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Statues of Mary, like the one depicted, have been known to show miracles or phenomenon of her crying, sometimes even tears of blood. This typically gets the attention of thousands who flock to her to get a glimpse of this phenomenon but my question is why is she so sad? What is Mary trying to communicate by this action and how does it proclaim the glory of God?
A few thoughts -
First why is she sad - the visionaries at Lourdes Fatima and Kibeho report our lady being very sad because they say, she is sad for sinners, who do not heed their ways and too many are lost because there are none to pray and do sacrifices for them. "The sword still pierces her heart" today. She comes to warn us of the consequences of ignoring Gods words.
We are told in revelations 12 her (spiritual) offspring are those who keep the commandments is why she cares....
Second - several of the statues have undergone scientific analysis, both of our Ladys tears (for example the statue at Akita and others) and also our Lord's (the statue of cochabamba) which confirmed there were no microscopic passages and it was not a hoax or fraud. Tears really happened. Caught on camera. Inexplicable.
Third - (of course we can have the discussion as to whether it has to be in the bible to be true - another time) - but our Lord says in one passage
"the stones will cry out"
My opinion..
As both a postgrad and one time professional physicist and a lifelong student of these apparitions, who has a library of books and scientific papers:
I am convinced by the apparitions (and some of the other phenomena) , even though as a catholic I am not obliged to. The church i think regards them as more of an embarassment than a help - certainly whenever a new one is reported, the church reacts with hostility almost! Such as Bernadette and the fatima children were treated with hostility by the church and their parents, let alone the secular authorities!
But take The prophecy of the miracle of the sun - it is impossible to explain.
It really doesnt matter what created the phenonmenon in physics terms, the fact it was observed by so many , on a date prophesied months in advance , with a great manty atheist and sceptical witnesses also converted by it, even those miles away with no knowledge of the prophesy reported it, so it cannot have been "mass hypnosis".
Or at Zeitoun. Even now the technology does not exist to project a real image into free space, yet that is what was witnessed by MILLIONS....of all faiths and none, all professions, including solicitors and scientists. The power was turned off in the neighbour hood to destroy the "hoax" which had no effect!
And in 1969...lasers and holograms were still in the future, even though they cannot explain it.
The saddest thing is the apparitions have been about avertiing catastrophe, with the message of Penance.
Our lady predicted a worse war if man did not heed the message in 1917. She was right...and that russia (unknown then) would spread its errors around the world.Interesting that the final consecration coincided with Gorbachev and the falling of USSR
Yet we see in Kibeho our lady predicted rivers of blood in Rwanda, if men did not repent and stop hating.. And a few years later it was exactly what happened. A genocide in which millions hacked each other to bits with machetes. The rivers ran red with corpses. There were so many dead none was left to bury them. A fascinating book "left to tell" describes it, and how faith got the author through
In my view Zeitoun was trying to draw christians and moslems together, since Islam respects Meryem too... yet we see the copt church being openly attacked...
So her tears are sadness.
Weeping for mankind.
We are "The sword still pierces her heart"
