Our Lady of Miracles invites you to come to the Virtual Marian Shrine of Good News Ministries. Entrust your prayers to Jesus through the loving partnership of Mary, our Blessed Mother. Use this video and the music in it as a background for your Christian meditations while you watch the candle burn down. View if in full-screen mode. This can be your virtual sacred space to return to day after day.
The songs “Hail Mary” and “Magnificat” were written and performed by Elyse O’Kane from her CD “With All My Heart” (please visit elyseokanemusic.com); used by permission.
The symbols on our shrine:
The bugle in our Marian Shrine was in our original logo. It symbolizes “proclaiming the Good News”. In the Book of Revelation, the trumpet blast is used to call together the believers, and a trumpet-like voice represents the voice of Jesus. Good News Ministries of Tampa Bay was founded in 1995 to teach Catholic believers to evangelize by imitating Christ and being his outreach of love and his voice inviting others to conversion and holiness. The bugle in our shrine was donated to us by our first chaplain, Father Edward Nichols; it had belonged to his grandfather when he fought for the freedom of slaves in the US Civil War.
The alabaster jar represents the gifts we give to Jesus. Mark 14:3-9 and Luke 7:36-50 show us the passion of a woman who anointed Jesus with perfume from her alabaster jar. The significance of this is written in the WordByte “Your Alabaster Jar of Love for Jesus“.
The roses in our Marian Shrine remind us of the power of meditating on the mysteries of the Christian faith while praying the Rosary as we unite our intercessions to the care of the Blessed Mother Mary.
The statue of Mary was donated for our Marian Shrine by Laura Rojas and made by artist Alicia Varela in Caracas, Venezuela. The artist named it “Virgin of Miracles”. According to Laura, Mary herself chose this particular image to represent her presence in our new office: “When I read your letter on the same morning that I received this statue, in which you mentioned that you wanted an image of the Virgin Mary, I immediately knew in my heart that she would be yours!” You can see this on our holy card, with “A Prayer to the Virgin of Miracles”.
The white lily is recognized in scriptures for its beauty and fragrance. It’s often used to designate royal dignity, the beauty of wisdom, and spousal union. It’s easy to see why the lily has been attributed to Mary. Sometimes she is compared to the lily. Other times, she holds a lily in her hand or is depicted in a field of lilies. Early in the development of Good News Ministries of Tampa Bay, we smelled lilies, where none were visible, while praying the Rosary. See the fully story here.
The blue butterfly represents the new spiritual growth that we provide to countless people through the various works of Good News Ministries, as they are transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The figurine of the child in the hand reminds us that we are God’s children and he holds us securely in the palm of his hand. It comes from Isaiah 49:16 (“I have engraved you on the palm of my hands”) and the interpretation of this in the popular song, “On Eagle’s Wings” (“And He will raise you up on eagle’s wings,/ Bear you on the breath of dawn,/ Make you to shine like the sun,/ And hold you in the palm of His hand”). This theme keeps us going when trials get difficult.
The wooden statue of Jesus holding a lamb comes from Jerusalem. GNM’s Executive Director, Terry Modica, brought it home from her 1998 pilgrimage, because it reminds us that Jesus takes tender care of us who are submissive lambs in his flock. It’s also an image of conversion: Shepherds tie the legs together on lambs that want to stray. Unable to go anywhere, these lambs are carried by the shepherds until they learn to recognize the shepherd’s voice and want to forever remain close.
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Just beautiful. Hope you don’t mind if I use the video to pray my four Rosaries daily.
Oh please do use this video that way, Ed! This is one of the purposes this video was designed for.