O sinner, be not discouraged, but have recourse to Mary in all you necessities. Call her to your assistance, for such is the divine Will that she should help in every kind of necessity. --Saint Basil the Great. We have another great image of the Blessed Virgin Mary from Ann Ball’s book: The Other Faces Of Mary: Stories, Devotions and Pictures of the Holy Virgin around the World. This next image of the Blessed Virgin Mary comes from India and is called Our Lady of Velankanni (Our Lady of Good health).
“The devotions we practice in honor of the glorious Virgin Mary, however trifling they may be, are very pleasing to Her Divine Son, and He rewards them with eternal glory.” - Saint Teresa of Avila. Our next image of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a very strange image. It is called the “Virgin with Three Hands”. Remember that much of the information about these images of Blessed Virgin Mary can be found in Ann Ball’s book: The Other Faces Of Mary: Stories, Devotions and Pictures of the Holy Virgin around the World.
St. John Vianney once wrote: “Only after the Last Judgment will Mary get any rest; from now until then, she is much too busy with her children.” A true mother loves all her children and while the relationship between mother and child may change over the years the love that a good mother has never diminishes. This made most evident in our next image of the Blessed Virgin Mary from Ann Ball’s book: The Other Faces Of Mary: Stories, Devotions and Pictures of the Holy Virgin around the World. This image has been entitled: Our Lady of Montligeon and in its original form it was a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary lifting souls out of the fires of purgatory and placing them into the heavens.
“From Mary we learn to surrender to God's Will in all things. From Mary we learn to trust even when all hope seems gone. From Mary we learn to love Christ her Son and the Son of God!” - Saint John Paul II.
I believe since the very beginning of my Spiritual Ponderings, I have always devoted the month of October to exploring different images of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I invite you to check out my website www.mayjesuschristbepraised to see past reflections. Along most of this spiritual journey, I have been assisted by Ann Ball and her book: The Other Faces Of Mary: Stories, Devotions and Pictures of the Holy Virgin Around the World.