Once a year when we’re together in the month of May around Mother’s Day, I trot out a bunch of letters written by kids, little kids, to God.  My purpose is not merely to avoid having to prepare a talk but because having studied, all the priests here we studied theology for at least six years, intense study of theology and when I discovered the kids wrote letters to God I discovered that the kids got the theology but they put it so clearly, so simply, that I liked them and it gave me new perspective.  I try to vary these every year so you’re not hearing the same litany every year.  I have a couple of hundred of these but don’t get scared.  I have about a dozen.  Okay.  Most of the kids would be grammar school. 
         
Now this was written by a young guy in our Parish a few weeks ago on loose leaf.  Some of them are so shattered they look like Dead Sea Scrolls so I put them on index cards going all the back to 1960.  Anyhow, this is just a few weeks ago.
“Dear God:  Thank you for my family.  Thank you for my friends and sisters.  I love all these people.  Thank you for all these people.  They are the greatest people in my whole life.  Love, Ray”.
         
Now this little girl I think was under extreme tension.  It’s very old but listen to this letter from Jane.  She was only about six.  “Dear God:  I love you.  When I was little I did not love you.  Now I know better.  I love you.  I do.  Love, Jane”.  Now someone should go to her and comfort her.  I’m sure she’s okay now.
         
Alright, this is Norman.  It’s written in 1969.  I’m not going to give you a little sketch on each of these.  They speak for themselves, but Norman in1969 came to me in the high school where I taught and Norman asked me to give him tips on how to get a date for the Junior Prom.  And I said, Norman, I haven’t dated since 1948.  He was such a likeable kid.  He said, “Yeh, yeh, but you’ve got some tips.”  Okay, here is a letter from Norman 1969.  “Dear, Dear God:  I think it’s terrific the way they got the astronauts to go up and around and around and around the whole world, but don’t let it fall on my house.  Norman”.
         
Janie – see this inchoate wisdom sometimes.  “Dear God:  Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don’t you just keep the ones you got now?”
         
On this is on the original – Jonathan.  Jonathan is now a teacher, but when he was a little kid.  Now this is the perfect prayer, it’s very human and it’s quintessentially perfect.  “Dear God:  a)  I am sorry for my sins; b) I will be better; c) do I get my wish?”
         
This was written a couple of weeks ago right here in Christ the King Parish.  There is a lot of sub-text here.  “What is heaven like?  Tell my Grammy Mae up there that I miss her.  Love, Joseph.”
         
Okay, very old one.  Missy – Missy came to the high school.  Years later when she was a teenager she was my secretary in the Business Department, but when she was eight she wrote:  “I am seven years old.  How old are you?  I like it down here.  Do you like it up there?  When it rains down here I hate it down here.  Sincerely (and she spelled it right), Missy.”
         
Okay, this was written in Christ the King Parish a few weeks ago.  “Dear God:  Is Heaven interesting?  Thomas.”  Now isn’t that a profoundly important question.  I remember as a child in the Catechism we had a picture of heaven and God is sitting in the center with the traditional beard and our Lord is there, you know, like Michelangelo muscles and over there is this flapping bird – the Holy Spirit – and around this throne thousands of little stick figures are walking around singing, holy, holy, holy, forever and ever.  I mean Hell would be livelier. 
           
Sometimes when I meet some of you on the street or in the store since I got here in 1999, some of you ask “Father, have you been to Yosemite?”  And I’ll say “no” and you’ll say “Oh, it’s so beautiful.  Yosemite will take your breath away and I’m sure that’s true.  Now, if Yosemite is so beautiful that it literally stuns people with its beauty, how will it be like to explore the cosmos in paradise.  Our Lord never bored anybody on the planet.  Did he?  People loved Jesus or they hated him.  Nobody yawned at Jesus.  Why would our Lord bore us all through eternity?  Of course it will be fascinating, wonderful.  It will be like Yosemite multiplied a zillion times.  So, yes, the answer is you bet it’s going to be interesting.

