From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Will one day see the reason   
      
      Painful as the present time may be, you will one day see the reason   
   for it. You will see that it was not only testing, but also a   
   preparation for the life work, which you are to do. Have faith that   
   your prayers and aspirations will some day be answered. Answered in a   
   way that perhaps seems painful to you but is the only right way.   
   Selfishness and pride often make us want things that are not good for   
   us. They need to be burned out of our natures. We must be rid of the   
   blocks, which are holding us back, before we can expect our prayers to   
   be answered.   
      
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   February 11th - Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes   
      
   Church Approval:   
   • on 18 January 1862 Bishop Bertrand-Sévère Mascarou-Laurence, with   
   the authorisation of Pope Pius IX, declared that the faithful are   
   “justified in believing the reality of the apparition”   
   • national French pilgrimages to the site began in 1873   
   • the basilica of Notre-Dame de Lourdes was consecrated in 1876   
   • Blessed Pope Pius IX formally granted a canonical coronation to the   
   statue of Our Lady in the courtyard of the basilica on 3 July 1876   
   • Church of the Rosary consecrated in 1901   
   • a special office and Mass were authorised by Pope Leo XIII   
   • observance of the feast extended to the whole Church by St Pope Pius X in   
   1907   
      
      
   . Beginning on   
   February 11, 1858, The Blessed Virgin appeared to Saint Bernadette   
   Soubirous a total of 18 times in Lourdes, France. The final visitation   
   occurred on July 16, 1858. Since that time, hundreds of millions of   
   pilgrims have visited Lourdes, with crowds reaching 40,000 each day on   
   average during busier times of year. Over 60 miraculous cures have   
   been recorded in the grotto where the Blessed Virgin appeared, or due   
   to the curative properties of the spring which appeared during the   
   apparitions.   
      
   During her visitations with Saint Bernadette, Our Lady of Lourdes,   
   delivered a message of penance and prayer, and through the simple   
   faith of Saint Bernadette, the message of Lourdes was revealed for all   
   people throughout the world. Our Blessed Mother reminds us to return   
   to the Word of God through poverty, penance, prayer, and   
   participation. We embrace our poverty of spirit, not denying our gifts   
   or talents, but acknowledging that they are precious gifts of our Lord   
   and Savior. This leaves us open to the word of God, willing to answer   
   His call, and advance His glory, not our own. We strengthen our hearts   
   of prayer, finding praise and thanksgiving to the Lord in not only our   
   quiet moments of contemplation, but in our moments of service and   
   witness to others. We offer penance for our sin and for those of   
   others, not just in sacrifice and acts of penance, but true conversion   
   of heart and return to God. This penance involves remembering what the   
   price of allowing sin into our lives is, what we lose from separation   
   from our Lord. It also calls us to forgiveness, both of ourselves and   
   of others. And lastly, we are moved to participation--not just in   
   pilgrimage--but as active members of our faith community, the Church.   
   This pulls us from isolation or individual worship, and reminds us   
   that we are members of the Church, and we share a communion with one   
   another, with the saints who have gone before us, and with Our Blessed   
   Mother.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   It is loving the Cross that one finds one heart, for Divine Love   
   cannot live without suffering.   
   --St. Bernadette   
      
      
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   Invocations to Our Lady of Lourdes   
      
   O EVER Immaculate Virgin, Mother of mercy, health of the sick, refuge   
   of sinners, comfort of the afflicted, you know my wants, my troubles,   
   my sufferings; deign to cast upon me a look of mercy. By appearing in   
   the Grotto of Lourdes, thou wert pleased to make it a privileged   
   sanctuary, whence thou dispenses thy favors, and already many   
   sufferers have obtained the cure of their infirmities, both spiritual   
   and corporal. I come, therefore, with unbounded confidence, to implore   
   thy maternal intercession. Obtain, O loving Mother, the grant of my   
   requests. I will endeavor to imitate thy virtues, that I may one day   
   share thy glory, and bless thee in eternity. Amen.   
      
   O MARY, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.   
      
   O BLESSED be the Holy and Immaculate Conception of the most blessed   
   Virgin Mary, Mother of God.   
      
   HOLY Virgin Mary Immaculate, Mother of God and our Mother,   
   speak thou for us to the Heart of Jesus, Who is thy Son and our Brother.   
      
   OUR Lady of Lourdes, pray for us!   
      
   MY Mother, deliver me from mortal sin!   
      
   http://www.catholictradition.org/Mary/marys-book16.htm   
      
      
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   Prayer to Our Lady of Lourdes   
      
   O Holy Virgin, in the midst of your days of glory, do not forget the   
   sorrows of this earth. Cast a merciful gaze upon those who are   
   suffering, struggling against diversity, with their lips constantly   
   pressed against life’s bitter cup.   
      
   Have pity on those who love each other and are separated.   
   Have pity on our rebellious hearts.   
   Have pity on our weak faith.   
   Have pity on those we love.   
   Have pity on those who weep, on those who pray,   
   on those who fear.   
   Grant hope and peace to all. Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)