Devotion and Prayer

What shines out from the prayers left by most of the visitors to the shrine is the simplicity of their religious faith. None of the petitioners doubt that the Virgin or other saint has the power to grant them what they cannot achieve through their own efforts. They believe the Virgin can restore to them what life has denied or taken from them. There is no intellectualism in most of the messages. The majority of these simple folk speak the language of the heart, in faith, hope, gratitude and devotion. In presenting them in this way, Cisneros affirms the traditional piety and cultural values of the Mexican-American community. That is not to say that Cisneros does not find some humor in their petitions—oddities or even absurdities that the writers may be unaware of, but it is a gentle humor, more inclined to marvel at...