A Frozen Tale – "Ave Maria"

I would like to start this blog circle project talking about something spiritual.

First of all, though, I need to say something about my religious beliefs. To keep it short, I believe in God, but not in religions and dogmata. I think Deism is the philosophy which better (but not fully) explains my opinions on the matter. I always do my best to help those who are in need and be kind to other people, respecting animals and the environment as well – and this is to me the greatest reward.

I am also against every kind of religious extremism and don’t really have a good opinion about the Catholic Church (nor about many of the other ones, to be honest), above all when it comes to delicate topics such as paedophilia, love between gay people, sacraments to divorced men and women and the usage of contraceptives, especially in those countries where A.I.D.S. and H.I.V. are the main contributors to mortality.

Of course I am also aware of the many good people that work for the Church, so please do not take offense if you are one of those or know any – I do not wish to judge nor tar everybody with the same brush.

Thus said, my family owns a votive capital which was built in 1955, the same year in which my father was born. The doctors said to my grandpa his newborn son would have died because of an acute form of pneumonia, so he made a vow to the Madonna. My father recovered.

Our capital is therefore dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes, and has a beautiful ceramic statue of her in it. Even though I am not religious, I do believe in the Madonna and my prayers often go to her.

On December 19, 2009 I was taking photographs to some frozen spiderwebs and icy drops, when I saw a big piece of frost hanging from my uncle’s banister. I took some shots of it, but it suddenly fell. Luckily, it got entangled in a spiderweb, so I had the chance to take a couple more photographs of it.

To my big surprise, it looked incredibly familiar… so much that I couldn’t believe my eyes: there were the folds of her dress, the hands joined… I don’t know if you are familiar with the Madonna’s iconography; if so, let me know what you think about this SOOC photo! 🙂

This post belongs to a blog circle called Sisterhood Stories. Please follow this link to read Karrie’s entry! 🙂

All the best,