OUR LADY OF THE GROVE

Day 94: August 12

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In the year of our Lord 1518, a few scattered houses broke the monotony of the Ruta valley, which was partly cultivated with olive groves and vineyards, and part was still covered by woods, one of which was beautiful and not vast, shaded in the valley. In the Grove, in fact, there were once chestnut trees, oaks and elms. Where the three paths joined, there was a shrine with a fresco depicting the Madonna holding the Child Jesus. It is unknown how and who exposed and painted the image. In front of the shrine, there were few passers-by, mostly peasants, who stopped to say a prayer. Among the most assiduous, there was a twelve-year-old shepherd named Angela Schiaffino, who on the 2nd day of the month of July, as she often did, stopped to address a prayer before that painting.

Absorbed in prayer, a beautiful Lady suddenly appeared to her, who manifested Her desire for Angela to be the interpreter of Her wishes. The Lady told Angela that she had to tell the people that in this place a Church should be built. But she replied to the Lady that no one would believe her.

Then the Blessed Virgin made a sign on the palm of her hand, precisely an M that at the period was written in gothic character, which presented to the eyes of the people a resemblance with a horseshoe. The Lady also made the same character on a large stone that was near them, indicating the site where the Sanctuary and the Monastery should be built.

All the people of Camogli were grateful to the sweet Queen of Heaven, who not only once but many times in the history, broke with Her light the opaque shadows of the grove, which could well symbolize the darkness of our intellect, and sanctified with Her many apparitions on this earth. Oh, how She must rejoice in the smile of the just.


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"The Love of the Father and Son is your dowry; the Spirit of the Father and the Son is your Spouse, O Mary; He crowns you with a crown of special graces."

(Spirit of Prayer, trans. Louis Caputo, Newark, Vocationist Fathers, 1996, p. 155)

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