Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us!

"O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!"

Today begins our novena to Our Lady of Lourdes here at Miss Marcel's Musings. If you start today, you'll finish with us on the feast, February 11th. Thank you, guardian angel, for reminding me!

What do we have to gain?
Health and happiness.
Yes, I know, Our Lady said to St. Bernadette, "I do not promise you happiness in this life, but in the next."
Happily, we are not St. Bernadette, and unless Our Mom in Heaven has said the same to you (and if so, please eat a nourishing meal and take a good long nap, just in case it was your imagination), I vote for counting on happiness in THIS "life" and in the next!

For a long time I thought it was a foregone conclusion that this exile we call life would be pretty painful, even though I had every beautiful gift at my fingertips - the Faith, family, friends, and enough to read and eat.

Then I discovered - in books, since that is the way He likes to enlighten me - that living with guilt, fear, and sorrow was not His plan, even if it is unavoidably a valley of tears we walk through . . . 

The Scriptures, our Heavenly Father's love letters to us, are full of His kind and compassionate promises. He wants happiness for us, the more the better, the sooner the better. St. Therese's favorite Psalm 23 illustrates that wonderfully, and recently I enjoyed a typed up translation a friend had sent (after her son had typed) that said, "He maketh me lie down in green pastures."

I got a huge kick out of that because I was at my holy hour - a green pasture indeed, but at the drop of a hat I will let a friend cover for me, and when I finally found myself before my Best Friend again, I had to admit, yes, He does have to MAKE me lie down or I'll fritter away my life in errands!

Anyhow, the whole Little Way is about these promises and the trust and abandonment with which we can relax in the Father's arms while He carries us everywhere. How literal is this? Much more than we think, but even in its figurative sense, I have one son who has seen the truth born out over and over again - when he allows God and Mother Mary to take over, it gets done (whatever "it" is), whereas trying to force the doing of it in pain is a recipe for an inedible and non-nourishing stew.

My other son was recently plucked up from his amazon delivery driver job (fortunately he wasn't on the job at the moment of the plucking, so no Left Behind car accidents ensued) and dropped by the loving hand of God into Castel Gandolfo, Italy, vacation home of the saints (JPII and Benedict XVI most recently) . . .due to no efforts of his own, and thanks to St. Joseph and Padre Pio hearing my prayers.

So, where does this lead us?
Straight to the grotto of Lourdes with St. Bernadette.
On this day - well the day that ends the novena, the day of the first apparition of Our Lady of little Bernadette - in 1983 I visited Thomas Aquinas College and that visit changed my life. That Lady changed my life. 

On this day (February 11, the day we're heading toward) in 1993, my husband and I arrived for his interview at Christendom College and that visit changed our lives too. 

On this day of February 11, 1950, John C.H. Wu finished his memoir Beyond East and West, and on or around this same February 11 in 2001, I found his book on the shelf of the library at Christendom . . . which led me to Fr. Nicholas Maestrini, P.I.M.E., Italian missionary extraordinaire, and lover of little St. Therese. Wow, these were lifechanging events too!

I could go on, but let me simply say:
Let's make this a life changing feast in our Jubilee Year of Hope!
Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us, and pluck us out of the ordinary round and drop us deeper into the Heart of Jesus!
St. Bernadette, pray for us!

I'm praying "O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee" for my novena prayer. Jump in anytime, and even if you forget, you're covered!

​Draw me, we will run!