MUSLIM YOUTH PLACES TWO ROSES FOR OUR LADY AT PIAZZA SPAGNA

I was there at Piazza Spagna at about 8 p.m, about an hour back.The crowds had gone.The Holy Father must have been there early in the evening.

I had meant to be there but I forgot all about it. The Holy Father was there to place the wreath at the top of the column.At that time I was at the computer typing the Medugorje report for this blog.

 

At the base of the column which carries high on top the statue of Our Lady, there were wreaths placed by different organisations, municipal and religious.

There was a Muslim youth one of the many Bangladeshis who sell flowers in that area, who gave two roses, a white and red, to an elderly Italian woman and gestured to her to place it at the foot of the column.No words were said but when the elderly woman had moved a few steps forward with the roses and turned around to confirm if he really meant that she should place the roses there,he gestured yes.So she went ahead and he stood watching silently.

Our Lady is special for Muslims too.I once asked a Muslim acquaintance in Rome, who had a Quran, to read me the Sura e Mariam.It was beautiful listening to the reference to Our Lady in a series of passages dedicated only to her.He was referring in his holy book, to my Virgin Mary, my Mother of God, my Mother.

At Medugorje Our Lady says we are all her children, Muslims, Orthodox Christians.....and it is we humans who have made the differences. She also says that if we only knew how much she loved us - we would cry for joy.

This youth and so many Muslims at Our Lady's shrines in the East have transcended the differences.And this is how it should be. Today hundreds of thousands of Muslims and other non Catholics will be there at Our Lady's shrines in the East and there number will be more than the pilgrims at Lourdes and Fatima.Love for Our Lady and Jesus transcends differences- though differences must be there, because of the nature of life and the supernatural realities.

That little gesture at the human level says so much.It's something I have noticed in other Muslims here, too.It's the sense of the sacred and love and respect for Jesus and Our Lady transcending the pain, differences and difficulties, especially for those living in a foreign environment like Rome.

-Lionel Andrades

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo from Il Messaggero,Rome. Dec.8,2012