Mystery of Hope

On the mystery of hope

Retrieving the Tradition

And yet it's this little girl who will endure worlds.
This little girl, nothing at all.
She alone, carrying the others, who will cross worlds past.

On the mystery of hope
Charles Peguy
Perhaps the most glorious of all is that a man's repentance should be the crowning of God's hope.
The following is a selection from Charles Peguy's The Portal of the
Mystery of the Second Virtue. The book represents the second panel of a triptych of Christian mysteries in dramatic form, also including
The Mystery of the Charity of Joan of Arc and The Mystery of the
Holy Innocents, all of which were written soon after Peguy's return to the Catholic faith in 1907. Here, Peguy offers a meditation on the
"little girl of hope"-perhaps the most often-neglected theological virtue-as a monologue on the part of God himself
. . . My three virtues, says God.
The three virtues, my creatures.
My daughters, my children.
Are themselves like my other creatures.
Of the race of men.
Faith is a loyal Wife.
Charity is a Mother.
An ardent mother, noble-hearted.
Or an older sister who is like a mother.
Hope is a little girl, nothing at all.
Who came into the world on Christmas day just this past year.
Who is still playing with her snowman.
With her German fir trees painted with frost.
And with her ox and her ass made of German wood. Painted.
And with her manger stuffed with straw that the animals don't eat.
Since they're made of wood.

505

•

•

As the star guided the three kings from the deepest Orient.
Toward the cradle of my Son.
Like a trembling flame.
She alone will guide the Virtues and Worlds.
One flame will pierce the eternal shadows.
The priest says.
Minister of God, the priest says:

What are the three theological virtues?
The child responds:

..

•

The three theological virtues are Faith, Hope, and Charity.
-Why are Faith, Hope, and Charity