I do hope that everyone will find tears in his or her eyes from this story for it reaches so deeply into the innermost heart–and the innermost heart is where the core energy for Esoterism has always resided.

Once upon a time, long ago, in a small Ukrainian village, situated in a beautifully, green and vibrant forest on the banks of the majestic Dnieper River, lived a widowed mother and her young, innocent and God-loving young daughter. The mother was so very poor that it took her many months to save enough money to buy some special gold wrapping paper, which she was going to save until her daughter’s wedding day, God Willing.

One day, mother discovered the paper was missing and she asked her daughter if she had taken it. When her young daughter said yes, her mother was furious. The daughter, who was very sweet and tender and close to God burst out in tears, “Oh, Mother, please don’t be angry with me for I needed it so to wrap a special present for you.” Mother was so saddened by her previous outburst and hugged and kissed and apologized.

The next day her daughter gave mother the gift-wrapped present. Inside was a box, but it was empty of mundane things. Mother again lost her temper and told her daughter that if she was going to give a box as a present then the box should contain something nice. Again the daughter burst into tears and said, “Can you not see the kisses and love that I had put inside for you, dear Mother?”

Her mother’s heart filled with a true remorse, for such feelings commonly come upon us in holy moments, for she saw that she was in the presence of a real angel given to her from God. Realizing at long last, the specialness of her daughter, how she was truly a child of the angels, she again hugged and kissed her–thinking, “Such an innocent and pure love has my daughter for me. Could I only learn to be worthy of receiving such love, as my daughter has for me, of learning how to love as she does, please dear Lord.”

The next day the daughter was playing by at the edge of the River, slipped on some wet grass, falling into the River and drowning. Mother was very heart-broken and regretted all the times she had been harsh with daughter. Then one day an angel came to her and reminded her about her daughter’s wonderful gift. So now, Mother keeps the box by her bedside and whenever she felt unhappy she opens it so to take out a kiss… and with the kiss she feels her daughter once again with her.

As time passed, her material life began to improve and her little farm prospered. Soon not only was there sufficient food for her, but also for her to share with others in her village. The widow was happy helping her neighbors, for she had found that true happiness consists only in loving and caring for all of God’s living creatures. The more she opened the kissing box, the more love she felt inside her for she was coming to understand that her daughters heart had begun to live fully within her own.

The village prospered over the years for Mother began to share the kissing box with her neighbors and their hearts too came to be filled with her daughters pure and innocent love.

On day a Pope came to the village, for he had heard from some travelers of a marvelous village in the forest by the Dnieper, where everyone seemed filled with the radiance of God’s Holy Love. They told the Pope of a magic kissing box filled with endless love and kisses, a box given to an old lady by a little angel. They had felt its power.

Eventually, the Pope built a church and Mother gave the box to the priest to share with everyone… and at last the true miracle of innocent and pure love passed into the whole world.

For when greed is put aside and nature’s bounty shared, all shall have enough.