27th Jun - OUR MOTHER OF PERPETUAL HELP

 The name of Our Mother of Perpetual Help derives from one of the most famous of all pictures of Mary, an icon of the 14th century painted on walnut wood perhaps in Crete; 

    from where it was thought to have been stolen by an Italian merchant and brought to Rome. It was venerated, famous for miracles in the Roman Church of St. Matthew, 

    in charge of the Irish Augustinians for a century, when the church was destroyed by fire. The picture was saved and in 1866 it was set up in the Redemptorist Church of St. Alphonsus. 

    In the following year, it was crowned. Since then numberless copies and reproductions of the icons have gone all over the world, some of them themselves wonder-working. 

    Two angels in the picture, Michael and Gabriel are showing the instruments of the passion to the Child, who clings to the Mother’s hand, shaking loose a sandal. 

    The Mother reassuringly holds tightly to the Child’s hand. One cannot look at the picture without being struck by the anxious, pained expression on the face of Our Blessed Mother. 

    On the child’s face is seen the same shrinking fear He had during His agony in the garden – a shrinking fear not incompatible with a perfect resignation to God’s will. 

    And in His fear He turns to His Mother for help. What does the loosened sandal mean? All babies manage to kick off their shoes, and Christ the child was a perfectly human baby.





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