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Listen "Nov 12th - Our Lady of the Tower Secret - No Greater Delight"
Episode Synopsis
Celebrations
In 1863, in Turin, Italy, Our Lady of the Tower Secret (Nostra Signora del Segreto della Torretta): this shrine was built, one cent at a time (starting with eight cents) by Saint John Bosco. Why the name “Tower Secret”? “The curious thing about Don Bosco’s shrine to Our Lady, and the one that should cause us thought, is the story of the right-hand tower. There is a large central dome, and on each side of it, a smaller one. On top of left-hand one is an angel holding a banner. The right-hand dome is built the same, but its decoration is an angel offering a crown to Our Lady. One who saw the original sketches of the Church, drawn out in Don Bosco’s own hand, saw on the right-hand tower, a date 19.., indicating that at some time in this warring century there would be a victory over evil to correspond with Lepanto. Our Lady often tells her secrets to the saints, and apparently Don Bosco knew the name and the place, and thought it better not to reveal what he knew. Our Lady of the Tower Secret would take care of it in time; and the left-hand angel bearing a banner labeled LEPANTO would have a counterpart, if mankind proves worthy.”[1]
In Fribourg, Germany, Our Lady of the Tower (Unsere Dame des Aufsatz-Geheimnisse): this shrine was built on the spot where an image of Our Lady had been found.[2]
Meditation:
The word “secret” comes from Latin, se-, “on one’s own” and cernere “to separate.” A secret is something that a person has on their own, something separated and kept for themselves. It’s interesting that oftentimes in apparitions Our Lady will give secrets to the visionaries, things they are not to reveal. We know that this was the case in Fatima, but also other events. For instance, in the 12th apparition, the “young lady” (that is, Our Lady) entrusted three secrets to Bernadette with this express directive, “I forbid you to tell this to anyone.”[3] The same can be said of the apparitions at La Salette and many others. We might ask, why? Why secrets? There are a couple of reasons: first, because God reveals things only in the measure that we’re able to understand them or that we’re ready for them. However, it is also true that God works in silence and in secret, and the spiritual life is essentially a secret life. Indeed, Saint Louis de Montfort, that great saint of Marian devotion, has a small treatise entitled The Secret of Mary. The secret of Mary is exactly that, devotion to Our Lady; it is a secret that “becomes great only in the proportion to the use that a soul makes of it,” and that Mary works secretly in souls.[4] Some have said as well that each craft or job has its “secrets”: things that only the initiated and well-formed know. We can ask ourselves: do we desire to know more and more about Mary? Do we want to be formed in her secrets, meaning, in the path to holiness that she shows to those who are close to her? Do we let her work in our souls, silently and secretly?
[1] https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/our-lady-of-the-tower.html
[2] Orsini – Barthe – Hahn, The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 554; https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/our-lady-of-the-tower.html.
[3] https://www.lourdes-france.org/en/1st-2nd-and-25th-march-1858-3-secrets-a-message-and-the-lady-reveals-her-name/
[4] Louis de Montfort, The Secret of Mary (Dublin: St. Vincent’s, 1926): 8, 41.
In 1863, in Turin, Italy, Our Lady of the Tower Secret (Nostra Signora del Segreto della Torretta): this shrine was built, one cent at a time (starting with eight cents) by Saint John Bosco. Why the name “Tower Secret”? “The curious thing about Don Bosco’s shrine to Our Lady, and the one that should cause us thought, is the story of the right-hand tower. There is a large central dome, and on each side of it, a smaller one. On top of left-hand one is an angel holding a banner. The right-hand dome is built the same, but its decoration is an angel offering a crown to Our Lady. One who saw the original sketches of the Church, drawn out in Don Bosco’s own hand, saw on the right-hand tower, a date 19.., indicating that at some time in this warring century there would be a victory over evil to correspond with Lepanto. Our Lady often tells her secrets to the saints, and apparently Don Bosco knew the name and the place, and thought it better not to reveal what he knew. Our Lady of the Tower Secret would take care of it in time; and the left-hand angel bearing a banner labeled LEPANTO would have a counterpart, if mankind proves worthy.”[1]
In Fribourg, Germany, Our Lady of the Tower (Unsere Dame des Aufsatz-Geheimnisse): this shrine was built on the spot where an image of Our Lady had been found.[2]
Meditation:
The word “secret” comes from Latin, se-, “on one’s own” and cernere “to separate.” A secret is something that a person has on their own, something separated and kept for themselves. It’s interesting that oftentimes in apparitions Our Lady will give secrets to the visionaries, things they are not to reveal. We know that this was the case in Fatima, but also other events. For instance, in the 12th apparition, the “young lady” (that is, Our Lady) entrusted three secrets to Bernadette with this express directive, “I forbid you to tell this to anyone.”[3] The same can be said of the apparitions at La Salette and many others. We might ask, why? Why secrets? There are a couple of reasons: first, because God reveals things only in the measure that we’re able to understand them or that we’re ready for them. However, it is also true that God works in silence and in secret, and the spiritual life is essentially a secret life. Indeed, Saint Louis de Montfort, that great saint of Marian devotion, has a small treatise entitled The Secret of Mary. The secret of Mary is exactly that, devotion to Our Lady; it is a secret that “becomes great only in the proportion to the use that a soul makes of it,” and that Mary works secretly in souls.[4] Some have said as well that each craft or job has its “secrets”: things that only the initiated and well-formed know. We can ask ourselves: do we desire to know more and more about Mary? Do we want to be formed in her secrets, meaning, in the path to holiness that she shows to those who are close to her? Do we let her work in our souls, silently and secretly?
[1] https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/our-lady-of-the-tower.html
[2] Orsini – Barthe – Hahn, The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 554; https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/our-lady-of-the-tower.html.
[3] https://www.lourdes-france.org/en/1st-2nd-and-25th-march-1858-3-secrets-a-message-and-the-lady-reveals-her-name/
[4] Louis de Montfort, The Secret of Mary (Dublin: St. Vincent’s, 1926): 8, 41.
In God we trust