I have always loved this song/hymn. It brings me back to being a six year old and being in a procession in honour of Our Lady throughout the convent grounds.
Our Lady of Fatima has come to visit in her icon tonight. Tororrow my husband and I will say the Rosary and we will recommend all your intentions. She comes once a month and then continues to our next neighbor.There are many blessings attached to this icon. There are several going around the parish brought here by "The Heralds Of The Gospels"
This hymn always reminds me of the remarkable Pere Lamy. ..and his remarkable vision of Our Lady of the Woods (Our Lady of Gray): You can read his life here. THE APPEARANCE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN At GRAY, THE 9 September 1909 "It was September 9, 1909, I came like every year, and the pastor of Violot with me. I was given beautiful ornaments out to a prelate who was to come and who did not come. I started my mass. Father Lemoine was in the interior of the chapel, right, on the kneeler is still there. The Blessed Virgin showed herself to me suddenly, and at the same time that She the devil. This caused me extreme emotion. I suspected, but I did not believe because of my unworthiness, I found myself in front of the Blessed Virgin. It was beyond me so much! The Blessed Virgin came down from the roof, sitting in great glory, slowly, slowly. It was like a home. All his glory penetrated little by little candles, chalice, the altar, the vestments and myself, as the sun penetrates the glass of water. How far does the glory? He must know what the glory of God by considering that it gives the most expensive of his creatures. It was like a sun, I saw no end. She descended from the roof like that, hands clasped. She had a small smile before raising his voice. When she uncrossed her hands, it was like a whirlpool around her. " "She first few words exchanged with the devil. During the descent, she said to Lucifer, who appeared behind her: "You? - I have the permission of the Father - Either Then, as if she questioned: "You know how it obeys the Father? "He did not say anything, but I thought I was crushed. She put out his glory: the glory smaller has not left any mass. I was always at Dominus vobiscum. If I dared, I would have rushed into the sacristy, if I had been to the altar. When I look at the priest Violot, he puts his hands on his face, and his face in his book, and everything looks on his prie-dieu. I say: "I will be well defended! "She was talking, she challenged me: I did not dare to answer him. She gets up. She was of medium height. The movement that She is, it happens quite a stir of bright sequins. His crown only emerged when she stood up. His feet were at about the height of these chairs. It remains a little above the ground. Right hand, she motioned me very motherly, "Continue" to make me courage. I thought to myself: "If you are the Blessed Virgin, let see." She said: "I am the Mother of God." When she told me: "I am the Mother of God," very softly, I had in me as a collapse. The view of this, without preparation! I did not doubt the word of the Mother of God. I believed her, but she was in poor company (in company of the devil)! " "When I remembered the martyrdom of Saint Gorgon, She smiled gently. It was the prayer of the Nativity in C quibus beatœ Virginis ... I'm inclined towards it. She made me a little kindly nod. She stood at my left: What humility, even in Heaven! For a harlequin last class! I saw reflected on the ice in front of me, in the canon of altar. The interview continued, and, not to cause an interruption too long, she motioned me to the reading of the epistle. " "The small serving said:" This is the Blessed Virgin, Father? "The book while taking the side of the Epistle to the bear side of the gospel. I replied in a whisper: "Do not say anything! The would you go! "She looked at him with motherly tenderness. She stepped back, let it go, and she resumed her place in the middle of the altar. When I said the Munda cor meum, She left the middle of the altar and walked toward the gospel. " "After the Gospel, the priest came back to say the Creed. She resumed her place beside the priest, almost before the book. She left to start the Creed, the Incarnatus is, She bowed, as if to say: "It's like that." In Sub Pontia Pilato, She reached her hands closed over the altar, clenching his hands in a gesture of great pain. Her arms were right next to me (and the Father shows the distance of ten centimeters). I was so excited that I was wrong. I mumbled. When she saw that I did not go forth, the Creed She continued as if she was saying mass. It gave me such a shock! She handed me where I left off, quietly (smiling): She knows her prayers. " "In Memento, they recommended the priest to ask for more: there are plenty and abundance to give. " "The Blessed Virgin announced the war, spoke to me of my childhood maternally, founded the pilgrimage of Our Lady of the Woods, told me that She wanted a new congregation, she condemned modernism with great energy, treated different topics, defending myself against Lucifer. " "She was wearing a dark blue dress, with her white veil, sleeves and tight cuffs barefoot. Her dress goes down to below the chin. It has a large, simple dress. She can wear anything! The proportions are perfect, everything is perfect in the Blessed Virgin. His eyes are very soft. It can take all eye colors, there is a fixed, though. During his lifetime, they were neither brown nor quite blue, periwinkle instead. The ears of the Blessed Virgin are visible. Similarly the hairline on the front of the forehead. They also show bands of hair on the sides. The only statue that looks a bit like him that's it (rue du Bac, above the front door of the Daughters of Charity), where she gave audience to Catherine Laboure. Her face is too long, but it was not his forehead. She looks too young in his statue, and you can not the old. I've never been able to give him his age. Virgo is very dark: Nigra sum sed formosa. Its exterior is very simple. She rarely looks head and looks straight at you, as His divine Son. But one feels that beyond you, they look down worldwide. " "When the Blessed Virgin speaks a mother, She wears a crown formed of a strand of rose, a lily and a daisy, with a silver circle little off placed third the height. These strands flowers are arranged like the fingers, a white rose just open a single lily just opened and a daisy. Naturally, these flowers and repeated several times forming a circle. As for the green branches of the canopy, they are very simple. This is a flared crown. We could pass your hand between the veil that covers her head and her crown. But when she condemned modernism, she wore a crown of incomparable beauty. If the wreath can imitate the other, the large, one can not think of it. It is composed of stones and lights, the jewels fine, mostly small and some large. They are harmoniously placed as the grains in an ear of corn, with sparkling lights interlocking stones and highlighting. There are blue stones, some red, some purple, but in smaller numbers than the blue. Among the most beautiful stones are a pale blue. I almost regretted not having asked him one. Of these stones, each hanging form and other sides, and there is a whole set of lights, some external and others internal to the crown. It's not exactly a crown is like a diadem swollen in the middle. Everything I've seen in museums like the work of a cobbler near the end of a shoe. There is no crown on earth who approach this. She the door when she speaks as a sovereign. It is majestic. She has brought no glory, otherwise it would be frightening, and it does not come to frighten. "
