Our Lady of Lourdes (Optional Memorial) ~ 11 February ~ World Day of the Sick

A optional memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, who first appeared on 11 February 1858 to Marie-Bernarde Soubirous, 14 (Saint Bernadette) at a grotto near the Soubirous home in southern France. While she was out gathering firewood with her sister and a friend at the grotto of Massabielle outside Lourdes, Bernadette claimed to see the first of 18 visions of what she termed "a small young lady" standing in a niche in the rock.There were 18 apparitions of Our Lady to Bernadette between February and July 1858. On 25 March 1858 (Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord), the 16th apparition, our lady revealed herself to Bernadette as the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Immaculate Conception and known to us as Our Lady of Lourdes. 

On 18 January 1862, Bishop Laurence, the Bishop of Tarbes, gave the solemn declaration: “We are inspired by the Commission comprising wise, holy, learned and experienced priests who questioned the child, studied the facts, examined everything and weighed all the evidence. We have also called on science, and we remain convinced that the Apparitions are supernatural and divine, and that by consequence, what Bernadette saw was the Most Blessed Virgin. Our convictions are based on the testimony of Bernadette, but above all on the things that have happened, things which can be nothing other than divine intervention”.

Pope John Paul II visited Lourdes three times and Pope Benedict XVI made a visit to Lourdes on 15 September 2008, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of 1858.

11 February was proclaimed World Day of the Sick by Pope John Paul II. Therefore, it would be appropriate to celebrate the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick on this day during a Mass or Liturgy of the Word. (The Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick is only to be given to "those of the faithful whose health is seriously impaired by sickness or old age", Roman Ritual. This Sacrament must not be given indiscriminately to all who take part in Masses for the sick.)

The first to witness Our Lady's presence at Lourdes was little Bernardette Soubirous, who became her intrepid messenger. Although she is buried far away in Nevers in the north of France, her body totally incorrupt, as if she were asleep.

Grant us, O merciful God, protection in our weakness, that we, who keep the Memorial of the Immaculate Mother of God, may with the help of her intercession, rise up from our iniquities. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. AMEN.

Tuesday, 11 February, 2014
Our Lady of Lourdes (Optional Memorial)

Reading

1 Kings 8: 22 - 23, 27 - 30
22	Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven;
23	and said, "O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to thy servants who walk before thee with all their heart;
27	"But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built!
28	Yet have regard to the prayer of thy servant and to his supplication, O LORD my God, hearkening to the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prays before thee this day;
29	that thy eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which thou hast said, `My name shall be there,' that thou mayest hearken to the prayer which thy servant offers toward this place.
30	And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant and of thy people Israel, when they pray toward this place; yea, hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place; and when thou hearest, forgive.

Psalm

Psalms 84: 3 - 5, 10 - 11
3	Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at thy altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.
4	Blessed are those who dwell in thy house, ever singing thy praise! [Selah]
5	Blessed are the men whose strength is in thee, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
10	For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
11	For the LORD God is a sun and shield; he bestows favor and honor. No good thing does the LORD withhold from those who walk uprightly.

Gospel

Mark 7: 1 - 13
1	Now when the Pharisees gathered together to him, with some of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem,
2	they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands defiled, that is, unwashed.
3	(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands, observing the tradition of the elders;
4	and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they purify themselves; and there are many other traditions which they observe, the washing of cups and pots and vessels of bronze.)
5	And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with hands defiled?"
6	And he said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, `This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
7	in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.'
8	You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men."
9	And he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition!
10	For Moses said, `Honor your father and your mother'; and, `He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die';
11	but you say, `If a man tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is Corban' (that is, given to God) --
12	then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother,
13	thus making void the word of God through your tradition which you hand on. And many such things you do."