Posted on 02/28/2008 7:52:41 AM PST by Alex Murphy
The home altar in Blanca Villa's Cathedral City bedroom has candles, flowers and a biblical storybook. But the focal point is an ordinary looking Black and Decker steam iron that Villa bought five years ago at a Wal-Mart.
When the closet light hits the iron's metal just right, the reflection on a nearby wall bears an uncanny resemblance to the Virgin of Guadalupe.
The image first appeared on Dec. 20. Since then, nearly 100 friends and family members have visited the altar that the Villa family created in the iron's honor. The shrine stands where Villa, 26, used to put her ironing board.
Some visitors kneel on the floor before the iron and recite the rosary. Others ask the Virgin to help cure sick relatives or assist undocumented immigrants in their journeys across the desert.
Villa's husband, Carlos Contreras, injured his back more than two months ago when he was lifting a machine at a construction site. Ever since he started praying to the iron's reflection, the pain has diminished, he said.
"I believe that miracles exist, and that that is what is happening," Contreras, 31, said in Spanish. The iron's smooth surface has no apparent markings that would explain the figure.
Blanca Villa's iron is only one of a vast array of objects that, over the centuries, have borne images that some claim look like the Virgin Mary. Her likeness has appeared in chocolate drippings in Orange County, the belly of a pet turtle in Chicago and a tortilla in New Mexico. A Florida grilled-cheese sandwich with her image sold for $28,000 on eBay in 2004.
Yet the Catholic Church almost never deems a likeness of the Virgin Mary on an object as a miraculous apparition.
The Virgin of Guadalupe image appeared in Cathedral City, near Palm Springs, after Contreras ironed his son's pants and placed the appliance on the ironing board for Villa to use. He recalled seeing only a shapeless reflection on the wall.
But when Villa was about to grab the iron, she shrieked. The light had been transformed into what Villa believed was a miraculous visit from the Virgin of Guadalupe, who, according to church teaching, was a 1531 apparition of a brown-skinned Virgin Mary in Villa's native Mexico.
After the shock wore off, Villa told her husband, "She is here, but we need to know what she wants us to do."
Newfound Faith
The couple concluded that one of the Virgin's wishes was that they attend Mass more frequently. They used to go to church about once a month. Now they attend Mass every week.
Lupita Plata, a friend who works with Villa at a Cathedral City insurance agency, was so moved by the image that she started attending Mass after 15 years of skipping worship services.
"I began crying," Plata, 27, said in Spanish. "I couldn't believe it. It was so beautiful. It's given me the desire to go to Mass."
Villa's priest, the Rev. Alfonso Espino, of St. Louis Catholic Church in Cathedral City, visited the Villa home to view the iron's image.
He does not believe it is a miracle. But he called it "a gift" for the Villa family if it strengthens their faith.
The Rev. Dorian Llywelyn, an assistant professor of theological studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, said he is unaware of any object with a Virgin Mary image that the Vatican or a bishop has declared a miracle, other than the cloak of St. Juan Diego.
The Virgin of Guadalupe appeared and spoke to indigenous farmer Juan Diego on a hillside in what is today Mexico City, and her image became permanently visible on his cloak, according to church history. In the rare cases that Llywelyn knows of in which the church declared an appearance of the Virgin Mary a miracle, it always involved an apparition of a living Virgin, usually with her speaking.
There is no Vatican agency that tracks church-approved apparitions, so it is unclear how many there have been, said Llywelyn, an expert on the theology of the Virgin Mary. The Web site apparitions.org lists 22 appearances of the Virgin Mary and Jesus that have received church-sanctioned status as miracles since the 1300s.
When church officials investigate apparitions, they first try to eliminate natural explanations, Llywelyn said. They also allow years to pass to ascertain whether the supposed apparition caused intense long-term devotion or other changes in people's lives, he said.
'A Certain Assurance'
Llywelyn doubts that the light from Villa's iron is miraculous.
"I would tend to think this is a purely natural phenomenon," Llywelyn said. "It's kind of like the Rorschach test. You see what you want to see."
William Dinges, a professor of religion and culture at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., said that even though the vast majority of apparitions never get the church's blessing, they can help comfort the faithful and add greater meaning to their lives.
"They provide a certain assurance in what is otherwise seen as a crazy world," he said.
Meanwhile, Blanca Villa keeps her closet light on 24 hours a day.
"The first night, it was hard to sleep, because I don't like the light," she said. "But it doesn't bother me now. I'm afraid that if I turn the light off the whole night, the image won't be there anymore."
A picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe sits next to a steam iron that casts a similar image on a wall in a Cathedral City home.
Yet the Catholic Church almost never deems a likeness of the Virgin Mary on an object as a miraculous apparition.
Nor have they, nor will they, in this case.
But if a reflection from an iron on the wall gets people to go to church, at least it's accomplishing some good.
