Milagros

by Helen Thompson

  Gratitude is an outward-turning gesture.

  The valentine-shaped heart is the preferred offering for loss of love, whether through death or disaffection. It can also be a symbol of thanksgiving for a love restored.

  Hospitals run by the Catholic Church usually have statues of saints somewhere on the premises, and it is not uncommon to find clusters of milagros piled at their bases or to see them draped with ribbons glittering with sewn-on milagros.

  One young woman continued to offer heart milagros each year on the anniversary of her husband’s recovery from a near-fatal tractor accident on their farm.

  She had brought the first heart the night of his devastating mishap shortly after their wedding—placing it in the outstretched hand of a statue of Saint Francis—and she had promised to continue giving thanks if her husband’s life were spared. His injuries were so crushing that both wife and doctors admitted only a miracle could restore her husband to good health. But her wish was granted, and her annual offerings of milagros represent her ongoing gratitude and acknowledgment of the magnitude of the gift.

  You may know in your heart that the capacity to show gratitude is different from just being grateful. But you might be too busy to pay attention to your emotions. Gratitude is an outward-turning gesture that includes others. Show gratitude when you can, and leave some evidence along the way. Take this heart milagro to heart, and use it as a reminder that the effects of love can be tangible.

  Comparta lo gué lleva en su corazón.

  Share what you have in your heart.

  SPIRIT

  THE LOVE YOU can give to a higher spirit is one of the great gifts of life. It seems more commonplace in less-developed areas of the world, but belief shouldn’t be mistaken for lack of sophistication. Sharing the spirit of yourself with others augments and enriches your life and the lives of those around you. Communal gestures of faith, such as the pilgrimage of the Saint Francis feast-day celebration in the American Southwest—for which pilgrims arrive by foot or in rickety autos and wait in sweltering heat to make their offerings—have a value you can only experience by participating.

  Throughout the Americas there are sites where the faithful have come for many years—some by foot, some on their knees for the last few blocks of their pilgrimage—to pay homage to a saint for a prayer answered. In Tlaxcala, Mexico, pilgrims have offered so many heart milagros to the Virgin at the Basilica of Our Lady of Ocotlan, that the enormous five-point star behind this larger-than-life statue is completely covered.

  The power of devotion can also be seen at the ancient shrine of Our Lord of Chalma in Mexico. Pilgrims to the shrine, which honors a black Christ figure much loved in the area, always stop at a huge cypress tree out of which curative waters are said to flow. The tree is lavishly hung with milagros testifying to the restorative powers or the waters. Crutches, umbilical cords, driver’s licenses, and limb-shaped milagros vie for space with heart milagros and snapshots of children rescued from death’s grasp. Since milagros are often offered after a prayer has been answered, so much evidence is a public testament to the power of faith—the sight alone of such faith can deepen belief.

  Then there are individual examples of acts of faith: A middle-aged daughter was grieving intensely over the death of her mother, to whom she had been very close. Because her heart felt as if it would break, the daughter offered heart milagros at the shrine she had built in honor of her mother in her back yard. Finally she decided to bury the heart milagros, and when the flowers began to bloom in her yard, she believed the happy profusion was a response from her mother.

  Popular psychology, too, attests to the value of sharing your hopes and dreams with those around you. All of us have allowed the insidious cynicism of modern life to affect us in some way: We may yell at other drivers in traffic, or we may do worse and yell at someone we love. It will do your heart good to put something else first in your life besides yourself and to relearn the value of belief. Your heart milagro is a memento of the commonality of faith.

  CHAPTER THREE

  HAND

  YOUR HANDS CONNECT YOU TO OTHERS

  YOUR HANDS ARE the way you relate to the world: how you reach out to others and how others return your touch; what you use to do work; and often, they are the instruments through which your creativity flows to create music, art, or poetry.

  The clenched fist is a sign of good luck in Brazil and other parts of Latin America, where hand milagros are ubiquitous. In the United States and Mexico, hand milagros nearly always come in the shape of the back of a single hand that ends at the wrist or is completed by a fancy cuff. The fingers of the milagro are usually extended with the joints and fingernails depicted. In the event of a devastating injury, the afflicted part is highlighted with a different metal or shown defined by a ragged edge. Occasionally, both hands are shown, with fingertips touching as if in prayer.

  Tocar es el bálsamo para aliviar el dolor.

  Touch is the balm to ease pain.

  BODY

  OUR HANDS ARE essential to making a living—without his hands, a craftsman can’t make his crafts, an artist can’t create, a laborer can’t work, and a factory employee can’t produce. Milagros of the hand are common in societies where the well-being of families depends on physical labor, and in our own highly technological one, hands provide the means for survival—both physical and spiritual. Hands are the connection to others that gives us our humanity, and may be why phrases like “lending a hand” evoke a sense of the importance of giving something of yourself.

