A Crown for the Child Jesus

Recently a beautiful statue of the Infant of Prague was sent to the Children's Rosary.  He arrived on Three Kings Day much to the surprise of His sender who expected Him to arrive the prior day. It would seem He was on His own schedule.  A note preceded his arrival which mentioned the unfortunate loss of His crown and the hope the children could make Him a new one.  Yet when the children pulled open the box they found not only the Child Jesus but also His precious crown wrapped beside Him.  A happy surprise to all of us including Beverly who sent the package.  Seeing our earlier post of the children opening the box and then the crown being placed on His head she wrote that she was "speechless".  While it would seem we all had a surprise as we had been the ones sending packages out to Kenya two weeks earlier hoping they would arrive by January 6th. Yet the children sending packages would be the ones opening the packages on the Day of the Three Kings.  Within the pictures we took of the children holding the Infant of Prague was dear St. Therese of the Child Jesus whose picture had been saved by our ten year old son, Kostin. We had found her by the side of the road put out for the dump pick up. 

One can see the red of the crown wrapped up and attached
 to the packaging surrounding the baby Jesus

Beverly would later share her continued surprise as she saw St. Therese's picture sitting beside our fireplace next to the Baby Jesus.  For she that same night of January 6th had just come home from a little birthday party for the Baby Jesus at her parish in Michigan.  The party had been postponed several times with the final date occurring on January 6th.  After much celebration she came to her door to find a box.  Yes, Three Kings Day seems to be one of many gifts.  The box a gift from a dear friend who had passed away and left some precious things for her.  Inside she would find a most precious present, a first class relic of St. Therese.  Thus in seeing our photo of the children opening her present and St. Therese looking on it seemed a wonderful rain of signal graces.

The finding of the Infant's crown in many ways felt like the parable of the lost coin,  where one gathers round to celebrate the finding of that which was lost. In doing a bit of reading about the Infant of Prague we would discover that today, January 14th,  is actually the anniversary when the Infant received the gift of His crown from Bernard Ignatius.  The gold crown was set with precious stone and jewels.  On January 14th 1651 the crown was presented and the statue was processed from Our Lady of Victory Church to other churches throughout Prague. The Infant of Prague currently resides today in The Lady of Victory Church.  Those that help operate the Church have a wonderful offer that each Thursday they place intentions emailed to them before the Infant of Prague during Adoration for 1 hour.  Tonight a message goes to Prague to ask for blessings of each member of the Children's Rosary.  In addition a prayer for peace is requested of our Prince of Peace.