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Our Lady of Lourdes - February 11, 2023
Our Lady of Lourdes is venerated due to her apparitions that occurred in Lourdes, France. The first apparition of 11 February 1858, of which Bernadette Soubirous (age 14) told her mother that a "Lady" spoke to her in the cave of Massabielle (0.93 mi., from the town) while she was gathering firewood with her sister and a friend. Similar apparitions of the "Lady" were reported on 18 occasions that year, until the climax revelation of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception took place. On 18 January 1862, the local Bishop of Tarbes Bertrand-Sévère Laurence endorsed the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes.
The Vatican has sent bishops around the world the text of the prayer that Pope Francis will lead on March 25th, 2022 for the consecration of Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The key words many in the Church have been anticipating to hear since Our Lady of Fatima requested this in 1917 are the explicit consecration of Russia by name. These words appear in the official text: “Therefore, Mother of God and our Mother, to your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, the Church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine.”
Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Basilica of Saint Peter, Vatican City, Italy
March 25th, 2022
O Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, in this time of trial we turn to you. As our Mother, you love us and know us: no concern of our hearts is hidden from you. Mother of mercy, how often we have experienced your watchful care and your peaceful presence! You never cease to guide us to Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
Yet we have strayed from that path of peace. We have forgotten the lesson learned from the tragedies of the last century, the sacrifice of the millions who fell in two world wars. We have disregarded the commitments we made as a community of nations. We have betrayed peoples’ dreams of peace and the hopes of the young. We grew sick with greed, we thought only of our own nations and their interests, we grew indifferent and caught up in our selfish needs and concerns. We chose to ignore God, to be satisfied with our illusions, to grow arrogant and aggressive, to suppress innocent lives and to stockpile weapons. We stopped being our neighbour’s keepers and stewards of our common home. We have ravaged the garden of the earth with war and by our sins we have broken the heart of our heavenly Father, who desires us to be brothers and sisters. We grew indifferent to everyone and everything except ourselves. Now with shame we cry out: Forgive us, Lord!
Holy Mother, amid the misery of our sinfulness, amid our struggles and weaknesses, amid the mystery of iniquity that is evil and war, you remind us that God never abandons us, but continues to look upon us with love, ever ready to forgive us and raise us up to new life. He has given you to us and made your Immaculate Heart a refuge for the Church and for all humanity. By God’s gracious will, you are ever with us; even in the most troubled moments of our history, you are there to guide us with tender love.
We now turn to you and knock at the door of your heart. We are your beloved children. In every age you make yourself known to us, calling us to conversion. At this dark hour, help us and grant us your comfort. Say to us once more: “Am I not here, I who am your Mother?” You are able to untie the knots of our hearts and of our times. In you we place our trust. We are confident that, especially in moments of trial, you will not be deaf to our supplication and will come to our aid.
That is what you did at Cana in Galilee, when you interceded with Jesus and he worked the first of his signs. To preserve the joy of the wedding feast, you said to him: “They have no wine” (Jn 2:3). Now, O Mother, repeat those words and that prayer, for in our own day we have run out of the wine of hope, joy has fled, fraternity has faded. We have forgotten our humanity and squandered the gift of peace. We opened our hearts to violence and destructiveness. How greatly we need your maternal help!
Therefore, O Mother, hear our prayer.
Star of the Sea, do not let us be shipwrecked in the tempest of war. [2]
Ark of the New Covenant, inspire projects and paths of reconciliation.
Queen of Heaven, restore God’s peace to the world.
Eliminate hatred and the thirst for revenge, and teach us forgiveness.
Free us from war, protect our world from the menace of nuclear weapons.
Queen of the Rosary, make us realize our need to pray and to love.
Queen of the Human Family, show people the path of fraternity.
Queen of Peace, obtain peace for our world.
O Mother, may your sorrowful plea stir our hardened hearts. May the tears you shed for us make this valley parched by our hatred blossom anew. Amid the thunder of weapons, may your prayer turn our thoughts to peace. May your maternal touch soothe those who suffer and flee from the rain of bombs. May your motherly embrace comfort those forced to leave their homes and their native land. May your Sorrowful Heart move us to compassion and inspire us to open our doors and to care for our brothers and sisters who are injured and cast aside.
Holy Mother of God, as you stood beneath the cross, Jesus, seeing the disciple at your side, said: “Behold your son” (Jn 19:26.) In this way he entrusted each of us to you. To the disciple, and to each of us, he said: “Behold, your Mother” (v. 27). Mother Mary, we now desire to welcome you into our lives and our history. At this hour, a weary and distraught humanity stands with you beneath the cross, needing to entrust itself to you and, through you, to consecrate itself to Christ. The people of Ukraine and Russia, who venerate you with great love, now turn to you, even as your heart beats with compassion for them and for all those peoples decimated by war, hunger, injustice and poverty.
