Children & Youth

“The Spiritist Education for Children and Youth is one of the first activities to be started as a basis for the moral construction of the New World.” – Joanna de Ângelis

Being a Child

The child is an immortal Spirit, heir to itself, endowed with skills developed throughout its multiple existences, as well as needs they need to overcome. Reincarnated in conditions and contexts necessary for his/her self-improvement, the Spirit begins a new journey of learning, confident in the investment and in the guidelines that point him/her to the safe route and strengthen the steps along the path of good.

The Spiritist Education in the period of childhood represents a relevant and imperative action, capable of contributing to the process of the child improvement, considering that:

“A spirit incarnates in order to perfect itself. During childhood it is more accessible to the impressions it receives, and which may assist in its progress. Persons in charge of its education should contribute towards this goal.” (The Spirits’ Book, question 383)

“[…] the spirit of a child may be quite old, and that upon being reborn to corporeal life it brings with it the imperfections that it had not gotten rid of in its previous existences.” (The Gospel According to Spiritism, ch. VIII, item 3)

“The child is not a miniaturized adult’, nor a ‘plastic wax’, easily moldable. It is a spirit that is starting over, momentarily forgetting the positive and negative achievements it brings from past lives, committed to the achievement of happiness.” (Joanna de Ângelis)

In the light of this fundamentals, childhood is now recognized as a propitious stage for active learning of new references, concepts, behaviors and life perspectives that will support the new steps in the evolutionary path, influencing its integral development.

Let us remember the message of Guillon Ribeiro:

“[…] the evangelized child and youth are now, undoubtedly, those citizens of the world, aware and alert, driven to build, by their own efforts, the true paths of happiness on Earth.”

” It is through spiritist education that Spiritism develops its most valuable program of educational assistance to humankind.”

“Every child and young adult in the world is a plan of the Divine Wisdom for the service of Humanity […].”

– Emmanuel

Being a Youth

The young person is a reincarnated spirit in a phase of development, definitions and choices. The search for knowledge and meanings for life makes youth a period conducive to reflection and the alignment of reincarnatory objectives through the contexts and possibilities that present themselves, inviting young people to exercise self-knowledge, inner transformation and the cultivation of responsible attitudes through their free will, the recognition of the law of cause and effect, and the experience of moral laws embodied in justice, love and charity.

Understanding adolescence as an important phase in which “the spirit recaptures its true nature and reveals who it really was prior to its present incarnation” (Allan Kardec, The Spirits’Book, q. 385), it’s recognized that the benefit of studying and living the spiritist message since childhood, seeing that “[…] its preventive action will avoid falling into errors, into new moral disasters” (Guillon Ribeiro)8, and that “with Jesus in the undertakings of Love and with Kardec in the power of Truth, we will have all orientation to our path, all balance to our conduct” (Bezerra de Menezes).

Affection, creativity, movement, idealism, art, work, communication, technology, interaction and desire for transformation are some of the many elements that permeate the youth world. That, associated with the spiritist knowledge and the experience of Christian teachings, contribute to the formation of true good young persons, strengthening them to choose healthy and safe paths, in keeping with the value of life, self-improvement and the building of the new world.

The study, engagement and leadership of young people in spiritist activities, in mutual cooperation with other members of the institution, contribute to the sum of efforts and multiplication of talents. This benefits the youth themselves – through the opportunity to learn and work in goodness – and Spiritist institutions – for training and investing in new volunteers, ensuring the continuous strengthening of the spiritist task.

As Joanna de Ângelis states:

“Thanks to the preparatory work that has been carried out, for years, with children and young people, is that we find a blessed blooming of workers, today, who had their healthy and balanced beginning in spiritist education classes, during their first days on Earth…”