Our Lady of Lourdes.

I have worked on this image of OUR LADY OF LOURDES and this was beautiful even before i could add certain changes. I clicked on the save to update it for the month of February. 

I wrote a few sentences yesterday the 10th of February, on my big Miracle of OUR LADY OF LOURDES and when ready to update, Jesus tells me not to add this for the month but to write a whole topic on Our Lady of Lourdes and update this with the image of Our Lady. I was thrilled! When i wrote a little, Jesus told me now rest. 

The date of update would be 13th of February also the number 123 as PSALM 123. YEAH! 

When i was a child, i heard it being said, that everybody who visits Lourdes came back being healed.

These days, i hear that all people who go to Lourdes don't come back healed.

I mean the THEN and NOW!

Time is constantly moving. And faith of the people dwindles. This happens to many a people. But it should not.

From the Gospels of Mark and Matthew:

3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense[a] at him. 4 And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.” 5 And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands upon a few sick people and healed them. 6 And he marveled because of their unbelief. Mark 6:3-6 

Familiarity breeds contempt. 

Jesus was unable to perform many miracles in His hometown of Nazareth, healing only a few, due to the people' unbelief and what their limited opinions of Jesus' family were. They thought they knew Jesus. 

This indicates a lack of faith, the context in which Jesus performed miracles. 

55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? 56 And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all this?” 57 And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.” 58 And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief. Matthew 13:55-58

In Mark, we read Jesus could do no mighty work. WHY?

In Matthew, we read Jesus did not do many mighty works. WHY?

There is a difference in could not and did not. What it also implies is that most willingly Jesus chose not to because of their unbelief.

AND let us understand a little more into this:

1. They made a judgement call on Jesus as to Who He is?

   On what they knew, but did not understand, they judged.

   When we judge, we cannot be fair. 

   And when we are unfair, we blind ourselves to reality.

   Thus we are not OPEN to God and His Ways in our lives.

2. Faith is not knowledge. Faith is BELIEF-a complete TRUST! 

3. They came not with belief but with criticism. 

   (kind of what people do to each other, Point out the sins.)

4. For God to work HIS WONDERS in our lives, we must keep an 

   OPEN heart which is ready for the IMPOSSIBLE to become 

   FULLY POSSIBLE!

5. We must wait on God with a childlike trust, keeping our 

   gaze always fixed on JESUS. 

Note 1: i love you, Mama, the Queen of Heaven, the Queen of my heart.

It was my first year of college. Two weeks had passed and there was this big lump on my neck.

I went to our family doctor, who said it could be T.B. He advised me to visit a particular MD. 

On being there with my mum, the MD asked me how long i had it and whether it was painful. It was not painful but 2 weeks seemed long. So while advising me he said, if TB or not, the lump had to be removed. 

He told me i would need to come the next morning for surgery. 

I came home, wore the big-long Rosary i had of our Lady of Lourdes. I knew i would be healed, it is what i believed when i wore it and at night i slept wearing my Rosary. 

The next morning, i woke up with no lump in my neck.

Mama Mary saved me not just that day but each and every day after that. I say this because no matter what, the was and is and from this point of view, i write it with conviction that-i mattered to the Queen of Heaven. 

The more i sit and think the more i am amazed and in complete awe of a Wonderful Mother that God has given us. 

Mary my mother, help me in what is God's Holy Will for me. Teach me to say as you did, "Let it be to me according to Your Word."

Help me Mama to never fail God or disappoint you. You are always my Best. 

 

(Note 1: i wrote on 100226 to be updated for the month of February.)

 

Here i place before you, Two FACTS. 

TWO atheists their outlook on Lourdes and their Conversion. We begin with

1. Dr. Felix Leseur and his wife Elizabeth Leseur.

This is about an atheist doctor, Dr. Felix Leseur a fall-away Catholic and his Catholic wife Elisabeth Leseur.

Dr. Felix Leseur attempted to break down the faith of his wife Elisabeth Leseur. In l905, she was taken ill and tossed on a bed of constant pain until August 1914. She died in her husband’s arms at the age of 47.

