Month: December 2023

12)  At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially but then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. 13) For faith, hope, love, remain; but the greatest of these is love.  Corinthians 13

On the first Sunday of advent we had a guest priest and his homily was based on three words: waiting, remembering, and hope. He went back to the period in history when the Jews returned to Israel after their captivity in Babylon. They found everything destroyed, their beloved Jerusalem in ruins. It seemed hopeless after waiting forty years to see their homeland. How did they regain their hope? It was by remembering the past: being miraculously led out of Egypt by Moses, the cleansing of the Temple by Judas Maccabees, etc etc. 

Fr Paul related this to the season of Advent, a time of waiting and remembering and finding hope in those remembrances. The miraculous entry of God’s Son into our world as one of us, born of a virgin, His life, death, resurrection, ascension into heaven, and the promise of His return. All this because of His love for us.

This brings me to the third image that turned up one day  a few years ago that reminded me of the Little Jesus picture and the painting of the Infant Jesus of Mary Alice. World travelers and good friends of ours brought back a handkerchief from Medjugorje with an embroidered picture of the Blessed Mother on one corner. They stood in line in order to touch the cloth to the knee of  statue of Jesus oozing fluid. The words on the handkerchief were: If you knew how much I love you you’d cry for joy. These are Memories found to bring Hope and Love in this time of waiting for Christmas. Now we know in part…                ( Scroll Down to read Part 2 and Part 1 )

I should have written about these things years ago, but never thought I would forget the events or wait so long to write about them. It reminds me of St Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13:9: At present I know partially; then I shall know fully as I am fully known. With this in mind, I continue the story

Our priest friend, Fr Bob, was introduced to us by another person I met while writing a feature story for a Journalism class  at county college. I was interested in the Apparitions of the Blessed Mother and found a woman who had been visiting Conyers, Ga, a site not yet approved. Christina also knew a great deal about other apparition sites like Medjugorje in Bosnia Herzegovina. She told me about the Blue Army Shrine for Our Lady of Fatima which was about 45 minutes away. Fr Bob was the priest assigned there at the time.

He remained for a some years and during that period I attended Masses at the shrine, went to him for confession and met to speak with him about obstacles in my life back then. He came to bless our house and ate with us a couple of times. My friend told me about his wife, Mary Alice, and gave me a book about her life written by a niece. Several of my friends went to assist him in correlating his wife’s diary writings, but I never heard if they ever completed the work; just one more unknown in this  story.

The book Angel Without Wings written by Father Bob’s niece, M. Katherine Mason Weil, documents her many sufferings and  also describes her as an extremely private and humble woman who didn’t want anything revealed about her spiritual gifts until after her death. I have no doubt about her holiness and spiritual  gifts because of our friendship with Father Bob. The picture below was copied from the book Angel Without Wings. It was one her many visions described therein and painted by one of the Dominic nuns she served with.