Our Lady of Good Counsel

Our Lady of Good Counsel April 26, 2016

Our Lady of Good Counsel

Our Lady of Good Counsel is one of those things that make me love Catholics. And, yes, there are tons of things that take me in other directions, since you ask. But, this version of the great mother is a bit of the good stuff.

The story is simple enough. It was 1487. The church of Santa Maria in the Italian town of Genazzano, which had been established in the fifth century, and which had weathered the vicissitudes of history and become a place of miraculous cure and pilgrimage experienced a new wonder.

The villagers heard mysterious music coming from the church. They all ran there and witnessed a strange cloud descending from heaven, wiping a wall clean, and leaving in the center a tiny fresco, some eighteen inches square. Those who know about such things said it had been transported by divine power from a church in Albania.

At first the fresco was called the Madonna of Paradise, but gradually came to be called Our Lady of Good Counsel.

And eventually a feast day was given to this manifestation of the good mother. Which happens to be today.

I can’t speak for you. But, me, I have witnessed such miracles, myself. Their origins are quickly turned into stories with trappings, clouds and music. But, the real deal at the heart of it is a presentation of the real.

In this case it is all dressed up as a visitation from the the mother.

Which is alway, always the world presenting itself. For those who have the eyes.

And, for those with the ears, this comes with a good word, the mother always sings into our hearts.

We are one family, the children of a single mother.

Just this.

That, for me, is the real miracle.

And, so, celebrations: a picture, a couple of words, and an ancient song…


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