A MOST HAPPY FEAST OF OUR LADY OF LOURDES TO YOU AND YOURS!

 The glorious feast of Our Lady of Lourdes falls on February 11th, the same date that Our Lady first appeared to little Bernadette Soubirous in the year 1858. Bernadette described Our Lady as being as old as a teenager, perhaps 17 or 18 years old and exceptionally beautiful. 

As preparation for the great feast, I listened to Damien Walne's The Lady Said on You-Tube which would be a lovely treat for a family to listen to during the feast, it would entertain and edify children and may be enjoyed during car journeys. The Lady Said, a venerable book, is still available. 

The only issue I have with Walne is that he is a bit squeamish about the baths at Lourdes, and marks it as a significant penance that people have to share the water with people who have contagious diseases and thus risk getting sick or sicker themselves. This strikes me as a somewhat short-sighted slight on the waters of Lourdes, especially in a year when the baths were closed because of covid. T'would have been better had Walne repeated what the Lady said when she assured little Bernadette that, "the water is blessed", and offers protection to the people who bathe in it from the diseases and sicknesses of others, and also is remarkably miraculous.