Devotion to the Madonna of Syracuse to ask for a grace to the Madonna of tears
THE SANCTUARY OF THE MADONNA DELLE LACRIME:
THE FACT
On 29-30-31 August and 1 September 1953, a plaster painting depicting the immaculate heart of Mary, placed as the bedside of a double bed, in the home of a young married couple, Angelo Iannuso and Antonina Giusto, in via degli Orti di S. Giorgio, n. 11, shed human tears. The phenomenon occurred, at more or less long intervals, both inside and outside the house. Many were the people who saw with their own eyes, touched with their own hands, collected and tasted the salt of those tears. On the 2nd day of the tear, a cineamatore from Syracuse filmed one of the moments of the tear. Syracuse is one of the very few events so documented. On September 1, a commission of doctors and analysts, on behalf of the Archiepiscopal Curia of Syracuse, after taking the liquid that gushed from the eyes of the picture, subjected it to microscopic analysis. The response of science was: "human tears". After the scientific investigation ended, the picture stopped crying. It was the fourth day.
HEALINGS AND CONVERSIONS
There were about 300 physical healings considered extraordinary by the specially established Medical Commission (until mid-November 1953). In particular the healings of Anna Vassallo (tumor), of Enza Moncada (paralysis), of Giovanni Tarascio (paralysis). There have also been numerous spiritual healings, or conversions. Among the most striking is that of one of the doctors responsible for the Commission who analyzed the tears, dr. Michele Cassola. Declared atheist, but an upright and honest man from a professional point of view, he never denied the evidence of tearing. Twenty years later, during the last week of his life, in the presence of the Reliquary in which those tears which he himself controlled with his science were sealed, he opened himself to faith and received the Eucharist
PRONUNCIATION of BISHOPS
The episcopate of Sicily, with the presidency of Card. Ernesto Ruffini, quickly issued his judgment (13.12.1953) declaring authentic the Tearing of Mary in Syracuse:
«The Bishops of Sicily, gathered for the usual Conference in Bagheria (Palermo), after having listened to the ample report of the Most Msgr. Ettore Baranzini, Archbishop of Syracuse, about the" Tearing "of the Image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary , which took place repeatedly on 29-30-31 August and 1 September of this year, in Syracuse (via degli Orti n. 11), carefully examined the relative testimonies of the original documents, unanimously concluded that the reality of Tearing.
THE WORDS OF JOHN PAUL II
On November 6, 1994, John Paul II, on a pastoral visit to the city of Syracuse, during the homily for the dedication of the Shrine to the Madonna delle Lacrime, said:
«Mary's tears belong to the order of signs: they testify to the presence of the Mother in the Church and in the world. A mother cries when she sees her children threatened by some evil, spiritual or physical. Sanctuary of the Madonna delle Lacrime, you arose to remind the Church of the Mother's cry. Here, within these welcoming walls, those who are oppressed by the awareness of sin come and here experience the richness of God's mercy and his forgiveness! Here the tears of the Mother guide them.
They are tears of pain for those who refuse the love of God, for families broken up or in difficulty, for the youth threatened by the consumer civilization and often disoriented, for the violence that still flows so much blood, for the misunderstandings and hatreds that they dig deep ditches between men and peoples. They are tears of prayer: prayer of the Mother who gives strength to every other prayer, and also begs for those who do not pray because they are distracted by a thousand other interests, or because they are obstinately closed to the call of God. They are tears of hope, which dissolve hardness hearts and open them to the encounter with Christ the Redeemer, source of light and peace for individuals, families, the whole of society ».
