"My mom has all of the saints in her house, but this one just got to me" says Stephanie Santos, who visits the Virgin Mary. ...
And as people bring their loved ones to see the divine formation they come bearing gifts. "That`s a tradition that people give her flowers, so we put a little bit of flowers and customers bring flowers and put candles there."
"We`ll have people come in here and ask if they are sick or whatever. People will kneel down and pray and ask for forgiveness."
Source: KLBK 13 News
Some people are even claiming that their prayers are being answered here. One resident is quoted as saying "I had a lump in my breast, and yesterday when I went home it disappeared. I don`t have it no more." This is why such beliefs are dangerous: if people start taking seriously the possibility that a bit of prayer in front of a piece of ice that is vaguely human-shaped will cure illness, disease, or injury, they will be less inclined to seek real medical attention and perhaps get the help they need.
Did the woman quoted here, for example, ever get examined by a doctor for the lump in her breast? If not, it seems unlikely that she will now — and if it's a real lump that poses a real danger, her delay could lead to her death. That, then, would be an example of a direct connection between superstitious, religious beliefs and dying.
To their credit, Catholic authorities rarely regard these phenomena as genuine and usually tell people suffering from medical conditions to seek professional medical treatment rather than simply praying at these sites. On the other hand, everything else Catholic authorities do serves to promote superstitious, religious beliefs which in turn encourages people to pray rather than take more rational, sensible courses of action.
It amazes me that people who claim to see the faces of Jesus or the Virgin Mary ever to stop to consider one thing: they have never seen “real” Jesus nor the “real” Mary. So how could they know that it was actually them? Oh, that’s right, faith!
I saw Jesus in a dog’s butt before.
It never ceases to amaze me that otherwise intelligent (or seemingly so) people can see Mary or Jesus in spaghetti, a tortilla, the bathroom floor, doggie doo, etc. Don’t they wonder why their diety would appear in such mundane objects?
I have actually seen one of these visions. In September 2000, the local news had reports of Mary and the baby Jesus in a window in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. I live about 10 miles from there, so this was a “must-see” trip. It was a pleasant mid-September afternoon. When I got to the house, there must have been 200 people standing outside. There were two tables crowded with votive candles and speakers with hymns coming out (mostly Spanish, as this was an Hispanic neighberhood). The window was on the second floor, and people were at it, praying, holding candles, rosaries, hankies, etc. Now for the window – I just saw two blobs, sort of like oil-in-water images. There was nothing even vaguely humanoid about them. Needless to say, I took advantage of going upstairs to get a closer look. I noticed that the window was a thermal type, with a shhet of plastic between two glass panes. There was a small pin-hole on the bottom, with several cracks emanating from it. I figured the warm weather must have warped the plastic from the crack. After few weeks, this all subsided. I found it both hilarious and pathetic at the same time.
I wonder why Jesus and the Virgin Mary only appear to Catholics, usually poorly educated ones. Why don’t they appear to us unbelievers?