Bernadette Soubirous was born of a very poor family in Lourdes, a small village at the foothills of the Pyrenees in the south of France. It was on the 11th of February 1858, whilst she and her sisters went to collect brush wood for the house fire, that 14 year-old Bernadette saw the first of 18 visions of a lady.
As time went on, Bernadette was to learn that the mysterious lady was the Blessed Virgin Mary and to hear from her lips “I am the Immaculate Conception“. During one of the visions, the Mother of Jesus told Bernadette to scrape some earth from the ground.
A steady stream of water then flowed. Many of the thoudsands of people who now visit Lourdes each year bathe in the running water.
In the convent that she joined, Bernadette said “I am getting on with my job.” She was asked: “What is your job?” She replied in a positive way, saying “Living as somebody who is ill.” Bernadette prayed: “Lord, I do not ask that I never be afflicted, but only that you never abandon me in affliction.”
In 1992 Pope John Paul II instituted the World Day of the Sick to be held on the 11th February, the memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, as a way for believers to offer prayers for those who suffer from illness and their carers. Tuesday 11th February 2021 is the 29th World Day of the Sick. Pope Benedict and Pope Francis have continued this special World Day – an occasion during which the whole Church bears witness with special concern to the tender mercy and love of God towards all who suffer.
It is a time to pause and be prayerfully in solidarity with those who are sick and with all who care for the sick.
Our Lady of Lourdes Pray for Us
Gospel – John 2:1-11
There was a wedding in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come?
His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told them, “Fill the jars with water.”
So they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it. And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing where it came from (although the servants who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now.” Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs in Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him.
The Gospel of the Lord
The Mass intention is for the Sick and Housebound of the Parish
Reflection:
Jesus reveals his glory, but not through a TV campaign or emails. He goes to a wedding. He likes to celebrate God’s wonderful gift of marriage. He also takes the opportunity to reveal the abundance of God’s grace. He is saying: ‘My wedding gift to you is two hundred gallons of God’s love’!
John’s Gospel speaks of Jesus’ miracles as ‘signs’ because they always point to something deeper than the merely miraculous. They inform us about who Jesus is, and about the purpose of his mission.
So in the Cana story, for example, Jesus replaces the water prescribed for Jewish purifications with more than one hundred and twenty gallons of wine! According to the Jewish Scriptures, when the Messiah comes there shall be an abundance of new wine, a symbol for God’s abundant goodness towards his people. That Jesus turns so much water into the best of wines is a ‘sign’ that he is in fact the long awaited Messiah.
- Would you do whatever Jesus tells you?
- What is Jesus trying to point out to you in your life?
