A Fallen Child.

Have you noticed what a great difference there is between a child falling and a fall by an adult? In the case of children, most falls are unimportant; they are always falling over! If they do start crying, their father tells them: 'Look here now, men don't cry.' And the incident ends with the child trying earnestly to please his father.

But what happens if an adult loses his balance and falls awkwardly to the ground? If it weren't so pitiful, his misfortune would provoke merriment and laughter. Besides, the fall may have serious consequences and, if it's an old man, it might even give rise to a fracture that will never heal. In our interior life, it does all of us good to be quasi modo geniti infantes, like those tiny tots who seem to be made of rubber and who even enjoy falling over because they get up again right away and are once more running around, and also because they know their parents will always be there to console them, whenever they are needed.

If we try to act like them, our stumbling and failures in the interior life (which, moreover, are inevitable) will never result in bitterness. Our reaction will be one of sorrow but not discouragement, and we'll smile with a smile that gushes up like fresh water out of the joyous awareness that we are children of that Love, that grandeur, that infinite wisdom, that mercy, that is our Father. During the years I have been serving Our Lord, I have learned to become a little child of God. I would ask you to do likewise, to be quasi modo geniti infantes, children who long for God's word, his bread, his food, his strength, to enable us to behave henceforth as Christian men and women.

Friends of God - St. Josemaria Escriva

So its the 1st Week of Lent, and boy does my knees hurt from falling! Its just so easy to give in, toss the towel, just to call it quits! But, I recall how Our Lord, fell 3 time during the carrying of the cross and I feel that He did that to show us , that we will fall (millions of millions of times) but what is the most important thing He did after he fell? He got up and kept carrying the cross, die for our sins and on the 3rd Day rose from the dead!

We too need to get up, look at our father in the eyes, and see His hand reaching towards us so that we can get up again! Like a Child, we will cry , feel shame, sad, but He wipes away our tears, and sits us on His lap , and kiss our cheeks and lets us know, He Loves us ! To Be a Child of God, to act like a Child of God, to die as a Child of God, that is what we need to do!