gifts of grace: A Gathering of Personal Encounters with the Virgin Mary

by Lone Jensen

Overview

There has been a resurrection of love in our society, a return to the feminine strengths of nurturing, caring, and compassion. Who better than the Virgin Mary to lead us on this journey back to God?

Many years ago, RoseAnn was visited by her deceased father and the Virgin Mary in a dream. Today her palm still bears the mark of a cross, a symbol of Mary’s protection. After a healing trip to Medjugorje, Yugoslavia, a young drug addict conquers her addictions without withdrawal. A woman paralyzed with multiple sclerosis is miraculously and instantaneously healed.

Gifts of Grace gathers together these and other examples of the Virgin Mary’s powers, revealing how she comforts and protects both believers and skeptics, curing their bodies, bringing peace to their minds, and healing their souls. As the world hurdles into the future, rampant with confusion and doubt, people are looking to spirituality for meaning in their lives. Whether you are a Catholic, New Age spiritualist, or nonbeliever, you will find comfort in these forty-one powerful stories that capture the beauty of faith.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060566951
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/16/2004
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.58(d)

About the Author

Lone Jensen experienced three visitations from Mary that inspired her to seek out other people with similar encounters, who, like her, continue to feel Mary's presence and power infusing their daily lives.

She was born in Denmark, and now lives in Sparta, New Jersey.

Read an Excerpt

Introduction

Throughout the world today, there is an interest in the redemptive quality of spirituality. This powerful awakening is communicating itself in many ways, from the beguiling goodness of angels, revelations on death and dying that we have learned about through the sharing of near-death experiences, to the popularity of works like A Course in Miracles, and more. There has been a resurrection of love in our society, a return to the feminine strengths of nurturing, caring, and compassion. Who better than the Virgin Mary to lead us on this journey back to God?

The Virgin Mary is the embodiment of Motherhood. Her appearances to so many people of varied faiths have signaled a time of peace and hope, a return to the love of God. Long after her earthly role as the Mother of Christ was fulfilled, Mary's presence has been with us, and in the last two thousand years every continent has been witness to her apparitional return. Perhaps we should take a quick look back in order to understand how we have arrived at an age that is being showered with her graces.

When the Angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin and proclaimed her Handmaiden of the Lord, the simple life of a young girl was forever transformed. She became an integral part of an epic that continues to unfold today. Her role has scarcely changed over time, but the mantle that once covered the Christ child has now enveloped the world, blanketing us in her loving embrace. This love—regardless of race, color, or creed, makes Mary a Universal Mother.

There are more than one hundred accounts of the Blessed Mother's return to earth before the 1900s, the most famous being at Lourdes, inFrance. A young girl there by the name of Bernadette Soubirous was visited in 1858 by the Virgin Mary, in a grotto that has since been the source of healings and spiritual awakenings for thousands of pilgrims from around the world. Bernadette was canonized. The film The Song of Bernadette is a modern testament to the miraculous events that have taken place there over time.

Almost equally well known are the events in Fatima, Portugal. In the spring of 1916 St. Michael, the Angel of Peace, appeared three times to three young children before announcing that Our Lady would soon come. She came on May 13, 1917, and asked the children to meet her in a sheep pasture on the outskirts of the village on the thirteenth of every month thereafter. She promised them that if Russia was consecrated to her, the world would enjoy a period of great peace and harmony. Unfortunately this did not happen, and the world soon witnessed two monstrous world wars.

Mary also promised a miracle at twelve noon on October 13, 1917. By the time October arrived, word had spread throughout Europe and seventy thousand people had crowded into the sheep pasture in anticipation. They were drenched in a deluge of rain, but then a great solar phenomenon appeared: the sun, exploding like a ball of fire, plunged toward the earth. After twelve long minutes, it reverted to its normal position, leaving the mud soaked ground and the clothing of the witnesses instantaneously dry—and then the Virgin appeared. The story of the miracle is still the source of much speculation in spiritual circles.