After her death, her husband found a note by her addressed to himself, that prophesied about his conversion and him becoming a priest. In order to get rid of such superstition, Félix left for the shrine of Lourdes, wanting to expose the reports of the healings there as fake. At the Lourdes grotto however, he experienced a religious conversion. 

Elisabeth faithfully and willingly did whatever was necessary to save her husband’s soul. She prayed for him and didn’t give up when things were difficult. 

Elisabeth offered her sacrifice of suffering to God for her husbands soul. When suffering is offered for a person or intention and united with Christ’s Passion, it’s a powerful prayer that bears much fruit. 

In 1924 Fulton J. Sheen, who would later become an archbishop, made a retreat under the spiritual direction of the Order of Preachers, a Catholic Dominican Priest, Fr. Felix Leseur. During many hours of spiritual direction, Sheen learned of the life of Élisabeth and the conversion of Félix. Sheen subsequently repeated this conversion story in many of His presentations.

A cause for Elisabeth Leseur's beatification was formally opened on 2 July 1951, granting her the title of Servant of God.

Based on Our Lady of Lourdes and the Conversion of Dr. Felix Leseur by Venerable Fulton J. Sheen.

AND the Second Fact, this is what i heard when i was in school and it remained with me always. I have recounted this fact a couple of times, to people i got to speak with. But this would be the first time i add this here on the Blog.

 2. Dr. Alexis Carrel a French surgeon and biologist.

A doctor and Atheist Converted to Catholic Faith After Witnessing Miracle at Lourdes. Dr. Alexis Carrel, was a French surgeon and biologist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1912 for pioneering vascular suturing techniques. 

As an outspoken skeptic-an atheist, he went to Lourdes in 1903 to expose it as a fraud. 

In May of 1903, Dr. Alexis Carrel travelled on train to Lourdes. The train with its 300 pilgrim-passengers departed from Lyons to Lourdes on May 26. Prior to their departure, Dr. Carrel carefully examined the sick (among them the 21-year-old Marie Bailly in the final stages of peritoneal tuberculosis) and scrupulously set down his observations. 

At the outset of the journey, Carrel was asked to administer a morphine injection to the 21-year-old, Marie Bailly. Her parents and brother had died of the same disease. Marie could not sit up; she spat up blood, and vomited frequently. Her stomach was badly swollen. She suffered greatly and prayed a great deal. Marie had a premonition that at Lourdes she would find a healing. Her doctors and family were against her making the journey. Eventually they relented, for they treated her request as her dying wish. Carrel administered the morphine injection to reduce her suffering. At 3:00 a.m., he had to give her another shot for her pain. He noted then that Marie had a high temperature, swollen legs, and a distended stomach; around her navel there was a large blister filled with water. These were typical symptoms of peritoneal inflammation attending tuberculosis. Carrel knew that Marie could die at any moment.

The train journey to Lourdes took about fourteen hours. 

Carrel was certain that miracles were an absurdity. He had come to Lourdes to be a good recording instrument, and if with his own eyes he were to see an instantaneous healing of an organic disease, the regeneration of an amputated leg, the disappearance of a cancer, a scarring wound, then, and only then, would he believe in miracles and the existence of God. And, pointing to Marie Bailly who was dying of peritoneal tuberculosis, he said: “If this girl is healed, that would be a real miracle. I would believe in it all.”

Before escorting the sick to the Grotto of Apparitions, Carrel went to Marie Bailly’s stretcher, to examine her. The girl’s condition was critical: she could not speak, she breathed with difficulty, her heart was growing weaker, her pulse was rapid and uneven, and her stomach was distended. A classic case of death agony resulting from peritoneal tuberculosis. Carrel was reluctant to allow them to take Marie to the Grotto. But the strenuous entreaties of her guardian convinced him that it would be cruel to deny her greatest wish. Together with two other doctors and his school friend, Carrel accompanied her to the Grotto, never leaving her side. They did not immerse Marie in the spring, but only sprinkled her with the water, then placed her before the Grotto. A brown blanket covered her emaciated body. Her bluish face was pale as a corpse, and her distended stomach bulked large under the blanket. Staring at the dying 21-year-old girl, Alexis felt moved and began spontaneously to utter the words: “Holy Virgin, how I should like to believe, like all these unfortunates, that this Miraculous Spring was not but a figment of our imagination! Heal this poor girl; she has suffered so much. Grant her life, and give me faith. If this girl is healed, which seems absurd, grant that I may believe.”

