by Colette Maloney

Back in 2011, a little boy of seven called Luis Sanchez taught me about love and friendship. It was the first year I had stayed in the Hogar San Francisco de Asis, a home for seriously ill and destitute children just outside Lima, Peru. On the day I was due to return to Ireland, I had no idea how difficult I would find it to leave. I couldn’t stop crying. Seeing this, Luis started crying too and he ran away upstairs to his room. I thought all the emotion had upset him. However, as I made for the front door he shouted my name as he raced downstairs and ran at me with the biggest hug. He gestured that he had something to tell me so I bent down and he whispered in my ear ‘you don’t cry, I cry but not you’ and he wiped away my tears. He took my hand and placed in it one of his favourite lollipops. He said ‘for you Colette, to make you smile not cry and I will see when you come back’.

Dr Colette Maloney is Assistant Professor of Theology and Spirituality at DCU Institute of Education and the Mater Dei Centre for Catholic Education Dublin. Her doctoral dissertation focussed on the integration of theology and spirituality in the work of Sandra Schneiders, Jon Sobrino and Donal Dorr.