Greetings in that Divine and Most Precious Name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
I must have seen Our Lady of Guadalupe 100 times as a kid walking around in the neighborhood woods (mostly around neighbor's yards).
Before we hop on this too hard an hack it to bits, though, if just one of these people turns to the Lord, is it not possible that they see an icon of the Mother of God there? The guy who cut the tree limb was not trying to be an iconographer, but if the most humble and unintentional icon brings one to faith--have we no mercy? May the Lord move them to His Faith.
Hack me to bits instead of hacking these people to bits. Whether it is OLO Guadalupe or not, I have no doubt that the Theotokos has not chosen this tree as the only place where she will not give intercession to those inclined to the Lord.
"..These are Her mountains and skies that she radiates, and through history's rivers of blood she regenerates, and like the Sun disappears only to reappear, she is eternally near.."
Thank you father! Sometimes folks get so caught up in their stone throwing, the forget they are hurting the very innocent and sincere people who may be flocking towards this tree to experience Our Lady. I experience Our Lady all the time, I wouldn't discount one person's experience over another! There are billions of trees in the world to be sure, and millions more in New York City, and yet for whatever reason folks seem to be experience the Virgin at this one, why should we so cynical? Instead, shouldn't we say Glory be to God that folks are soul-searching in the first place? In all reality, this tree incident is no more or less reasonable or sensible than any Orthodox Icon streaming myrrh, the difference is a sense of cultural bias and chauvenism which permeates this thread suggesting that one appiration of the Virgin is more legitimate or truer than another, when in all actually, all are equally matters of faith. As I said before, Our Lady is free to appear to whomever and however She wants too
stay blessed,
habte selassie
