Our Lady of Lourdes Strengthen Us to Wait for Jesus at the foot of the Cross!

                   Que soy era               Immaculada Councepciou -I am the Immaculate Conception

        

Novena Prayer Our Lady of Lourdes

Oh ever immaculate Virgin, Mother of Mercy, Health of the Sick, Refuge of Sinners, Comforter of the Afflicted, you know my wants, my troubles, my sufferings. Look upon me with mercy. When you appeared in the grotto of Lourdes, you made it a privileged sanctuary where you dispense your favors, and where many sufferers have obtained the cure of their infirmities, both spiritual and corporal. I come, therefore, with unbounded confidence to implore your maternal intercession. My loving Mother, obtain my request. I will try to imitate your virtues so that I may one day share your company and bless you in eternity. Amen

Photo © Speramus-We Hope 

Click to Place Your Petitions  at the Grotto of Lourdes

Join in the Prayers and Devotions Live at the Grotto on Lourdes TV 24/7

Encyclical Pope Pius XII on Lourdes
 "LePelerinage de Lourdes"
 

Le Pelerinage de Lourdes is the only encyclical of Pope Pius XII issued in French and the only encyclical written on Lourdes. The pope recalled pleasant memories of his pilgrimage to Lourdes which he undertook as Papal delegate at the Eucharistic and Marian Celebrations in 1937. 

He  reminded the faithful of France, "that every Christian land is a Marian land and that there is not one nation redeemed in the blood of Christ which does not glory in proclaiming Mary its Mother and Patroness”  He then recalls the history of Marian veneration, the history of Lourdes and the contributions of the Popes to her veneration at Lourdes.


This encyclical was issued on the centenary of the apparitions of Lourdes from St. Peter's Basilica, on the feast of the Visitation of the Most Holy Virgin, July 2, 1957, the nineteenth year of his Pontificate. The encyclical represents one of the strongest pronouncements of the papal magisterium on Marian apparitions in the history of the Catholic Church. The Pope presents Mary as the model of Christian Life. The school of Mary teaches everybody selflessness and charity.   


 

"In the school of Mary one can learn to live, not only to give Christ to the world, but also to await with faith the hour of Jesus, and to remain with Mary at the foot of the cross"



Wherever providence has placed a person, there is always more to be done for God's cause. 

"Priests should with supernatural confidence, show the narrow road which leads to life. Consecrated and Religious fight under Mary's banner against inordinate lust for freedom, riches, and pleasures. In response to the Immaculate, they will fight with the weapons of prayer and penance and by triumphs of charity. Go to her, you who are crushed by material misery, defenseless against the hardships of life and the indifference of men. Go to her, you who are assailed by sorrows and moral trials. Go to her, beloved invalids and infirm, you who are sincerely welcomed and honored at Lourdes as the suffering members of our Lord. Go to her and receive peace of heart, strength for your daily duties, joy for the sacrifice you offer."

O my Mother in your Heart I place all the anguish of my heart and it is there that I gain strength and courage." 

Sainte Berrnadette Personal Notebook p.28

Pope Francis renews consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary!

 


Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima  traveled all the way from Portugal to the Vatican, at the request of Pope Francis, who  also  consecrated the world once more to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on May 13th. The Pope  has shown a great devotion to Mary, since the very first day of his pontificate. 





The Holy Father received the statue on the afternoon of Saturday, October 12th,  followed by a Marian talk. On Sunday, October 13th, the Pope offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the presence of the Fatima Statue. After the Mass the pope recited the following Consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary before the Angelus.

Statue at Fatima during visit of Benedict XVI in 2010

Benedict XVI was  also given some minutes to privately pray before the statue of Our Lady of Fatima, just after it arrived  into the Vatican by helicopter. Benedict XVI  visited the Fatima Shrine in 2010

Consecration Prayer of Pope Francis

October 13, 2013

Crown with bullet taken from JPII in center

Holy Mary Virgin of Fatima,
with renewed gratitude for your maternal presence we join our voice to that of all the generations who call you blessed.
We celebrate in you the works of God,
who never tires of looking down with mercy
upon humanity, afflicted with the wound of sin,
to heal it and save it.
Accept with the benevolence of a Mother
the act of consecration that we perform today with confidence, before this image of you that is so dear to us. We are certain that each of us is precious in your eyes and that nothing of all that lives in our hearts is unknown to you.
We let ourselves be touched by your most sweet regard and we welcome the consoling caress of your smile. Hold our life in your arms:
bless and strengthen every desire for good;
revive and nourish faith; sustain and enlighten hope; awaken and animate charity; guide all of us along the path of holiness.
Teach us your own preferential love
for the little and the poor, for the excluded and the suffering, for sinners and the downhearted:
bring everyone under your protection and entrust everyone to your beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus. Amen. Zenet News  [Translation by Joseph Trabbic]


