Posted on 02/25/2010 5:08:49 AM PST by Born Conservative
When Mary Louise Salerno saw Jesus Christ in a bucket of pizza sauce, her instinct was not to alert the media or even to tell many friends.
She did not want people descending on her family's West Scranton pizzeria, and she did not want to invite critics or doubters of what she felt was a clear sign.
"To us, it was something special," Ms. Salerno, 65, of Old Forge said. "God smiled on us that day."
The image of Jesus has a history of unexpected appearances, from rocks and windows to medical X-rays and a tortilla. Add to that a sauce bucket at Brownie's Famous Pizzeria, a long-standing eatery on Luzerne Street. It happened on the first Friday of Lent.
Ms. Salerno was at Brownie's and talking with her granddaughter, 23-year-old Jackie Krouchick, while she made a pizza. Her granddaughter is a single mother who she said is struggling through tough times. Ms. Krouchick told her grandmother she worried she was losing her faith.
As Ms. Salerno poured tomato sauce from a white plastic bucket, she urged her granddaughter to keep believing. That is when she saw it, the image of a man with long hair and a beard in the leftover sauce.
Bill Salerno, the owner of Brownie's and brother of Ms. Salerno, said he was skeptical until he saw it for himself. Maryann Marsico, who works at Brownie's, said even an atheist would find it unmistakable.
"My 2-year-old grandson knows who it was. ... He just looked at it and said, 'That's Papa Jesus,' " Ms. Marsico said.
It was not lost on Ms. Marsico that Jesus appeared at Brownie's at the start of Lent, a holy Christian time that also happens to spur pizza sales because observers are not supposed to eat meat on Fridays.
"I will never cheat and eat meat again," she said.
The bucket was placed in a cooler for a while, and a family friend insisted on taking a video of the image, which was posted on YouTube. On Wednesday, though, Brownie's washed the bucket out with Ms. Salerno's permission.
The message had been delivered, she said, and she did not want the image of her Lord "just sitting there in a pizza place."
Mr. Salerno, 55 and also from Old Forge, said he is not a churchgoing man but he is religious, and seeing Jesus on that pizza sauce bucket was all the proof he needs.
"Jesus is everywhere, even in a little pizzeria in West Side," he said.
Pizza sauce Jesus has to be the epitome of something.
I’m just not sure what.
more of a combo of John Lennon and Leonardo Da Vinci
Imagine there's no pizza...
Most of the pizzerias I’ve been to over the last ten years have a Jesus working for them.
fruad=fraud
Gee, I have always wondered what Jesus looked like. I have never seen a photo of him.
I believe in Dipping sauce jesus.
That pizza sause Jesus looks like he is in suit and tie.
I prefer the old Prince Albert In A Can gag....
What about Fr. Guido Sarducci’s “Find a the Pope, in a the pizza” contest?
Jesus could transform two fish into a thousand anchovy pizzas.
“You stole my Jesus pizza!”
I wonder if the owner believes it’s a pizza from the minute you put your fist in the dough?
So he’s being called to give up pizza for lent?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.