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It’s been one year and six weeks since we had the children’s letters to God, and that’s an annual event for me because I need them. I need them. Usually we do them in May, you know, the month of Our Lady and Mother’s Day, but we weren’t together that time. So, we’ll do them now. And, if anyone is new to this whole thing about the kids’ letters, way back in the seventies, in England, a little book was published by some Catholic nuns, “Children’s Letters to God,” written by real little kids. And they collected hundreds and they selected the ones they liked the best.

And I discovered this book in England and I loved it for two reasons. Number one, I thought, “What a great project, when I get back to being a teacher in September in the high school, for some of the kids who could use some extra credit in a religion class. I’ll say to them, and they were great kids in that school, ‘Go to your parishes all through Duchess County and ask some little kids to write a letter to God.’ “ And they did and they accumulated over thirty years. Don’t panic! I’m only going to read a handful here, of ones they liked and I liked. That’s the reason it was a great project for some of the kids in high school.

And the second thing is I need them. I need them. Some of us priests studied theology intensely for six to eight years. And so even when we pray (Let’s say “I.”) .... Even when I pray, it’s theologically informed by six years of extremely specific theological profundity. And even yesterday, Saturday, when I was walking the dog, I prayed the same way. “Dear God, there’s a small family crisis again. So I’m asking your providential help. Of course, I am not sure if this is your positive will, which is for our happiness, or your permissive will, which allows troubles. I’m certainly hoping it’s the positive will, although I am an unworthy......” You know, by THAT time, even the dog looks irritated! But I am praying according to theological profundity, instead of like a kid, “Help!” No wonder Our Lord.... You remember that great gospel where kids are rushing up to meet Our Lord and the apostles try to keep them away and Our Lord says, “Let the little kids come to me, for of such is the Kingdom of God.” And Our Lord blesses them.

So, we’re going to hear a few of them, of these letters over some years. Some of them are so old, thirty years old. They are falling apart and ones that really fell into Dead-Sea-Scroll condition, I put on index cards. And a few of them I read every year. But I have so many I am trying to rotate them. So there should be some this morning you haven’t heard before. And the ages of the kids would be between five and a half and nine. And some of these are from the original book that I found in England.

And they all sign it. They all sign these.

This one was so tattered that it is on an index card. But it’s authentic. Roger was seven and a half. Lots of cartoons in some of these.

This kid was from Milbrook, way upstate.

Now some of them had cartoons and this one had a dog who looked like an Irish Terrier, with a long beard.

Now, this is MY prayer. I mean it was written by Jonathan who later came to the high school where I taught, years later, you know, when he got to be a teenager. He was a little kid in Whopperjuice Falls. Jonathan wrote, and I put it on a card (This is my kind of prayer.) :

Isn’t that great? Isn’t that a great prayer? Three simple sentences!

This is still on the original manuscript. Missy was eight.

Now this was written, and I hope I don’t embarrass anybody today, it was put in my mailbox. It was written by a little kid, evidently, who goes to a school here. And it was faxed or something, but it is in the kid’s script and it’s a poem to Our Lady. The initials of the kid are J.B. and it was within the past few years. It’s a poem.

This kid later came to Lourdes and he helped in the Drama Club, pulling the curtain for the plays and stuff. When he was a little kid, he wrote,

Now, this I read every year. Gene was only six. I have to put this on an index card soon.

Raymond, short and sweet.

See, you can get mad at God in prayer. At least we’re talking to him.

This is a repeat, and I guess I’m afraid we’ll have to keep repeating this every year we’re together. Sandy was only seven.

OK, just a few more.... Now, this is theology. This little kid, Stacey, later came to the high school when she grew up to be a freshman in high school. But she was seven, and this is the six years of theology. This is Aquinas and Augustine and Teilhard de Chardin and everybody else with brains in theological writings.

This is a repeat...

Of course, I pick the ones that are lighter in tone. I end every year with this one because it is every year applicable everywhere in the Catholic Church.