Our Lady of Tenderness

I would like to share with you an excerpt from the story Our Lady of Tenderness, which speaks to us of unconditional love, pain, and faith in times of adversity, leading us to find peace, redemption, and the true meaning and purpose of our lives.  ...

"They called her La Brava (The Brave) because she was so difficult to find. That mountain was her temple. She was the only Virgin who did not have a church, for whom no priest celebrated Mass and for whom no pyrotechnician set off fireworks. She was the only one who did not have a feast day.

They said that the image was only two centimetres tall, that it had been carved from hummingbird bones, that her crown was made of alfalfa flowers, that her clothes were made of tender queñual leaves and her cape of chrysalis shells. They said that her eyes were made of mountain water, that her hands were carnation petals and her mouth was a ruby splinter carved from the gizzard of a wood pigeon.

She was a miracle of tenderness. They said she was the purest. They called her La Brava: that was and always had been Our Lady of Tenderness..."

I invite you to read the full story in the book El hombre que curaba (The Man Who Healed) by Alfredo Mires Ortiz. Edited and published by the Rural Libraries Network of Cajamarca.