Italian Statue "Weeps Blood"

Riiiight, I guess God has kicked it down a few notches since then. Alleged bleeding statues in some backwater witnessed by people who see God's image in their own dryer lint seems like a far cry from the resurrection.

The events you listed were used to establish the whole God / Son of God premise. Most people with a literal belief in the Bible believe that these events happened exactly as written. My opinion is that if you really believe the big events like these then you don't need a bleeding statue for it all to make sense.

Compare:

You accept the idea of Lazarus rising from the dead at the hand of Jesus - you become a believer.

You witness the statue of St. Lenny the Flatulent sweating profusely - you adjust the air conditioner.

Riiiight, I guess God has kicked it down a few notches "since then. "

Is it beneath God to kick it down a few notches? If you don't like my list, I'm sure we could find a bible banger to rattle off a few other instances of God revealing himself to others. And maybe that is the point. God continues reveals himself to non-believers. To those who already believe, you are right, they don't need more signs unless they dispair. But if some come to the statue and they see and they believe, then how can it be a bad thing?

But if some come to the statue and they see and they believe, then how can it be a bad thing?

That is my point. It's not a bad thing. I'm just amazed that it takes something like that to inspire faith. It's just comes across like another circus tent faith healer routine. I feel that there are more tangible indications of God/spirituality in everyday life.

I don't get the thought process either - a religious statue appears to bleed - therefore God must be giving me proof of his existence and I must follow Him. It just doesn't make much sense. Some may come to this conclusion after exhaustive analysis of the statue , the blood, and the environment but the knee-jerk reaction is a little bit too much for me.

I'm not a zealot, I rarely attend organized religious services but I believe that there are so many aspects of our existence that would lead the majority to some form of spirituality. Not because they are ignorant but because it is a reasoned conclusion.

Hey, don't you people follow the news -- it was about February 25 or so that it was announced Padre Pio was going to be made a saint on June 16.

This is bigger news in Italy than the bleeding statue -- as Padre Pio's canonization is expected to draw one of the largest crowds ever to the Vatican.

There is the famous story -- documented in more than one book that when the United States tried to bomb the town he lived in Italy during World War II, he appeared in the clouds.

One account I read was that a General leading the flight thought that seeing a monk in the clouds on a mission to bomb a monastery was a good sign not to bomb the monastery. He called off the mission. He later visited San Gioviani Rotundo, and when he went to Mass, he identified Padre Pio as the Monk in the clouds waving his planes off.

In a different account, the bomb release jammed even though they made two passes at bombing the town. But in this account, not only did a monk appear in the clouds but a woman holding a child as well as a man with a bloody sword.

Airmen who saw this later identified the monk as Padre Pio, and the woman and child a as the statue of Mary and the infant Jesus in the church at the monastery of Padre Pio.

As for the man with a sword dripping blood? A few miles from Padre Pio's monastery is a sanctuary dedicated to the Archangel St Michael (my patron saint). The airmen identified the statue of St Michael as the other "man holding the sword".

And many of the miracles when Padre Pio was alive was far greater than any statue crying blood...

But Padre Pio when he was alive gave an indication as to why he might be crying blood from a statue.

After World War II, he feared the coming time because of the evil coming into the world. However, I would have to dig to find that reference -- as I can't remember which book on Padre Pio I read that in...

I've tried to find the story on the internet but all I can find is a couple of short references to non-working links at the Dallas Morning News.

It happened in 1995, and ss I recall, devotees "fed" the statue offerings of milk with a spoon, and there was a porous area in the statue's mouth that soaked up the milk into the statute's head and other porous areas in the corners of each eye that "cried" it back out again. Thus the statue could not only "cry" milk, but could "drink" it, too.

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.