The miraculous statue of Our Lady of Akita wept for the 101st and final time on the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. We do the rosary of the Seven Sorrows every Tuesday night infront of her. Just had a thought. I will start a new thread where members of the forum can leave their intentions for this devotion and I will bring them to the group. We are told that the significance of 101 is that the first 1 is for Eve, the 0 is for the eternal love of God and the second 1 is for Mary, the second Eve. As my brother used to tell me, nothing happens by accident in God's world.
Still laughing out loud on my own. I think I know someone who would not be offended and I hope I am not speaking out of turn but Her emoticon may look like this And She is probably saying "Enough now boys."
Well that was my next question Joe! Though truth betold I think you may have mentioned that in a past post but it slipped my mind. You lucky luck lucky lucky person you! Below I was also going to add that we did briefly stop in Morrinsville - it is really booming too! (Unlike your neighbour Te Aroha, which while OK, is down at heel in comparision). I was thinking that if ever I retired to a small provincial country town in preparation for the Storm it would be Morrinsville, Matamata or Fielding! But what is it with the cows in your main street? Especially that light blue one with the garlands of white flowers (very Hindhu inspired). Careful, some here will suggest your little Christian Village is projecting a very pagan image. But that cow is truly amazing, the colours and detail is magnificent. View attachment 4011
The cows were thought up by a patient of mine who is a farmer and also sits on the local council. She wanted to do something that would give Morrinsville a point of difference in it's rural identity and dependence on the dairy industry. There are now 42 of them and a big one is about to be erected outside Maber Motors on the entrance to the town. Each of them is sponsored privately by a local business at a cost of $5,000 each. So they bring attention to the business without advertising and brighten up the town. People come and search for them all and the kids climb up on them and have their photos taken. We country Kiwis is are simple folk and easily pleased. There are 7 Christian Churches within yards of my clinic.
Good one, you certainly pleased me and my better half pictured. You must just love living in Morrinsville.
I am just a little envious. You and Mac have really lovely wives. But so far the evidence is that I am best on my own and I am quite happy. Maybe after my consecration the necessary changes will be in place - like knowing when to shut up and be nice. I should pray to St Joseph more. To try and get back on track, thinking of the 7 churches close to my work, it seems strange that so little regard is given to Mary by so many Christian denominations: 35,000 I think. Isn't it great to think they could convert after the warning and we could all be one just as Jesus wanted.
Too afraid to ask! But on a different topic I noted the following street carving in Norsewood (which fancies itself as a Scandinavian/Viking settlement) had the following three trolls. Apparantly trolls are a Viking mythology. They somehow reminded me of a few Kiwis here... View attachment 4012 By all accounts Joe would be in the middle .
Our Lady Untier of Knots View attachment 4021 Very nice window Joe. I wish I had been more alert to this as I would have liked to make a visit. My recent obsession with what OL stands on identifies a crescent moon. This apparently is the usual representation rather than a sphered moon. I am interested why the author left out the 12 stars and sun clothing... though there is a hint of sun in the red robes. All three are meant to go together. Is that a cloud or pure NZ water she stands on? Apparently from medieval times there was a craze to represent Mary with these 3 signs from Revelation. So much so that more ancient depictions were often "desecrated" so as to conform. Shockingly the Tilma of Guadalupe is no exception. Infrared analysis discovered that the present moon, the stars on her mantle, the crown and the sunburst aureole are all artistic add ons!
Very early today… Domingos Sequeira, 1828 [10] And seeing the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. [11] And entering into the house, they found the child with Mary His mother, and falling down they adored Him; and opening their treasures, they offered him gifts; gold, frankincense, and myrrh. (Saint Matthew' Gospel, Chapter 2) That picture above belongs to the National Museum of Antique Art, in Lisbon. At the moment, this museum is raising money for its expensive restoration through an unprecedented initiative of a portuguese newspaper. Anyone can choose online and buy pixels of the image, getting their names registered in the museum as painting patrons. And this is for you Joe, my brother and fellow traveler in the desert of life.
It's the first anniversary of Amie Russells death today, 7th January. Amie was one of our parishioners. She was 15 when she drowned. This window was given to our church by her family. The memoriam is at the base but does not come out in photos. I visited her grave today. She was on holiday with her family and got dragged under a boat when the line of her paddle board tangle up on it. Although this was a knot that Our Lady did not undo in time to save her earthly life she was freed in time for her priest who had just arrived for a visit to bless her before she died. So she was saved. I thought members may like to hear the story of Our Lady of Aberdeen. Like my story about Our Lady of Akita this is also related to bridges and of course Mary is the best bridge to Jesus. It links Scotland with Spain and France and Our Lady of Good Success. Our Lady gets around. https://prayers4reparation.wordpres...-story-of-the-statue-of-our-lady-of-aberdeen/
Hi Mac. I misread your post, I thought you were asking me if I was interested in other options you had in mind. You will be upset to hear that the Cistercians at Kopua are very tolerant and Ecumenical - they have to be as more non-Catholics come for a retreat than Catholics! When I was there the Guestmaster would announce to newcomers that they were welcome receive Communion at daily Mass while there as long as they were respectful. Even Ecumenical me was a little shocked. Still, one cannot deny the Holy Spirit is working there so I am sure God understands. So there are many people there from many different faiths and nationalities. So, re the globe at the feet of Our Lady, Asians will quickly identify it as the YinYang symbol. The snake perfectly demarcates the yinyang. It never crossed my mind, but its perfectly obvious once they drew my attention to it! I wonder if the sculptor was aware of this Asian meaning when he carved it. The ball symbolises the ancient Chinese insight - that much of life involves polar opposites. The polarities give rise to uncontrollable energy/tension which can cause a lot of damage. The goal of a life well-lived is to learn that such fierce forces can be brought into harmony - by balancing the poles against each other. Most of us however tend to be excessively attracted to one pole and correspondingly averse to the other...resulting in loss of harmony and problems in our life that just keep repeating despite our allegedly best efforts.
I am upset to hear this BH. Thanks for the information. If I had posted it ,most wouldnt have believed me ,and suggested I just wanted to knock Pope Francis.
Where did the guestmaster get the awful idea those in mortal sin could communicate? What is a guestmaster?
