"Everything has a heart."

If you spend even a short time among the Tseltales in Chiapas, you realize just how important the heart is. One doesn't ask, "What do you think?" Rather, one asks, "What does your heart say?" When someone comes visiting, you tell them, "Sit down and rest your heart."  Before bed, you say to one another, "Rest your heart."

For the Tseltales, "everything has a heart, everything that lives." Not simply people, but all living plants and animals, even the rocks in the mountains, the water in the river, and the smoke from the hearth.  And because everyone and everything is alive, "we need to visit with them, talk with them, and wait to see if they speak to us." In listening to the language of the heart, "the eyes don't tell you, nor do your ears...no, you feel it."

The heart is the vessel for the soul or spirit. After death, "our body rots, but the heart continues to live. It flies through the air. We don't know where it goes. But we know it continues to visit and accompany the living." And this idea that one is never alone is one of the certainties with which the Tseltales live.

Father Felipe Ali Modad Aguilar, S.J., explains:

"We, women and men, are not so individual...We are placed here in the midst of many, many brothers and sisters who live with us and accompany us. We all form one great community. We are neither the center nor the peak of all things...[The Tseltal concept of the heart] is not a kind of 'animism' or a 'personification' of things. It is simply another world view that enables them to perceive life, the heart in everything."

(From "Engrandecer el Corazon de la Comunidad," pages 40-41.) And because the Tseltales believe that everyone and everything has a heart, this connection means that "we are all responsible to each other."

Tseltal Prayer and Healing are Matters of the Heart

We can see the importance of this interconnectedness in one of the special prayer rituals of the Tseltales.  Candles of different colors are arranged on a straw mat, each representing one of the four directions, heaven and earth. The mat is not simply a place to arrange the candles, but an important symbol: "The way the strands are woven together represents the way we are all interconnected. The mat is a symbol of community. We do not pray alone. We pray as part of a community."

A healing ritual among the Tseltales is another window to understanding the importance of the heart among the Tseltales. The Tseltales believe that our health is a function of the condition of both our bodies and our hearts. For the Tseltales, one cannot be healthy of body if one is not healthy in spirit. In other words, we are healthy if our bodies are in harmony with "what our hearts say."  Today, Tseltal healers employ the use of natural remedies, Western medicine and prayer. But prayer is the most important part of healing.

Father Eugenio's Personal Story

In a special ritual, the Tseltales gather round the person who is not feeling well to "animate his heart." Father Eugenio Maurer Avalos, SJ, shared his experience with this ritual:

"I was in a car accident in which, thank God, nothing serious happened, but I was left feeling frightened and psychologically anguished...a group of Tseltales, about 15 men and women, gathered around me and began with a communal prayer, not like our prayers, in which we pray for example The Lord's Prayer. In the Tseltal culture, they follow a common scheme, but each person prays with his or her own words and according to his or her own way. They gave thanks to God because in the accident God had preserved my life. They asked that God make my heart grow larger, console me and give me peace and delight--a delightful peace.

When Tseltales pray, as they do when they converse, ideas are expressed various times and in various ways. It isn't a formal prayer, but a "talking" to God and the saints, telling them in detail what happened and asking for what they would like God, through the intercession of the saints, to grant. This form of prayer is moving: to see the Tseltales pray, one perceives clearly that they really see the saints with whom they speak. In this dialogue of intercession, one sees various feelings expressed: sadness in relating what happened, faith in their prayers, also joy and gratitude because they know God will grant what they ask for.

After this prayer, which lasted about 20 minutes...the women began coming up, one by one, to where I was seated. Each woman put her hand on my shoulder, and I in turn placed my hand on her shoulder. Each began to speak to me, consoling me and making my heart grow larger, telling me I could rest assured that God would alleviate my suffering and sadness and make my heart happy. They expressed their feelings, each in her own way, just as they had done in prayer...Upon finishing, they kissed me on each cheek, hugged me, and made me feel their great love for me. When the women were finished, the men took their turn with the same ritual and the same love and devotion...In my life as a priest, I have anointed many sick people, but I have never felt the presence of the community of the Church in a way so filled with faith, and in such a powerful and personal way as I felt that day--it is impossible for me to explain in mere words what I experienced. I cried from beginning to end, and when we finished, I was filled with consolation and peace."