I love the angels so much and for so many reasons. They are so soldierly and alert. Unlike us their minds do not wander even for a minute in prayer. You can see this as they stand around the altar their eyes always unswerving, always riveted on the altar. You can tell that with every fibre of their being they are fixed on God like magnets fixed forever on the True North, the Most Holy God. Like good soldiers they are totally loyal to God and complete defenders of God's Majesty. They are such great Defenders and friends, true heavenly warriors protecting us from the forces of darkness. They are utterly dependable postal workers carrying our prayers to the Throne of God and the Throne of Mary. They are implacable Ministers of God's designs fufilling our prayers and are heartfelt wishes in carrying out the Will of the Most High God in our regard. They are pillars of prayer , joining forever in the Eternal Hymn of praise. But most of all I confess I love them for their great beauty, so airey , so light, so gorgeous in their splendour., reminding me that all Earth is passing but that heaven is forever....
The angels see things so clearly. We see as if through 'a glass darkly,' therefore we must walk by faith, not by sight. But by faith there is another sight, which I am only learning about now - it is the sight of the soul <is that the right phrase?> I will give one little example but as I say this is all new to me! I was driving into Belfast las week and praying as usual. I have been faithful to the Guardian Angel prayer and always say it when doing anything like driving and have passed this on to my children. As I was praying in the spirit and thanking God for his generosity and love I was given an overwhelming sense of God's protection as I was driving the car. I was told in the spirit that there were four angels protecting me and my car on the highway - two at the front and two at the back [as well as my own guardian angel] and in the spirit I was told why 'because you are precious to me my child'. Now this phrase knocked me for six and I was overwhelmed by God's presence in a tangible way. I was literally wrapped in a bubble of love which for me confirmed the loving tender nature of God the father and so we can dare to pray Abba, Father. What is the difference between imagination and 'sight of the soul'? Is this not all delusion and fantasy as some would argue? I have to say the words 'spoken' were real for they affected me physically - I was literally as light as a feather floating in a bubble of love and the joy in my soul, the peace I felt was other-worldly - I could easily have floated off to heaven. If it is imagination bring me some more of that! Padraig, could you enlighten us some more on this? Is it sight of the soul or is there another phrase more appropriate since you experience these things and have read up on it?
I like to think of it as seeing with the heart through Faith. You may recall that at Fatima little Francesco could not see Our Lady until he followed Our Lady's instructions and said the rosary. There are simliar reports from other sites of people who could not see Our lady til lthey prayed; although others could. i would say prayer and Faith are spectacles for the soul. Perhaps I am wrong but my guess would be that all faithful Catholics see the supernatural at some point in their lives. But they rite them of as imagination. Certainly they don't talk openly about it ;at least here in the West. But my own attitude is, so long as it does not contradict Scripture or the Church ,so long as it does not stir up pride, so long as it does not land you getting carried away in a strait jacket and so long as it deepens faith and love well why not believe? Who can hold love in their hands or pour it into a test tube for examination? Some things are so deep they are inexplicable. Why do we cry when we hear a certain song? Why smile at a much loved poem? The heart has its own reasons, she know what she sees and rejoices at the sight. Those who choose blindness must remain blind, but those who have faith, will see. To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible." Thomas Aquinas St. John Chrysostom, among others, states that "When Mass is being celebrated, the Sanctuary is filled with countless Angels who adore the Divine Victim immolated on the altar."
One way of looking at it is that the spiritual world is the 'real world' & heaven is the reality as they are looking down at us in this small place and we are here only a very short time compared with the eternity of Heaven! As we pray in the Creed God is the maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. Love is unseen yet a very real force and Love never ends!
Yes Bobby God is reality and it is we who dwell in sin who live in unreality. One little tip I discovered with encounters with the supernatural . Now and again its nice to score a, 'touchdown ' with such events. In other words now and again God permits us garner information or even physical evidence so that we can see its not just our imagination. One such time was about a couple of months after my mother died. around Christmas time. I was doing my ironing at home and singing happily away to myself, very joyful; I LOVE Christmas. Well right out of the blue my dead mother walked into the room smiling and said to me, 'Well at least you're happy anyway' I was delighted to see her again of course, clearly in heaven but was puzzled by what she meant. But a couple of months later I was talking to my brother Ciaran and he admitted that over Christmas he had been seriously tempted by thoughts of suicide after my mothers death. I understood then what my mother had meant, she had visited my brother and knew..... Anyway that's what I call, 'Scoring a touchdown', getting information for the other side that's subsequently confirmed. Stuff I had no way of knowing. Look out for this, it serves as proof its not just imagination.
