Happy feast of the Mother of Good Counsel! This is my favorite title of the Blessed Mother and it is under her patronage by this title that I have frequent recourse. I grew up in a parish named after her and I think the impact of the image of Good Counsel high above the original high altar always moved me to greater devotion to the Blessed Mother.
The original of the miraculous “flying icon” and still my favorite.
If you are unfamiliar with the story behind this feast, watch the video below. There is also a wonderful connection between Good Counsel and St. Rita of Cascia as it is the Augustinians who have been responsible for promoting the devotion throughout the centuries.
Many of you may have noted that I grew up in Newark, NJ and that my home parish all that time was the magnificent neo-Gothic Our Lady of Good Counsel parish.
Today, April 26th, is the traditional feast day of Our Lady of Good Counsel this is one of those that appears in the hand missal under “Feasts celebrated in certain places” (or something to that effect… I don’t have my missal handy as I write this). I would like to share a link to the story of this miraculous image of the Blessed Mother and entreat everyone to consider asking the Fairest of our Race to intercede for us all under this title.
Although I have not seen the image with my own eyes, a priest who did once showed me a beautiful picture he snapped of it. He described the free-standing fresco as being thinner than a sheet of paper. I am captivated by this story.
Our Lady of Good Counsel, Newark, NJ
Even more so, though, I am captivated by the idea of the Seat of Wisdom offering to us her loving counsel. How often in life – especially in these last years – do we have need of her advice? How often do we have recourse to the love shared between Mother and Son as He Himself clings to her neck in absolute trust? How much more, going forward, will we need to cast ourselves before the two of Them and pray that for that counsel?
Non Veni Pacem posted a beautiful reflection today on our need for devotion to St. Joseph. I wholeheartedly concur. I have often wondered why, in the past few years, I have felt Our Lord calling me to increase in devotion to Joseph. I had never had a particular devotion to the Most Chaste Spouse but now I am drawing closer to him. It is obvious to me now that I must be totally and truly devoted to the three. If Satan wants to destroy the family, I must strive as hard as I can to imitate the Holy Family – Blessed Mother of Good Counsel, St. Joseph the strong protector to whom God became subject, and of course Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe!
Lord Jesus, Son of Mary, foster-son of Joseph, have mercy on us!
Folks, I got off all that social media nonsense a while ago. Sorry but I'm not on Twitbook, Facepalm, YouHu, WingWang or any of the others. Maybe an event will happen to make me change my mind like Peter and Paul coming down with flaming swords and commanding it be so. Until then, read the blog and if you feel a comment is in order or you feel like sharing a tip or suggestion for a topic, email me at harvey@harveymillican.com.
Harvey Millican's Blog: Musings of a Trad Dad 