夢的日記簿 「原來天主用一種方法向人講話，人若不理會，他再用另一種方法：天主有時藉夢和夜間的異像，當人躺在床上沉睡的時候，開啟人的聽覺，用異像驚嚇他，使人脫離惡念，使人剷除驕傲，阻攔他陷於陰府，救他的性命脫離溝壑。」(約伯傳33:14~18) 「上主，世人睡醒，怎樣了解夢境；禰醒時，也怎樣看他們的幻影。」(聖詠集73:20) 「如今我在為你們受苦，反覺高興，因為這樣我可在我的肉身上，為基督的身體──教會，補充基督的苦難所欠缺的。」 (哥羅森書1: 24) 「有一件驚人的奧秘，其價值無法衡量，就是基督奧體內的人所做的祈禱與自動奉獻的犧牲，使許多人獲得救恩。」--教宗庇護十二世奧秘身體通諭

31愛的鼓勵 0訂閱站台

Our Lady of Charity

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PATRONESS OF CUBA

 

About 1600, two native Indians, Rodrigo and Juan de Hoyos, along with a ten-year-old slave boy, Juan Moreno, were looking for salt to preserve the meat of the Barajagua slaughter house, which supplied the workers and inhabitants of "Santiago del Prado," now known as "El Cobre." That day they had approached Cayo Francés, halfway across the Bay of Nipe, where they stopped to escape a tremendous storm which threatened their frail canoe.

 

At daybreak the weather was again calm, and they set off upon the sea.  At a distance, they saw a white object, which appeared to be a bird floating on the waves and coming towards them slowly.  As it drew closer, it seemed to be a girl until they realized it was a statue of the Virgin Mary holding the child on her right arm and with a gold cross in her left hand. The statue was fastened to a board with the inscription, "I am the Virgin of Charity."

 

According to the sworn testimony of witnesses, despite the recent storm and the motion of the waves, neither the figure of the Virgin, nor her clothing, was wet.

 

The image's original clothing was white, but the faithful have given her gold and silver colored robes. Because Our Lady of Charity is a symbol of Cuban nationality, popular statues give her a white robe, a blue cloak and have the Child dressed in red: the colors of the Cuban flag. At present the Virgin's dress, a copy of a very early one, is of heavy lamé with gold threads, and has the national Cuban shield embroidered on the skirt.

 

The pious faithful   are devoted to the image of their "Cachita" with the small boat at her feet and in it the "Three Juans" who found her floating on the water. This detail is omitted in the oldest reproductions which copied the original statue.

 

At the request of the veterans of the War of Independence, Our Lady of Charity was declared the patroness of Cuba by Benedict XV in 1916 and solemnly crowned in the Eucharistic Congress held in Santiago de Cuba in 1936. Pope Paul VI raised her sanctuary to the category of Basilica in 1977.

 

http://www.catholictradition.org/Mary/lady-charity.htm