141. Retro-Santo: NTRA. SRA. DE LA LECHE Y BUEN PARTO

MILK OF KINDNESS. The carved image of Our Lady of the Milk (Ntra. Sra. De La Leche), as shown on a postcard ca, '20s.

Perhaps, one of the most unusual images depicting Mary is the one that shows her breastfeeding the Child Jesus. This imagery may have begun in a 4th c. grotto in Bethlehem that inspired the Franciscans to put up a Milk Grotto shrine. Taking centerstage was the Blessed Virgin nursing the baby Jesus.

Crusaders brought the devotion to Mary as a nursing mother to Spain in the Middle Ages. The original 16 c. image found in Madrid  is credited for saving the life of an expectant mother and her unborn child, which led the couple to keep the image in their home.

Word of the miraculous image under the title Ntra. Sra. De la Leche y Buen Parto (Our Lady of the Milk and Good Delivery) soon spread all over Spain and a shrine was soon built, with King Philip II leading its construction. A replica of the image was brought by Spanish conquistadores to America in Florida in the early 1600s and placed in the very first shrine in the U.S. dedicated to the Virgin Mother.

Statues of Our Lady of the Milk in the Philippines are few and far between, but an early statue rendered of this representation is now the center of national devotion. It originally belonged to Ramon R. Ticzon, who, upon his death in 1999, was bequeathed to Remedios Gonzales, a niece.She successfully was granted permission by Jaime Cardinal Sin to propagate the devotion of Our Lady of the Milk in May 2000, through the organization of Our Lady of the Milk Movement.  The church of Our Lady of Fatima in Mandaluyong houses a replica of this heirloom image.

Prayer for Motherhood:

Lovely Lady of La Leche, most loving mother of the Child Jesus, and my mother, listen to my humble prayer. Your motherly heart knows my every wish, my every need. 

To you only, His spotless Virgin Mother, has your Divine Son given to understand the sentiments which fill my soul. Yours was the sacred privilege of being the Mother of the Savior. 

Intercede with him now, my loving Mother, that, in accordance with His will, I may become the mother of other children of our heavenly Father. 

This I ask, O Lady of La Leche, in the Name of your Divine Son, My Lord and Redeemer. Amen.