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"Blessed is she who believed that the Lord’s promise to her
would be fulfilled." - Luke 1:45
Love
Always Exceeds What Nature Can Explain
Brescia
is a prosperous city in the Lombardy plain of northern Italy, and in 1478 it
became the site of a Marian event that gave rise to a devotion that has endured
to the present day. In that year, an image of Our Lady in or near the city was
reported to exhibit miraculous signs, healings, and wonders that drew the
faithful from the city and the surrounding region.
The late fifteenth century was a time of unusual Marian fervor across northern
Italy. Our Lady had appeared at Caravaggio in 1432. Miraculous images were
multiplying across Lombardy and the Veneto. It was as if she was walking
through the Po Valley, making herself known in one town after another, calling
her children home.
The shrine of Our Lady of Miracles in Brescia took its place in this
constellation of Marian presences. A church was built to house the miraculous
image, and the Brescians gave to Our Lady the title that said everything they
needed to say: she is the one who works miracles. Not because miracles are her
primary identity, she is first and always the mother who loves, but because
love, when it is total and holy and rooted in God, always exceeds what nature
alone can explain.
She is the one who works miracles. Because she is the one who loves without
limit.
Today's Gospel - John 21:20-25
John
ends his Gospel with a remarkable statement: "There are also many other
things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not
think the whole world would contain the books that would be written."
More than can be contained. More than can be written. More than the whole world
could hold.
Our Lady of Miracles points to that inexhaustible excess. There are more
healings than have been counted, more answered prayers than have been recorded,
more moments of grace that never made it into any shrine's official history.
She has been working quietly, constantly, in the lives of ordinary people who
never wrote it down.
The whole world would not contain the books.
A Prayer
Our
Lady of Miracles of Brescia, you who made your presence felt in that Lombard
city with signs and wonders, make your presence felt in our lives today.
We do not demand miracles. We simply ask you to be near. Walk through the
ordinary days of our ordinary lives the way you walked through the towns of
northern Italy in the fifteenth century, quietly, persistently, leaving traces
of grace wherever you go.
And if a miracle comes, in whatever form grace chooses to take today, we will
know who to thank.
Our Lady of Miracles, pray for us. Amen.
Reflection
John
says the whole world could not contain the books about what Jesus did. The
miracles we know about are a fraction of what actually happened.
How
many moments of grace in your life have you failed to notice or attribute to
God’s intervention in your life? Take a few minutes today to remember and name
some of the quiet miracles, the near misses, the unexpected doors, the solid
faith-filled friendships, all of which has shaped your life.
Rosary Man Jim 🌹
Freely given. Freely shared.
