SPIRITUAL CHILDHOOD. - A state of interior life which presents, acquired through ascetic effort, in relation to God and to neighbor, the virtues that children possess by nature and that ordinarily mark the first age of man. Such a set of virtues is constituted above all by innocence, simplicity, spontaneity, openness, sincerity, faith, humility, and abandonment (v.). He who advances in spiritual childhood possesses these gifts without simulation or ostentation, or affectation, without deceit and without envy, not intending inwardly in a manner different from what he professes outwardly (cf. Sum. Theol., 2ᵃ-2ᵃᵉ, q. 109 ad 2), and is ready to endure evil rather than to do it, while believing in the goodness of God and of others. This form of spirituality in the adult must, in order to remain virtuous, be joined with discretion, which causes one to keep the golden mean in the aforesaid virtues, both in measure and in manner, and to avoid the defects that accompany the state of childhood (cf. I Cor. 13:11).
The origin of this search for and choice of virtues, as a richness of the spirit, is in part natural, deriving from the esteem that man generally has for the gifts listed, but it is principally supernatural, originating from the admonition of the Savior: "Unless you become like little children (ὡς τὰ παῖδε), you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven" (Mt. 18:3; cf. Mk. 10:15), "Let the little children come to me, for of such is the Kingdom of heaven" (Mt. 19:14), "Whoever is the least among all of you, this one is the greatest" (Lk. 9:48). St. Peter recommended being "like newborn babes, without guile, eager for pure spiritual milk," rejecting "all malice, all deceit, every kind of hypocrisy, envy, and slander" (I Pt. 2:1-2).
The prolonged exercise of the ascetic life leads to this spirit of simplicity in the spiritual life, while the life of sin and of the experience of evil, in oneself and in others, leads to internal and external complication. It is a great perfection to preserve or restore to one's soul the innocence, the rectitude, and that higher simplicity born of wisdom which are proper to spiritual childhood. The saints were all endowed in an eminent degree with such virtues. Suffice it to recall St. Benedict, St. Gregory the Great, St. Nilus, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Robert Bellarmine, St. Francis de Sales, St. Alphonsus de' Liguori, St. John Bosco, St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus; among the more recent, Dom Columba Marmion O.S.B., Father Adolphe Petit S.J., to say nothing of countless others.
A development of the doctrine in depth and extent was given by St. Thérèse of Lisieux with her autobiography Histoire d'une âme (translated into almost every language) and her spiritual writings, emphasizing the awareness of one's own weakness and smallness, together with full and bold abandonment to the omnipotent and transforming action of divine mercy. A state of spirit that leads to a great and constant docility and generosity in following the inspirations of the interior Master, in fulfilling the duties of one's state even the smallest, in the loving acceptance of sufferings sent by God. Spiritual childhood, especially as contained in the Teresian message, also called the "little way," was praised and recommended by the pontiffs Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XI, and Pius XII.
As regards the mystical life, spiritual childhood disposes the soul for it, while the mystical gifts increase and perfect it.
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Arnaldo M. Lanz