103 posts 10/9/2006 7:36 am
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OUR LADY OF LOURDES...Sanctifying pain. Going to intercession of Our Lady.
III. Sanctifying pain. Going to intercession of Our Lady.
And the mother of Jesus was there. How marvelous it is to see the many different kinds of people who go to shrines of Our Lady and seek intercession. Perhaps a good number of them would not have asked her help if they had not become ill or burdened with difficulties.
Pope John Paul II has asked in this regard: Why it is precisely the sick who go to pilgrimage to Lourdes? Why ‒ we wonder ‒ has that place become for them almost a ‘Cana of Galilee’, to which they feel invited particularly? What draws them to Lourdes with such power?… Because they know that as at Cana, ‘the Mother of Jesus is there’: and where she is, her cannot fail to be. This is the certainty that moves the multitudes who pour into Lourdes every year in search of relief, comfort and hope…
The miraculous care remains, however, in spite of everything an exceptional event. Christ’s salvific power, propitiated by the intercession of his Mother, is revealed at Lourdes particularly in the spiritual sphere. It is in the hearts of the sick that Mary makes the thawmaturgic voice of her heard; a voice that dissolves miraculously the suffering of bitterness and rebellion, and restores eyes to the soul to see in a new light world, others and one’s own destiny.
Mary always leads us to her who has a special love for the sick. Saint Peter summarized the life of Christ with these few words: Jesus of Nazareth … went about doing good and healing all … The Evangelists never seem to tire of describing the Master’s solicitude for the sick and the suffering. Christ dedicated a large portion of his ministry on earth to sick people. He was sensitive to every human suffering, whether of the body or of the soul. The Lord is compassionates yet he wants us to use the means at our disposal. He will never test us beyond our strength. He will always give us sufficient graces so that difficult circumstances will only serve to draw us to our friends closer to him. we can certainly ask the Lord to cure our infirmities or resolve our problems. Above all, we need to ask him to make us more docile to his grace, to increase our faith, hope and charity.
We should put our pains and sufferings into the hands of God. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow; for tomorrow will have anxieties of its own. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. We cannot forget that all of us are called to suffer in this life, though not all in the same manner or to the same degree. Each one has to correspond generously to the will of God for him or her. Suffering, which in the eye of men is so disagreeable, can indeed be a fountain of sanctification and apostolate when it is united to Jesus. We have here an opportunity to co-redeem with Jesus, to feel ourselves to ba sons of God in a very special way.
Let us go wholeheartedly to Mary. She will always be there at our side. She will get us what we want or what we need, so that good might be drawn from evil, Great good can be drawn from great evil. No matter what our situation may be, she will never fail to give us consolation. Consolatrix afflictorum, Salus infirmorum, Auxillium christianorum … ora pro eis… ora pro me. Come to our aid in our time of trial, god of mercy. On this feast of the Immaculate Mother of your , grant that through her intercession we might be free from our sins.
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Volume 6
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