Finding the beads

I searched high and low for my beloved Rosary beads today. I put my beads in their little pouch in my pocket yesterday and, of course, at the time I questioned whether this was a good idea. It wasn’t. How far can they travel from my pocket? Far enough is the answer.

I love these particular beads and if I can help it I like to say my Rosary on them, I know it shouldn’t make a difference but I can’t help it…I have favourites (You can read about them here Beads of hope for 2009). They continue to help me touch upon the World Church as I pray because they speak of those suffering persecution yet still able to create such beauty for the love of a mother; a mother who draws close to the children who live their lives to glorify a beloved son. They make me aware, when I start to consider how hard I find things sometimes, of the fact that at least I can say my Rosary freely and I feel so lucky to be able to do so.

Thankfully St Anthony came through for me and I found them safely tucked up in their little patch near my bed.

To me (on a good day) the Rosary is like a window and, just for an instant, I feel like the veil between this world and the other falls (or at least thins).  Sometimes that doesn’t happen – I get distracted, look out the window or start thinking about making my next cup of tea – lose the rhythm. However, on the occasions I get it right its like catching a glimpse of something and knowing its real.

I wish I got it right more often than not…I don’t. Even so I am so thankful for this gift of a prayer which always seems to me like fluttering wings.  Saying the Rosary is learning. I feel I can always get better at it – closer, more focused, stronger - and this is the beauty of it. When I was younger we used to say it as a family but saying as an adult is different. It starts to take root in you and becomes an anchor of peace. I am still learning but I would rather face the journeys ahead of me with these beads between my fingers than without them.

I never get bored of the well known statement made by John Paul the great "the Rosary is the rhythm of life". 

MEDITATION PRAYER WITH THE MIRACULOUS MEDAL

I love the Miraculous Medal and all that it stands for as a contribution and witness. I was given mine for my First Holy Communion and it is one of the most precious gifts anybody has given to me. You can read about my sadness at losing it earlier this year (The loss of a little witness) and the delight I felt when I found it(http://thedreamersday.blogspot.com/2009/02/rediscovery-of-little-witness.html)

I have included a beautiful prayer which you can use in meditation upon the medal which comes from the Malitia of the Immaculata

What I love about the medal is the inspiration it has provided others like Fr Kolbe who in 1917 founded the Malitia of the Immaculata - check out the website to find out more and even join! There is loads of great information about the medal, how to live its message and how Fr. Kolbe lived its message http://www.consecration.com/. Here is the prayer

Oh Mary, this medal is a sign and a guarentee of your presence.
You are present because your power is present, your voice is present and your love is present.

Therefore, O Immaculate Conception and mother of the Church, we call on you now to fulfil your guarantee. Rain down upon us the great graces you promised to those who carry this medal, especially to those who wear it around the neck. Make us perceive your presence now and always.

Make us consciously experience your power, love and guidance, that in your meditation we may begin to share your perfect respnse to God and to each of his creatures, and to join in your war against the ancient serpent.

Help us to abandon our self-centred feelings and preoccupations. Help us to accept our sufferings, offering them back to the father through you.

Teach us to listen and learn, that by becoming one with you in purpose, we might more fully respond to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, participating in the life and unity of the Trinity through your intercession. Amen.

CELEBRATION! (It's a May thing)

The other day I wrote a post which looked at a criticism which is often leveled at Lourdes. My objective was not so much to defend Lourdes (which certainly doesn't need me to defend it) but the fact that Lourdes, as well as being a very holy place is a very human place with all the trappings that accompany six million people. I suppose I wanted to covey the reality of it as well as the divinity because in a way I think that is the beauty of the place. However, I don't think I did a great job on that front (the comments left by readers were so much more elegant and well put than my actual post :-) ) So instead I thought I would just share some images from my most recent trip to Lourdes showing you why it is special ( generally special but also special to me) rather than just ranting on in my usual polemic style. I hope you will all forgive me for my lack clarity. I usually come to my computer at the end of the day or when I can grab a few minutes during the day and at the moment my brain is totally fried. Thank you all for your continued kindness

REASONS TO CELEBRATE MARY, MAY AND LOURDES:
1) Reason 1 - because in Lourdes you can paint an image like this on a wall in the middle of a pedestrian street and it is met with affection and love. When I first went to Lourdes I was amazed and overwhelmed by the generosity of spirit shown by pilgrims. I have worked in both kitchens of the hospitals and helping to bathe pilgrims and I have never been so humbled by the love people are filled with here. Perhaps it is not just images it is easier to show. In Lourdes people can be unguarded and free in their faith and expression. All around you are reminders of the best aspects, not just of Catholicism, but humanity, humility and faith - you are constantly absorbing or being exposed to the goodness of others and the simple truth of their faith.

2) Reason2 - Lourdes is a refuge for the people who deserve to be respected but are often overlooked in our secular, material, success driven world. In Lourdes the sick and disabled always go first -no matter what. Here they are treated as the teachers - we follow them. It is the one place where prejudice is turned on its head - the least important in the eyes of the world are the most important. Just as Christ said it should be. We step aside for them and treat them with the respect they deserve. People can wait for hours for to get into the baths for example, or to walk around the grotto because wheelchairs and the disabled will be put before them. If there were no other reason for the existence of this place - this one on its own would be enough.

