April 26th - Our Lady of Good Counsel

[Weedy]

April 26th - Our Lady of Good Counsel

(1467)
The apparition of Our Lady of Good Counsel is so celebrated, Her
picture so well known and so honored in the Church, that it is very
fitting to allot a place to this devotion. The little city of
Gennazano, situated on the mountains of the former Sabina province,
about ten leagues from Rome, for a thousand years already had honored
the Blessed Virgin as Our Lady of Good Counsel. In the 15th century,
the church of that city was dilapidated and about to collapse. A pious
woman of advanced age named Petruccia desired to provide for its
reconstruction, but the gift of her entire fortune, which she made for
this purpose, proved insufficient. Petruccia foretold that the Blessed
Virgin would Herself finish the work.

Then on April 25, 1467, at the hour of Vespers, a celestial harmony
was heard in the air, and the crowd saw a brilliant cloud coming down
through the air, which came to rest over the altar in the Chapel of
Saint Blaise in the Gennazano Church, where the restoration had begun.
At the same time, all the church bells began to ring joyously. The
cloud disappeared, and the marveling crowd saw a picture of Mary
holding the Child Jesus, painted on a prepared surface, suspended in
the air over the altar near the wall, without any natural support. It
was duly verified that this picture had been miraculously transported
from a church of Scutari, a city of Albania. Providence, wishing to
preserve it from profanation by the Turks who were controlling that
land, sent it as a reward for the faith of Petruccia and her fellow
citizens of Gennazano.

A history of the marvels of all kinds which have been wrought since
that time near this miraculous picture, suspended in the air, would
require volumes. Often the picture has been seen to change its
expression, the eyes of the Blessed Virgin taking on an appearance of
joy or sorrow. How many illnesses and infirmities have been cured! How
many spiritual graces have been obtained! Gennazano in Italy is still
a venerated pilgrimage site, much frequented by the people of that
land, and many pious pilgrims from other nations, when time permits it
for them, arrange to visit this blessed sanctuary. The Sovereign
Pontiffs have granted many indulgences to devotion to Our Lady of Good
Counsel, and the title Mother of Good Counsel was included in the
Litany of the Blessed Virgin by Pope Leo XIII.

Source: Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, by Abbé L. Jaud
(Mame: Tours, 1950).


Saint Quote:
One must pass through the desert and spend some time there in order to
receive the grace of God; it is there that one empties oneself, that
one drives away from oneself everything which is not God and that one
empties completely the house of one's soul in order to leave all of it
to God alone.
--Blessed Charles de Foucald

Bible Quote:
And answering, he said to them: Go and relate to John what you have heard
and seen: the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are made clean,
the deaf hear, the dead rise again, to the poor the gospel is preached: 
[23] And blessed is he whosoever shall not be scandalized in me.
[Luke 7:22-23] DRV


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DEAR JESUS,
help me to spread Thy fragrance everywhere I go.
Flood my soul with Thy spirit and love.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly
that all my life may only be a radiance of Thine.
Shine through me and be so in me that every soul
I come in contact with may feel Thy presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me but only Jesus.
Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as you shine,
so to shine as to be a light to others.