THE MESSAGE
"Will men understand the arcane language of these tears?" Asked Pope Pius XII, in the Radio Message of 1954. Maria in Syracuse did not speak as to Catherine Labouré in Paris (1830), as in Maximin and Melania in La Salette ( 1846), as in Bernadette in Lourdes (1858), as in Francesco, Jacinta and Lucia in Fatima (1917), as in Mariette in Banneux (1933). Tears are the last word, when there are no more words. Mary's tears are the sign of motherly love and of the participation of the Mother in the events of her children. Those who love share. Tears are an expression of God's feelings towards us: a message from God to humanity. The pressing invitation to the conversion of the heart and to prayer, addressed to us by Mary in her apparitions, is once again confirmed through the silent but eloquent language of the tears shed in Syracuse. Maria cried from a humble plaster painting; in the heart of the city of Syracuse; in a house near an evangelical Christian church; in a very modest home inhabited by a young family; about a mother waiting for her first child with gravidic toxicosis. For us, today, all this cannot be meaningless ... From the choices made by Mary to manifest her tears, the tender message of support and encouragement from the Mother is evident: She suffers and fights together with those who suffer and struggle to defend the family value, the inviolability of life, the culture of essentiality, the sense of the Transcendent in the face of the prevailing materialism, the value of unity. Mary with her tears warns us, guides us, encourages us, consoles us
Supplication
Our Lady of Tears, we need you: the light that radiates from your eyes, the comfort that emanates from your heart, the peace of which you are Queen. Confident we entrust you with our needs: our pains because you soothe them, our bodies because you heal them, our hearts because you convert them, our souls because you guide them to safety. Deign, good Mother, to unite Your tears to ours so that Your divine Son will grant us the grace ... (to express) that we ask you with such ardor. O Mother of Love, of Pain and Mercy,
have mercy on us.
(+ Ettore Baranzini - Archbishop)
Prayer
O Madonna delle Lacrime look with maternal goodness to the pain of the world!
It wipes away the tears of the suffering, the forgotten, the desperate, the victims of all violence. Get everyone tears of repentance and new life, which open hearts to the regenerating gift of God's love. Get everyone tears of joy
after seeing the deep tenderness of your heart. Amen
(John Paul II)
Novena to the Madonna delle Lacrime
Moved by your tears, O Mother of mercy, I come today to prostrate myself at your feet, confident for the many graces given by you, to you I come, O Mother of clemency and pity, to open your heart to you, to pour into yours Mother's heart all my pains, to unite all my tears to your holy tears; the tears of the pain of my sins and the tears of the pains that afflict me. Respect them, dear Mother, with a benign face and with merciful eyes and for the love you bring to Jesus, please console me and grant me. For your holy and innocent tears implore me from your Divine Son the forgiveness of my sins, a living and industrious faith and also the grace that I humbly ask of you ... O my Mother and my trust, in your Immaculate and Sorrowful Heart I place all my trust.
Immaculate and Sorrowful Heart of Mary, have mercy on me.
Hello Regina ...
O Mother of Jesus and our compassionate Mother, how many tears you shed on the painful journey of your life! You, who are Mother, well understand the anguish of my heart that pushes me to resort to your Motherly Heart with the confidence of a child, although unworthy of your mercies. Your heart full of mercy has opened up to us a new source of grace in these times of so many miseries. From the depths of my misery I cry to you, good Mother, I appeal to you, O merciful Mother, and upon my painful heart I invoke the balm comforting your tears and your graces. Your maternal crying makes me hope that you will kindly grant me. Imagine me from Jesus, or Sorrowful Heart, the fortress with which you endured the great pains of your life so that I always do, even in pain, the will of the Father. Obtain for me, Mother, to grow in hope and, if it is in conformity with the will of God, obtain for me, for your Immaculate Tears, the grace that with so much faith and with lively hope I humbly ask ... O Our Lady of Tears, life, sweetness, my hope , I put all my hope in you today and forever.
Immaculate and Sorrowful Heart of Mary, have mercy on me.
Hello Regina ...
O Mediatrix of all graces, o health of the sick, or consoler of the afflicted, o sweet and sad Madonnina of Tears, do not leave your son alone in his pain, but as a benign Mother you will come to meet me promptly; help me, assist me. Accept the moans of my heart and mercifully wipe away the tears that line my face. For the tears of pity with which you welcomed your dead Son at the foot of the Cross in your mother's womb, welcome me too, your poor son, and obtain me, with divine grace, to love God and brothers more and more. For your precious tears, obtain me, or most amiable Madonna of Tears, also the grace that I ardently desire and with loving insistence I confidently ask you ... O Madonnina of Syracuse, Mother of love and pain, to your Immaculate and Sorrowful Heart I entrust myself; welcome me, keep me and obtain salvation for me.
Immaculate and Sorrowful Heart of Mary, have mercy on me.
Hello Regina ...
(This prayer is to be recited for nine consecutive days)