24 MARCH - OUR MOTHER OF THE FLOWERING THORN

 During the middle Ages, when many a knight rode off to the Crusades but never returned. Among the many widows left behind, Jura was devoted to the Mother of God whose image 

      in her Chapel was constantly supplied with fresh flowers. One day in wintertime she went searching in the woods for some fragrant twig to grace her Marian shrine. 

      Thorn trees do not bloom in winter, but our Mother’s devotee prayed that she might find a love-offering. Childlike in her confidence in Mary, she was not surprised to 

      find blossoms on a thorn tree. Some days later, she went at dusk to get another fresh spray from the obliging thorn-tree and found the light of campfire. She found a 

      small statue, not pretty, rudely carved of wood and painted in bright colors; yet there was no doubt about its identity as a statue of the Mother of God. She took it home, 

      rejoicing and fixed a niche for it in the Chapel. There the lady and her followers watched and prayed until midnight. Alas in the morning, the statue returned to the thorn tree. 

      The lady feared in her humility that her own unworthiness had sent the statue from her; but she was assured that Our Mother simply wanted to be honored in the place that 

      she herself had chosen. A Chapel was built around the thorn-tree to Our Mother of the Flowering Thorn and the statue was left in its original spot.




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