Our Lady of Lourdes, Saint Bernadette, Focused Prayer and Penance = A Fruitful Lent

This meditation is full of wonderful spiritual practices that can drastically change your life. Lent is a great time to begin to implement them. 

Use this meditation on Our Lady of Lourdes from Holy Family School of Faith to use while praying the rosary. Enjoy!

(listen to this wonderful meditation here)

MEDITATION FOR FIRST DECADE

February 11 was the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

In 1858 Mary appeared eighteen times to Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year-old peasant girl in Lourdes, France. 

Our Lady came with a message and a mission for the world: She is the Spiritual Mother of all people. However, many of her children are in danger of going to hell by a lifestyle that wants nothing to do with God. She doesn’t want to lose even one. So, She comes on a rescue mission and She asks for our cooperation. But we have not listened. Therefore, Mary comes again and again. 

At Fatima, she showed the three little children souls in hell and then She said, “You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go.” 

One month later Mary said to them, “Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them.”

Our Lady is calling us to join her in the effort to rescue souls from going to hell. The two weapons She has given us are prayer and penance. That is the message and the mission of Lourdes!

Prayer one Our Father, 10 Hail Mary's and One Glory Be while pondering this...

MEDITATION FOR SECOND DECADE

The first weapon to save souls is the Rosary. 

In each of the eighteen appearances to Bernadette, Mary held a golden rosary with white beads draped over her right arm. Mary prayed parts of the rosary with Bernadette. During the Our Fathers and the Hail Marys, Our Lady let her fingers glide over the beads as St. Bernadette prayed. When it came time to pray the Glory Be, Mary joined her voice to that of St. Bernadette. 

In this way, Mary emphasized the importance of praying the Rosary for the conversion of sinners.

At Fatima, Mary came as Our Lady of the Rosary, asking us to pray the Rosary every day for the conversion of sinners. 

That call was renewed in Akita Japan in 1973 where Mary said, "Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary. I alone am able still to save you from the calamites which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved."

Again Mary appeared in Akita on October 6, 2019, begging us to pray a penitential Rosary every day for the conversion of souls. Bernadette said, “Oh, yes, we must pray for sinners, it was a directive of the Blessed Virgin. You can never do enough for the conversion of sinners.” 

We all have family and friends who are not interested in God and are living lives of grave sin. Do we need a better reason than this to pray at least one Rosary every day? Is 20 minutes too much to ask to save the soul of a loved one? 

Make the commitment today to pray one rosary every day for the conversion and salvation of your loved ones. 

Prayer one Our Father, 10 Hail Mary's and One Glory Be while pondering this...

MEDITATION FOR THIRD DECADE

The second weapon to save souls is penance.   

During the eighth appearance, Mary said to Bernadette: “Penance, Penance, Penance!”

Penance means to accept and offer up to Jesus sacrifices and suffering to save souls. 

In the summer of 1916, the Angel of Portugal appeared to the three children of Fatima and said, “The hearts of Jesus and Mary have a mission for you. Offer prayers and sacrifice constantly to the Most High.” Lucia then asked the Angel, “How are we to make sacrifices?”

"Make of everything you can a sacrifice and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication for the conversion of sinners…Above all, accept and bear with submission the sufferings which the Lord will send you."

The Angel said, “Make of everything you can a sacrifice and offer it to God…for the conversion of sinners.” 

Do that! Offer up everything - our prayer, work, joy, and suffering. We can especially offer up what we did not choose, do not like and cannot change for the conversion of our loved ones. 

Bernadette would say constantly, “My God, I offer it up to you, my God I love you.”

Prayer one Our Father, 10 Hail Mary's and One Glory Be while pondering this...

MEDITATION FOR FOURTH DECADE

Bernadette lived the message and mission of Lourdes to pray and offer sacrifice for the conversion of sinners.

Bernadette prayed the Rosary almost continuously to save souls. And she had much to offer up. From the age of six illness and suffering were Bernadette’s constant companions. But she suffered most from tuberculosis of the lungs and the bone resulting in a very painful bone tumor in her knee. 

A Superior who came to see her once when she was bedridden with Tuberculosis said, “What do you do here, you lazy little thing?”

“Mother, I do my job” Bernadette responded.

“What is your job?”

“Being sick,” she answered pleasantly. “Suffering is my job.”

Bernadette had made a pact with Our Lord to offer up her sufferings each day for the conversion of one sinner. It is hard to do something for a vague mass of humanity. But if we saw a loved one in danger of death we would do anything for them.

Pick one loved one each day and offer your prayer, work, joy, and suffering for that person by name. Say, “Jesus, I offer this for…”

There is tremendous power in focused prayer and penance. Unleash it on your loved ones and God will not let you down!

Prayer one Our Father, 10 Hail Mary's and One Glory Be while pondering this...

MEDITATION FOR FIFTH DECADE

Feeling Useless

One of the greatest trials for St. Bernadette was that she was not able to do the work of the other sisters because of her illness and that made her feel useless! 

Satan wants us to feel useless so that we will give up, throw in the towel, right when we can be the most powerful.

We are on earth to fulfill a three-fold mission,

1. Love God
2. Be conformed to Christ 
3. Do good for others 

Sickness, suffering and not being physically or mentally capable of doing work doesn't make us less powerful; in fact, it can make us more powerful. It can be like rocket boosters. What do I mean?

First, it is easy to love God for giving you good health and strength. But it takes a much greater love when He allows suffering and incapacity. Suffering can boost our love.

Second, Hebrews tells us Jesus was made perfect by what he suffered. There is no greater way to be conformed to Christ than by accepting our suffering cheerfully. Suffering can boost our likeness to Christ.

Third, Jesus saved the world by His suffering and death. Now he is inviting you to participate in that by your suffering and death to help him save souls. Suffering boosts your power to save souls.

Mary said to Bernadette, “I do not promise to make you happy in this world, but in the next.” Now is the time for mission. 

Prayer one Our Father, 10 Hail Mary's and One Glory Be while pondering this...

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