AWOL....
Since "As I was saying" is AWOL the fire-brigade are being press-ganged into service. Life in the Auggie goes on and we are graced in these days with the presence and activity of an old master. Fr Jackie Power is presently in the New Ross Auggie. He was the first parish priest here in St Augustines and he is conducting the Novena in honour of Our Lady of Good Counsel in these days.
The Irish Augustinians have always promoted this particular devotion. As it happens, most of us spent the summer months of our theology years in Genazzano where the original picture is revered to this day. The multitudes that flock to that Basilica throughout the year bear testimony to the many favours and graces received.
The older people in our in Galway here speak of the times that people filled the surrounds of the church and the ranks of the faithful stretched up Buttermilk Lane during the Novena here. Nowadays, for a variety of reasons, it is not a hugely popular Novena, not least because of the Novena in the cathedral each year. Yet the devotees here do not lose heart and Fr. Jackie is fulfilling a major role in reviving awareness of this devotion.
Our sincere thanks to him for undertaking this mission this week. We are doubly grateful to him because of the fact that he is combining our Novena with a retreat he is preaching to the sisters and some patients in the Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe.
-Anon.
MATTERS OF INTEREST
- Renovation Committee: This group will meet at 5.30 in the Priory on Monday night next.
- Feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel: Our novena will come to a close with a concelebrated mass on Friday next 26th April.
- Galway Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes: The annual Galway Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes takes place from July 1st to 6th. The Pilgrimage will be led by Bishop James Mc Laughlin. For further information contact Fr. Martin Moran, Merlin Park Hospital, Galway. Tel. (091) 757631.
- Vocation Sunday: The fourth Sunday of Eater is often called Good Shepherd Sunday, because the readings reflect on the care we receive from Christ, our true shepherd. Today is also the day of prayer for Vocations.
FEAST OF OUR LADY OF GOOD COUNSEL
Records dating back to the reign of Paul 11(1464-71) relate that the picture of our lady, at first called "La Madonna del Paradiso" and now better known as "Madonna del Buon Consiglio", appeared at Genazzano, a town about twenty five miles southeast of Rome, on St Mark's day 25th April, 1467, in the old church of Santa Maria, which had been under the care of Augustinians since 1356. The venerated icon itself, which is drawn on a thin scale of wall plaster little thicker than a visiting card, was observed to hang suspended in the air without the slightest apparent support: thus early tradition, which furthermore tells how one might have passed a thread around the image without touching it.
At once devotion to Our Lady in Santa Maria sprang up: pilgrim bands began to resort thither: while miracles in ever-increasing numbers, of which a register was opened two days after the event, were wrought, as they still continue to be, at the shrine. In July following, Pope Paul deputed two bishops to investigate the alleged wonder-working image. Their report, however, is not known to be extant.
The cult of Our Lady increased. In 1630 Urban VIII himself went to Genazzano on a pilgrimage, as did Pius IX in 1864. On 17th November 1682, Innocent XI had a picture crowned with gold by the Vatican Basilica. In 1727 Benedict XIII granted the clergy of Genazzano an office and Mass of Our Lady for 25th April, Anniversary of the apparition, elsewhere the feast being kept a day later so as not to conflict with that of St Mark the Evangelist. On 2nd July, 1753, Benedict XIV approved of the Pius Union of Our Lady of Good Counsel for the faithful at large, and was himself enrolled therin as its pioneer member: Pius IX was a member, and also Leo XIII. On 18th December 1779 Pius VI, while reapproving the cult of Our Lady, granted all the Augustinians an office with hymns, lessons, prayer and mass proper of double-major rite: with a plenary indulgence also for the faithful, to which Pius viii added another for visitors to the shrine. On 18th December,1884, Leo xiii approved of a new office and mass of second class rite for all Augustinians, while on 17th March,1903, He elevated the church of Santa Maria-one of the four Parish Church at Genazzano- to the rank of Minor basilica; and, on 22nd April following authorized the insertion in the litany of Loreto of the invocation "Mater Boni Consillii" to follow that of "Mater Admirabilis" . The same pontiff, ten years earlier (21st December,1893) had sanctioned the use of the white scapular of Our Lady of Good Counsel for the faithful. In the United States there are many churches and institutions in honour of our Lady of Good Counsel.
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