"Give Us the Lady..."

	There used to be a missionary priest who recited his rosary while hiking on the peaks behind Dalat in Vietnam. He probably prayed it very well, for the Virgin Mary listened well... This is what happened: The priest, who had learned the Moï dialect, met a wounded child, nursed him back to health and took him home to his village, where he forged a friendship with the boy’s tribe... When the “friendship” was considered strong enough, the chief uttered this mysterious request: “Give us the Lady.” What Lady? The one that can be seen in the church in Dalat... Between noon and two o’clock in the afternoon, when the market place was deserted, the mountain people who had come to the market discretely slipped in the big house and there, stunned with admiration, they stood speechless in front of “the Lady.” The priest prepared his first instructions and demands for sacrifices around this primitive desire, and finally one day it was decided that the Lady could come to them... Try to imagine the commotion: the village was scrubbed clean, a hut was built for the Lady, and fresh palm leaves were cut in the forest. Musicians, with their gongs and khens, walked down the road to meet the statue. The women put on their best clothes... Further down, in Dalat, the hill country also was exuberant. The convent prepared a large statue, decorated the stretcher with flowers, and invited all the other schools. A long procession of young people wound through the mountains. People said the rosary, singing in different languages, along the red clay path. At one point, they even had to cross a torrent on a monkey bridge! Finally, they received a moving welcome from the “village-who-loves-Mary,” with blessings, the exchange of necklaces and bracelets in signs of friendship, offerings, the celebration of Mass with the recitation of the Pater in Latin, French and Moï. The youth all picnicked together and returned home joyfully. “It is only a good-bye, my brothers.” Canonesses of Saint Augustine The Route of Our Lady in Viet Nam, January 1954 In: Maria-under the direction of Hubert du Manoir, S.J.-Volume IV 1956