The famous New York diamond dealer, Harry Winston, heard about a wealthy Dutch merchant who was looking for a certain kind of diamond to add to his collection. Winston called the merchant, told him that he thought he had the perfect stone, and invited the collector to come to New York and examine it.
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Harry Winston (1896 – 1978) a renowned jeweler who donated the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution after owning it for a decade. |
Winston, who had been watching the presentation from a distance, stopped the merchant going out the door and asked, "Do you mind if I show you that diamond once more?" The merchant agreed and Winston presented the stone. But instead of talking about the technical features of the stone, Winston spoke spontaneously about his own genuine admiration and what a rare thing of beauty it was. Abruptly, the customer changed his mind and bought the diamond.
While he was waiting for the diamond to be packaged and brought to him, the merchant turned to Winston and asked, "Why did I buy it from you when I had no difficulty saying no to your salesman?"
Winston replied, "That salesman is one of the best men in the business and he knows more about diamonds than I do. I pay him a good salary for what he knows. But I would gladly pay him twice as much if I could put into him something that I have and he lacks. You see, he knows diamonds, but I love them." (Michael LeBoeuf, Ph.D., How to Win Customers and Keep Them for Life, Berkeley, by arrangement with G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1989, pgs. 34-35)
That story illustrates one of the single greatest principles of persuasion: People are far more persuaded by the depths of your beliefs and emotions than any amount of logic or knowledge you possess.
Editor: This article was originally written in 1966, just after the closing of the Second Vatican Council, for our La Salette publication, Reconciliare. Fr. Orset shares his faith and his vision of the place of Mary in the life of the La Salette Missionaries and in the life of the wider Church.
Standing on the mountain of La Salette,
you can see all the way to the Annunciation
and to a Hill called Calvary
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Fr. Sylvain-Marie Giraud, |
A definite spirit radiates from the Apparition and from all it entails. That spirit is a gift, a grace; it is primarily addressed to the People of God.
I (will first discuss)… the spirit of La Salette in the Church, as it relates to the People of God (taken in the conciliar sense of the word). Later on.. (I will) narrow the scope of our discussion to concentrate on men and women who have freely chosen to center their lives on God, accepting to be bound by vows and a given constitution. The Council proceeded in much the same way: first came the People of God, and then the hierarchy that serves it. Council deliberations on the universal vocation to holiness preceded the considerations on religious life.
When the Council attempted to draft its chapter on the Blessed Virgin, it ran into difficulties which we (La Salette) missionaries, working in the light of the Council, cannot afford to ignore if we intend to delineate for our own Congregation a genuinely ecclesial La Salette spirit, 100% church... Once again, Fr. Giraud is qualified to serve as our mentor.
The La Salette place, with its breathtaking surroundings, contain the basic building blocks of human reality and faith as well: people (her wayward people) and God’s creation (the field of Coin, wheat rotting and grapes decaying). Add to this Mary’s visit, her words of warning and promises of blessing. Mary recounts the basics of our faith life: an active faith in her Son, daily prayer, Eucharist and Lenten habits of faith. It’s almost a catechism of evangelization, calling us back to the basics.
Mary, of course, echoes the message of the scriptures, the message of her Son. The book of Genesis begins with the story of God’s creation (1:11-13) with its plants, trees, seed-bearing plants, crops, and harvest. The last book of the bible, Revelation (14:14-16) describes the denouement of earth’s history, the final judgment also described in terms of the reaping of the earth’s harvest.
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La Salette Assumption window, St Joseph’s Parish, Waipahu, Owahu, Hawaii |
The season of Lent has led us along the road of renewal and purification toward Easter; it has opened our minds and predisposed our hearts to accept the Word of God, which speaks to us of salvation, forgiveness, mercy and love. We have been invited to place God decisively at the center of our human existence and our religious commitment. As Pope Benedict XVI has written for this Year of Faith, “Without tiring God knocks at the door of our lives, seeking to make his presence known consistently and seriously in its every aspect; only in this way will our life’s project truly become salvation history.”
My wish it that our recent celebration of Easter may truly mark the beginning of a new existence, full of the presence of God and of love toward our brothers and sisters. Our lives are to be centered on the Gospel, which renews and enlivens our vocation as people inspired by the La Salette apparition.
