic of this season of Lent and Easter, are more relevant to our children than we imagine. But how do we broach these topics with them?

In the final issue of Aunt Mai’s Budget, the special children’s section of the Parents’ Review, Emeline Steinthal included a letter from a grown-up who “sympathizes with you [children].” This parting gift from Aunt Mai has a special message for all persons of any age who have felt the sting of sin and temptation, and who know they need a Savior. Find it here.

@artmiddlekauff

🖼️: The Holy Family by Charles Verlat