In 1754, an event took place in Colombia that continues to baffle geologists and other scientists.  This event was the miraculous appearance of the image of Our Lady of Las Lajas (Our Lady of the Rocks)

Have you heard of it?  Most Catholics outside of Columbia are completely unaware of its existence.  To be honest, I had never heard of it either until a few years ago.  I came across the story of this incredible image while doing research for my book   Champions of the Rosary:  The History and Heroes of a Spiritual Weapon  (http://fathercalloway.com/books-and-gifts/champions-rosary-history-and-heroes-spiritual-weapon

All my friends know that I absolutely love leading pilgrimages.  http://www.pilgrimages.com/frcalloway/

In fact several times a year I lead pilgrimages to such places as Rome, Lourdes, Fatima, Guadalupe, Poland, and the Holy Land.  One place I’ve never been on pilgrimage is Colombia.  But after I learned about the miraculous image of Our Lady of Las Lajas, making a pilgrimage to Colombia is now on my bucket list.  It might become a bucket list destination for you, too.  Here’s why:

As the story goes, one day a woman named Maria Mueses de Quinones was walking with her deaf and mute daughter, Rosa, through a very treacherous and rocky area on their way home from a nearby village.  When a storm broke out, Maria and her daughter took shelter in the rocky cliffs of a canyon.  All of a sudden, little Rosa spoke for the first time, declaring that she saw a beautiful woman who was calling her.

Maria did not see or hear the woman, but was amazed that her daughter could now speak.

A few days later, Rosa disappeared from the village.  Her mother instinctively knew to return to  the rocky canyon where she would find her little girl.  Incredibly, when Maria went to the rocks, she found Rosa playing with a little child whose mother stood nearby.

It was an apparition of the Virgin Mary and the child Jesus.  Maria and her daughter decided to keep this event secret, but would frequently return to the rocks to pray and ask Our Lady for her permission.

After a few months, little Rosa suddenly fell ill and died.  Distraught, Maria took her deceased daughter to the rocks to ask Our Lady to intercede with her Divine Son to bring Rosa back to life.

Miraculously, Rosa came back to life!

When Maria returned to the village and the people saw that Rosa was alive, their interest was piqued about this place where little Rosa had miraculously recovered her speech and even come back from death.

The villagers followed Maria and Rosa to the rocks to see the place themselves.  While they were there, someone noticed a beautiful image of Our Lady on the rocks.  Neither Maria  nor Rosa had seen the image there before.  No one knew who had painted it or where it had come from.  In the beautiful image, Our Lady is holding the Child Jesus and handing St. dominic a rosary;  the Child  Jesus is extending a friar’s cord to St. Francis of Assisi.

After extensive investigations, civil authorities and scientists determined that the scene was not a painting at all.  The image is miraculously part of the rock itself!

Geologists have since bored core samples from several places in the rock and discovered that there is no paint, dye, or pigment on the surface of the rock.   The colors of the miraculous image are the colors of the rock itself and extend several feet deep inside the rock! The only man made aspects of the miraculous image are the crowns above the heads of Jesus and Mary that were later added by local devotees.  For more than two centuries, the location has been a place of pilgrimage and devotion.  In 1951, the Church authorized devotion to Our Lady under the title of “Our Lady of Las Lajas” and the church built around the image has been declared a minor basilica.

Isn’t this amazing!  The entire Catholic world knows about the miraculous tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe, but hardly anyone outside of Latin America knows about the incredible –  image of Our Lady of las Lajas.

Whether or not I will ever make it to Colombia to see this incredible image remains unseen, but if you ever find yourself in Colombia be sure to visit this holy shrine.  The basilica itself looks like something out of Lord of the Rings!

Our Lady of Las Lajas, pray for us!

By Father Donald Calloway, MIC                                                                                                           Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC , has been a priest for 15 years and currently serves as Vicar Provincial and Vocation Director for the Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception.  He is the author of eleven books, a popular speaker at conferences, and frequently leads pilgrimages to Marian shrines around the world.

To find out more about his books and pilgrimages, go to    http://www.fathercalloway.com

Messages from Heaven to a holy,  elderly Carmelite Nun,  faithful to her Carmelite vows, known to me, whom I shall call Sister John Francis.  I publish from her handwriting …

Our Lady’s Christmas Message 1966          “I am Our Lady of the Immaculate Heart.”  

” I see that My people have become wiser and they are no longer concerned with their own unwise ways. Others seek their own ways in the darkness of satan  I am Mary, the Mother of God.  I warn you, all my children … I was able to hold back the avenging angels from moving  since 1960  Now must I see them moving over the earth in this program of destruction which shall cause fear to all hearts.?”

Pope St. Pius X Appears radiating God’s Light to Man                                                               “Out of darkness I saw a figure seated on a chair.  He alone was in sight.  All around him was darkness.  The figure I saw was Pius X.  There was not doubt of it.”

I heard the voice say (about Pius X)  ‘ ” He radiated God’s light to men for his soul was in the Light of His God ‘ ”

“I next saw a series of churchmen.  They came one after another and they were in various degrees of light.  Our Blessed Lord used these churchmen to show how his light was leaving the Church over a long period of time as these churchment forgot the mission they were sent for … to bring forth souls to God.”

“While these church men were in their various stages of light running to lesser light … I saw the features of some people who were in this darkness.  They would move like a circle around until they were overshadowed by these churchmen.  Some were of light, some of darkness … these churchmen.”

“Then I saw the agonizing face of our Blessed Lord, just His face;  it was bruised and it’s look would cause a stone to break”

“Then I saw Him at the scourging.  This was hard to look upon.  It faded away when I saw other scenes of our Blessed Lord that passed too rapidly to concentrate on. ”

Jesus:  “It shall take another hundred years to purify it and make it once more a Holy Church, a Catholic Church, whose identifying mark shall once more be that it is Holy unto its’ God because my light has returned to it. ”

Despite this darkness of my Church, you children have won  (1966 ) a victory for my Holy Mother.  My Father can no longer say no to your love for my Mother.  It is too overwhelming.  He gives to My Mother more time.  He shall allow Her way of love to prevail.  I want now only to see you spread my Mother’s love over the earth.  My Father holds back the avenging angels.  They shall no longer move.  You have now My Holy Mother.  Draw your children to My Heart as only you can, O loving Mother of your God.”

“I am Our Lady of the Immaculate  Heart.”

Serve My holy Mother in all love now that you have gained for Her such a victory from your God.”

Our Lady: “I come to the wicked world of sin, foulness … the cesspool of filth, and it matters not. I come to snatch you from your own darkness of  hearts and minds as you live lives apart from your living God.  I have come to earth to draw you to my Heart,  .and into the light of love of your loving God,

Ever since satan’s fall from grace the greatest happiness he finds is to lead souls away from God, damning them for all eternit.  His time is growing short.  I shall not let him continue to enslave my people.

The eighth prophecy spoken by your loving God is at this time reaching fulfilment.  What your loving Jesus told in 1960 of  the eighth prophecy is now unfolding on earth.

And this shall be a sign spoke the Lord jesus;

“There shall unfold ten prophesies before the third world war shall be upon  your day.”  No nation shall emerge victorious.

The words of Our Lady of LaSalette, and so many other apparitions convey the same message as those of Our Lady of the Immaculate Heart to Sister John Francis.

The calls of Her Heart resound with a battle cry, a most certain trumpet of sound from heaven to earths’ children to live their lives in the ways she has given and to resist evil.

“Who is she that comes forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in battle array?”  Song of Solomon 6:10