Holy Relic Visitation: Our Lady of Fatima Prayer Group, 4/27/2013

 

At tonight's prayer meeting in the Gruber

Residence, we honored one of my favorite

Saints of all time - St. Gemma Galgani,

the "Passion Flower" of Lucca, Italy.

Just a very small group of us were able to get together tonight to pray the Holy Rosary at the Gruber Residence; three people to be exact.  Although to the naked eye it appeared to be just a few of us in the living room, there were clear indications that we also had unseen, blessed company joining us for prayer.

Even before the Rosary began, me and our host, Dre', were pleasantly surprised by the appearance of escarchas, which seemed to have materialized just about everywhere! The glitter-like manna manifested in various sizes on different parts of the table where we were sitting; on Dre's cheeks and forearm; on my t-shirt, over my heart; and finally, on my forehead above the left eye. Incredibly, not only were the escarchas in the form of the usual fine flakes of green, silver, and gold... but a few of them even seemed to have facets on them, which gave them the appearance of very tiny gemstones!

  

Some of the Escarchas that manifested

at tonight's meeting (circled): on the table

where we sat during prayer time and one

that appeared on my forehead while I

was sharing about our monthly Saint.

(click on the photos to view larger)

I speculated these new variations of escarchas had something to do with the Saint whose bodily relic we venerated this month: St. Gemma Galgani (d. 1903, see the photo below), a beautiful lay-mystic and stigmatist from Lucca, Italy, who I have especially  honored as  my personal Patron Saint for over 20 years.  The Saint's name, coincidentally, means "gem" in Italian so I believe tonight's manifestation of the gem-like escarchas were a special reminder from God of St. Gemma's spiritual presence in our midst. Although we've witnessed escarchas several times before, their unexpected appearances - whatever the circumstances - never fail to awe and humble us, and we felt a little overwhelmed this evening but in a very good way.

Also, the personal petitions we prayed out loud tonight were more intimate than usual and truly inspired by the Holy Spirit, as we were all edified by the words that we each offered to God.  The meal we shared afterwards was, as always, more than satisfying... and I left the Gruber home at the end of the night an uplifted and very contented pilgrim.

Thank you, Jesus... thank you, Mother Mary... and last, but not least, thank you to my dear sister, St. Gemma!

St. Gemma Galgani,

pray & intercede for us!