Marian apparition
A Marian apparition is a reported supernatural appearance of Mary, the mother of Jesus. While sometimes described as a type of vision, apparitions are generally regarded as external manifestations, whereas visions are more often understood as internal, spiritual experiences. Throughout history, both Marian apparitions and visions have been associated with religious messages, devotional practices, and pilgrimage traditions.
Quotes about
[edit]- Our Lady has appeared and spoken to many visionaries from many nations and in the most varied circumstances, as a living person who promises, announces, praises, exhorts, prophesies, prays, guides and protects from danger, heals the sick, works miracles, weeps, invites conversion and penance, and helps people to draw closer to Christ, her Son.
- Alessandro Emiliani, Dio è la mia speranza, Edizioni Studio Domenicano, 1997 (in Italian).
- Why is it Our Lady who appears? Why did Jesus himself or some canonised saint not appear in Lourdes (as in Rue du Bac, La Salette, Pontmain, Beauraing, Fatima, to mention only the last century and a half and events approved by the Church)? But it is because – according to theology, as meditated upon by mystics – according to the Catholic Creed, “the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed into heavenly glory 'in soul and body”. Thus, the words of the dogma of the Assumption, defined and proclaimed by Pius XII only in 1950 but believed, in its essence, since the time of the Fathers of the Church in both the East and the West (the feast of the “Dormition”, which has “in nuce” the Assumption of the Virgin Mother, is probably the oldest of the Marian feasts that unite the universal Church).
In short, Mary, having carried in her womb the One who said, ‘I am the resurrection and the life’ (Jn 11:25), followed her Son in his eternal destiny before any other human creature; she is the one who preceded us all, already welcomed into eternity ‘in soul and body’. Therefore, if she appears to mortals, it is also to remind us that what she already is, we too will be. In short, she is the sign and pledge, in her very person, of that salvation we were talking about, which will give us true health: the vision of Mary's body already “saved” is a guarantee that everyone's body will be saved.
- Vittorio Messori, Ipotesi su Maria: fatti, indizi, enigmi, Edizioni Ares, Milano, 2005, pp. 61-62 (in Italian). ISBN 88-8155-338-4
- We must know that the most important thing about Mary's apparitions today, as always, is the fact that she is a Mother! Our Lady is a Mother who cares for her little ones with immense tenderness. She prays for us, blesses us and has incredible love for us.