  An older Mexican-American woman used hand milagros both to aid her own work ethic and to seek a divine helping hand. Her neighbor who lived in a house that she loved came to see her one day and told her that he was going to sell his house and give her the first chance to buy it. He added that he would give her a week to get the money together to make the purchase. The woman felt sure no bank would give her a loan, so she offered a hand milagro to Saint Francis with a prayer that she would work hard in her job as a maid to repay a loan. Three days later, she found a bank to loan her the money to buy the house she had always loved.

  You have the ability to ease someone else’s pain.

  If you are experiencing problems with your hands, such as aching in the joints or tendinitis, it may be time to consider how your work is affecting your life. Some aspect of the way you make your living may be unhealthy. Repetition, overuse, or inflexibility can cause physical symptoms that reveal emotions or attitudes long hidden or as yet unacknowledged.

  Take a moment to think about your hands and what you use them for: Place them in your lap, with the fingers of one hand lightly touching the fingers of the other. Close your eyes and envision your hand milagro as a manifestation of your hands at work. Remember another of your hands’ capabilities: the healing power of touch. With every touch, you have the ability to help ease someone else’s pain.

  Sus manos son para bienvenir a otros.

  Your hands are for welcoming others.

  MIND

  JUST AS YOU use your hands to greet new people you meet with a firm shake, you can also use them to introduce new and satisfying elements and to rewelcome those whom you already know into a more intimate role in your life.

  In the American Southwest as far back as the late 1700s, milagros were necessities in a well-run Hispanic household. The small silver amulets were usually pinned to a statue or hung on a painting of the family’s favorite saint, and it was a thoughtful host who kept a supply on hand (stored in miniature velvet-covered caskets) for family members or friends in need. Taking a trip across the border to replenish a depleted supply of milagros was a gesture of kindness that one might offer, and in this way, milagros themselves have come to show a way to reach out to loved ones and those in need.

  Begin to think of your hands as being more than the necessary means to earning a living—limiting your hands to this function alone also limits yourself. The effect can be crippling to your whole being. Visualize other uses for yo
ur hands, such as grasping the hand of a friend, holding a pet or a baby, planting a favorite flower, or writing a poem. These are welcoming acts that will bring friends, beauty, and inspiration into your life. In fact, giving a milagro to a friend can be a good way of telling him or her you are lending a hand.

  Reaching out to someone else in pain is often the best balm.

  Gestures of friendship and caring can be as comforting as a touch. When we are in pain, it is easy to overlook how egocentric and self-involving pain can be—reaching out to someone else in pain is often the best balm. Think of your hands as your way of guiding other people into your life. Just as the thoughtful householder kept a cache of milagros to hand out to those in need, your own supply of milagros or just your goodwill can be at the ready too. A life not shared is a life of loneliness—let the hand milagro remind you that friends are the most important component of a happy and productive life.

  Dejese recibir lo gué el mundo tiene de ofrecer.

  Let yourself receive what the world has to offer.

  SPIRIT

  MOST OF US like to think of ourselves as being independent and capable. But depending only on yourself in times of turmoil and uncertainty can be overwhelming. Opening your hands and your heart is a gesture of faith that can be rewarding.

  Milagros serve a dual function: They are used by the grateful to offer thanks for answered prayers, and by supplicants to ask for divine aid. On the Island of Margarita, off the coast of Venezuela where the waters in the area once harbored a productive pearl field, sailors and pearl divers pay homage to the Virgin del Valle. Her sanctuary in the village of El Valle is filled with votive offerings and pearl-encrusted milagros of hands and legs, essential tools in pearl diving. The families pray for good catches and safe returns. These prayers are more than requests for a favor—by asking for help, the supplicants admit and share their need for divine intervention and, by doing so, expose their deepest vulnerabilities.

  Desperation can prepare you to receive comfort.

  Fear of being abandoned, of being cast out, and of death are primal, no matter how civilized the society we live in or our season of life. We all experience periods in our lives when events are not in our control. It is under these dire circumstances that we are reminded that we cannot always have our way, solve a problem, maneuver a desirable outcome, or prevent a tragic consequence. Turning to a higher power—opening our hands to another source of strength—can be the final resort of the desperate. Ironically, that very desperation can prepare you to receive comfort.

  Even friends and relatives can help pray for something a loved one really needs—this form of spiritually lending a hand strengthens a person’s resolve and involves in the recovery process those closest to the ailing person and the supplicant. A distraught father asked his family and friends to help him ask for a miracle when his baby son was injured in a car wreck. After a week, the child emerged from his coma to see the happy faces of parents and relatives grouped around him.

  Offering a milagro can be a simple and tangible way to receive consolation from a higher power. Milagros are symbols of a request for assistance; use yours as a way to find new strength. Asking for help is the most wondrous way to receive support.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  FOOT

  YOUR FEET SUPPORT YOUR JOURNEY THROUGH LIFE

  YOUR FEET ARE the foundation upon which your whole body rests and relies. They act as your transportation; they must bear the daily weight of your body; and despite being so sturdy, they are among the most sensitive areas of the body.

