I almost hate to comment on these sorts of stories, but apparently the Blessed Virgin Mary has more messages for mankind, and she’s decided to communicate them by appearing on a garage door. At around 5:30pm every day. In Minersville, PA. Conclusion?
“The Blessed Virgin Mary is trying to tell us something. A miracle is going to happen in the next few weeks. What, when, why, I don’t know but I feel she’s trying to tell us something,” said Joanne Deconcini.
Well sure: I know that whenever I want to tell my wife to pick up some more Coke Zero on her way home from work, I never outright tell her this: instead I just cryptically email her a blurry photo of myself. How, when, why this would work, I don’t know, but this one time she brought home some leftover Chinese food, which was sort of a miracle.
Seriously though: if Mary has a message, and if she has the power to bend light or burn images into garage doors, why not just write out her message in nice, big letters, or maybe at least attempt sign language? Why appear as just a jiggling indistinct blob? If this is some sort of game of spiritual charades, these aren’t exactly helpful clues.
“I think it’s wonderful, actually, that there’s actually an image on somebody’s garage door and she moves back and forth and she doesn’t stay still. To me it’s a blessing for me to have her here in Minersville,” said Peggy Mayhue. (emp added)
Moving back and forth you say? Well, that puts the Samurai Fence-Jesus in Lodi, CA to shame.
Look, obviously the people here are searching and sincere, and I hope they get a thrill out of this or even that it helps motivate them to do something good. But these have to be some of the silliest examples of pareodalia I’ve ever seen. Even Bugeyed Pancake-Jesus was a better likeness of a person.
The worst part about this story is the people’s attempt at some token skepticism: “witnesses also said if you touch the image no shadow from the sun appears. The image remains.” But if you are going to try to debunk something, why be timid? Get a heavy blanket, hold it above your head and then blot out all possible external sources of light (including those reflected from below) with you inside up against the garage: either the image will then appear on the back of the blanket instead, or it will remain on the garage with you in the dark. Either way, you’ve at least learned something, which is a whole lot better than just standing around in the street.
Update: Remember the claims about how the light cannot be put in shadow? Watch the video at this blog about the story. Sure looks like people’s shadows are blocking it out to me…
The Bad Idea Blog 
It scares me to know that there are people out there that have no skepticism what so ever. How can they just stand around and not actually.. figure out whats going it? Fucking Sheep.
Oh, I don’t think it;’s fair to call them sheep: they are doing what they want to do, after all. I doubt most of the people who are into such things really even care whether it’s really a supernatural apparition or not: either way they’d still interpret it as the hand of god at work.
True, but I still call them sheep, because they aren’t choosing their own ideas of what it is, atleast anyone they ‘interviewed’ believed it was “mary ofcourse!” :)
I have to agree with the author of this blog.
Its quite scary to see all these people spending so much time and energy on what appears to be a reflection of light.
If someone so divine and powerful wanted to send us a message at a time when its most needed, why would it be so ambiguous? – and really not serve a true purpose.
People are so lost in their own lives and have no real understanding of why we are here, where we have evolved from, and where our actions are taking us…then something appears on a garage door and all of a sudden this town is worthy of divinity.
It really bothers me that most Catholics dont question anything about Catholicism and put so much faith in symbols, statues, burnt toast apparitions and garage doors…
As someone with a background in the social sciences, my inclination is less to ultimately ridicule (though that, I’m afraid, has a legitimate place in the public debate in cases like this) than to understand what motivates people in these situations. I don’t see sheep: I see people who need something: confirmation of otherwise amorphous faiths that have previously been tangential to their lives, and so on.
Ok…DOES IT REALLY MATTER WHAT OR WHY??? People are coming together to PRAY…to talk about God…to talk about others…to pray for people with problems. Where two or more are gathered so is God.
Wake up…it IS a reflection….why though? And again DOES IT MATTER???
LET US ALL PRAY!
