The Perpetual Virginity of Mary

The Biblical evidence. To quote:

It is no secret that ancient Judaism, like the Church, prized the goods of marriage and family. But Judaism had room for celibacy too, if practiced for religious reasons. The best known example is the rabbi named Jesus of Nazareth. In addition to Him, we also have the example of the prophet Jeremiah (Jer 16:1-2), St. Paul (cf. 1 Cor 7), and St. Philip's "four unmarried daughters, who prophesied" (Acts 21:9). Beyond the record of Scripture, we also find Jewish groups like the Essenes and the Therapeutae, who likewise consecrated themselves to virginity. Consecrated virginity was not unheard of in ancient Judaism.

The Incorruptible

As many people may know, the body of St. Bernadette is incorrupt to this day. As it was meticulously recorded:

At the request of the Bishop of Nevers I detached and removed the rear section of the fifth and sixth right ribs as relics; I noted that there was a resistant, hard mass in the thorax, which was the liver covered by the diaphragm. I also took a piece of the diaphragm and the liver beneath it as relics, and can affirm that this organ was in a remarkable state of preservation. I also removed the two patella bones to which the skin clung and which were covered with more clinging calcium matter. Finally, I removed the muscle fragments right and left from the outsides of the thighs. These muscles were also in a very good state of preservation and did not seem to have putrefied at all."

"From this examination I conclude that the body of the Venerable Bernadette is intact, the skeleton is complete, the muscles have atrophied, but are well preserved; only the skin, which has shriveled, seems to have suffered from the effects of the damp in the coffin. It has taken on a grayish tinge and is covered with patches of mildew and quite a large number of crystals and calcium salts, but the body does not seem to have putrefied, nor has any decomposition of the cadaver set in, although this would be expected and normal after such a long period in a vault hollowed out of the earth."

~Nevers, April 3, 1919, Dr. Comte

Novena Prayer

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us!

St. Bernadette, pray for us!

An American Lourdes

One winter I made a retreat about ten miles from the tomb of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American-born citizen to be canonized. She was a beautiful, cultured, educated lady who suffered the loss of husband, two children, and social standing. Shunned by most of her family after she converted to Catholicism, Saint Elizabeth started a community of teaching nuns in what was called Saint Joseph's valley at the foot of Saint Mary's Mountain near Emmitsburg, Maryland.

I often came to Emmitsburg during my childhood and young adulthood, visiting the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes. It is the spot where my husband and I became engaged on Easter Sunday in 1996. We also visited it after our wedding in November of the same year, leaving the bridal bouquet at Our Lady's feet.

The Grotto is a popular pilgrimage site and has a miraculous spring. My mother once injured her foot after she dropped a motor bike on it. We took her to the Grotto. After bathing her foot in the icy water the pain disappeared, even as she was walking back to the car. There are many other healings that have happened there, both physical and spiritual. The daily Mass is in the glass chapel on the side of the mountain. Through the tall trees can be seen the blue expanse of Frederick County, "fair as the garden of the Lord," as the poet Whittier said. (Well, at least it used to be; now it is a bit congested.)

The Grotto is a serene and beautiful spot even in the dead of winter. We were amazed at all the youth groups who were there, praying. One Saturday, there was Mass followed by confessions and Adoration. I confessed to an elderly priest, Fr. George Reed, whom I remembered from high school days. He had given me some helpful spiritual direction when I was seventeen; there he was at the Grotto, still hearing confessions after so many years. There are few things quite like a pilgrimage for putting everything in perspective. People come from all over to St. Mary's Mountain in order to find healing, peace, and inspiration, in the spirit of the original Lourdes in France.

At the Grotto is the rock where Mother Seton would come every Sunday and teach the children, those of the neighborhood and her own, the catechism, explaining the truths of the faith with clarity and love. Mother and her nuns would walk up from the valley, rain or shine, to spend Sunday on the mountain. It was in the first decades of the nineteenth century, before the Lourdes apparitions in France, but the Grotto was seen as a venerable and holy place by Mother and the French priests who assisted her. Walking there in the twenty-first century one is still overwhelmed by the sense of being on holy ground.

Novena Prayer

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.

Saint Bernadette, pray for us.

The Secular Order of Carmel

Our Father General discusses the role of lay Carmelites. His Reverence's entire letter can be read HERE.

The spiritual relationship which exists between the friars, the nuns of the cloister and the Secular Carmelites of the Order is a source of great wealth for each one of us as individuals and for the Order. It is also a source of grace and of dynamism for the Church which we serve and for the world, which needs to enter into the knowledge of the presence of God.

Pope Benedict on the Consecrated Life

The complete donation of one's life to God.

The evangelical image of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple contains the fundamental symbol of light; the light which, irradiating from Christ, shone on Mary and Joseph, on Simeon and Anna and, through them, on everyone. The Church Fathers associated this shining light with the spiritual journey. Consecrated life is an expression of this journey, especially in ... love for divine beauty, reflection of the goodness of God.

Prince Bertrand on Our Lady

I had the privilege of meeting good Prince Bertrand last fall and was overjoyed to hear that he is in our country speaking about the Blessed Mother. To quote:

Prince Bertrand raised the question as to why Our Lady as a mother would weep over her children. He spoke at length about the great accomplishments of Christendom, which were fruits of the Redemption. The fall of Christendom was obviously a cause for the sorrow of Our Lady....

“While it is clear why Our Lady weeps,” Prince Bertrand concluded, “it is even clearer that we cannot be indifferent in face of so copiously shed tears.”

Our Lady asks of her children that they amend their lives, do penance and offer up prayers and sacrifices. She asks that they live up to the privilege and glory of being soldiers of Christ conferred upon them in the sacrament of Confirmation. Thus, the Prince called on all to make of these maternal requests a program of life especially in light of the Fatima Message.

Held Hostage by Caprice

The sacred liturgy is not a free for all. Fr. Mark quotes an extraordinary homily.

St. Charles Borromeo advised his priests to fight distractions and foster devotion the same way that you keep a stove lit with only a flicker of flame inside, and that is, by keeping that stove closed up tight until you get the fire going strong. I think that has to be the aim of the reform of the reformed liturgy. That was the genius over centuries of the old Latin Low Mass, tamper-proof and self-contained throughout the vicissitudes of time. The pendulum swing to the other extreme, which has swept away everything that was popular devotion and religious expression, while at the same time opening up that stove to nearly anything and everything, has had little more effect than to have diminished the liturgy's capacity for providing heat and light. Contemporary worship is too often held hostage by caprice (tasteful or tasteless is not the point), by creativity, if you will, but still something not foreseen by legitimate authority.