Spirituality & Charism

What’s Old is New Again

Editor: Proudly we announce the ninth edition of Bishop Ullathorne’s book, “The Holy Mountain of La Salette", first printed in 1854 and now available in a print-on-demand version as well as for the Kindle on Amazon.com. It has been updated and expanded with many photos. This article below from 1940 described the success of the eighth edition, printed in 1936 and gives testimonies of those who found it quite convincing:

If I am any judge of books, this neatly typed, unpretentious volume here on my desk has reached an eager reading public, mostly among clergy, religious and laity. However its contents would warrant a much wider circulation. I refer to “The Holy Mountain of La Salette,” by the Most Rev. William Ullathorne, Bishop of Birmingham, England (1806-1889), where his work was first published in 1854.

The eighth and latest edition was printed in 1936 by the La Salette Press in Altamont, New York. The text of this scholarly and illustrious prelate has been left intact, for the most part, and the editors contented themselves with inserting new illustrations, and explanatory notes in the Appendix, giving the subsequent history of La Salette.

The central purpose of this book is to share the fact that, as well as can be humanly ascertained, on the 19th of September, 1846, the Blessed Virgin appeared on the mountain of La Salette, near Grenoble in Southern France, to two children, Maximin Giraud and Melanie Mathieu, and gave them an important message to be made known to all Mary’s people.

La Salette’s authenticity and the doubters

Read more What’s Old is New Again

Our Lady in Chains

History relates the tragic fate of a queen of the Orient who, in the third century of our era, ruled with splendor on the throne of Palmyra. A learned, ambitious and warlike woman, she led her troops in the conquest of Egypt and freed her people from the yoke of the Romans.

A Queen of the Orient in Golden Chains

In defiant gesture, she had golden coins struck to mark her victory and on each was stamped her profile without the customary effigy of the Emperor. Furious, Aurelian took up the challenge, marched against Palmyra, razed the city and brought the rebel queen to Rome to take part in his triumph. Wearing royal robes and a jeweled diadem, bent under a heavy necklace and shackled in golden chains, she staggered barefoot in front of the conqueror's chariot. One legend adds that the captive queen was exiled in a villa at Tivoli where, trailing her golden fetters, she died brokenhearted after a long hunger strike.

A Queen of Heaven in Chains

This portrait of a queen in disgrace stands out in vivid contrast with the vision of the Queen of Heaven as she appeared at La Salette. On the one hand, we gaze upon a pagan queen craving glory, stricken down in bitter defeat and doomed to despair and oblivion; on the other, we contemplate our Weeping Mother, the humble handmaid of the Lord, ever submissive to the designs of God and associated with her Divine Son in the Redemption of the world.

Read more Our Lady in Chains

Biblical Echoes of the Prophetic Message of La Salette

The very brief appearance of Our Lady of La Salette on September 19, 1846 and her message to the two children—and to all her people—began the modern appearances of Mary, soon followed by Lourdes (1858) and Fatima (1917). For many reasons the Apparition of La Salette has been described as “the most biblical apparition.”

In order to plumb the depths of Mary’s message, we will concentrate on level two of the outline of the levels of understanding for biblical texts; namely, level one: an understanding of the words themselves; level two: an understanding of the cultural and biblical background of the text; and level three: a personal faith-response to the text.
Isaiah predicts return of Jews from exile by Maarten van Heemskerck (1498-15-1574); photo: Geheugen van Nederland
In these following reflections, we will hopefully bring to light the prophetic roots of her challenging message. As a scripture scholar, Gerhard Von Rad, a revered specialist in the Old Testament, stated in 1965:


With the assistance of Gerhard Von Rad’s scholarly comments we will connect various parts of the La Salette message with their biblical references and prophetic qualities in order to appreciate fully Mary’s words at La Salette with their Jewish prophetic roots.

Read more Biblical Echoes of the Prophetic Message of La Salette

La Salette’s Pilgrims of Faith

The Holy Mountain of La Salette; Hartford Chapel windows, Hartford, CTLa Salette is a lofty solitude. Here our eyes and hearts are washed by the nobility and sobriety of the horizons, the naked rock and deserted pastures.

Here all pretense ends. All the futile things which encumber our lives return to naught. We find ourselves stripped of our defenses, reduced to asking ourselves what it is we came here to do. The air is rarefied, the light is crystal clear between the alpine summits and the gaping ravines. Again and again our steps are untiringly drawn to the fold in the dale where the brook, as it tumbles down, rolling of the sheets of shale.