Therefore, Mother of God and our Mother, to your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, the Church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine. Accept this act that we carry out with confidence and love. Grant that war may end and peace spread throughout the world. The “Fiat” that arose from your heart opened the doors of history to the Prince of Peace. We trust that, through your heart, peace will dawn once more. To you we consecrate the future of the whole human family, the needs and expectations of every people, the anxieties and hopes of the world.
Through your intercession, may God’s mercy be poured out on the earth and the gentle rhythm of peace return to mark our days. Our Lady of the “Fiat,” on whom the Holy Spirit descended, restore among us the harmony that comes from God. May you, our “living fountain of hope,” water the dryness of our hearts. In your womb Jesus took flesh; help us to foster the growth of communion. You once trod the streets of our world; lead us now on the paths of peace. Amen.
ON THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
Saint Francis Anthony of Lucera (b. 1681; d.1742), is one of the most famous Franciscan preachers in the history of the Order. Like his spiritual father, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Francis Anthony of Lucera had the most ardent devotion to the Mother of God. From the Mariale of St. Francis Anthony of Lucera:
How beautiful are your sandaled feet, O Daughter of the Prince! (Cant. 7,2)
First Consideration
O soul, ponder how, transparent and pure as She was from the very moment of Her Immaculate Conception, Mary came forth from the Most High God as the first-born Daughter of all creation, formed by His creative word.
Her appearance on earth was like the first immaculate ray of light...the sun, the moon, the stars, all of nature, the whole visible and invisible world bowed at Her feet as She walked the earth: How beautiful are your sandaled feet, O Daughter of the Prince!
Oh! so beautiful are the steps of Mary as She walks through life!...And You, O soul, who meditate on them now, what steps have you taken with your feet since reaching the use of reason? Were they meritorious or not?...And from that time, over the course of so many years, what have you accomplished for the good of your soul?...for your growth in holiness? And where are you going now?...Are your steps taking you toward God or away from Him?
O Immaculate Virgin, loveliest Daughter of the Most High Prince, perfect Thou my goings in Thy paths (Ps. 16,5). Direct and keep, we beg You, our steps strictly upon Your paths as we strive to follow in Your sacred footprints!
Second Consideration
Ponder, O soul, how Mary is said to progress through life on beautifully sandaled feet. In connection with the Saints, sandaled feet signify their interior affections, perfected and strengthened by the virtues...Mary from the first moment of Her existence was always most pure and perfect. Her thoughts, Her affections, Her desires, and Her plans were always strengthened and embellished by admirable virtues. Like fragrant flowers, they filled all Her surroundings with sweet fragrance, without any foul odor or dark cloud ever to tarnish or diminish their beauty.
And you, O soul who meditate on Her affections, you wander through the impure desert of this earthly pilgrimage with nary a thought as to how you might strengthen yourself with all the necessary virtues.
Courage! Today, lift up your spirit! Away with the impurities surrounding you. Fortify yourself with the shield of holy virtues so that you can walk as Mary did, and attain the blessings awaiting you in Paradise. O Mary, most pure among all creatures, direct our feet, strengthen our affections as we strive to imitate Your holy virtues!
Third Consideration
O soul, ponder how Mary who, after Her Son, is the first-born Daughter of the Most High God, is called par excellence Daughter of the Prince, that is, the most beloved, dearest, worthiest of Her Prince Father, God. And this filiation which Mary had by Her Immaculate Conception She always kept inviolate...never did She weaken it by disobedience. Rather, She continued wondrously to enhance it through the complete observance of the Law and absolute conformity to the will of Her heavenly Father.
O Mary, most beautiful, You were always a Daughter and never a slave, always a Daughter of grace and never a slave of sin! And you, O soul who meditate on Her filiation, how have you treasured the filiation God gave you through grace at your holy Baptism?...Whose son or daughter have you been for so long a time?...And whose child are you now?...In charity recover anew that divine filiation. Never lose it again...Propose now, firmly, nevermore to be a child of Eve, a slave of sin, but a child of Mary, first-born Daughter among all creatures, and Mother of all graces.
This short excerpt gives only a brief introduction to the mind and devotion of this famous Franciscan Priest.
We dedicate this website to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Divine Mercy Fraternity is part of the Secular Franciscan Order, an Order very much devoted to the Blessed Virgin. Our members, and Fred Schaeffer, OFS (webmaster) share this devotion with Saint Francis of Assisi, whose Rule we follow.
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.
