Loreto

“I have come to see that every Hail Mary, every greeting to Our Lady, is a new beat of a heart in love.” – St. Josemaria

I have been to Italy a number of times but never gotten the chance to visit Loreto, a hill town in Marches, Italy. I have long written on my bucket list what was most significant about the place: the Basilica della Santa Casa, the third largest shrine to Mary in Europe, next to Lourdes and Fatima. More importantly, it is the reliquary shrine of the house where Mary lived in Jerusalem, mysteriously transported by angels to Loreto in 1294.

Seeing a replica of Our Lady of Loreto for the first time in our parish last Sunday was such a pleasant surprise. I went in front of the church to observe the image better and the halo with twelve stars above her head. I also had to check if a rendering of Mary’s house was visible beneath it as this was its usual iconographic symbol; I didn’t see one and was somewhat disappointed. I went back to the pew where my family was seated. I looked at the image again, and lo and behold! I saw from the distance where I was seated that the image of Mary was in fact standing on a house! It just wasn’t evident from up close since the local faithful had placed bouquets of flowers covering the entire perimeter of the house.

The last words of Christ while nailed on the cross, Consumatum est (it is accomplished) suddenly dawned on me. He has fulfilled his act of redemption and has handed us all the means we need to reach heaven: the bread (with the other sacraments), the word (the Bible), and a mother.

Mary is indeed a mother who foresees the needs of her children. Even before Christ planned to go public, Mary intervened in Cana to make Him carry out His first miracle. And after He has carried out His ultimate act of redemption on the cross, His mother continues to nudge Him to perform “unnecessary” miracles that we, who are always children in God’s eyes, oh so need. Thus, He continues to send miracles – mostly small, but sometimes, awesomely big – oftentimes through the intercession of Mary and the saints. Awesome indeed is the miraculous transfer of Mary’s House thousands of miles away from Jerusalem to Loreto. Awesome, as well, is the transformation of the Eucharist bread to living flesh in Lanciano, Italy in the eighth century, and the body of St. Therese of the Child Jesus which has remained incorrupt since 1897. Testimonials on these big miracles have been written, but an anthology of the numerous ordinary little miracles we receive each day may be too many to write: a nonmalignant biopsy result, a job acceptance, a good exam result, a harsh word left unsaid, a smile. Cor Mariae Dulcissimum, iter para tutum.

“Love our Lady and she will obtain for you abundant grace to conquer in your daily struggle. And the enemy will gain nothing by those foul things that continually seem to boil and rise within you, trying to engulf in their fragrant corruption the high ideals, the sublime determination that Christ himself has set in your heart.” – The Way, #493