The Resurrection of the Lord, with its victory over death, fills our hearts with joy and hope because it speaks clearly and definitively about the mystery of sin and evil present in us and in our world: these will never have the final word on human destiny if we attempt to conform our lives to the word and person of Jesus.
The Year of Faith impels us to look once again at our reasons for being Christians, and to reconsider the choices which have marked the various steps of our existence. We as Catholic Christians are called to an interior renewal; we are called to “shake off the dust” of indifference and relativism which, simply over time or perhaps due to inadvertence, has been able to accumulate along the paths of our hearts and consciences making our witnessing less transparent and, as a consequence, a little less believable. A good opportunity is being offered us and it would be a shame to waste it by making ourselves impervious to the riches of God’s grace.
The mysterious tears of the Mother of God during the La Salette Apparition are a testimony to God's concern for humankind's well-being. La Salette is one more instance of God's anger at seeing God's people deliberately causing their own misery and pain. (The children understood the symbol of tears immediately).
Human tears are both a sign and a reality. There is no doubt that these tears were meant to impress. Tears are always the visible signs of trauma or of the profound experience of joy. In any case they indicate an extreme emotion. They are the most visible signs, the most telltale and the most authentic of what is happening within a person.
The tears of Our Lady at La Salette are meant to be understood according to the common assumptions of ordinary people: they express profound sadness. They are a sign that the weeping person has reached the limit of his or her capacity to conceal pain. The flood of distress has reached the point of overflow and affliction becomes "flesh" spilling down the face in streams of liquid heartache.
Leonardo da Vinci once said: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” The message of the La Salette Apparition is at once simple and profound, imbedded in the “now” but still speaking of good things to come. It happened one crisp Saturday morning on Sept. 19, 1846, near the small village La Salette. The cows were herded up the mountainside by two poor, unschooled children, expecting nothing but a pleasant lunch with a requisite nap to follow.
Then their simple lives were disrupted by awaking to find their cows gone and a globe of light mysteriously shining in a nearby ravine. And their lives would never be the same.
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Fr. Johann Roten, S.M., |
Simplicity is a definite advantage. The message of La Salette is down-to-earth, to the point and quite practical. Stamped all over it are the words: back to basics. In her message, Mary advocates daily prayer, Mass on Sunday, Lenten observance; she recommends that we pray at least the Our Father and the Hail Mary each day; she bids us refrain from swearing and take seriously seasonal habits of faith (Lenten fast and abstinence).
This simple message has a popular appeal. It addresses the masses and provides those who ask: “What should we do?” with a straight answer (see Acts 2:37). La Salette is blessed with a simple mandate; it is the Church’s link to the masses.
The very simplicity of the message allows for further elaboration: daily prayer becomes a felt need for a properly active life of prayer; fidelity to the discipline of Lent leads to a deeper understanding of the role that the various cycles of the Church year play in the life of a Catholic Christian.
For those of us who are Catholic and familiar with apparitions of Mary, the event of La Salette on Sept. 19, 1846 is extraordinary but certainly within the framework of our belief as Catholics. We even take for granted that other apparitions have happened from time to time but we may not be able to explain anything beyond the event itself. Its meaning or implications, its grace or charism, its potential effects to strengthen or challenge our faith are perhaps beyond our ken. Let us explore some of these less familiar aspects of an apparition, especially with regard to Mary’s appearance at La Salette.
Some people, even some Catholics, place apparitions with their ongoing suspicions of alien abductions and similar otherworldly experiences and simply consider them fantasies and imaginings. However, despite any prudent and initial questions, apparitions are as real as our kitchen table or our cherished memories of our loved ones.
There can be no vocation without a mission. We have been called to bear fruit, lasting fruit: "Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to carry out everything I have commanded you. And know that I am with you always." (Mt.28)
I. The first objective of the mission is to "make disciples" of that Jesus who is present today in the midst of the Christian community. The disciple is committed to a person whom he follows. That presupposes a proclamation: "Here is the Lamb of God;" an open mind: "Master, where do you live?" a call, "Come and see," which becomes specific: "Come, follow me;" and also "If someone would follow me, let him deny himself, take up his daily cross and follow me." The purpose is to awaken faith, to lead to an encounter with the person of Jesus and to a journey with him. The initiative comes from God.