I was not one of the people who would have heard about Lourdes or Fatima, or any other miracle for that matter. I was born in Koge, Denmark, a city just outside of Copenhagen, to a family that categorically denied the existence of anything beyond the physical or scientific realms. It wasn't only that we didn't practice any form of organized religion, it was that we simply did not believe. We did not speak of God. We never went to a worship service of any kind. And we certainly never prayed. This lack of spiritual conviction was not the result of being fiercely intellectual, or academic, or scientific. I can't say that it was simply because we were Danish either, although Denmark is not noted for its spiritual devotion. My parents, and theirs before them, just did not believe in a higher power.

Our lack of devotion did not prevent me from having a happy childhood, and I never really felt that I was missing anything. When I was still quite young, we moved to the United States, and I was faced with learning a new language. This move engendered a curiosity about people of different worlds, and different beliefs, that was instrumental in the direction my life has taken.

My third grade teacher used to spend his summers teaching school children in Kenya. He brought back the names of a few children and we were asked to correspond with them as part of a school project. I picked a boy and began a friendship that would last for the next twelve years. Our correspondence was particularly meaningful to me because of my father. He had not been present at my birth; he had been in Africa, an executive of a company that sought to mine the rich mineral deposits off the coast of Angola. My pen pal, too, was a key influence in the development of my interest in foreign cultures and their languages.

When I was in seventh grade, I took a course in the introduction of foreign languages. I studied German, Spanish, Russian, and—my favorite—French. It was French that led me to an experience I would later look back upon as a significant turning point in my life.

At fifteen, I became one of a handful of American students admitted to a small boarding school in the French Alps. I lived in Evian-les-Bains, and, along with a girlfriend who shared my insatiable curiosity, spent every weekend traveling by train to enchanting French towns and villages. We were so adventurous, and believed that anything was possible—which certainly proved to be true for me in Paris.

We were there for two weeks of exploration, and one day we came upon the Cath‚dral de Notre Dame de Paris at dusk. It is impossible to describe the magnificent presence of this building, especially in the fading light. The church is architecturally formidable and simply breathtaking. The moment I entered the arched doorways, my senses reeled. White candles flickered everywhere; there was a rich scent of rose incense in the air; the dying daylight drifted through the incredible stained-glass windows, casting soft rainbows of color inside the stone structure. What struck me most were the images of the Madonna. She was so beautiful and seemed to look down upon me with a tenderness and compassion that I had never known. Everything about her, from the gentle tilt of her head to her outstretched arms seemed to say: "Thank you for coming in to see me . . . I have been waiting for you . . . and I love you." This place was so intensely quiet, so reverent. I remember thinking suddenly, "Oh my God, this is religious!"

I should say that throughout my childhood, I always felt particularly protected and very, very lucky. It was as if I believed that no harm would come to me. I felt a force of grace surrounding me. I just thought that everybody had this same feeling, but I did not know that it was considered spiritual in nature. That is why I was so overwhelmed at Notre Dame. It was the first time in my life that I equated those feelings with God! And it was the first time I felt that I was actually a spiritual person.

After this, I spent much time traveling throughout Europe exploring medieval chateaux and cathedrals. I was so curious about how people lived then and I wanted to know what force had inspired them to build these monumental Houses of God. This became a very mystical time in my life. Yet when I returned to the United States, I moved on.

I continued to study other cultures as a foreign language major in college. I took French, as well as Japanese and Russian, and I especially loved looking for the similarities between diverse cultures. I found a job as a marketing apprentice with an international hospitality firm in my junior year. They later hired me as a full time writer of press materials. This firm represented properties in Tokyo, Scotland, Australia, and we were just beginning to construct a small luxury hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Being in Santa Fe—literally the City of Holy Faith—is like taking a walk back in time. It is a land of stark contrasts, and the spirit of the diverse communities is very engaging, especially since the Native Americans and Hispanics far outnumber the Anglos. Despite a history of violent conflict, the Native and Hispanic communities share a devotion to Mary as Our Lady of Guadalupe! She is everywhere in Santa Fe: painted on adobe walls, smiling from bumper stickers, riding on the dashboards of cars. She is invoked, praised, and celebrated in special processions and religious services throughout the year, and the oldest extant shrine in the United States is in Santa Fe—the Santuario de Guadalupe.