I am NOT a Holy Roller…I am a 45 year old mother, wife, daughter who has seen it and has prayed there…for myself and others. I fell peace and calm there and welled up with tears as people WHOM you would have thought to be “bad” or “uncaring” we there too and I am thankful to have been part of WHATEVER it was!
“Nedd”: Where did I say that any of these people were “bad” or uncaring??? In fact, I said: “obviously the people here are searching and sincere, and I hope they get a thrill out of this or even that it helps motivate them to do something good.”
I also don’t recall saying that anyone shouldn’t “let” people pray: for that matter, don’t you see how bizarre it is to imply that words on a blog prevent anyone from doing anything?
People can’t both insist that something is a visitation AND get peeved when others are skeptical. That’s just disingenuous. People in the article breathlessly claim to be debunking the idea that this is a natural phenomenon: so obviously THEY at least think they care about the issue. But you can’t care about that issue ONLY from the “proving” side and then ignore the skeptical responses. And maybe you aren’t inclined to do so, but a heck of a lot of people use events like this to make claims about the world, and unless you want to shout down those people as well as the skeptics, you are being hypocritical.
Why is it so important to so many to insist that this IS Mary sending a message (and again, why the heck would Mary’s message be an image of herself? Is she not satisfied with the huge number of images of her already available around the world?)?
While we’re at it, doesn’t it seem odd that anyone would need an excuse to come together and pray if its just a good idea to begin with and has nothing to do with whether or not this is a supernatural event? Would you rather understand the phenomenon of pareodalia or ignore it?
i see a blob….
I have seen these light reflections located all over the world but not as define as this one. The source of this is of course the sun reflecting off a nearby window or a highly reflective surface but what this image does for local folks and visitors is to give them a moment of peace and tranquility, which we all need today.
Here’s a link to a few more “circles of lights”:
http://hometown.aol.com/gagnonsxfiles/LightCircles.html
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Supernatural Entity Anomaly Research & Cryptid Hunters
http://hometown.aol.com/facadefx/phenomenons.html
[…] have claimed to be a “mystical incarnation” of the Virgin Mary (when she’s not appearing on garage doors I suppose), certainly seems like the sort of unpredictable charismatic that would threaten the […]
… the “Madonna of Minersville”
I’ve read on another blog : “seems to be : the Old Testament burning bush”, “looks like God’s gonna have to go old school” : (Moses, Ex.III,2)…
My reminding thoughts tend to be alike : also, the “garage door” is made of wood. [… only, in this case : the vision of the “mysterious non-burning flame” is happening on an almost everyday basis, and for everyone to see…]
This mysterious vision, reminds me also of the King of Babylone (Dan.V,7,26) : …evidently, “the thoughts of many are getting troubled” (as we may notice while reading through the blogs…) : something is there on the wall, and again, no-one is found to give an answer…(only spurious and derisive answers).
Francis Batt,
Paris
…the “Madonna of Minersville” 2
BROKEN PIECES CHURCH
…let’s bend and pick up all the wreckage, Lewis street, Minersville, Pa, (near-by rear “Church of Broken Pieces”.
…let’s gather these pieces together, so as to build anew (all the wretched, church squatters, taggers, street sleepers first concerned ?).
and …for once, let’s open up this “garage door”… let’s start for a “merry” ride in a New Church…
[check it out first… don’t get upset… the twin towers were indeed torn down to street level…]
francisbatt
Not to be outdone, Pope John Paul II made an appearance in a bonfire in Poland.
[…] Virgin Mary Finds New Venue: Living Room Wall Fresh from her longtime engagement on a garage door, the Virgin Mary has now appeared on a living room wall after a construction mishap. Pessimistic […]
I have a kaleidoscope for sale anybody interested?
Thank God I’m English!
To god where he should go and end his journey…
Do you really think so?
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“
blommogram…
[…]The Blessed Virgin Mary chose this garage door for great things « The Bad Idea Blog[…]…
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