From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Now is the season of angels   
      
   Now is the season of angels,   
   Of wondrous signs in the skies,   
   While in the cold and the darkness,   
   Below in a manger lies Jesus.   
   --Bea Lotz   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   December 10th - Translation of The Holy House of Loreto   
   (1291, 1294)   
      
   Towards the end of the 13th century, the terrible news reached Europe   
   that the Holy Land was lost to the Christians, who during two   
   centuries had been able to maintain the Latin kingdom there by virtue   
   of their repeated Crusades. But at the time the Church was deploring   
   this painful loss, a new joy was given them: the holy house of   
   Nazareth--site of the birth of the Mother of God, of Her early   
   education and of the Annunciation by the Angel Gabriel of the wondrous   
   news of the Incarnation of the Son of God--had been found, transported   
   miraculously, near Tersatz in Dalmatia (Yugoslavia) on May 10th of the   
   year 1291. Between Tersatz and nearby Fiume, the residents of the   
   region beheld one morning an edifice, in a location where never had   
   any been seen before. After the residents of the region talked among   
   themselves of the remarkable little house surmounted by a bell tower,   
   and which stood without foundations on the bare ground, describing its   
   altar, an ancient statue of Our Lady, and other religious objects   
   which their wondering eyes had seen within it, another surprise came   
   to astound them once more.   
      
   Their bishop suddenly appeared in their midst, cured from a lingering   
   illness which had kept him bedridden for several months. He had prayed   
   to be able to go see the prodigy for himself, and the Mother of God   
   had appeared to him, saying, in substance: “My son, you called Me; I   
   am here to give you powerful assistance and reveal to you the secret   
   you desire to know. The holy dwelling is the very house where I was   
   born... It is there that when the announcement was brought by the   
   Archangel Gabriel, I conceived the divine Child by the operation of   
   the Holy Spirit. It is there that the Word was made flesh! After My   
   decease, the Apostles consecrated this dwelling, illustrated by such   
   elevated mysteries, and sought the honor of celebrating the August   
   Sacrifice there. The altar is the very one which the Apostle Saint   
   Peter placed there. The crucifix was introduced by the Apostles, and   
   the cedar statue is My faithful image, made by the hand of the   
   Evangelist Saint Luke... Your sudden return to health from so long an   
   illness will bear witness to this prodigy.” Nicolas Frangipane,   
   governor of the territory of Ancona, was absent, but when the news was   
   carried to him, he returned from a war in order to verify its   
   authenticity. He sent to Nazareth, at the eastern limits of the   
   Mediterranean Sea, the bishop and three other persons, to examine the   
   original site of the house. Indeed the house was no longer there, but   
   its foundations remained and were found conformable in every detail of   
   dimension and substance, to the stones at the base of the house now in   
   Dalmatia. The testimony of the delegates was drafted according to   
   legal formalities, and confirmed by a solemn oath.   
      
   Then, after 3 years spent in Dalmatia, the house disappeared. Paul   
   Della Selva, a holy hermit of that period and of the region of Ancona,   
   wrote: “During the night of December 10th, a light from heaven became   
   visible to several inhabitants of the shores of the Adriatic Sea, and   
   a divine harmony woke them that they might contemplate a marvel   
   exceeding all the forces of nature. They saw and contemplated a house,   
   surrounded by heavenly splendor, transported through the air.” The   
   angelic burden was brought to rest in a forest, where again the local   
   residents were able to contemplate the signal relics which it   
   contained. The antique Greek crucifix mentioned by Our Lady was made   
   of wood, and attached to it was a canvas on which the words Jesus of   
   Nazareth, King of the Jews, were painted. The cedar statue of the   
   Virgin had been painted also; she wore a red robe and a blue cloak and   
   held the Infant Jesus in Her arms. His right hand was raised in   
   blessing; His left hand held a globe, symbol of His sovereign power.   
      
   The story was far from ended. The house moved again, after robbers   
   began to intercept pilgrims coming through the forest to visit the   
   marvel. Twice more it rose from its place, the first time coming to   
   rest on a private terrain, which became then a source of dispute   
   between two brothers; and finally on a hilltop where a dusty and   
   uneven public road became its permanent site. For centuries the people   
   of Dalmatia came across the sea on pilgrimage, often crying out to Our   
   Lady and Her House to come back to them! Finally in 1559, after one   
   such visit by 300 pilgrims, the Sovereign Pontiff had a hospice built   
   at Loreto for families who preferred to remain near the house, rather   
   than return to a land deprived of its sacred presence.   
      
   The reddish-black stones of the house are a sort entirely foreign to   
   Italy; the mortar cementing them is again entirely different from the   
   volcanic-ash-based substance used in that country. The residents of   
   the region put up a heavy brick wall to support the house, which was   
   exposed to the torrential rains and winds of the hilltop and was   
   completely without foundation. But no sooner was that wall completed,   
   than they came back one morning to find it had moved away from the   
   house, as if to express its reverence, to a distance which permitted a   
   small child to walk around it with a torch in hand. The Author of the   
   miracle wanted it to be well understood that He who had brought it   
   without human assistance, was capable also of maintaining it there   
   where He had placed it, without human concourse.   
      
   The episodes concerning the Translation of the Holy House, all duly   
   verified, were consigned in documents borne to Rome to the Sovereign   
   Pontiffs at various epochs. Pope Sixtus IV declared that the house was   
   the property of the Holy See, and assigned duties to specified   
   personnel named to be its custodians. Pope Leo X accorded the   
   indulgence applicable to the visit of several churches of Rome also to   
   a pilgrimage to Loreto. Eventually a magnificent basilica was built   
   around the house, which within the basilica was itself enhanced by a   
   white marble edicule. Pope Clement IX in 1667, placed the story of the   
   House in the Roman Martyrology for the 10th of December under the   
   title: At Loreto, in the territory of Ancona, translation of the Holy   
   House of Mary, Mother of God, in which the Word was made flesh. Pope   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)