15 November 2006

"You and I, being women, we have this tremendous thing in us, understanding love. I see that so beautifully in our people, in our poor women, who day after day, and every day, meet suffering, accept suffering for the sake of their children. I have seen parents, mothers, going without so many things, so many things, even resorting to begging, so that the children may have what they need."

"I have seen a mother holding her handicapped child because that child is her child. She had an understanding love for the suffering of her child. I remember a woman who had twelve children, the first of them was terribly disabled, terribly handicapped. I cannot describe to you what the child looked like, mentally, physically, and I offered her to take that child into our home where we have so many like that; and she started crying and she said to me, "Mother, don't say that. She is the greatest gift of God to me and my family. All our love is centered on this child. Our life would be empty if you took her away from us..."