Here the young shepherds were concerned only about their cows. In like manner, we think that the ordinary light of day suffices to inform us concerning the affairs of life. Is not the sun shining in a cloudless sky? Everything seems so beautiful and orderly on this golden autumn afternoon. But the shepherdess Melanie's sudden cry of alarm catches us unawares, as it surprised Maximin.

The globe of light appears

"Memin, Memin, come and see that light!"

"Where is it? Where is it?"

What light?

What then would there be to see that we do not know already? And if the unknown should break in on us, our fist tightens, and along with Maximin we blurt out: “Keep your stick! I will keep mine and will give it a good whack if it does anything to us.” But what can we do with a stick against a brazier of swirling light? Is there then another kind of light? And so close to us? What else can we do except to tremble with awe and astonishment. All our certainties go up in flames in the presence of this kind of phenomenon.

Read more La Salette’s Pilgrims of Faith

The Donor of the Reliquary of the La Salette Stone

Among the many beautiful and precious treasures of the basilica on the Mountain of La Salette is the Gothic gilt reliquary for the stone that the Blessed Virgin was seated upon, as she buried her head in her hands and wept, when young Maximin and Melanie first saw her.
The La Salette Stone in its ornate reliquary (archival drawing)
This ornamental repository can well be called a reliquary, in as much as the stone itself which it contains and was designed for is a true relic—indeed, the only one, along with the unfailing spring, which is left as a definite and tangible reminder of the great event of that now far away September afternoon of 1846. Like the spring water, it has proved its own authenticity by the countless miracles it has occasioned. Incidentally, it is coupled with that health-giving water through the reliquary, the history of which is as follows.

A Marvelous Journey of Faith

Among the pilgrims who journeyed up the mountain in October of the year 1848 were Madame de Perret and her fourteen year old daughter, from the city of Apt in the territory of Avignon in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. Madame de Perret for over four years had been the victim of a ring-worm infection which had steadily multiplied and spread itself until her entire body was covered with the insidious parasite. The doctors she had been treated by at length gave her up as a hopeless case, and pronounced the disease incurable.

Read more The Donor of the Reliquary of the La Salette Stone

The Holy Mountain of La Salette – A Legacy for a Needy World

Shrine site on the Holy Mountain in 1900; notice the building of side chapels along left side of the BasilicaThe pilgrimage to La Salette is, first of all, an encounter with the Weeping Mother in the hidden-away Sezia Valley. Here we meet the Mother of God. She weeps for us, her needy people.

Soon after the Apparition, Maximin had become instinctively aware of her deep sorrow: “I thought she was a mother whose children had beaten her, and who had run away up to the mountain to weep. And I wanted to say to her, “Don't cry, Madame, I am going to help you.”

The Apparition Event

In the present day, we see the group of bronze statues of the three phases of the Apparition: the first, depicting Our Weeping Mother, seated on a stone; the second, the conversation scene representing the Virgin speaking to the two young shepherds; the third, the Assumption statue depicting Mary giving her last words and disappearing into the air.

On the breast of the Beautiful Lady is clearly seen the crucifix with its corpus, its hammer and pincers, and Mary’s chains and roses: such is the great news that her message calls to mind.

On days when large crowds visit the Shrine, a La Salette Missionary narrates the message again on this very spot, to the pilgrims seated on the slopes of the Sezia valley. Afterwards, you must then climb the steep slope, the paschal road from suffering to glory, to come out, with Maximin and Melanie, into the light of the site of the Assumption of Mary.

Read more The Holy Mountain of La Salette – A Legacy for a Needy World

The Profound Lessons of Nature

Editor: Our recently-deceased colleague, Fr. Joe Bachand, M.S., had often shared his reflections with his friends. Here is one such meditation written while he was ministering on the Holy Mountain of La Salette.

After the snow has melted, the pieces of rock that have been loosened and fallen from the mountains become visible. The rocks are slowly worn away by the forces of ice and wind and water. The mountains themselves prove too fragile, although a quick visit may not reveal this to be true.

Paths crisscross the mountains ‘round about, where generations have made their way to the summits and back. But newer paths cut across these older ones, where hardier—or lazier?—souls have ventured a quicker descent. The problem is that the forces of erosion love a straight path; and these newer straight paths become streams after a rainfall, hurrying the process of scarring the face of the mountains. I want to reprimand, or at least educate, those unaware of the mountains' fragility.

