**After a forced march, the girl was sold as a slave. “Bakhita,” her captors called her—Arabic for “Lucky One.”**
**Once she was whipped for overhearing a quarrel between her master and his wife—wounded so severely that “I had to lie on the straw mat for two months without being able to move.” According to the fashion of the time and place, her arms, breasts, and stomach were tattooed with 114 elaborate designs incised with a razor, then kept open by being rubbed with salt. **
And we complain if we don’t have what we think are simple luxuries.
Thanks. I remember having taught a unit about St. Josephine to my 6th graders a couple years back. Her lesson of forgiveness is a real challenge!
Not to get off track, but this is similar; have you heard the story of Imaculee Ilibagiza??
www.immaculee.com
I heard this woman speak on Dennis Miller ~ Dennis was speechless, it wasn’t really an interview. He simply let her tell her story ~ and she had me in tears. After the interview, other people called in and said the same thing. Her story was so powerful.
This woman’s voice had an amazing quality. Like Bakkita, she forgave her tormentors (they had also murdered Imaculee’s entire family.)
I don’t know that did such a good job of teaching the story of Bakkita. That she was able to forgive ~ that she would “kiss their feet” with gratitude the people that tortured her was really just a little too much for me.
I did the best that I could with the lesson and left it with the Holy Spirit to do the rest.