d intently to the altar; they were evidently
unfamiliar with such minute explanations, but they were penetrated by
a sentiment which attracted them; the chalice with the divine blood
appealed to these souls ready to receive it, as it did to the innocent
Parsifal. When they made their first Communion, I was convinced that
their souls received the mysteries with the sweetest faith and with
absolute simplicity, as if all that is of God were comprehensible to
them, and only that which denies Him an absurdity. Their spiritual
conquest accompanied them in life.

A little cousin of these children, who was prepared to receive the
Communion a long time after them, and who had had no religious
training in her own home, said one day, when she was working
enthusiastically in class: "How beautiful the anatomy of a flower is!
I like arithmetic and geometry so much! But religion is the most
beautiful thing of all."

There was an older child in the school, whose parents, both father and
mother, were positively hostile to religion. This child, although she
showed great interest in the school exercises, was always restless.
Later, when some wonderful children's parties were given in the villa
where she lived, which were arranged with great skill and were
veritable works of art, she became still more restless and cynical,
almost as if she were suffering from some disillusionment. One day she
called an orphan child from Messina, who was one of our children who
had come from the school in the Via Giusti, and took her away into a
quiet corner, asking her to repeat the Lord's Prayer. The orphan
recited it, while the rich child gazed at her eagerly. Then, as if in
obedience to an inspiration, she went to the piano to play; but her
hands trembled; she threw herself on one side, with her elbow on the
keyboard and her head hanging, unable to conceal her agitation any
longer. Her soul was seeking to satisfy its yearning; nothing could
give her peace but the one thing those who loved her wished to
withhold from her. Her heart was still alive and eager: "Like as the
heart desireth the water brooks, so longeth my soul after thee, O
God."

As yet the coarse scoria evolved from darkness, which makes it so
difficult for the adult to embrace the mysteries of the spirit like a
little child, had not formed around her. Later, such mysteries become
incomprehensible; as to Nicodemus, who replied to Christ: "How can a
man be born again? Can he enter a seco