The healing service began. The priest called on all to pray for the healing of the various diseases of the body, and he appealed for total submission to the will of God.

Looking at Marie lying on the stretcher, Doctor Carrel noticed that the livid blotches on her face were beginning to fade; her cheeks began to take on a ruddy hue. He could not believe his eyes. He observed that her rapid pulse and breathing were slowing down. He felt he was witnessing an extraordinary event. Before his very eyes, the girl’s face was taking on life; the swelling of her stomach was subsiding. Carrel observed the changes occurring in his patient and noted them down. Marie’s heart was beating calmly; her breathing was normal. Asked how she was feeling, she replied, “I think I have been healed.” Marie drank a glass of milk and sat up unaided. Carrel was dumbfounded. The incomprehensible had happened: here he was a witness to the instantaneous miraculous healing of a dying girl. Immediately he went to report the incident to the Medical Bureau, and then returned without delay to the hotel, to examine the cured Marie. 

When Carrel arrived at Marie’s bed, she exclaimed joyfully, “I am completely cured.” Carrel gave her a thorough examination. Her pulse was normal—80 beats to a minute, her body was white and smooth, her stomach flat and even like a young girl’s, with no sign of swelling or hard mass; her diaphragm was thin and supple. A complete healing! From the medical point of view this was an indisputable fact. A similar examination was conducted by the two doctors, who confirmed the total cure. All were convinced that they had witnessed a great miracle.

She remained healed, later joining the Sisters of Charity.

At Lourdes he learnt that true science does not fear truth, and that God is not limited by human reason.

Carrel began to pray: “Holy Virgin, refuge of the poor, you answered my lack of faith with a great miracle. I cannot comprehend it, nor can I rid myself of doubt. My greatest desire, the aim of all my aspirations, is to have an unshakable faith. Accept me, a sinner harried by his pursuit after specious lights. Beneath the hard rock of my intellectual pride there lives the most beautiful of all dreams—alas, still stifled—to believe in you and love you even as do these religious sisters of unblemished souls.” Following this prayer, Carrel felt an unimaginable sense of peace and certainty that God existed and loved him with an unconditional love. 

A Thought: Not everybody can afford to go to Lourdes for a healing. But spiritually you can call on Our Lady of Lourdes to heal you. 

Maybe get a picture of Our Lady of Lourdes and you can place it before you.

i wore a Rosary of Our Lady of Lourdes. So i was not in Lourdes, but yet i was. For i am healed.  

You become what you believe. Believe that you are healed. 

Don't pray giving God an Option 1 (Reason 1) & 

Option 2 (if Reason 1 does not work then give me this). 

What you are saying to God is i Don't think this will happen so maybe give me option 2. 

Don't play safe. Remember God is ABLE! Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, Ephesians 3:20

Be Persistent.  

Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Romans 12:12  

And sit with Jesus in (The Blessed Eucharist).

If you are sick, your sickness will not go any level high.

It may remain at what it is for some time, till you come to realize what Jesus expects of you. But be certain, that you will get better. Nobody who sits in the presence of God can remain unfazed, untouched. 

Do you understand?

Jesus desires for you to BELIEVE!

Conclusion: Every deed, every suffering, every offer of suffering to God bears fruit in time. 

Life is Precious. Life is Sacred. Life is but The Breath of God in us. 

We must always do our best in all ways and at all times and even to the end of our given time on Earth. 

Always doing the best we can for the greater good and always to the Glory of God.

Thank You, Abba Father.

Thank You, Jesus.

Thank You, Holy Spirit.