The weather today was just beautiful–a refreshingly unseasonable 70 degrees. Perfect weather for the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes! I was happy to make it to Mass today.

Lourdes will always be, for me, synonymous with love–God’s great love for us and the love He desires from us. The Immaculate Virgin is Heaven’s “bait”! Lourdes is a place of healing and hope, a place where God gets our attention through Our Lady.

It began in a cave in a little town in Southern France where the Virgin Mary appeared to a poor uneducated little girl named Bernadette. She addressed her as no one ever had: “will you do me the favor of coming here for 15 days?” followed by the heartfelt words, “i do not promise you happiness in this world but in the next”. Bernadette suffered much throughout her life in this world especially from asthma and tb.

In the course of these apparitions, “the beautiful girl” asked Bernadette to unearth a miraculous healing spring of water there. She also asked for the local priest to receive a message: have a chapel built at the site and let people come in procession to it. it was only when the

tell the priest that she wished for a chapel to be built at that spot and for people to come there in procession.

a miraculously healing spring wells up. Our Lady asked for a chapel to be built there with people coming to it in procession..ventually she revealed herself

All Marian devotion is Christocentric because Mary herself is Christocentric. The realization of this fact makes her incredibly lovable: She is seeking Christ’s glory and nor her own. This attractive humility on her part can be reflected

-Our Lady

-She

[edited 2/12-13, a work in progress]