January 20th

the event of January 20th

the event of January 20th

Mary’s silence, when she showed herself to Alphonse Ratisbonne on January 20, 1842, is more eloquent than a thousand words.
For it has to do with a great mystery and even, according to Paul, “the” mystery par excellence: that God reveals his love for the whole of humanity by choosing a particular people; that God is born of this people, and upholds this choice within the universality of God’s love.

This silence leaves us the space to contemplate that mystery, to scrutinize it without ever thinking we have come to its end. This is what Alphonse Ratisbonne understood and passed on to us, and it is what we celebrate ever since on every January 20 in the large family of Our Lady of Sion.

Sr Anne-Catherine Avril NDS