3) Reason 3 - The miracle of serenity. Being at the grotto brings a peace to the soul that is the real miracle of Lourdes. When I first went there a Canadian chaplain told me that people tend to think of Lourdes as a place of, or even come to Lourdes looking for great physical healing- which is fine but it is about more than that. What they receive is something else - quite different but no less great or magnificent; the miracle of serenity. Bernadette herself believed that the healing springs were not for her. The graces of having seen Our Lady were enough to sustain her.

4) The beauty of Lourdes. Pure and simple.

5) The good example of those who first knelt at the grotto. This year Lourdes is having a special year to bring peoples attention to Bernadette. A good reason for this is that she can be quite easily forgotten in the buzz of the sanctuary. This is of course her aim and achievement - the brush Our Lady used to sweep up with and then put back behind the door - was how she described herself. Bernadette withdrew from Lourdes and sacrificed not only the grotto she loved but being close to the family she loved. Her devotion and love of God is a true example to us all. She wanted to give thanks for graces she believed were given to her because she was the "poorest and most ignorant" child heaven could pick out of obscurity "if she had found someone more stupid she would have chosen her" Bernadette told the commission which declared Lourdes genuine within four years of the vision. One of Bernadette's habits is displayed in a small, out of the way museum in Lourdes.

If you go up into the town you can also visit the grave of Peyramale Bernadette's greatest critic at the beginning of the visions and her staunchest defender by the end. I visited his tomb for the first time this year. I found it very moving. He is buried in the crypt of parish church where he served his community. There is no fuss surrounding him.

6) The love of a mother who brings us with her to the foot of the cross, to the body of her son; sacrificed and risen, to the day of Pentecost and to the grotto where she asks us to pray for sinners and cries "Penance, penance, penance!". To look upon the place where she stood.

A sign of contradiction?

As part of a little series of posts dedicated to Mary in her month of May. A reflection on how Lourdes appears to some from the outside:

If you look at Lourdes on Wikipedia you will find the following

"Modern Lourdes has no shortage of glitz on display. Some visitors may dislike the commercialism practised in parts of Lourdes, with neon-emblazoned gift shops overflowing with what Malcolm Muggeridge, although a supporter of the shrine, called "tawdry relics, the bric-a-brac of piety".[8] Critics argue that the Lourdes phenomenon is nothing more than a significant money spinner for the town and the region, which therefore has a strong vested interest in keeping the pilgrims coming;[9] however, the trinket shops are privately owned, and hawkers and souvenir stalls are strictly forbidden inside the sanctuary itself."

Lourdes is, on some levels, a place filled with contradictions. Aside from that little grotto (of great spiritual but no particular geographical magnitude) it is just an ordinary little French town. However, you can't put that little grotto aside and because of it Lourdes is awash with all the things you would expect when a small town is overrun by 6 million plus tourists a year. Every building is a hotel, hostel, inn, restaurant, coffee shop or most contentious of all a shop selling devotional objects. If they were small, pleasant or tasteful devotional objects I am sure there would be little contention but I am afraid that they are usually none of these things. They sing, they glow in the dark, they tick but few of the statues and rosaries could claim to be anything exclusive to Lourdes - it is only the sheer number that makes them noteworthy. It is possible that the need to cram what seems like a million of pretty much the same shop selling pretty much the same thing into such a small space is enough to level criticism at Lourdes. However, the truth is that these fairly harmless shops are just a fact of life (a superficial one at that). They have nothing to do with Lourdes itself and I have to admit I quite enjoy looking around them. They are an inevitable oddity which arises because human beings like to sell and buy things (they are not anywhere near the grotto!!). The town of Lourdes is not the grotto - the domain, where the actual holy sights are based, is walled off completely and protected from this mass tourism. When you are at the grotto the busy tourist town seems a million miles away. That grotto draws you to it with an immense promise of peace and it makes all the trimmings that surround Lourdes utterly irrelevant. Even the grotto itself is often filled with activity of one kind or another but I always remember it as being very still. All I can remember hearing is the Gav river flowing beside it.

Lourdes is a real place and while the grotto may be the closest thing I think the soul gets to a taste of heaven it does not change the fact it is still on earth. Of course we will surround it and change it but its truth remains untouched - like the eternal truth, it remains unchanged. People may claim Lourdes is a contradiction- that it preaches one thing and does another. I would say it is nothing of the sort - it is a wondrous, jangling mix of languages and praise. This may confuse people but these this place only exists in its current form because of the love of a mother - magnified and resounding. There is no contradiction of the message of Lourdes or Bernadette's unflinching truths here only human beings in all their complexity but Lourdes is truly the one place where there are no contradictions of the soul- and as for contradictions of the other kind- they are found in every place. Yet Lourdes a safe haven where the streets are filled with rosaries. You can carry your rosary openly and display your faith, you can plaster pictures of the Pope all around and you can be Catholic in all its beauty without fear, in fellowship with people from all different nations. How can this be anything but a sign of hope at a time when Catholicism is becoming less welcome on our streets, in our schools and on our televisions? Lourdes is unity and love so who wants to waste time talking about singing, ticking statues in the midst of it? Certainly not me.