Our Lady of La Salette

The visit of my Mary to earth on September 19, 1846 is usually referred to as OUR LADY OF TEARS or OUR LADY WHO WEPT. We sometimes believe that the only reason she is not weeping all the time is because she has the Beatific Vision of her Magnificent Son to comfort her. There’s an expression, “You can’t get hurt if you don’t stick your chin out”. She always sticks her chin out. She is always being hurt. If we study the history of the world, in particular the 16th through the 19th centuries, we become alarmingly aware that we’ve hurt Mary very deeply. However, very seldom do we ever hear her complain about the outrages committed against her. During her apparition to St. Catherine Laboure, she cried because of the chastisement that would come to France, and to the Religious Orders.
The irony of her visit to the two simple French children high above the tree line in La Salette, France, is that, again, the tears she shed were not for herself; she cried for us, her children. What an example she is, the suffering servant. What a heart she has. No wonder there is such devotion to her Immaculate Heart. It is so big; there’s enough room in her heart for the whole world.
The excitement and devotion which flourished in the wake of Mary’s apparition to Catherine Laboure in Paris in 1830, and the phenomenal spread of the Miraculous Medal that followed in its path, brought many people back to the Church and Mary. But by and large, Satan was still in control. The situation had not changed that much, or the word had not spread far enough in the succeeding 16 years. 1846 found France as anti-Church as it had ever been, only more self centered and materialistic.