"Or what have I seen! Or that I have seen! We will go, We will go!".
-Maria Lorenza Longo
"Mrs. Longo, noble and great character in Spain (...) who having been disabled for many years, she was led to the Church of Loreto all the way from Naples, and upon entering the Holy Chapel she asked her son-in-law that accompanied her, to arrange with the sacristan a Mass with the prayers of Pentecost, which begin: repleatur os meum laude, and include the reading of the Gospel that contains the miracle of the paralytic registered in chapter 5 of Saint Luke. At the moment when this woman gave that order to her son-in-law, a priest dressed for the mass came up and went up to the altar, and with him was Messer Domenico Diotiauti del Montecassano, then a clergyman, who still lives today and he is a canon and custodian of that house. When she saw the priest, she told her son-in-law to forget the request to the sacristan, and asked him to accompany her to listen to the Mass of that priest; who after starting with the rituals and going up to the altar, began the introit -repleatur-. She, recognizing this introit, says to the son-in-law: ‘Oh, praised God, this is precisely the mass I wanted! ’ And immediately, when the priest read the Gospel, where he says -ait paralytic: tibi surge - having pronounced those words, the woman began to feel as if a hand passed through all her bound and damaged limbs and returned and restored her health. And having felt so strongly that vigor and strength returning to her, she began to cry and ask God for mercy out loud for her sins with great faith and tenderness of heart. And after praising God, she was healed and with her own steps, without help from anyone, she went to her place ".
THE MIRACLE IN THE HOUSE OF LORETO
THE MOMENT OF FAITH
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The spiritual experience of the saints is always accompanied by the Mother of God and helped by her particular prodigious interventions. In 1509 Maria Lorenza, with great faith, approached the sanctuary of Loreto in the house of the Annunciation. Her pilgrimage, despite thousands of difficulties, led her to get the courage, the intense faith, and a determined act of prayer.
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The desire of Maria Lorenza was that of asking for the grace of healing. Her evangelical reference was the episode of the Paralytic: the object of her prayerful meditation.
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The divine intervention was seen through the faith of Maria Lorenza. In that small house in Loreto, the song of joy was renewed. In fact, in that abode of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Maria Lorenza exulted in the joy of the Divine Holy Spirit and she found the strength to stand physically and get spiritually ready for a new path.
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This spiritual path shows how the virtue of faith was immediately authenticated by the exercise of the virtue of charity and hope. The prodigious healing found her ready to thank God, and she made a special "vow of charity towards the sick" with the hope that God would help her in all ways to achieve her goal in the Neapolitan land.
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Author: Don Carlo Magna