Page:Comenius' School of Infancy.pdf/93

 infants, we can, by exercising piety in them, lay in them the foundation of piety, through prayer and by surrendering them, in holy dedication, to Christ the Redeemer, imploring likewise for them the care of the Eternal Teacher, the Holy Spirit.

3. As soon as parents are aware that God wills to grant them a child, they should, with ardent prayer, solicit from Him blessing and sanctification for their offspring. The expectant mother, accompanied by her husband, ought daily, without intermission, to pour out prayer to that effect, and to live through the whole period of her time, piously and holily, that the offspring, having a place already within their hearts, may share with them in the beginning the fear of God.

4. After God has brought His gift from darkness to light, and presented it to their eyes, the parents (as a certain pious theologian advises) ought in honor of the grace of God, as manifested in His recent gift, to receive the new stranger into this world with a kiss. For true is the confession of the holy Maccabean mother, who said: “We know not how infants are conceived; we ourselves give to them neither breath nor life, nor do we knit together the members of their body. But the Creator of the world is the maker of the human race.”

5. If parents see the new-born alive, sound, and complete in its members, they ought forthwith to return humble thanks to the munificent Donor, and fervently pray that through His holy angels He will protect it from all evil, and make its education felicitous by granting to it a heavenly blessing.

6. The parents should then make provision for returning the gift to its Almighty Giver through a pious dedication, fervently praying that the most merciful God would deign to save His own creature in Christ, and by granting it the