The story of Little Li
by Graham Moorhouse.
My devotion to the Blessed Eucharist was rekindled by a little Chinese girl martyred by the Red Guard in Communist China. No one in the west knows her real name, but we will call her Little Li. She was about nine years old at the time of her story which I would guess, took place in the 1950s.
Our story starts with the faithful at Mass in a Catholic church somewhere in Red China. Suddenly, there was a loud pounding on the locked doors. Red Guards were smashing open the doors. The faithful Massgoers scattered to the four winds, but the priest held his ground. He was,. of course, arrested and then placed under house arrest in his presbytery, which was adjacent to the church.
The soldiers then set about vandalising the church, shattering windows, smashing statues, breaking open the tabernacle, scattering the consecrated hosts over the sanctuary and trampling them under foot. It is interesting that in every century, the Christ haters have always gone after the sacred hosts. Could it be that their father of lies, Satan the Devil, inspires this hatred. The Red Guards finally, having exhausted their hatred, closed the church doors and placed a guard on them.
The priest, from his study desk, could see the desecrated sanctuary of his church through a broken window. Imagine his surprise when, several hours later, he observed Little Li tip-toeing towards the sanctuary. It seems that, when every one else fled, Little Li had hidden under a bench in the choir loft.
Father was moved to tears, watching what happened next. Little Li fell to her knees in the sanctuary and, bending low to the floor, picked up one of the desecrated hosts with her tongue and consumed it. She then remained kneeling in prayer for some 20 minutes. Finally, she then exited the church through one of the broken windows.
But imagine the priest’s further surprise when she appeared early the next morning and, climbing into the church by the same broken window, repeated what she had done the previous evening. In fact, this went on for another month – at the crack of dawn, Little Li would appear, then, kneeling, she would pick up one of the remaining hosts with her tongue, and spend some 20 minutes in prayer before vanishing as silently as she appeared.
The final morning, after she had consumed the last remaining host, a tragedy unfolded, a tragedy in the eyes of the world. Yet, from Heaven’s vantage, it was no tragedy at all, but rather the imminent crowning of a new child saint with eternal glory. Little Li was climbing out the window when she slipped and cut herself on the shattered glass. Her anguished cry, a reflex of innocence, alerting the guards who, driven by a fervent hatred for the Catholic Church, descended upon Little Li with brutal force. In a relentless assault with their rifle butts, they snuffed out the life of this young soul. The presence of armed guards at this church one month after the original assault and desecration, serves as a stark reminder of the hatred of the Communists for Christianity.
I have absolutely no doubt that within seconds of the life being beaten from her body by those agents from Hell, she was in the loving arms of her Jesus, Who would have been eager to welcome Little Li into eternal bliss. Little Li has never been canonised, but I have absolutely no doubt that she is a saint close to the throne of God. I frequently invoke her assistance in my prayers.
The great American Bishop Fulton Sheen, who died in New York city in 1979, would spend an hour on his knees before the Blessed Sacrament every day, and he credited Little Li with having inspired him to do this.
I have always had a devotion to the Blessed Sacrament since I became a Catholic in my late teens. However, my devotion had grown very cold over the years, especially after the tsunami of Vatican II slammed into the Church and all but sunk us with its soul sapping regime of endless banal novelties. Hearing the story of Little Li was like having petrol poured on dying embers. The flame was immediately rekindled, and this revived devotion, in due course, inspired the writing of this booklet.
Greham Moorhouse.
Topic: I couldn't stop myself crying at this beautiful story of Little Li (Read 1268 times)