FEAST OF OUR LADY
OF LOURDES
Deuteronomy, Chapter
6, Verse 1-2
1 This then is the
commandment, the statutes and the ordinances, which the LORD, your God, has
commanded that you be taught to observe in the land you are about to cross into
to possess, 2 so that you, that is, you, your child, and your grandchild, may fear the LORD, your God, by keeping, as
long as you live, all his statutes and commandments which I enjoin
on you, and thus have long life.
Those that fear
the Lord have a great love for Him. “If
you love me you will keep my commandments” (Jn. 14:15)
Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly:
immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry.
Because of these the wrath of God is coming upon the disobedient. By these you
too once conducted yourselves, when you lived in that way. But now you must put
them all away: anger, fury, malice, slander, and obscene language out of your
mouths. Stop lying to one another, since you have taken off the old self with
its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed, for knowledge,
in the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and
uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all and in all. (Col. 3:5-11)
Today marks the first apparition of the Blessed Virgin
Mary in 1858 to fourteen-year-old Marie Bernade (St. Bernadette) Soubirous.
Between February 11 and July 16, 1858, the Blessed Virgin appeared eighteen
times, and showed herself to St. Bernadette in the hollow of the rock at
Lourdes. On March 25 she said to the little shepherdess who was only fourteen
years of age: "I am the Immaculate Conception." Since then Lourdes
has become a place of pilgrimage and many cures and conversions have taken
place. The message of Lourdes is a call to personal conversion, prayer, and
charity.
Things to Do
·
Watch
“The Song of Bernadette”, a masterpiece filmed in 1943.
·
Bring
flowers (roses would be appropriate) to your statue of Our Lady at your home
altar, especially if you have a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes.
·
Obtain
some Lourdes holy water and give the parental blessing to your children.
·
Give
extra care to the sick in your community — cook dinner for a sick mother's
family, bring your children to the local nursing home (the elderly love to see
children), send flowers to a member of your parish community who is ill.
Here is a virtual
Marriage Retreat. Join us by taking a few moments together with
your spouse, to reflect and pray. This year’s theme is Marriage: Made for a
Reason. This retreat will help you further reflect on what makes marriage
unique as established by God, between a man and woman, as the basis for family and
society. For more instruction or inspiration, visit foryourmarriage.org or marriageuniqueforareason.org.
·
Plan
to do the retreats weekly; perhaps on the day of the week you were married.
·
Enjoy
a good home cooked meal together after your retreat; use a recipe for the saint
of the day. Available at Catholicculture.org. Say Grace together and ask to the
saint of the day’s intervention.
·
Todays
recipes:
"Read
these counsels slowly. Pause to meditate on these thoughts. They are things
that I whisper in your ear-confiding them-as a friend, as a brother, as a
father. And they are being heard by God. I won't tell you anything new. I will
only stir your memory, so that some thought will arise and strike you; and so
you will better your life and set out along ways of prayer and of Love. And in
the end you will be a more worthy soul."
If we are generous
in voluntary atonement Jesus will fill us with grace to love the trials he
sends us.
Daily Devotions
[3]http://www.escrivaworks.org/book/the_way-point-1.htm
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