Haiti in My Heart
by Ana Braga-Henebry in News on Friday, January 15, 2010 6:00 AM
I read the author of a blog today, which name I do not remember, saying he did not know of anyone who didn’t have Haiti in their heart these days. Alone in front of the computer monitor, I nodded silently.
I had, and have still, Haiti in my heart.
It is my day to run errands with the kids in town, a busy day of dropping off, picking up, driving friends’ kids, leading academic meetings. Yet Haiti didn’t leave my heart. I didn’t talk about it, except once with the friendly office person at ballet, where tuition checks are perpetually due. I mentioned it, and we exchange looks: yes, I had suspected, Haiti was also in her heart.
I had only found out about it at night, during family prayer, when my husband brought it up as a prayer intention. It took me back to my childhood when I lived in Brazil and there was an earthquake in Peru. We collected food and clothes to donate to Peru for what seemed to me an eternity. And we prayed. Every night, we prayed for the victims of the earthquake in Peru.
I prayed for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti when I said my early morning Rosary. I thought of the people: the men, the women, the children, the babies who were still waiting for rescue, under debris, helpless, crying, exhausted, clinging to Hope.
I thought of the rescue people, sitting on the ground, hungry, utterly fatigued, crying and despairing. They hear cries of people they will never be able to get to, and their hearts must bleed.
I went online, I read blogs, I donated money, and prayed more.
Ave Maria, gratia plena ...
I blogged about it, I posted about it on my online lists and groups, and I prayed some more.
Ave Maria, gratia plena ...
I talked about it with my kids, and spoke to them in words that I know pierced their young souls, and that boruhgt me again to my childhood, when I ran to my room and scrambled to get clothing and toys for the earthquake victims in Peru. And I prayed again:
Ave Maria, gratia plena ...
I thought of all of the people in this country who are carrying Haiti in their heart and feel, like me, that they would like to stop everything and help, give them a hand, remove rubble, find someone alive. And yet, like, me, they feel completely helpless, unable to lift a finger, while the suffering goes on.
O Mary, sweet Mother of the Divine Child, you of all people know about Suffering: who in the earthly life has seen her divine Son going thorugh such unjust and horrifying passion and death? Oh Blessed Mother, have pity on those who are now in my heart, whose cries I hear without ceasing.
Oh sweet and loving Mother, please hear my plea, for my plea is the only real way I can help now: embrace them, give them consolation, have mercy on them. Oh my dearest Mother, to whom I have always come in the hour of need, please bring to the hearts of the rescue people, to the men looking for their families, the women for their children, the consolation that no earthly person can bring: that of Faith, and of your Son’s love.
I remain here helpless, praying, with Haiti in my heart, but assured that He is never deaf to our pleas.
Ave Maria, gratia plena ...
—Ana Braga-Henebry blogs from the family acreage in South Dakota.
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