“Mary looks at herself in a new dress that they gave her and smiles.

– Are we going for a party? – She smiles again.

– Why are you saying so?

– Because of a dress… Today is a feast day, this day’s ending and nobody has harmed me, nobody has done bad things to me, I haven’t bled, I haven’t been tided, I have eaten four times, well, six, because I have ate what Joseph didn’t (and she laughs)”

Today I would like to begin this sharing, maybe the last one, with this fragment of testimony. A little girl, Mary, like many others in the history who see “with new eyes” the opportunity that gives them life… and God, even when they cannot name Him.

What a joy to be able to talk with this girl, and listen emotion in her voice when she saw that everything she had received (things that we have daily in abundance) for her were a gift (a dress, food, shower, healing tough). Do we know to enjoy the things we have every day? Do we receive the abundance of every day as a gift, as an opportunity? With Mary, a small girl 6 years old, I learned more to live grateful, in gratuity and generosity. She gave me a great lesson in life. 

“Mary looks at herself in a new dress that they gave her and smiles.

– Are we going for a party? – She smiles again.

– Why are you saying so?

– Because of a dress… Today is a feast day, this day’s ending and nobody has harmed me, nobody has done bad things to me, I haven’t bled, I haven’t been tided, I have eaten four times, well, six, because I have ate what Joseph didn’t (and she laughs). It is a feast day and I have a beautiful dress and grandmas gave me (she shows her little hands) all those hugs… And… water was hot (in shower) and there was foam and my towel has bears… Everything is nice and delicate, and this is a feast day. I love mommy angel, grandmas and all other children too… And I love grandmas and uncles and aunts that are not here but they told me they do magic. And I love grandma and children… I don’t know what “love” means but grandmas told me: I love you, and if this is what they feel for me, I also feel this way about them.

Let us make a feast, I’ve never had any… This day was different to all my days, I am afraid that it might not be real and tomorrow the monsters will return. Shall we feast? Because tomorrow the magic might end when the monsters would return. I like my dress, but they may tear it, and I will bleed, and they will harm me and I won’t eat (Mary starts crying)”

Whenever I remember her, I think that the world needs more of those Mary who teach us to live in simplicity and every day like something special. Maybe this way we would live more in fullness, more grateful, happier and less, much less discouraged and nervous.

And this is my invitation today: to stop the routine and be aware of what surrounds us and the abundance in which we live. Be aware so we won’t live always in discontent for what we “lack”, in wounds that they have caused to us or that we have caused. Be aware to heal the reproach, jealousies and bad feelings. Be aware and stop living disconnected, being islands, indifferent. Be aware to become generators of healing relationships, to reconstruct communion, to rediscover the meaning of the family .

Mary, even in all the pain she experienced, connected with what was essential and profound in life. Love. Gratitude. Beauty. The pain didn’t stop her from receiving the beauty of life. Her heart wasn’t sour with hurt feelings.

With this message I would like to say goodbye to the testimonies, at least formally: if this maintains you indifferent, if the pain that surrounds you blocks you and hardens, if your relationships is breaking and you don’t know how to stop it, just stop for a while, breathe and ask yourself what is maintaining you disconnected, what your heart is full of, what are you asking for from life, from your family, your sisters, your community. Be aware of your claims and indifference, so that like Mary, with a clean heart and healed wounds, you might enjoy your life, your breakfast, your shower, a simple “I love you”, a gift, feeling profound gratitude, fullness, life.

Mary taught me so, she reminded me what is essential in life. Maye it could serve you too, if you allow Mary, a little 6 years old girl, to take your hand and “return you to life”. You still have time.

Marcela Macagno, Carmelita Misionera Teresiana