I believe you were the first RC poster who explained that defending your church is defending your faith. As a Baptist we don't look at these things that way. I think you might have been looking at what I posted as a slam on your church, but I never said anything about your church. I didn't see a priest there, or some church official making a pronouncement.
I think it is sad because all the answers are available in Scripture and anyone who falls down to pray to a reflection on the wall is terribly misguided.
Alex apparently scours heaven and Earth searching for any news article about Catholics acting silly, and posts them on FR. Of course, the MSM shares (albeit for different reasons) his desire to make Catholics look silly, so he finds a story almost like clockwork.
Surely the author is mistaken.
"I believe that miracles exist, and that that is what is happening,"
What ever happened to a "sign from God"? Why must everything be a miracle today?
The couple concluded that one of the Virgin's wishes was that they attend Mass more frequently. They used to go to church about once a month. Now they attend Mass every week.
Though they go to church more wrinkled, they go more often. Good news.
Meanwhile, Blanca Villa keeps her closet light on 24 hours a day ... I'm afraid that if I turn the light off the whole night, the image won't be there anymore."
Oh ye of little faith. I think that their faith will fade as this image fades.
oh good grief
>> I believe you were the first RC poster who explained that defending your church is defending your faith. <<
Knowing Campion, I doubt this is a fair description. Not false, just not fair. Catholics are obliged to defend the magisterium of the Church. Most seem far too ready to concede wickedness on the historical actions of people within the Church to be fair to the people who are criticized.
A lot of things can simply be inferred. Usually those inferences are pretty accurate.
I think it is sad because all the answers are available in Scripture and anyone who falls down to pray to a reflection on the wall is terribly misguided.
Maybe they're simply hungry for some evidence of a power greater than themselves.
Alex, these are simple people with a simple faith. They believe in miracles in a country where people don’t anymore. These sorts of articles are written to make the Roman Church look foolish, but it only looks foolish in the eyes of secularized sophisticates. In Orthodoxy, being a fool for Christ is regarded as being a holy state.
This is an example of a gentle, loving sort of faith that this country could use more of as it could use more people who are in church every week if for no other reason. Sadly, our government encourages Mohammedanism instead.
“I think it is sad because all the answers are available in Scripture and anyone who falls down to pray to a reflection on the wall is terribly misguided.”
“Maybe they’re simply hungry for some evidence of a power greater than themselves.”
With all due respect:
Looking in the mirror should suffice since God created mankind and our existance in fact is among the best evidence of something greater than ourselves...just a thought...
Blessings to both of you...
“I think it is sad because all the answers are available in Scripture and anyone who falls down to pray to a reflection on the wall is terribly misguided.”
“Maybe they’re simply hungry for some evidence of a power greater than themselves.”
With all due respect:
Looking in the mirror should suffice since God created mankind and our existance in fact is among the best evidence of something greater than ourselves...just a thought...
Blessings to both of you...
Wonderful perspective, wish I had thought of it.
>Maybe they’re simply hungry for some evidence of a power greater than themselves.
What I find sad is that they cannot see God and His work within the change to their lives as evidenced by their spiritual rebirth. As a born again believer, I can always look back at the earlier life, unregenerate and unforgiven, and compare my old self to the new, and see the miracle in the change and throw myself at His feet in utter thankfulness. I always have the evidence within my heart, where the Spirit dwells.
Instead, these poor people cannot see God in what you would describe as the miracle of the Mass, or any of the other sacramentalism as the miracle that continues them in their spiritual journey. They seek something else, beyond the church that supposedly is supplying them with the stuff of Grace, and start looking at shadows and lights on the walls.
So true.
Amen!
This is so powerful. If we can't see the change maybe it's because none occurred?
I am praying all is going well.
I think it is sad because all the answers are available in Scripture and anyone who falls down to pray to a reflection on the wall is terribly misguided.
Maybe they're simply hungry for some evidence of a power greater than themselves.
As long as said Power didn't create the universe in six days less than six thousand years ago . . . eh, Campion?
This is an example of a gentle, loving sort of faith that this country could use more of as it could use more people who are in church every week if for no other reason. Sadly, our government encourages Mohammedanism instead.
Oh, the "simple people" apologia. You know, Bible-thumping rednecks are "simple people" too, but Catholics and Orthodox never cut them any slack. Instead they demean, insult, and laugh at them merely for believing in the factual accuracy of the events recorded in the book your own churches claim to regard as sacred.
Where are the "simple" Catholics and Orthodox on Free Republic? All the "simple" people here are Fundamentalist Protestants, and you Catholics and Orthodox seem to take great pleasure in being too intellectual to believe your own sacred books . . . until it suits your convenience to do so, in which case the "simple people" card comes out.
You're far from being a "simple person," aren't you, Kolokotronis?
You know, ZC, it's hard to remain sympathetic for you when you keep on posting like this.
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