The Face in the Mirror—A Story about the La Salette Feast

Editor: The visuals accompanying this imaginative story are from the early years of our La Salette ministry from 1902-2004 in St. Francis de Sales Church in Phoenicia, NY

The religion teacher decided to ask her religion class to meet together for an hour at the small La Salette Shrine across from the main church in Phoenicia, New York.

Rectory with La Salette Facsimile to its left in Phoenicia, NYIt was mid-September but the weather felt like velvet. Paradise could only be like this. Mrs. Romero, the Parish Religious Education teacher, then led the class to the facsimile of the Apparition with its three sets of stone statues of the Weeping Mother and young Maximin and Melanie.

Everyone fell silent. The stone statue seemed to have captured one of history's most solemn moments when the Mother of the Lord appeared and two little children listened with all their hearts.

The teacher asked the class, “Why do you think Mary wept during her apparition at La Salette?”

One girl shyly responded: “Usually when somebody cries, something is going wrong.”

“That’s right,” the teacher responded. The girl continued, “This was a religious shrine, and religious people have this big thing about sin,” thought the girl. She decided to get into the spirit of the place and quickly added: "She must be crying because of our sins."

"You think so?" asked the teacher. "Isn't there more to it than that?" Big Al, who always sat in the back row in the classroom was now standing in the back of the group because he didn't want to miss anything. He said: "You mean, there's something out there worse than sin?"

Closeup of La Salette Shrine in Phoenicia, NYHe didn't expect the teacher to say “yes, there is.” Few people contradicted big Al. After all, it was a safe remark. What could be worse than sin? "I didn't say there was something worse than sin," said the teacher. "I asked if there's more to it than that. Were there more reasons for her visit?"

"What else could she be weeping about?" said red-haired Heather. “Sin is the only thing that could make God or the Blessed Virgin cry, isn't it?"

"You think the Blessed Virgin appeared to condemn sin?" insisted Mrs. Romero, the teacher. “I see in this shrine leaflet that people were not praying,” suggested the quiet Clare. "That must be the reason, right?" “You're getting warm,” responded Mrs. Romero.

"Also, people weren't going to Mass on Sundays," said Jonathan, who decided to talk even if he was the only non-Catholic in the class. “It says it here in the leaflet," he declared.(from left) Phoenicia, NY: exterior of Church; initial interior of church before its decoration

"You're all getting very warm", reassured Mrs. Romero. "And yet, you're way off." "Why don't we get to something we all know," Matt, the baseball enthusiast, finally ventured. "Let's talk about that different kind of cross she's wearing—the one with the hammer and pincers. That's something we all know about. I'm sure Christ died for our sins on a cross, right?"

"Well, yes and no," said Mrs. Romero. "You see, Christ died for the same reason the Blessed Virgin appeared at La Salette. Notice how that cross is shining on her breast. During the actual apparition on September 19, 1846, the cross was the brightest thing she was wearing. The children said that Christ seemed to be alive because it was so bright and shimmering."

"So why was the Lady weeping, and why did Christ die on the cross?" persisted Mrs. Romero. Beautiful Leslie Ann, getting bored with all this, slowly slipped her small hand mirror out of her pocketbook and took a peek at her face to see if everything she had put on it in the morning was still in place. She liked what she saw; she was pretty and she didn't need a touch-up.

"Leslie Ann," called Mrs. Romero, and Leslie Ann almost had a heart attack. "Do you have any answers for us?" "No, Mrs. Romero," whispered Leslie Ann as she deftly let her mirror drop into her open pocketbook. "Could I have that hand mirror, please, Leslie Ann? I would like to pass it around to the whole class and have everybody look at their faces. Don't ask any questions, boys. Please, just do it, all right?”

Three La Salette Priests in the snow in front of Phoenicia Rectory.Mrs. Romero was what the class called a cool teach.” The boys especially liked her because she knew almost all the major league hitters' averages and all the pitchers' ERAs by heart; and besides that, she had had a smile that could melt ice-cubes at twenty paces. So they passed the small mirror around, looked at themselves in it for a millisecond, smiled shyly, and then gave it to the next student.

"The Christ on that Cross died for that face you saw in the mirror," said Mrs. Romero. "Christ died for people, and his Mother, the Blessed Virgin was like her Son; she appeared on the mountain called La Salette for people. And Christ died for each one of us, individually, one by one. Christ didn't die wholesale. He died for each one of those faces you saw in that little mirror. Christ died to allow us to “win over sin” but he actually died... for people."

Mrs. Romero continued: “Why do you think Mary wept during her apparition at La Salette? The Beautiful Lady you see crying here, pictured in this white stone statue, cried for people—you and me. Our Lord died for people and Our Lady of La Salette came on earth to show how much she cared for people... and so she wept during her entire Apparition.”

"That's a neat idea, “teach,” er, I mean Mrs. Romero," said ‘big Al’ from the back row. People are the big thing here. That's the way I like my religion—simple, meat-and-potatoes, you know." Big Al had seen the light, and nobody dared contradict big Al when he had seen the light.

Then Mrs. Romero said: “You know, the two children Mary appeared to were about your age!” The boy who usually doesn’t say anything was intrigued and asked: “So what can we do?” Smiling, Mrs. Romero said: “Mary’s last words to these two young children were, ‘Well, my children, you will make this message known to all my people.’” Big Al said, “That I’ll have to think about!”

All went away quietly, remembering that class, and the mirror, and the two French kids who met the Beautiful Lady... who was weeping... for us!