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."
Sure, I can do that, too.
But God works differently in different people's lives, and on different timetables. You're talking about the result of conversion. I'm talking about the call to conversion.
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.
Of course. It should be understood by all that Catholics and Orthodox have the right to laugh at "simple bumpkins" among American Protestants while hypocritically turning around and swooning over their own "simple bumpkins." But of course, your "simple bumpkins" have no emotional investment in that awful Bible, do they?
Why don't you check Kolokotronis' posts (and those of other Orthodox FReepers) and see just how "simple" he is?
“You’re far from being a “simple person,” aren’t you, Kolokotronis?”
Moi, ZC? I am merely the simple grandson of simple Greek peasants, nothing more, as any Latin or Orthodox and for that matter many Protestants on FR can attest. :)
Bump!
“Of course. It should be understood by all that Catholics and Orthodox have the right to laugh at “simple bumpkins” among American Protestants while hypocritically turning around and swooning over their own “simple bumpkins.” But of course, your “simple bumpkins” have no emotional investment in that awful Bible, do they?”
ZC, of course we Orthodox have the right to laugh at simple bumpkins among American Protestants. Many many centuries ago a distant cousin of mine named Takis made a deal with God about being “Chosen People”, or some such thing and part of it was this laughing business. We laugh at Latins too ZC, but for different reasons having to do with the date of Pascha. :)
No, it’s because it sounds like you just can’t let it go, and forgive and forget.
I tell folks I have good days, not so good days, but never a bad day! Keeps me in focus. I feel pretty good and am awaiting a transplant if my insurance company will change its mind about paying for it. Actually, Medicare would pay for most of it so I don’t know why Excellus is making a fuss. But, it’s not in MY hands, is it?
Victory was not in David's hands when he fought Goliath, but he went out and fought. Keep fighting! God loves you, God will give you the strength.
>But God works differently in different people’s lives, and on different timetables. You’re talking about the result of conversion. I’m talking about the call to conversion.
I thought the article already has these people being good Catholics, not raw converts... Must have misread it.
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