138. A Franciscan in Town

As yesterday, for American Catholics, is the feast day of Blessed John of Parma a Franciscan, who in his times left a deep impression on people I thought I would mention another Franciscan who is having a deep impression on people around here at the moment- he is not only Mary’s custodian but also her P.R. man. 

Wherever this particular Statue of Mary, which represents the moment when she came to this earth to visit this area in an apparition to Giovanni Cigana, you’ll will find Fr. Mario not far behind. 

 Fr. Mario will probably not be too happy that I am blogging about him but I have seen people’s expressions during his homily, they seemed so transformed and therefore thought this phenomena was worth a mention.  

I am also placing various expressions of Fr. Mario because I think people want to see those expressions again and be reminded of that love Our Lady has shown to this land.  

People want to relive those moments that Fr Mario had so generously and spontaneously given away as presents for a special occasion in retelling those moments of Our Lady’s visit and of Mary’s own life.

Through this Franciscan Friar we are able to visualize the image of Mary in real life because he brings her to life before our eyes.  

We are able to imagine Mary going out of the way to do a simple kindness, walking to see her cousin Elizabeth because Elizabeth being close to labour and old could not visit Mary.   

Walking, this is a detail of Mary which is not much diffused, but Mary was a walker, from Nazareth, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Mary walked over hills, rocks and Mountains.  

It is Mary’s statue that walks now over our hills, rocks and mountains here in the Veneto Region because the bishop of our diocese of Vittorio Veneto had willed it so.  

The bishop has willed it so, in order that we the people of this region be brought to mind that it was in this our land Mary appeared 500 years ago to a man... And what kind of man?  Why did Giovanni Cigana see Our Lady, why did she allow him to see her?  

In my last blog post I said what some cynics might have thought of that moment, by comparing it to a similar situation in our times... being rushed, under pressure and having your head spin.  But this could not have been the case then, since Giovanni stopped amicably to practically chat with great ease, greeting the beautiful maiden kindly, he was in no rush.  So we would do a disservice to that event if we compare times of five centuries ago to the present ones, the two simply could not match up. 
  

Whatever one may think about this apparition, one thing remains unchanged, Giovanni was fully awake, eyes wide open, clear and serene of mind as was in his character to be and able to describe the events months later at the enquiry, exactly the same way the moment he had first mentioned them. 

Nor can we forget the witnesses that had come forward during the formal inquires and made their sworn statements of how that evening they had seen drops of blood fall from the sun as if it had been placed in a bath of blood. 

Now, not even in the last eclipse of the sun could anyone claim such a thing- just in case someone thought it was a scientific event of the times.  

In effect what I find rather amazing about all this is that Our Lady wanted to appear to someone on this earth, a normal someone with the purity of heart that most normal people have-

As if to award those who live in the backstage of life, who are the nobodies of this world, who go about their daily routine with silent wisdom and simplicity-

And there are so many of those around- 

As if Mary wanted this land, the land of Veneto for herself, crush and throw out Satan from her boundary.  

I think the people of Veneto know this, feel this, and want this, as the pictures here show.  

Meantime, Mary’s long walk on these our hills continues on my blog...