Our Lady of Grace and the monstrance April 22

A Eucharistic Coincidence at St Philip’s Monday Night Adoration

On Monday April 22 after 6:00 PM evening Adoration with our young adults as benediction came to an end, I turned the monstrance sideways and removed the lunette containing Eucharist and returned it to the tabernacle. I left the glass door of the monstrance open when I removed the Eucharist, as seen in the photo. But I only saw clear glass. When I returned to the foot of the steps of the altar to conclude the final prayers of benediction, I looked up and could see the image of Our Lady of Grace was reflected in the glass door of the monstrance. The stained glass window of Our Lady of Grace is on the north side of the church 40 feet away from the altar. The candle burning next to the reflection of Our Lady is one of two on the back altar next to the tabernacle lit during Mass and Adoration. The monstrance is an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus with the Stations of the Cross in a circle around the center for the lunette with the Eucharist.

I did not notice the image when I opened the glass door nor did I preplan something like this. I had never noticed anything like this before. The angle of the monstrance and the glass window protecting the lunette and the stained glass window as well as the height of the altar and the amount of evening sunlight all had to be perfectly alined for this to happen by coincidence or a sign of Our Lady’s love. 

Fr James Liebner, SVD

St Philip’s Church