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Father Grassi said that mothers grasp needs and pain through their sensibility

"Only a mother's eyes understand where the most suffering reality can be found"

The Spiritual Father of Felices los Niños pointed out that this attitude helps in being moved by society's smallest ones. He added that a mother's heart ready to die for their children is also needed. He also said that the eyes of the Virgin Mary never forsake our country.

Buenos Aires, Sunday, October 20, 2002.- Father Julio Grassi, founder and Spiritual Father of the Felices los Niños Foundation asked the whole community tonight in his weekly reflection in the "La Manga" broadcasting at Radio Rivadavia (AM 630 kHz, Sundays from 02:00 to 05:00) "to recover a mother's eyes to understand where the cry of pain of those we need to help comes from, to understand where those who suffer and need the most are, and to have the boldness of giving ourselves entirely".

Father Grassi quoted Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio who at the 2nd Archidiocesan Meeting of Laity held at Universidad Catolica Argentina maintained that "work on the street without fear of soiling one's hands is a synonym of dignity", as opposed to those who "soil their hands through corruption".

"It is necessary to go out to the streets, the public squares, and to insert oneself in the social web and work side-by-side with others, who may not think as we do but who dialog with us" said the Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

"It is true that whoever goes out to the street is in danger of being involved in an accident, but a Church with just a vestry laity is a sick Church", commented the primate.

Father Grassi added that besides from these attitudes "one has to have the eyes of a mother because she is the only one who may see what a father is not able to see. She sees disorder in a functional way because she sees it as a function of the danger it represents to her child. She is the one who distinguishes a cry of terror from the one which is shouted during play."

"The mom is the one who listens and knows how to distinguish between the sounds and is able to distinguish the cries of those who suffer from those who have taken 'talking water'", he said, once again quoting Cardinal Bergoglio who referred to political leaders.

"A mother's eyes are the ones who understand where the most suffering reality is located. A mother can have several children but she understands which one needs to be urgently assisted, and which one cries for help by whim."

"In this case the true mother's eyes are those which grasp the needs through their sensibility. We have to add to these eyes a mother's heart ready to die for their children. There are more than enough examples of heroic mothers who preferred to die instead of having their children suffer. They give their best and suffer silently so their children don't see how they suffer."

"Today on Mother's Day, facing the terrible social crisis, besides from praising heroic women, those Mothers Courage, let us recover the mother's eyes so we can understand where the cry of pain of those we need to help comes from, so we can understand where those who suffer and need the most are, and have the boldness of giving ourselves entirely" he pointed out. "And also to have the sensibility needed to be moved to pity by society's smallest ones."

"There are a mother's eyes who will never forsake our country" said Father Grassi in reference to the Virgin Mary. "Our Lady of Lujan, the gaucho Virgin, constantly looks on us with pity and gives cover under her mantle to all men and women in our country. Besides, in the understanding of our Felices los Niños Foundation, she is the one who rescues the children which amble through the streets, to take them to a better place and to a better world."

"Today we want to ask her, the Mother of God, our own mother, for help for our country, for those who are suffering, so she may cover them up with her tenderness and also give them the hope needed for going on without letting their arms go down", closed Father Grassi.

The Felices los Niños Foundation gives comprehensive assistance to 6,300 children and teenagers at risk through 52 works. They comprise 20 dwelling homes, 15 day-care centers, 9 schools, 6 refectories, 2 mobile teams, in addition to 33 job training workshops.

One of the Dwelling Homes is the "Blessed Laura Vicuña" Teenage Mothers' Home located at the Foundation's headquarters in Hurlingham, which takes care of 17 mothers with 25 babies. Here they learn to raise and to give their affection to their children. These are young women who from an early age on carry the responsibility of motherhood. In the Teenage Mother's Home they get overall assistance and training through workshops.

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