“Dear God:  We got a lot of religion in my house.  Don’t worry about us.”  Sometimes sounds a little resentful. 

“My teacher says Dear Jesus that the North Pole is not really at the top.  Do you make any other mistakes?

Now this one is a little hard to explain but I’ll try.  They show this very tiny kid, a picture of our Lord, you know, when he’s talking to St. Thomas a week after Easter and our Lord is saying to Thomas, come over here and take a look at my wounds.  You know in the gospel.  It’s a beautiful picture of Christ showing Thomas his wounds, but the little kid wrote under the picture “Dear Jesus Lord:  What happened to your hands?”  I love that one.  He has heard about Easter but he hasn’t heard about what happened before, that little kid.
“Dear God:  My teacher says the days get shorter, then they get longer, can’t you decide?”

Index card – Now this is the dilemma of all of us who hold onto our faith and obviously you do or you wouldn’t be here this morning.  You hold onto your faith despite so many of life’s vicissitudes and this little guy Sam is only seven.  It’s a tough letter but it’s human.  “I don’t see God why things die.  My cat Fluffy was hit by a car and she died.  Now why don’t you stop those things so they don’t not happen ever.  Why don’t you ­not let bad things be done.  Don’t say it is a mystery like Mom says.  That is no answer.  You have the answer so why don’t you tell us.  Sam”

This was written in this Parish a few weeks ago by Noelle.  “Dear God:  How did you just pop up.  Creation isn’t fundamentalism.  How did you just pop up?  Do you have a mother and father.  Thank you for my family and friends.  Thank you for our house.  Thank you for the pool.  Thank you for my toys.”  I thought this Noelle would go on to say thank you for the butler, thank you for maid, thank you for the chauffer.  But she wrote such a lovely little letter.  “Thank you for me.  Thank you for a great life.  Thank you for the world.  I think everybody should believe in you.  I love you.  Noelle.”

This came with a cartoon.  “Dear Jesus:  Please make it so that dogs live just as long as people.”  And she has drawn a cartoon of a dog ferociously wagging a tail, a little long beard.  “Donald broke the jar, not me.  Now you have it in writing.”
Now Nancy is married and she lives in the Parish where I was a young priest, but when she was a little girl – its on an index card, its old – “I am always fight with my friend.  I confess this on the Sat. day.  The priest asks why do you fight with your friend.  I don’t know.  I think you should do better work down here.  Things aren’t right when friends hurt friends.  Your Friend, Nancy”.

If they don’t want you to make your own breakfast they should say so before.  I love it when kids get obstreperous with God, tell him off and yell at him. 
“I was wondering who was the first person on the earth” – this is from this Parish – “I also wanted to know what Grandpa doing up there with you right now.  Lilly.”

This came with a big cartoon of this ferocious looking head like Godzilla, a big fuzzy growling face.  “One of your clouds made a face in the sky and it scared me.  Don’t do that again.”

We have three more.

This is very long from Nicole.
“Dear God:  October 15, 2007. 
1.  Do you grant wishes? 
2.  Do you like cats, dogs, fish, lizards, bats, elephants and camels? 
3.  Do you treat other people with respect? 
4.  Can you watch out for this boy named Kyle ‘cause he got pushed and he hurt his leg and now he’s got to wear a cast and I don’t want him to hurt, I want him to feel better.  Please watch poor Kyle!  Nicole.”

We’ve got two more.  Earlier in the morning we read a letter from a young man named Ray.  Later – he is right in the Parish – April 16, this year.  “Dear God:  Please bless Father Brian.  I hope he will rest in peace. (laughter)  Ray concludes, and I hope you will be doing just fine.  Love, Ray”

And the last one is the one I read to you every year, every year, because it sums up the accumulative wisdom of the entire Catholic congregation at Sunday mass.  “Dear God:  I like going to Church on Sunday.  I do like going to the Church, the mass.  I really do, but the priest he talks too long.  Amen.