by Deacon Marty McIndoe
Personally, I think that Our Lady, the mother of Jesus, is the greatest evangelist the Church has ever seen. She has had numerous apparitions all over the world. These apparitions have brought so many to believe in her son Jesus They have also stood as a place where the ministry of Jesus shines forth in healings and building up of faith. Her apparition as Our Lady of Guadeloupe brough about 10 million converts within 9 years. Often she leaves with us visual reminders of her apparitions like the Tilma at Guadeloupe. These “reminders” usually are quite miraculous and as such, leave our scientists baffled. I would like to share with you today about the little known Miraculous Image of Our Lady of Las Lajas.
In 1754, in Columbia, a woman named Maria Mueses de Quinones was walking with her deaf and mute daughter, Rosa through a very rocky area when a storm broke out. They took cover from the storm in the rocky cliffs of the canyon. Rosa, for the very first time started speaking and said that she saw a beautiful woman calling her. Maria was shocked by Rosa speaking and looked up and did not see the woman. After a while the storm subsided and they both safely made it to their village. A few days later, Rosa disappeared but Maria had a sense that she had returned to where the beautiful woman was calling her. Maria went back to the rocky canyon and saw Rosa playing with a young Child who was with His mother. Maria knew that this was an apparition of the Child Jesus and His mother. They decided to keep this as their secret, but would often go to this spot to place intercessions to Jesus and Mary.
After a few months, Rosa fell ill and died. Maria took the body of Rosa to the rocky cliffs where they had seen the apparition. Maria prayed to the Virgin Mary to intercede for her to Jesus to bring her child, Rosa, back to life. Rosa did come back to life and Maria brought her back to their village. The people in the village, very surprised that Rosa was alive, needed to know how this happened. Maria told them about their secret place and the miracles that had occurred there. Maria and Rosa led them to the place, and one of the villagers saw on the rock wall an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary holding the Child Jesus. Both Maria and Rosa were surprised to see this, as they had not seen it before. No one knew how this beautiful image had gotten there. The image shows Our Lady holding the Child Jesus and handing St. Dominic a rosary; the Child Jesus is handing a Friar’s cord to St. Francis of Assisi.
After many extensive investigations by civil authorities and scientists, it was determined that the image was not painted on the rock, but was actually part of the rock itself. Many years after the original investigations, geologist have taken several core samples of the image and rock and determined that there is no paint involved and that the image is in the rock itself, going in over 2 feet. The only man-made parts of the rock are the two crowns on Jesus and Mary. These were added later by local devotees. In 1951, the Church authorized devotion to this apparition and a Church was build over the image which was made a basilica. It should be noted that Fray Juan de Santa Gertrudis was a blind monk with a devotion to the Image. He traveled to where they were building the chapel to help them build. He was healed of his blindness while building the chapel. One cannot help to wonder how many other healings and conversions to the faith have occured there. Our good Lord, and His Mother are constantly at work bringing miracle upon miracle to us.