Infant Jesus of Prague etc

[Lazerlike42]

I have been searching for some answer to this question for a very long time and I haven’t been able to come up with anything.

I am just a bit confused as to how it is possible, or why one would want or need, to pray to or venerate the infant Jesus. Christ is eternally in His body. There is only one Christ, so how can one pray to the infant Jesus one moment and the “regular” Jesus the next? Further, why do we only venerate the infant Jesus when He is in fact Jesus and ought to be looked upon with the same latria as the “regular” Jesus? (I realize that we would venerate and image of the infant Jesus because it is only an image, but I am not referring to the statues or images in my question)

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I did also finally find a post in the apologists forum concerning this, but what I still don’t understand is how Jesus can appear as a child when He is eternally incarnate. Christ cannot simply change his body, can He? Would not this simply be something akin to Docetism?

 

[Joysong]

Could it be that you are confusing bodily veneration with the quality of spiritual childhood that Jesus inspires in many devout souls? St. Therese of the Child Jesus modeled her entire spiritual journey on Jesus as a child, so loved and recommended in the scriptures by Jesus, “Unless you become as children…” It made her a saint!

St. Anthony was another saint that comes to mind, as he is usually pictured holding the infant Jesus. It is just a spiritual attraction for some people. Think for a moment about the triune God. Many will have a devotion to the Holy Spirit, Jesus, or the Father, depending upon their spiritual attraction as moved by interior grace at different times in their developing prayer life. In the same manner, one may find an attraction to Jesus as a child, an adult, or even resurrected and sitting in glory at the Father’s right hand interceding for us, etc.

I hope this is helpful.
Carole

 

[tjmiller]

When praying the “Litany of the Infant Jesus” ( the responses of which go, “Deliver us, Infant Jesus”) during Advent with my young son, I explained it thusly: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). As a Divine Person, He wholly transcends matter, space and time.