  Like hands, feet are indispensable in cultures whose economies are dependent upon physical labor. Foot milagros frequently show up at pilgrimage sites—in part because many of the penitent have arrived after having walked for sometimes hundreds of miles. These milagros can appear as life-size wood renditions complete with toenails and wrinkles at the joints, or as tiny silver versions that detail such ailments as flat feet. They have been found in the ancient locations of the Etruscan period in Italy and in centuries-old sites in Catholic southern Germany, where offering milagros was a popular custom among the peasantry.

  Levantese y salga adelante!

  Get up and go!

  BODY

  ARE YOUR FEET in pain? Foot problems can be some of the most distressing, and when severe, these difficulties can be literally immobilizing. If you are plagued with foot problems, it may be time to ponder what your pain stands for: If you notice that you are standing too much at work or at play, never giving yourself a moment to sit down and relax, then perhaps it is time for you to slow down. Or perhaps there are some things in your life that it is time to walk away from—and that is exactly what feet are for.

  The Afro-Brazilians and the Native peoples in northeast Brazil share certain beliefs from which we could stand to learn. They believe disease and misfortune are the result of intangible forces invading the body, and that offering milagros is a way to cast out misfortune.

  If you are persistent, you will always end up in a better place.

  Focus on your own foot milagro as a way to walk away from unnecessary unhappiness. Muster your inner strength to visualize a goal that you can proceed toward—your foot milagro can show you that path. Remember that placing one foot in front of the other has a cumulative effect: If you are persistent, you will always end up in a better place.

  Encuentre sus desafior con propósito.

  Meet your challenges with purpose.

  MIND

  WE OFTEN ENDOW problems with more power than they actually have by thinking of them abstractly, thus making them seem too unwieldy for us to get a handle on them. To get past these inhibitors, you must first take notice of your frustrations. But sometimes just the act of noticing can stop a person in their tracks. Don’t let that happen to you. Think of acknowledging your problems as the first step toward moving past them—not to run away, but to find a deliberate method of considering a new path and following it.

  The act of offering a milagro—even if it is in your own private ceremony—can be a way to look for that new path. It is commonly observed that pilgrims feel invigorated by the pilgrimage and their resolve is strengthened. By making an offering, you open a path for new dialogue, whether it is with yourself or with a higher spirit.

  It is a spiritual failing of modern culture that it is too easy for us to think of ourselves as alone in the world. Across the American Southwest and Latin America, milagro offerings found in places as diverse as roadside chapels, wall niches, and shrines of neighborhood grocery stores, hospitals, and public spaces reaffirm that, indeed, we are not alone; many are attempting to instigate such a dialogue. Use your foot milagro as a reminder that certain ideas—such as the belief in a higher power—have universality. Use it as a token to inspire you to seek new paths. Looking for a new way can be like making your own pilgrimage—your journey will always lead to self-discovery and self-acceptance, the two greatest challenges life presents.

  Su jornado puede estar llena de felicidad.

  Your journey can be full of joy.

  SPIRIT

  RECOGNIZE THE WORTH of each individual step of your life. Having an ultimate objective is in itself a necessary and valuable thing, but by focusing overly upon a far-away—and oftentimes unreasonable—goal, we risk missing out on the delights offered by the day-to-day.

  Making a pilgrimage is one of the great traditions associated with the offering of milagros. The pilgrim who brings a milagro to a saint’s statue or to a pilgrimage site is completing the final rite of a personal religious act. But the pilgrimage actually begins long before the first step is taken, with the decision to seek supernatural help.

  Every October, near the town of Magdalena in Mexico, it is common to see Mexican and Indian pilgrims trudging along wagon paths, through the mountains, and across the desert in the cool of the night to reach the San Francisco chapel there. They carry with them powerful tokens of their belief—holy pictures, little statues of Saint Francis, meaningful
personal mementos from their households—to rub against the statue of San Francisco.

  Contemplate where life can take you if you let it.

  During this fiesta, an atmosphere of celebration and gaiety pervades the streets of Magdalena: Makeshift food stands sell fresh coffee, hot tortillas, and grilled meat, while vendors hawk balloons, jewelry, clothing, and religious souvenirs to the beat of the mariachi bands that stroll through the calles. As rich and poor, healthy and sick, sacred and profane mix together, the event soon transcends the strictly religious to encompass an even broader meaning—the universality of experience.

  Use your foot milagro to contemplate where life can take you if you let it. Think of your journey as being like a pilgrimage—difficult and even treacherous, but a trip that can also be full of joy. Learn to think of the act of traveling as the valuable component of your pilgrimage. Look at your foot milagro and remind yourself to enjoy making your way through life—that the journey itself is what matters.