“If I could live my life over, I would like to be nothing but a very little child constantly giving my hand to the Child Jesus.” These were the last words of Bossuet (1627–1704) on his deathbed. Céline Martin (Sister Genevieve of the Holy Face) quoted these ultima verba of the Eagle of Meaux as the most beautiful formulation of the “little way” of her Sister Thérèse, the way of childhood and self-abandonment.
In this spirit, on the cover of this issue of Magnificat for Holy Week, a great painter and contemporary of Bossuet, Mathieu Le Nain (1607–1677), shows the point to which the Child Jesus could lead us by the hand, if only we consent to followed him.
Contemplating the arma Christi
The dusky atmosphere, reinforced by the funereal, dark purple curtain that unveils the scene, gives the picture a dramatic dimension. However, at the highest point of the dark sky, a porthole of golden light comes to illuminate a handsome child dressed in a white tunic that is too big for him, as though …More