For more than twenty years, Maria Paula Acuna has claimed to see
the Virgin Mary, once a month, at a place called Our Lady of the
Rock in the Mojave Desert of California. Hundreds of men, women,
and children follow her into the desert to watch her see what they
cannot. While she sees and speaks with the Virgin, onlookers search
the skies for signs from heaven, snapping photographs of the sun
and sky. Not all of them are convinced that Maria Paula can see the
Virgin, yet at each vision event they watch for subtle clues to
Mary's presence, such as the unexpected scent of roses or a cloud
in the shape of an angel. The visionary depends on her audience to
witness and authenticate her visions, while observers rely on Maria
Paula and the Virgin to create a sacred space and moment where
they, too, can experience firsthand one of the oldest and most
fundamental promises of Christianity: direct contact with the
divine. Together, visionary and witnesses negotiate and enact their
monthly liturgy of revelations. Our Lady of the Rock, which
features text by Lisa M. Bitel and more than sixty photographs by
Matt Gainer, shows readers what happens in the Mojave Desert each
month and tells us how two thousand years of Christian revelatory
tradition prepared Maria Paula and her followers to meet in the
desert. Based on six years of observation and interviews, chapters
analyze the rituals, iconographies, and physical environment of Our
Lady of the Rock. Bitel and Gainer also provide vivid portraits of
the pilgrims-who they are, where they come from, and how they
practice the traditional Christian discernment of spirits and
visions. Our Lady of the Rock follows three pilgrims as they return
home with relics and proofs of visions where, out of Maria Paula's
sight, they too have learned to see the Virgin. The book also
documents the public response from the Catholic Church and popular
news media to Maria Paula and other contemporary visionaries.
Throughout, Our Lady of the Rock locates Maria Paula and her
followers in the context of recent demographic and cultural shifts
in the American Southwest, the astonishing increase in reported
apparitions and miracles from around the world, the latest
developments in communications and visual technologies, and the
never-ending debate among academics, faith leaders, scientists, and
citizen observers about sight, perception, reason, and belief.
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