Virgin Mary
On the grounds of the Long Beach Sagely Monastery is this statue of the Virgin Mary. It always seems a bit odd to me that a Buddhist Monastery has a statue of the Virgin Mary. Fresh flowers are placed on or around the statue every day. We've even seen people kneeling in front of the statue saying prayers.
posted by Jonathan @ 7:30 AM
6 Comments:
This is on my route.
I remember people from Sagely coming downtown to speak on the Sunday following 9/11. As a matter of fact, I recorded it (they blessed every single country)and have played it on TPSradio every September.
We have ChaseFrank.com to thank for that gathering. (JustinRudd.com gathered people the Friday following 9/11, that was awesome too!)
KaRi
the reason for the statue of st.mary...
before it was a buddhist monastery, it was a catholic nunnery.
i'm not really surprised... lots of Buddhists (the Dalai Lama included) think of Mary as a "Bodhisattva" (an enlightened saint who stays around the world helping people)... i'm Buddhist and i have some pics of Mother Mary of Guadalupe around my house... she reminds me of Tara, the Mother of all the Buddhas :D
When I was a child 1956 to 1966, we lived down the street from the Catholic Nunnery. The Nuns were so kind to me. I'm so pleased they have kept the statue. Also, that the building still exists.
Oh! I know that statue :) We visit it every time we have some problems. My mother told me that when they switched it to a buddhist monastery, one of the monks tried to remove the statue. If you were to go there the statue faces the water. And the monk saw a figure somewhat like Mary walk in from the water toward the statue. That is why he decides to keep it there since it is so sacred and holy. I don't know if this is true or not but it sounds pretty cool :) When problems show up I always as my mom to talk me here because for some reason praying to this statue works. The first time I saw it, tear ran down my face right away. I just went today to pray for my family and friends as I leave soon for college :)
I spoke to a man who grew up down the street. He said that originally the mansion was owned by a wealthy man who had eleven children adopted from all over the world. They had a large pool and would invite the neighborhood children over to swim. When he died he left it to the nuns, who installed the original statue of Mary. Through the years many miracles have occurred in association with the statue. The nuns sold the property to the Buddhist monks with a stipulation that the statue remain available for people to visit, due to the outcry by the public at the thought of loosing this great blessing. The monks tried to remove the statue and ran into a series of obstacles/troubles, he did not give details, but his waive of the hand indicated they were numerous. Finally they succeeded and placed the original miraculous statue in the interior garden. They then installed the current one out front. People in the know continued to jump the fence to pray at the miraculous statue....they intended to throw the original away. Then the monk had a dream, and the Blessed Virgin Mary came to him, when he woke up, she was still there. They were even able to film her....The original statue remains in the interior garden and people still occasionally jump over to pray by the miraculous statue of Mary.
The gentleman related many stories of miracles, there seem to be several related to pictures: auras, photobombing, etc.
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