If you ask Father Francis Malley, pastor of Saint Fráncìsco de Asís Church in Rancos de Taos, New Mexico, about an hour north of Santa Fe, it's a "mystery."
"We deliberately call it that," he said the other day. "It's a mystery painting. Nobody seems to be able to explain what's going on."
But -- he quickly adds -- it is not "miraculous."
"I don't know how to explain it, but I'm loathe to call it a miracle," said this amiable priest when we contacted him, echoing the perspective of many clergy.
The "mystery" is this: an eight-foot painting donated in 1948 and now hanging in a hall connected to the parish shows Jesus at the Sea of Galilee. So far, so normal; at first, it seems like nothing very striking. It was painted by a Canadian artist named Henry Ault in 1896.
The phenomenon -- if it is a true phenomenon -- begins when the lights go out and -- as one report says -- "the life-size image of Jesus standing on the shore of the Sea of Galilee fades to a shadow as the wispy white clouds in pale blue sky and green water begin to glow around Him, as if all were bathed in moonlight. Soon the silhouette of Jesus grows three-dimensional and appears more like a dark statue than flat image. His robes seem to billow in a breeze. Over his left shoulder the shadow of a Cross is distinct to most. Some can see a halo over his head and the bow of a small fishing boat on the shore."
Read more here: http://www.spiritdaily.com/mysteryormiracle.htm
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