Read more The Profound Lessons of Nature

She Who Weeps

First Phase of the Apparition: Mary is seated, weeping (Holy Mountain in France)The inexhaustible flow of Mary's tears at La Salette falls like a life-giving stream upon the souls of all her privileged people.

The Blessed Mother of God, all-powerful suppliant at the throne of her Divine Son, came down upon the Mountain of La Salette to converse with two little shepherds. She appeared in the full light of the noonday sun and showed herself radiant with the still brighter light of her glory.

A Mother’s simple but profound words

With tender solicitude she adapted the language of her sublime maternity to the lowliness of the children's uncultured minds. She spoke of “her people” who were perishing and of "the arm of her Son" which weighed so heavily upon them. In a few, simple words she summarized the Divine precepts and uttered magnificent promises—"If (her) people submitted”—and frightful threats should they refuse to obey. Such was the pact of reconciliation offered to man by the Queen of Heaven. Her last words were a prophetic injunction: “You shall make this known to all my people.”

Two streams of salvation for resistant people

The shepherds have told how, before and during her discourse, the tears of the Beautiful Lady flowed without ceasing. In the realm of human realities, there are two perfections without compare—the Blood of Jesus and the Tears of Mary. Mingled together these two sacred streams of salvation gushed forth on the Hill of Calvary to shed grace over all the earth. Our reason fairly staggers at the sight of Mary weeping again at La Salette, even though we understand that in the beatitude of heaven, these tears are glorified tokens of her share in the plan of humanity's redemption.

Read more She Who Weeps

The Unrecognized Mystery of Mary’s Concern for Us

Tenderly yet forcefully our Weeping Mother reproaches us for paying no heed to the pains she continually takes on our behalf. The tears and words of Our Lady of La Salette must be taken seriously, for they express a great reality of our Faith. As long as the people of God has not reached the fullness of its destiny in Christ, she who is the Mother of the total Christ must continue to lament and labor in bringing forth children.
But are we concerned enough to ask ourselves whether our conduct saddens Mary's heart? How many among us have even put this question to ourselves – so weak our faith has become? Mary's tears and words at La Salette bear sorrowful witness to that fact, and remind us that she continues unceasingly to carry out her maternal responsibilities in our regard, for we remain “her” people.

Mary has been the mother of all believers from the day of the Annunciation until the tragedy of the Cross and the Holy Spirit's descent on that First Pentecost. For her part she responded fully to God's anticipatory grace by becoming the first and perfect disciple of her Son to the extent of participating, after her death, in the glory of his resurrection in body and soul.

But what we are less attentive to – no doubt because we have an impression that such conscience-raising would demand a change of conduct on our part – is Mary's actual role in the personal lives of each one of us.

Mary is eternally Interested in our daily lives

Vatican II reminds us: “Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this salvific duty, but by her constant intercession continued to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation. By her maternal charity, she cares for the brethren of her Son, who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties, until they are led into the happiness of their true home. . . This, however, is to be so understood that it neither takes away from nor adds anything to the dignity and efficaciousness of Christ the one Mediator” (Lumen Gentium, chapter 8, #62, emphasis added).

Read more The Unrecognized Mystery of Mary’s Concern for Us

Impressions of La Salette

Editor: From the February 28, 1936 issue of the magazine, Commonweal, this reprint of a letter to the editor contains some interesting impressions of an American pilgrim visiting La Salette in France.

The Appearance of Our Lady

To the Editor: In a wild corner of the High Alps, near Grenoble, France, there is a unique place of pilgrimage – that of Our Lady of La Salette. It was in 1846 that Our Lady appeared to Melanie and Maximin as they were guarding their flocks on the shoulder of Mount Gargas, above the village of La Salette.
Young women visit the Holy Mountain in 1935, witnessing Benediction on the esplanade, in front of the basilica
The children, eleven and nine years of age, saw at first a marvelously luminous globe, which floated down on the meadow and resolved itself into a “Beautiful Lady”. She was weeping seated in an attitude of sorrow, apparently weeping bitterly, with her head in her hands. The children, awed looked at her, but dared not approach her.

She however, raised her head, then rose and came graciously toward them saying, “Come near, my children, I have something to tell you.” Then followed her message – a demand for reform, for penance, for observance of Sunday, followed by dire predictions of famine and misery, if her message went unheeded...

Melanie and Maximin came down to La Salette, and recounted the message they had received. Since then pilgrims have not ceased to go to this strange spot.

Read more Impressions of La Salette