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Message to Teachers of the Faith
On the eve of her death, Maria
Montessori addressed Catholic teachers at a meeting in London.
Never, as in this moment,
has the Christian faith needed the sincere effort of those who profess it. I would like to ask all of you, who
are gathered in this meeting, to consider the great help that children can bring to the defense of our faith.
Children come to us as a rain of souls, as
a richness and a promise which can always be fulfilled but which needs the help of our efforts for its fulfillment. Do not consider the child a weakling: the child is the builder of the human personality.
That this personality be Christian or not depends on the environment around him and on those who guide his religious formation.
Do not think that because the child cannot
understand in the same way that we adults understand that it is useless to allow him to participate in our religious practices.
The staunchest and deepest faith is generally found among the unsophisticated people whose women take their children to church
while they are still breastfed: the child's unconscious absorbs divine powers while the conscious reasoning of adults
is only human.
You who
enjoy the great gift of belonging to the Catholic faith must intensely feel the great responsibility you have for future
generations because, among you, there are those who have renounced the world to bring the world to God.
Take
then, as help in your task, with faith and humility, "the all-powerful children" (Benedict XV).
Take as your special task to watch that their limpid light be not dimmed.
Protect in their development
those natural energies implanted in the souls of children by the guiding hand of God.
May God be with you at this meeting and may He guide you
in your conclusions and decisions.
Maria Montessori
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