Recently I witnessed a curious scene: a small child extending little hands to any object that held her attention. From afar I could not see what so enchanted the child, but coming closer I saw her dark eyes staring at a gracious rosebud she could not reach because it was too high up. Then I hastened to cut the flower that so captivated the innocent girl. It was a beautiful red bud, hidden as if afraid under the green foliage of the rose bush; its petals still kept, as if in a precious safe, its intoxicating scent. The sun of this spring morning made it all the more beautiful, making all the tears that the dawn had shed on the delicate casing shine with different colors. How beautiful was the little bud; how ruddy her petals were, not yet burned by the heat of the sun! Oh! Each flower is a masterpiece of the author of all the beauties of the universe! This lovely bud was beautiful and sweet because it had a green casing, within which it shut itself to shelter its sweet and timid flower: the future rose under the foliage of the rosebush that would not let the wind unhinge its petals.
Here is a faithful image of a child!
Just as this bud was candid and beautiful, so was also the little child who coveted it, (“because candor loves candor”). The child was beautiful and mainly happy because she had the Blessed Virgin to guide her. This guardian angel who did not forsake her, neither by night nor by day, was like the rose tree that sheltered the fragile bud! Happy little creature! May the chain of sorrows never drag the child to suffer the sorrows of the world!
Happy bud, which the storms were not able to rip it from its branch. The child is beautiful because she possesses innocence, purity, and candor in her little heart.
Will there be someone luckier in the world? Oh! Certainly not, because pure hearts are the temples where the Blessed Virgin conceals her love and her graces.
The child and the rosebud
Brazil, June 1920
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