Crying Virgin Mary's and Is God Throwing Stones?

or Where Lisa Renee takes on the heavy issue of miracles, faith and the Constituition.

In California: Vietnamese Catholic Martyrs Church Parishoners first noticed the tears of blood on Wednesday. But fearing they were put there by pranksters, a priest here wiped the statue clean, only to have those tears return over the weekend.

The church has now contacted the Catholic Diocese in hopes an investigation will be launched. Many are so convinced it's real, they weep.

In Washington: A chunk of Vermont marble was part of the dentil molding that serves as a frame for nine sculptural figures completed in 1935. The piece that fell was over the figure of Authority, near the peak of the building's pediment, and to the right of the figure of Liberty, who has the scales of justice on her lap.

While I am a Catholic and I'm not sure I believe in the possibility of miracles; but perhaps God could be sending "messages"; I'll first focus on the Supreme Court Building. They are doing constrution on the building so it's pretty likely that is what led to the piece of marble becoming lose then falling.

Now on to the Crying Virgin Mary. There have been numerous reports of Paintings and Statues of the Virgin Mary crying thru out the history of the Catholic Church. Anyone who has ever watched the movie Stigmata has seen an exaggerated view of part of this issue.

Most of the time, an investigation is called, as in the Austrailian Virgin Mary Statue that was reported as weeping:

An investigation by the Catholic Archdiocese of Perth into the phenomenon last year failed to establish the source of the tears. Announcing the results in February, Archbishop Barry Hickey said he could not conclude safely that the substance was of divine origin.Scientists identified it as olive oil mixed with globules of rose oil.Archbishop Hickey declined to comment further on the phenomenon this week, saying only that it was a "private matter".Although almost 350ml of the liquid was collected from the statue in the fortnight before the investigation began, it did not produce any tears while under observation by the investigating commission.Under Archbishop Hickey's orders, the statue cannot be displayed in church property in the archdiocese.

There have been statues who have had tears that appeared to be blood and were tested as human blood as well as oil, and other substances. Only a very few have been "authenticated" over the years. Many times the statues are owned by private owners who only allow a certain amount of testing so that the real cause if there was one is never found.

More importantly though is whether hoax or real the response created by these events. One of the most difficult things about religion, any religion, is having faith. How many of us that believe have not asked God at one point in time for a sign that he is really listening to us? Even though we are told to trust in that faith, we still would like a sign, proof, something that shows that God really exists. The desire to see a miracle, stems from wanting the security of knowing, having proof.

Yet? That is what faith is all about, since there is a website for just about everything, there is even one for those who are facing a Faith Crisis. In taking a quick look around the site it does make a point that I believe in. The matter of free will. While I'd like to believe God is sitting up there ready to jump in to help me when things get bad, I know that doesn't happen. At best you can hope for guidance, because if you truly believe God gave us free will he's not going to come in and rescue us. As a Lisa summary of the Bible, God reached a point as we do with our own children where he said "Well there you go, I gave you what you need to deal with life. I love you, now do something with your life." I imagine him sitting up in heaven at times probably wishing he had never made the promise to Noah that he wasn't going to interfere and shaking his head at what a mess some of us have made of this planet and our lives. That's why I am skeptical about "miracles" because it interferes with the concept of free will. It also raises alot of questions that are in direct contradiction with free will. If God makes a statue cry why not save children from suffering? (You see where I could head with that.)

I understand some of you don't believe what I do, and some of you don't believe in God at all. To me that is the beauty of faith, you don't have to. No one should be forced to believe and no one should be forced not to believe. That is what I feel our Founding Fathers gave us in the Constitution. If you want to worship God? Go for it. If you don't? That's fine too. That's perhaps one area especially where the Founding Fathers had to much "faith" in us. They assumed we would respect each other and forgot it's a part of human nature to want to be "right".

As what could be considered a slightly ironic moment...open trackbacked at Those Bastards Who have an interesting post by "Father Guido Sarducci"...