Does the pope acknowledge a special need for this papal initiative at this time? Below Pope Pius XII Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on October 31, 1942 just before major turning points in World War II. He did this  as “Father of Christianity” as the representative of Christ, who has all power in heaven and on earth”  Soon after this Consecration World War II started to go for the side of the allies.

While we are in the midst of a strange ominous government shutdown with its alleged threats of possible including  a world-wide economic disaster if the United States defaults on their debt. This is indeed sufficient to warrant our concerns. Not withstanding the Syrian crisis and  the list goes on....

One need not be a religious fanatic to think that today's world is headed towards a good lashing. Consequences of our own sins and omissions. Whatever in fact is the motivation for this act, I  surely hope for our Lady's intercession in answer to the prayers of the Pope as he renews what  past popes have already done, placing once more the world into her Immaculate Heart at this decisive hour.

The Collegial Consecration in 1984  
Fatima Statue's last visit to Rome 

For article and text of
Bl. John Paul II 1984 Collegial Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

The statue's last visit to Rome for 1984 Collegial Consecration by John Paul II

Below Pope Pius XII Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  
On October 31, 1942 just before major turning points in World War II he did so as “Father of Christianity” as the representative of Christ, who has all power in heaven and on earth”. The  following, October 31, 1942 consecration was performed via a Portuguese radio broadcast, and then renewed again on December 8, 1942 in Rome.  

Consecration of Pius XII of the World to Immaculate Heart of Mary

Queen of the Holy Rosary,

Statue of Pope Pius XII at Fatima Shrine

Help of the Christians,

Refuge of the human race,

Conqueress in God’s battlefields,

To You and to Your Immaculate Heart

In this tragic hour of human history

We entrust and consecrate ourselves,

And the Holy Church.

She is the Mystical Body of Your Jesus,

Suffering and bleeding in so many parts

And tormented in so many ways,

We consecrate to You the whole world torn by bitter strive

And consumed by the fire of hatred

The victim of its own wickedness.

Look with compassion to all material and moral destruction

To the suffering and fears of fathers and mothers

Of husbands and wives, of brother and sisters and innocent children.

Look at the many lives cut down in the flower of youth

So many bodies torn to pieces in brutal slaughter

So many souls tortured and troubled

And in danger of being lost eternally.

Oh, Mother of Mercy, obtain peace for us from God!

Obtain especially those graces, which can convert human hearts quickly.

Those graces, which can prepare, establish and insure peace.

Queen of Peace, pray for us;

Give the world at war the peace for which all are longing,

Peace in Truth, Justice and the Charity of Christ.

Give them peace of the arms and peace of mind,

That in tranquility and order

The Kingdom of God may expand.

Grant Your protection to infidels

And to those still walking in the shadow of death;

Give them peace and permit that the sun of truth may raise upon them;

And that together with us

They may repeat before the Only Saviour of the World:

Glory to God in the highest

And peace on earth among men of good will (Lk2.14)

Give peace to the people separated by error and schism,

Particularly those, who have special devotion to You

And among whom there was no home,

Where Your venerable Icon was not honoured,

Though at present it may be hidden

In the hope for better days.

Bring them back to the One Fold of Christ,

Under the One True Shepherd.

Obtain peace and complete liberty for the Holy Church of God,

Check the spreading flood of neo-paganism,

Arouse within the faithful love of purity

The practice of Christian life and apostolic zeal,

So that the people who serve God,

May increase in merit and number.

All of humanity were once consecrated to the Heart of Your Son.

All our hopes rest in Him, Who is in all times

Sign and pledge of victory and salvation.

Forever we consecrate ourselves to You

And to Your Immaculate Heart,

Oh, Mother and Queen of the World!

