On Valentine’s Day, Sisters Marguerite Coyne and Catherine Higgins were introduced to a young boy with Down’s syndrome. He had coal black hair and thick dark-rimmed glasses.
“I stooped down to greet him, and he abruptly turned away from me and moved toward Sister Catherine,” Sister Marguerite says. He was attracted to the cross of St. Brigid that was worn openly by Sister Catherine.
“I immediately told him, ‘I have a cross, too’ and took the cross from beneath my blouse to show him,” Sister Marguerite recalls.
Gently holding the cross up close, the boy reverently kissed it and said, “beautiful.” He turned to Sister Catherine and repeated the gesture and expression.
“This child’s kiss was more than all the Valentines I have ever received,” says Sister Marguerite.
“I wonder if he instinctively knows God’s great love for us in the Crucifixion? He went his way little knowing the good he had done. We often bestow a kiss by greeting another with a smile of recognition or a touch on the shoulder and go our own way without knowing how we have lifted another’s spirit just by being loving.”