The Tears of the Blessed Virgin !

Hrant Aghajan

8 كانون الثاني, 2025

 She took the candle and placed it in front of the picture of the Blessed virgin. She was immersed in prayer. When she stood up her eyes looked like two tearful lakes!  I knew her, Ai was deeply pained by remembering her. I looked at her with staring eyes and remembered my childhood. Her old house near the church came to me in a vision. There were various sizes of hanging candles! We can could not resist the lure of slipping into her house to watch her as she cast the liquid form of wax into the strings thus, she would make white round sticks of candles with gold_plated edges! She would prepare them for the Palm Sunday when the little girls and boys would carry these candles encumbered with the Palms, girly flowers and lilies in addition to blue and rosy stripes!
             As the candle seller drew upon a space of her past life, she said, " I left ore thank thousands of candles behind. I made them in preparation for the Easter Day!  The feast was for all. The charities of the church patron touched like morning dews, the hearts of those Muslims and Christians who had made vows! My thousands of candles were not sufficient to make the carried flames in each hand dance to the song: " Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!"
              When I sensed a smell of incense in the account of the candle maker, I asked her, " Did you sell those thousands of candles?" She said with a sigh, " I neither sold them nor they sold me...there was neither a feast nor were feast celebrants...When I held one of my thousands of candles and came close to the Blessed Virgin muttering a short prayer in front of Her icon, it appeared to me that two lines of tears were flowing from the eyes of the Blessed Virgin! Seventeen years passed and I'm still standing before the icon and so Her tears burn me!" I asked her, " Do you believe that your thousands of candles are waiting you?"  She said," I'll make other candles, this is my vow, I'll make others when we return home and I'll donate them to the worshipers. I'll wipe the tears of the Blessed Virgin with my lips and so She was would smile and gladly accept our prayers to the One who comes in the name of the Lord! "