Brave Little Gerda, So Chilled She Could Not Speak

[Rita]

Marina, it's so hard with the kids. I can bear any cross myself with God's help but giving my kids a cross is usually unbearable for me. My son especially is bearing this cross, he is suffering so much and doing so many bad things as his way of expressing it.

The other day I was praying in a cathedral next to a pieta, just asking Mary to protect my son and help me understand her grief in having to give up her own son so that I would not be alone in my grief, so I could understand what she understands about that mystery of having to trust God so much that you surrender your own child to his care, and I started crying like crazy. I was on my knees and had my hands on Mary's hands and Christ's feet and I was crying with my head against the pieta, totally inside my own prayer with my eyes closed. When I opened my eyes and stood up, there was a woman standing there watching me. She had been waiting until I was done so that she could come over and give me a huge hug. She said, "It's going to be okay. God is listening to you. He loves you." And all around me the stained glass windows seemed to be flaring up with light and I walked out into the busy street and felt God's presence all around me.