Feast Day: Our Lady of Lourdes

Our family is very tied-into the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes:  my husband and I met while we were teaching at Our Lady of Lourdes School .... we were married at Our Lady of Lourdes Church ... two of our children were baptized at Our Lady of Lourdes Church ... we've been very blessed to go to Lourdes as a family, twice -- once in 2000 and again in 2001.  My maternal great-grandfather came from the Basque village of  Oloron-Ste.Marie, about 20 miles west of Lourdes in the Pyrennes.

We have many connections.

This apparition of Our Lady to St. Bernadette in a grotto in the south of France 18 times in the 1850s is one of the most visited shrines in the world.  Catholics, Christians, Jews ... even pagans go to Lourdes to pray and become whole in mind, body and spirit.  Some are cured ... some are eased in their illness ... some are left with the crippling diseases which have brought them to this spot.  But all leave with a sense of peace and love and care that only the Blessed Mother and her Son can bring.

It is an amazing place like none other on earth ... a place of prayer ... a place of peace ... a place of love.  The candlelight prayer service everynight is amazing: singing and crying and praying in different languages, warmed by the glow of the thousands and thousands of candles that fill the area in front of the Cathedral.  There is a constant flow of penitents into and out of the Confessional Building, where the Sacrament of Reconciliation is offered all day every day in just about every language.  The Blessed Sacrament is available for adoration as is Holy Mass throughout the day.  The sick ... wheeled in on stretchers or wheel chairs, some even carried ... are all there for a special healing service in the afternoon, every afternoon. 

What a haven of peace and Divine love in the midst of our 21st Century.

Today, we'll read stories from The Wonders of Lourdes: 150 Miraculous Stories of the Power of Prayer ... we'll watch Bernadette and Song of Bernadette (we started last night by watching Loretta Young in Road to Lourdes).  We'll eat Tuna Lorenzo (tuna salad on homemade English muffins, broiled) and Gateau Basque (I'll post our version later) ... and of course, we'll pray for all those who are sick, suffering or dying as well as praying in thanksgiving for God's Love which allowed St. Bernadette to see Mary and God's Charity which continues the miraculous cures into the 21st century.

 

Feast Day: St. Bernadette Soubirous

Today is the celebration of St. Bernadette Soubirous, the young Basque girl privileged to see the Blessed Mother at the grotto in Lourdes, France.  We really love this little saint who died so young, in so much pain, and yet offered it up for us all.

St. Bernadette is from the area of France where my maternal great-grandfather was born.  He was born in the mountains just above Lourdes not many years after Bernadette saw Our Lady.  What crazy times those must have been ... with the French Revolution, the secularization of much of the country and a young girl privileged to speak to Our Lady and then to relate to us all the messages of love and sacrifice. 

Millions of pilgrims go to Lourdes annually .... many non-Catholics too believe in the miracles that have occured at the waters ... miraculous healings of mind, body and soul.  My dh gave me a wonderful book about these miracles, The Wonders of Lourdes, and we have been blessed to visit the waters twice on pilgrimage with the kids (String Bean was just months old when she "took the waters" the first time). 

So tonight, I will make clafouti (recipe below), we will watch The Song of Bernadette and Bernadette and we will pray to this lovely Basque saint who continues to give such a great example of how to love completely.

St. Bernadette Soubirous, pray for us ... that we may learn how to love even our trials.

Clafouti ... Julia Child’s Version


Preheat oven to 350.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups milk

• 2/3 cup sugar, divided

• 3 eggs

• 1 tablespoon vanilla

• 1/8 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 cup flour

• 3 cups cherries, pitted (or any fresh/frozen fruit like apples, peaches, pears, etc – peeled and pitted)
• powdered sugar, for garnish

Using a blender, combine the milk, 1/3 cup sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt and flour, and blend. Lightly butter an 8-cup baking dish, and pour a 1/4-inch layer of the blended mixture over the bottom. Set remaining batter aside. Place dish into the oven for about 7-10 minutes, until a film of batter sets in the pan but the mixture is not baked through. Remove from oven (but don’t turn the oven off, yet). Distribute the pitted cherries over the set batter in the pan, then sprinkle with the remaining sugar. Pour the remaining batter over the cherries and sugar. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 to 60 minutes, until the clafouti is puffed and brown and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve warm.

Servings: 6-8 for dessert, 4 for breakfast.

Feast Day: Our Lady of Lourdes!

Enough with the snow ... let's party! 

We're on day seven of the Blizzard of 2010 ... no more snow in the forecast for today, but so much on the ground that we're still on snow days.  But that's ok, especially as today is an especially important feast day for me and mine:  the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Dh and I met at a school named Our Lady of Lourdes ... the family has taken two pilgrimages to visit the Shrine in Lourdes, France ... my maternal great-grandfather is from a small village just above Lourdes ... and whenever we really need to pull out the stops for a prayer intention, we often do a novena to Our Lady of Lourdes!

Here is a beautiful prayer which Venerable John Paul the Great prayed before the Grotto in 2004:

Hail Mary, poor and humble Woman, Blessed by the Most High! Virgin of hope, dawn of a new era, We join in your song of praise, to celebrate the Lord’s mercy, to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom and the full liberation of humanity.

Hail Mary, lowly handmaid of the Lord, Glorious Mother of Christ! Faithful Virgin, holy dwelling-place of the Word, Teach us to persevere in listening to the Word, and to be docile to the voice of the Spirit, attentive to his promptings in the depths of our conscience and to his manifestations in the events of history.

Hail Mary, Woman of sorrows, Mother of the living! Virgin spouse beneath the Cross, the new Eve, Be our guide along the paths of the world. Teach us to experience and to spread the love of Christ, to stand with you before the innumerable crosses on which your Son is still crucified.

Hail Mary, woman of faith, First of the disciples! Virgin Mother of the Church, help us always to account for the hope that is in us, with trust in human goodness and the Father’s love. Teach us to build up the world beginning from within: in the depths of silence and prayer, in the joy of fraternal love, in the unique fruitfulness of the Cross.

Holy Mary, Mother of believers, Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.

Amen.

So, on this snow-day, we'll head to Mass this morning (maybe even get in some Confessions) and we'll make Clafouti tonight.  Clafouti is a wonderful custard/souffle kind of dessert that is made with cherries (which we don't have) so we'll make it with blueberries (which we do have ... and since blue is Our Lady's color, this is more appropriate anyway!).

Holy Mary, Mother of believers, Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us!