Mariette Beco, waiting for her brother to come home, pressed her face against the window while darkness fell; it was seven o’clock in Banneux. Mrs. Beco was working in a back room; the rest of the family had retired – none of them had attended Mass that Sunday morning – the father was a lapsed Catholic. Suddenly Marietta called, “Mother, there is a lady in the garden. It is the Holy Virgin.” Mrs. Beco scoffed at this. Taking a rosary Marietta had found on the road, she began to pray it. When Julien came home and heard what had happened, he said there was nothing in the garden’ perhaps the icicles reflected weirdly and confused Marietta.
The pastor was informed, but he did not put much stock in the story, thinking the vision of Beauraing and Lourdes was resulting in an epidemic of visions. He sent word to Marietta to forget about it and not spread stories. The next morning, Wednesday, the priest was surprised to see Marietta at Holy Mass – she had quit school because she failed in her First Holy Communion examination three times, and after that had not gone to church any more. That day Marietta went to school and for the first time in her life knew her lessons well. The next evening she went into the garden, knelt and said the rosary; her father followed her with a coat which he threw around her shoulders. He tried to get the pastor who was out, then called a neighbor, a practicing Catholic, and together they followed. The child was being beckoned on to the highway by the lady, till they reached a spring, into which Marietta plunged her hands at the command of the lady, who said, “This spring is set aside for me. Good night!” Then she vanished. When they reached home, the Abbé was waiting for them. Marietta described the lady: “Her robe was long and white; she wore a blue belt and rays of light shone from her head. She was a little more than five feet tall; her right foot was bare and under it a golden rose. Her hands were raised to her breast on which was a golden heart. A rosary hung from her right arm” – all similar to the Lourdes apparition.
There were six or seven more apparitions; at one of these Marietta, at the advice of the pastor asked the lady her name, to which Mary replied, “I am the Virgin of the poor”, and leading the girl to a spring, said, “This spring is for all nations…for the sick…I would like a chapel built. I come to relieve suffering. Have faith in me and pray much. My dear child, pray hard…” At the end of each visit Mary would say “Au revoir”, which means, “until we meet”, but at the last visit she said, “Adieu”, which means, “good-bye”. She blessed Marietta then at which the girl fainted. Marietta did not see the lady depart.
The Beco family and many others became model Catholics. The chapel was built, and the spring became the site of numberless cures. During the German occupation of Belgium in 1942, the bishop encouraged the cult of Our Lady of Banneux, Our Lady of the Poor.
In 1947, the bishop approved the devotion. In 1948 the cornerstone of a new basilica was laid; this was to supplant the small chapel. During the war, Marietta married a Dutch salesman. During the Battle of the Bulge in 1944, an American chaplain found them and their fifteen month old baby living in a cellar of a small home occupied by American troops.
Belgium is one more reminder in these days when communism seems to be sweeping everything before it that our great hope – our only hope – lies in our carrying out the requests Our Lady made at Fatima and other places. Mary prays for us without ceasing, but we, too, must pray, must sacrifice. We must do our part, if we expect Mary to help us.
http://www.ourladysrosarymakers.com/MarysfeastsJAN.html

Greg Thomas knew that he was dying of cancer and one source of solace was taking long walks through the country. What he didn’t know, though, was that during a long walk he’d come across an abandoned church that would save him.

http://www.godvine.com/Dying-Man-Gets-a-Miracle-in-Abandoned-Church-2416.html

But as time went by, Lucia became more and more serious and apprehensive . Soon she said to Jacinta , who was still playing, «Quiet. Our Lady is coming.»
It was near noon. Maria da Capelinha was feeling weak. «Will it be long before Our Lady comes?» she asked.
«No, Senhora,» Lucia unhesitatingly res- ponded. They all began the Rosary, and as they finished, one girl began the Litany. But Lucia stopped her, «There’s no time for it now.» Then she got up and shouted, «Jacinta, Jacin- ta, here comes Our Lady. I Just saw the flash.»
The three of them ran over to the smaller holmoak. Everyone followed and knelt upon · the brush and furze. Lucia raised her eves towards the skies, as if in prayer, and was heard to say, «You told me to come here today. What do you want me to do?»
The others heard something that sounded like a very gentle voice did not understand what was said. «It is like the gentle humming of a bee,» Maria da Capelinha whispered.
Lucia in later years tells us as follows: «l want yoo to come here on the thir-
teenth of the next month. Say the Rosary? inserting between the mysterie$ the fol- lowing ejaculation – ‘0 My Jesus, forgive us. Sa.ve us from the fire of Hell. Bring all ·soul to Heaven, especially those in most need.’ I want you to learn to read and write and later I will tell you what else I want.»
Then Lilcia asked Our Lady to·cure a sick person who was recommended to her. Our Lady answered.
«lf he is converted, he will be cured within the yr~ar.»
«I would like to ask you also to take us to Heaven!»
«Yes,» Our Lady answered; «l will take Jacinta and Francisco soon. . You, how- ever, are to stay here a longer time. Jesus wants to use you to make me know a,nd loved. He wants to establish-the Devotion to my Immaculate Heart in the World. I promise salvation to those who embrace it and their souls will be loved by God as flowers placed by myself to adorn His throne. »
«Am I going to stay here alone?» Lucia asked; full of sadness at the though of losing her beloved cousins.
«No My Daughter.» Lucia’s eyes filled with tears. «Does this cause you to suffer a great
deal? I will never leave you, my Immacu-
.late Heart will be your refuge and the .Wf1IJJ that will lead you to God.»
«As she said these last words,» Lucia tells, ~(the Blessed Virgin opened her hands and communicated to us for the second time the reflex of the immense light that enveloped her. We saW ourselves in it, as if submerged in God. Jacinta and Francisco seemed to be on the side that was ascending to Heaven, and I was on the side that was spreading over the earth. There was a Heart before the palm of the right hand of Our Lady, with thorns pierc- ing it. We understood that this was the Immac- ulate Heart of Mary, so offended by the sins of mankind, desiring reparation.»
The crowd now saw Lucia ·rise quickly to her feet. Stretching out her arm she cried, «Look, there she goes; there she goes!»
Maria da Capelinha reports that when Our Lady left the tree, it was like the his~ing of a distant rocket. She continues: «As for us, we saw nothing but a slight cloud, just a few inches away from the foliage, rising slowly to- wards the East.»
The children remained silent, their eyes fas- . tened in that direction, until a few minutes later, Lucia cried out, «There now!’ It’s all over. She has entered Heaven. The doors have closed.»
The people turned their eyes back to the blessed holmoak and were surprised to see the highest branches, which before were standi1tg upright, now inclined towards the east, as if
they had been tread upon. The onlookers then began to break of the branches and leaves from the. holmoak. Lucia asked that they take only the lower branches, as they had not been touched by Our Lady. Someone suggested that everybody say the Rosary before leaving, but because some had come such a long way, they said only the Litany at the Cova; then depar- ting in a group, they recited the Rosary toge- ther on their way home.
https://repository.library.nd.edu/view/344/832654.pdf