Question for the Day: What is Our First Duty?

 "I must be holy because my Jesus wants it."    

                                    St. Bernadette Soubirous

The Church often reminds us of our obligations according to our state in life. A priest's or nun's duty is not the same as a husband or a wife, a mother or a father, a student, an employer, or employee. But one duty in which we all share is to be holy "because my Jesus wants it."

How do we do that? It's not very complicated, but it's anything but easy. Mary showed us how in her "fiat." When she responded to the angel, she gave us the answer. "Be it done to me according to your word." The angel was the the messenger of God's will. If we want to be holy we have to do one thing -- embrace the will of God! It's better to embrace His will out of love than out of fear, but Scripture tells us that the "Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." A child may behave out of fear of Daddy's anger, but it's better to behave out of love and respect. And as we mature in our faith, that hopefully becomes our default position.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, Pray for Us!

There isn't a canonized saint in heaven who did not embrace devotion to Our Lady. One of the reasons they became saints is they faithfully walked in the footsteps of Our Queen. She escorted them straight to the King and taught these humble, little followers to bow before His Majesty! Even the great ones among them, had a humble servant's heart. On this Feast of the Immaculate Conception I offer a few golden nuggets from The Imitation of Mary. She is there to help us in all circumstances:

On Pilgrimage: Our Lady of Lourdes, Pray for Us!

Basilica of Lourdes at the height of the season.
Six million pilgrims visit every year.

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. Do you know St. Bernadette's story? Raised in poverty, she was a sickly child, but was still eager to help her family. One day in winter she, her sister and a friend went to look for firewood. At the cave of Massabielle, what the locals called the "pigs' shelter" she saw a vision of a young girl dressed in a white gown with gold roses on her feet who invited Bernadette to pray the rosary and asked her to return every day for fifteen days. Every day she would kneel at the grotto, venerate the beautiful lady, and pray the rosary.

Bernadette became a figure of mockery when the lady told her to dig in the earth and drink the water that appeared there and eat the weed. The gathered crowd called her crazy, but a spring bubbled up there and miraculous cures soon took place at the site.

When Bernadette asked the lady her name she replied, "I am the Immaculate Conception," a title conferred on her only a few years earlier by Pope Pius IX.

Miracles for an Unbelieving World

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and World Day of the Sick. What an appropriate combination. Our Lady appeared to a young girl, Bernadette Soubirous, in the little village of Lourdes France in 1858. During the 18 apparitions the Blessed Mother left a spring that had miraculous properties. The first approved miracle occurred on March 1, 1858 while the apparitions continued when Catherine Latapie, nine months pregnant, walked about five miles from the neighboring village of Loubajac to bathe her paralyzed arm in the spring. She was immediately healed and gave birth to a son later that day. Thirty-five miracles would be documented over the next few years before the Church announced in 1862 that Bernadette's apparitions were authentic. Miracles continue to occur at Lourdes astounding medical science. For two amazing stories click here.

While physical cures may be the most dramatic, spiritual miracles of conversion and the strengthening of faith are far more important. Fr. John Hardon, S.J. confirmed that on a retreat I attended when he shared some personal experiences of witnessing physical miracles. He then stressed that miracles of the soul were of a higher nature and more valuable. I thought of that when I read an account about a family who had a daughter with cerebral palsy. They came to Lourdes every year, not asking for a cure, but asking for the strength to live another year with cheerfulness and courage. Suffering is part of the human condition; suffering well is a miracle of grace.

For more about Bernadette and the story of Lourdes take a virtual pilgrimageand meet this humble and beautiful saint whose body remains incorrupt after 150 years.