Our Lady Mother of Good Counsel
May 27, 2025
Hello! How is each and every one? Gee! Guess what? After I finished putting together today’s post on work, I did my prayer, my quiet moments with Our Lord. I was inspired to do otherwise. Instead this topic on Our Lady is more fitting given that we still have at least four days of the month of May dedicated to her to do something special for her. And the one I just finished can wait until next week. That one would be more appropriate for next month.
I thought I would never have a chance to do a pilgrimage to Our Lady this month but last Saturday, May 24, 2025, I had the inspiration to do one since I had the means to do so. I messaged three of my friends hoping at least one of them would have the time to come with me. The first one, a second year nursing student of The University of the Philippines, Manila accepted the invitation and so we went to Our Lady, Mother of Good Counsel Church, Marcelo Green Village, Parañaque.
I found
inspiration in the Holy Father Pope Leo XIV’s devotion to Our Lady. I thought I would go to her to unite my
prayers for the Holy Father’s person and intentions. I chanced by EWTN live streaming of the visit
of Pope Leo to Our Lady Mother of Good Counsel on the second day of his
election. Following is an article from Catholic News Agency on her and Pope
Leo’s devotion to her.
Our Lady
of Good Counsel: All about this devotion and Pope Leo XIV’s connection to it
By Jonah McKeown
CNA, 2025-05-23
Pope Leo XIV, the first pope to come from the Order
of St. Augustine (OSA), made
a visit very early in his pontificate to the Shrine of the Mother of Good
Counsel in Genazzano, Italy, near Rome. It houses a famous image of the Virgin
Mary that according to tradition appeared there under miraculous circumstances.
Known by the title “Our
Lady of Good Counsel” or
“Mother of Good Counsel,” the small image of the Virgin Mary housed in the
church at Genazzano has been held dear by the Augustinians for centuries. The
Midwest Augustinians, which Pope Leo led as prior provincial before his
election, oversee the Province
of Our Mother of Good Counsel.
During his May 10 visit to the church, Leo spoke of the Virgin Mary’s
protection and the importance of devotion to her. He prayed at the altar and
before the Marian image there, and also prayed a prayer to the Mother of Good
Counsel with the assembly.
“As the mother never abandons her children, you must also be
faithful to the Mother,” Pope Leo said.
Pope Leo XIV speaks in front of the famous
icon at the Shrine of the Mother of Good Counsel in Genazzano, Italy, on
Saturday, May 10, 2025. Credit: Vatican Media
Who is Our Lady of Good Counsel?
The title of “Good Counsel” given to Mary is a recognition
of Christ’s mother as a source of heavenly wisdom and guidance.
According to tradition, on April 25, 1467, the feast of
St. Mark, a mysterious cloud descended on an ancient fifth-century deteriorated
church in Genazzano, which had previously been dedicated to Our Lady of Good
Counsel and was being renovated by the Augustinians, having been entrusted to
that order in 1356.
When the cloud disappeared, a fragile image of the Blessed
Virgin and Child was found on a thin sheet of plaster. The painting, about 18
inches square, is said to have hung in midair, suspended without support.
The
icon of Our Lady of Good Counsel. Credit: Vaticano/EWTN
It was widely believed that the image — said to date to the
time of the apostles — had been miraculously transported to Italy from a church
in Albania’s capital city, Scutari, just before its invasion by the Ottomans
that same year. As the Midwest Augustinians tell
it, however,
scientific tests done in the 1950s gave evidence that the small image was
probably painted sometime between 1417 and 1431 for the church and was painted
over before later being uncovered when a poor widow gave all she had to fund
the renovation of the church.
Regardless of how it arrived, in the months following the
appearance of the image, a local priest acting as a notary recorded over 160
miracles, including physical healings, answered prayers, and dramatic
conversions.
Much of the church of Our Lady of Good Counsel was destroyed
during World War II, but the image remained intact and in place. Today it is
housed in a small chapel that forms the heart of the church.
As described by EWTN Vatican, the Virgin
Mary is depicted wearing a blue mantle — symbolizing humanity — while the child
Jesus wears a red robe, signifying his divinity. Mary’s face reflects the
classical artistic tradition, while the child displays features of the
Byzantine style, symbolizing a union between East and West. Above them arches a
rainbow, the biblical sign of peace.
Over the years, a large number of popes — including saintly
popes — have visited the church in Genazzano seeking Mary’s guidance and
wisdom, and have promoted devotion to Our Lady under this title.
Pope Urban VII (1521–1590) prayed for the end of a plague in
Rome; Pope Pius IX sought the Virgin’s intercession before the First Vatican
Council, which began in 1869.
Leo XIII, Leo XIV’s spiritual predecessor and a devotee to
Our Lady of Good Counsel, added the invocation “Mater boni concili, ora pronobis” (“Mother of Good Counsel, pray
for us”) to the Litany
of Loreto in
1903. Leo XIII also approved the white scapular of Our Lady
of Good Counsel and entrusted it to the Augustinians.
In more recent times, St. John XXIII came to the shrine to,
in similar fashion to Pius IX, seek guidance for the Second Vatican Council.
St. John Paul II endorsed the devotion during an April
22, 1993, visit to
the church, and soon afterward consecrated Albania to Our Lady of Good
Counsel. Pope Benedict XVI had an image of the icon placed in the Vatican
Gardens in 2009.
Many pilgrims visit the church in Genazzano and take part in
the annual spring celebration, observed on April 25. Elsewhere in the world,
the feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel is celebrated on April 26.
Then the next day, Sunday, May 25, 2025, I was urged
to do another pilgrimage to another Church dedicated to her. I chanced by it while I searched for a Church
in her honor. This time was to Mother of
Good Counsel Church in San Pedro, Laguna.
I messaged two friends and the first one said she just arrived from a
pilgrimage in Tagaytay with some ladies.
The second one was so excited to come with me since we have been
planning to see each other but never got to do so.
I might
still have a chance to do a third pilgrimage on the last day of the month, Feast
of The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It could be to her Shrine, The
Visitation of Our Lady Parish in the Diocese of Novaliches, Quezon City. If she
wills it, it will be done. Let’s see. Wherever
it happens to be you can be assured I will bring all of you with me to her in
spirit and intention.
May you and I cultivate and nurture an intimate and loving relationship with Mary, Mother of God, Mother of the Church and our mother as well. Let each one of us find ways and means to show her our personal love and affection at least in the same way you and I show our love and affection in many little details towards our own biological mothers. Remember our Lady was chosen among us from all eternity and was conceived without sin, pure and full of grace by Our Lord Himself to bear His only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. She is “the daughter of God the Father, mother of God the Son and spouse of the God the Holy Spirit, greater than she no one but God.” And she always remembers to talk well of each one of us to God the Father, to her Son Jesus and to God the Holy Spirit.
Once again as always I remind you and myself to make sure we talk to God about Mary, our mother in the silence of our prayer moments. And to listen intently to what He tells each one of us to do for His greater glory, the good of others and for our own good and happiness.
See you in the next post, “May tomorrow be a perfect day; may
you find love and laughter along the way; may God keep you in his tender care;
‘til He brings us together again.”
Affectionately,
Guadalupinky
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