May Your love and patronage hasten the victory of the Kingdom of God,

May all nations, at peace with each other and with God, proclaim You Blessed

And sing with You from one end of the earth to the other,

The eternal Magnificat of glory, love and gratitude

To the Heart of Jesus, in which alone,

They can find Truth, Life and Peace.-Amen

This post registered on Catholic Blogger linkup for October, 2013

Let us Rejoice in the Lord Celebrating a Feast Day in Honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Good Counsel on whose Soleminty the Angels Rejoice and Give Praise to the Son of God! Introit

According to tradition, in 1467, during festivities for the Feast of Saint Mark, the townfolk suddenly heard "exquisite music." A mysterious cloud was then said to have descended and obliterated an unfinished wall of the parish church. In front of the populace, the cloud dissipated and a beautiful fresco no thicker than an egg shell and no more than eighteen inches square, of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Christ Child was revealed. The venerated icon is drawn on a thin scale of wall-plaster little thicker than a host, and was observed to hang suspended in the air without the slightest apparent support. Early tradition, tells how one might have passed a thread around the image without touching it. Many miracles are said to have occurred in the portrait's presence, and it was widely believed that it had been miraculously transported from a church in Albania on whose wall a blank section with the exact deminsions of the icon in Italy is visible. This thin layer of porcelain or plaster the thickness of an eggshell, could not have been removed from its original surroundings by human hand. To this day it stands upright without any support of any kind  except for a narrow ledge on which it rests. All of Italy came to visit the blessed image. Whole cities and towns came in pilgrimage and many miracles have taken place over the centuries that were recorded in a register that was opened April 28, 1467 two days after the event took place.

Remember, O Virgin Mother

to Speak Good Things Before God's

Face in our Behalf, so that He May

Turn Away His Anger from us.

Offertory Prayer

Our journey through life is beset with many dangers. Often we are in need of direction in our difficulties and trials. We must remember  when we have no one to turn too Jesus gave us a Counselor who will never fail us. Let us go to Our Lady with childlike trust and abandonment. Entrusting ourselves to her prudent guidance,for she is indeed Our Mother of Good Counsel.

May the Intercession of your Glorious Mother, Mary ever Virgin, Mother of Good Counsel, help us we beseech you O Lord, that those on whom she has lavashed unceasing favors may percieve what they ought to do and strength to perform it. Amen Post Communion Prayer

In 1630 Pope Urban VIII went to Genazzano on a pilgrimage, as did Pius IX in 1864. In 1682, Innocent XI had the picture crowned with gold by the Vatican Basilica. In 1727 Benedict XIII granted the clergy of Genazzano an Office and Mass of Our Lady for 25 April, the anniversary of the apparition, elsewhere the feast was observed a day later so as not to conflict with that of St. Mark the Evangelist. The numerous miracles at the shrine increased the cult of Our Lady of Good Counsel over the centuries. On April 22, 1903, Pope LEO XII included the invocation "Mater boni consilii" in the Litany of Loreto and In 1939 Pope Pius XII placed his pontificate under the maternal care of Our Lady of Good Counsel and composed the following prayer to her.

 Prayer to Our Lady

of Good Counsel

Holy Virgin, moved by the painful uncertainty we experience in seeking and acquiring the true and the good, we cast ourselves at thy feet and invoke thee under the sweet title of Mother of Good Counsel. We beseech thee: come to our aid at this moment in our worldly sojourn when the twin darknesses or error and of evil that plots our ruin by leading minds and hearts astray.

Seat of Wisdom and Star of the Sea, enlighten the victims of doubt and of error so that they may not be seduced by evil masquerading as good; strengthen them against the hostile and corrupting forces of passion and of sin.

Mother of Good Counsel, obtain for us from thy Divine Son the love of virtue and the strength to choose, in doubtful and difficult situations, the course agreeable to our salvation. Supported by thy hand we shall thus journey without harm along the paths taught us by the word and example of Jesus our Savior, following the Sun of Truth and Justice in freedom and safety across the battlefield of life under the guidance of thy maternal Star, until we come at length to the harbor of salvation to enjoy with thee unalloyed and everlasting peace. Amen.

Photo of Original Fresco

The miraculous image is still suspended in the air by itself.
One can pass a thread around the image and not touch it!

Our Lady of Good Counsel original fresco

from the church at Genazzano

about 25 miles southeast of Rome. 

The image is a fresco executed on a thin layer

of porcelain no thicker than an egg shell.

O God You have given us the Mother of of your beloved Son to be Our Mother, and you have been pleased to give honor to her beautiful picture by a wonderful sign; grant, we beseech You, that by always adhering to her counsels, we may be able to live after your own heart and happily win our heavenly country.  Mass Prayer