From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   January 20th - Our Lady of the Miracle   
   (Madonna del Miracolo)   
      
   In 1842, a 28-year-old French Jew named Alphonse Ratisbonne was visiting   
   Rome.   
   He was the youngest son of an important banking family in Strasbourg, a   
   close   
   relation of the Rothschilds. As often happens with European Jews, a family   
   takes   
   the name of a city. The French Ratisbonne comes from Ratisbona, the Latin   
   name   
   for Regensburg, a famous German city near Munich. Alphonse was a Jew by race   
   and   
   religion, virulently anti-Catholic, and libertine in his customs.   
      
   Alphonse Ratisbonne was making a tour of Europe and the East before settling   
   to   
   marry his cousin Flore and assume a partnership at his uncle's bank. Ending   
   by   
   coincidence in Rome instead of Palermo as he had intended, he was well   
   received   
   by the French diplomatic circle residing there. He reluctantly made a call   
   on   
   Baron Theodore de Bussières, a very fervent Catholic. Even though the Jew   
   seemed   
   quite far from any conversion, the Baron, undaunted by his sarcasm and   
   blasphemy, saw in him a future Catholic and encouraged his visits.   
      
   One afternoon, during a lively conversation in which Ratisbonne was   
   ridiculing   
   the superstitions of the Catholic religion, the Baron challenged Ratisbonne   
   to   
   submit to a simple test and wear the Miraculous Medal. Taken aback but   
   wanting   
   to prove the ineffectiveness of such religious baubles, Ratisbonne consented   
   and   
   allowed the Baron's young daughter to put the medal around his neck. Baron   
   de   
   Bussières also insisted that Ratisbonne recite the Memorare once a day.   
   Ratisbonne promised, saying, "If it does me no good, at least it will do me   
   no   
   harm."   
      
   The Baron and a close circle of aristocratic friends increased their prayers   
   for   
   the skeptical Jew. Notable among them was a devout Catholic who was   
   seriously   
   ill, Count Laferronays, who offered his life for the conversion of the   
   "young   
   Jew." On the same day he entered a church and prayed more than 20 Memorares   
   for   
   this intention, he suffered a heart attack, received the last Sacraments,   
   and   
   died.   
      
   The next day, his friend Baron de Bussières was on his way to arrange the   
   Count's funeral in the Basilica of St. Andrea delle Fratte when he met   
   Ratisbonne. He asked him to accompany him and wait in the church until he   
   had   
   arranged some matters with the priest in the sacristy.   
      
   Ratisbonne did not accompany his friend into the sacristy. He wandered   
   through   
   the church admiring the beautiful marbles and various works of art. As he   
   stood   
   before a side altar dedicated to St. Michael Archangel, Our Lady suddenly   
   appeared to him. It was January 20, 1842.   
      
   Standing over the altar, Our Lady appeared wearing a crown and a simple long   
   white tunic with a jeweled belt around her waist and blue-green mantle   
   draped   
   over her left shoulder. She gazed at him affably; her hands were open   
   spreading   
   rays of graces. Her bearing was quite regal, not just because of the crown   
   she   
   was wearing. Rather, her height and elegance gave the impression of a great   
   lady, fully conscious of her own dignity. She transmitted both grandeur and   
   mercy in an atmosphere of great peace. She had some of the characteristics   
   of   
   Our Lady of Graces. Alphonse Ratisbonne saw this figure and understood that   
   he   
   was before an apparition of the Mother of God. He knelt down before her and   
   converted.   
      
   Returning from the sacristy, the Baron was surprised to see the Jew   
   fervently   
   praying on his knees before the altar of St. Michael the Archangel. He   
   helped   
   his friend to his feet, and Ratisbonne immediately asked to go to a   
   confessor so   
   he could receive Baptism. Eleven days later, on January 31, he received   
   Baptism,   
   Confirmation and his First Communion from the hands of Cardinal Patrizi, the   
   Vicar of the Pope.   
      
   His conversion had enormous repercussions over all Christendom. The entire   
   Catholic world became aware of it and was impressed by it. Afterward,   
   Ratisbonne   
   became a Jesuit priest. Ten years later, he and his brother Theodore, who   
   also   
   had converted from Judaism, founded a religious congregation - the   
   Congregation   
   of Sion - turned to the conversion of the Jews.   
      
      
   The Significance of the Miracle   
   Shortly after the apparition, based on the description of Fr. Ratisbonne, a   
   picture was painted representing Our Lady who had appeared to him that day   
   in   
   Sant' Andrea delle Fratte. When the picture was completed, he viewed it and   
   said   
   that it only vaguely depicted the beauty of the apparition he had seen. This   
   is   
   not difficult to believe since the actual beauty of Our Lady must far   
   surpass   
   any mere representation. The picture was placed on the exact spot where she   
   had   
   appeared to him, and became know as Madonna del Miracolo, Our Lady of the   
   Miracle, referring to the two-fold miracle, her apparition and the   
   instantaneous   
   conversion of Alphonse Ratisbonne.   
      
   Obviously, that apparition represented a great benefit for the soul of   
   Ratisbonne. It also represented a benefit for the Catholic Church with the   
   foundation of the Congregation of Sion, with its special mission to work for   
   the   
   conversion of the Jews. This congregation expresses well the Church's   
   position   
   toward the Jews. Her position is not to hate the Jews, but rather to defend   
   herself against their attacks. To the measure that they attack the Church,   
   she   
   defends herself. But above all, she desires their conversion, the   
   eradication of   
   Judaism as a religion, and the entrance of the Jews into the Catholic   
   Church,   
   which is the true continuation of the chosen nation.   
      
   But in the doctrinal and psychological context of those times, the   
   Ratisbonne   
   miracle had a more profound significance. In the 19th century, the   
   Revolution   
   was strongly promoting Rationalism, a school of thought that today has   
   become   
   outdated. Then the Revolution was emphasizing this point: the rational man,   
   the   
   man who tries to determine everything according to reason, cannot find the   
   necessary supports in reason to believe that God exists, that the Catholic   
   Church is the true Religion, and that she was founded by Jesus Christ.   
   Therefore, the Revolution concluded, the entire Catholic edifice of   
   doctrines   
   cannot be accepted by human reason.   
      
   Those revolutionary assertions were just myths, like the Roman mythology or   
   legends of the indigenous and African peoples. Most of the rationalist   
   arguments   
   were chicaneries or sophisms, with only a few proceeding from captious   
   arguments. But because the Revolution insisted relentlessly on those points   
   and   
   presented a torrent of objections to Catholic doctrine, many people of that   
   time   
   lost their faith.   
      
   To counter this unrelenting wave of attacks against the Catholic Faith, Our   
   Lady   
   appeared and made miracles in several places.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)