A Pledge of Immortality

'A child is a pledge of immortality, 

for he bears upon him in figure 

those high and eternal excellences 

in which the joy of heaven consists, 

and which would not thus be shadowed forth 

by the all-gracious Creator,

were they not one day to be realized'  

John Henry Cardinal Newman 


Painting:  Hermann Knopf Gut bewachter Schlaf, in US public domain due to age