JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever!
The month of May finds us offering heart-felt thanks to our mothers, both spiritual and temporal, in a special way. In this spirit, I stumbled upon a website a few weeks ago that caught my attention immediately! It was about Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Pagani, Campania Italy which celebrates a Feast day of Saint Mary, the Crowned of Mount Carmel, under the title of Madonna delle Galline (Italian for Our Lady of the Hens), the Sunday after Easter, which is now Divine Mercy Sunday. This special devotion consists in a procession of Our Lady's statue on top of a bird cage with hens, geese and other fowl within as well as perched upon the poles carrying her throughout the town as traditional music creates a festive atmosphere.
It is all said to have begun in 1500 when some chickens were pecking and found a wooden ‘tavoletta’ [tablet] upon which was represented the Madonna del Carmine. The healing of a cripple [‘storpio’] in 1609 and numerous other miracles led to such an increase in devotion that in 1610 a church was dedicated to her. This wooden icon deteriorated over the centuries, and the focus of worship is now the eighteenth-century statue. [See https://thevotivesproject.org/2014/05/13/galline/]
This unusual title brought to mind the words of Jesus, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!" [Lk 13:34] How Our Lord wishes to hold us in His arms, protect us, and assist us...yet so often we resist like the toddler that struggles and squirms to get out of his mother's arms to be seemingly free and face danger alone.
Our Lady seeks to find us wherever we are and bring us home to safety, which is to be securely abiding in the bosom of Our Lord. We are told, "As a sparrow has found a home, And a swallow a nest to settle her young, My home is by your altars, Lord of hosts, My King and my God." [Ps 84:3] This is precisely how our Lady operates in our lives. She meets us where we are at, gathers us to herself under her wings as her brood, and then brings us to her beloved Son, Jesus; her beloved Spouse, the Holy Spirit; and her beloved Creator, Our Heavenly Father. She brings us to His Altar, and she brings us to the Divine Indwelling which is found within our very persons.
But this requires receptivity, docility, and a willingness to go where we are led. Our disposition must be to emulate the doves who are peaceful, or the hens who go where they are truly nourished. May our hearts repeat with the Psalmist, "Lord, my heart is not proud; nor are my eyes haughty. I do not busy myself with great matters, nor with things too sublime for me. Instead, I have stilled my soul, like a weaned child in its mother's lap, so is my soul within me." [Ps 131:1-2] Amen.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Statues_of_Our_Lady_of_the_Hens
