The healing power of God

February 11th is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.  That was the date of the first apparition to Bernadette in that little market town at the foot of the Pyrenees  in 1858. It is now renowned for its pilgrimages and for its many healings, not all of them, of course, physical ones.  It is a place of prayer, of much love and of a tangible presence of the compassionate love of our God, passed on to us by his mother.

 

It is also a place which attracts people of all ages, all faiths or none, from all over the world. And it began with a young girl who suffered from asthma seeing "a beautiful lady" perched high up on a rock beside the nearby river Gave. That smiling lady, who so attracted little Bernadette and her companions on that raw day in February a hundred and fifty five years ago, was the Mother of God.  The rest, as they say, is history.

In this Year of Faith, the anniversary of that momentous meeting, draws all of us into that loving embrace of God.  Lourdes is about  living our faith. Like all shrines, particularly those dedicated to the Mother of God, it calls us to express our faith in pilgrimage, to share with others our belief in the healing and loving response of God to the needs of our beautiful, but fragmented world.   As one young pilgrim once said while kneeling at the grotto: "This place is awesome!"  That just about describes it.

Yet it started in simplicity, and, in spite of the somewhat tatty shops that have sprung up around the shrine, it remains simple, loving and awesome.  We cannot all go to Lourdes on pilgrimage, but we can all partake in its blessings.  On Monday, let's  pray fervently to  this "beautiful lady" of the Pyrenees, and ask her to heal us of the smallness of our minds, our greed, our attachment to money and success. If those things are taken singly, they are manageable, but, taken as a whole, they can be great blocks to our spiritual life.  Our Lady knows this, and she so wants to reach out to us with that gentle love that is so evident in Lourdes itself.

Another thing we need to ask her to heal within us are the memories of long ago traumas, rejections, absence of love, injustices and  the  painful relationships in the past, which cause residual anger and depression. She will do it, there is nothing more sure. But we have to believe that a transformation can take place.  Ask her for help.  She is, after all   "health of the sick, refuge of sinners, comforter of the afflicted" as her litany points out.  We sing fervently enough the words which snake around the grotto on Summer evenings in Lourdes:

"For poor, sick, afflicted thy mercy we crave and comfort the dying thou light of the grave! Ave, Ave, Ave Maria... " 

She loves to hear words like that, as we place all our hope in her who is the mediatrix of all graces.   Have a good remembrance day on Monday!

The 12th February used to be the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  In our Congregation this feast has special significance as it was the day when we became officially a Religious Congregation way back in 1872.  Our Founder, Mother Magdalen Taylor, made her Vows for life on that day, so we too hold it in great veneration, and offer our lives once again for the Church and the world.  Pray for us won't you, and we will remember you too.  We shall meet in that loving heart of Mary in our prayer. 

 

We'll talk again on Valentine's Day!! Until then, take care.