Thursday, January 21, 2016

OUR LADY OF THE SMILE

OUR LADY OF THE SMILE
On May 13, 1883, Our Lady of the Smile healed St. Therese of the Child Jesus when she was bedridden. On that day, St. Therese turned her head to a statue of the Virgin near her bed and prayed for a cure. “Suddenly,” Therese writes, “Mary's face radiated kindness and love.” Therese was healed. The statue has since been called “Our Lady of the Smile.”
St. Therese, the heart that exclaimed a few months before her death, “In the heart of my Mother, the Church, I will be love,” did not always know she could love…did not always feel free to love… But Our Lady smiled at her and she was deeply healed of all her spiritual, psychological, emotional and corporal sufferings. She was healed by a smile…a simple and powerful “smile” of Our Mother…
The Mother’s Smile is a reflection of Her maternal and immaculate love. She smiles to the depth of our hearts, to the depths of our wounds…to our most hidden inner lackings and sufferings. She smiles and we know Her love for us! She smiles and everything becomes so peaceful, so calm in the ocean of our hearts… She smiles and love flourishes in our whole being… She smiles and the voids of our lives are suddenly filled… She smiles and the brokenness in our humanity is restored, is elevated, is healed… She smiles and the path of grace to our hearts opens up with a new freedom…
She smiles and we know we are loved, deeply loved, by a mother’s love! She smiles and our fears are driven away. She smiles and the doubts are enlightened with Her kindness… She smiles and the lackings and excesses in our lives are leveled to the perfect measurement of love… She smiles and our hearts know that there is so much more…so much more… There is tenderness, there is courage, there is freedom, there is fruitfulness, there is communion, there is life, there is love…and love makes us stronger, freer, younger and more joyful. She smiles and we are healed…healed in the depth of our hearts!
May She smile in our hearts... May She smile to us and for us!

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