IP#264 – Elizabeth Ficocelli – “Therese, Faustina, and Bernadette” on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor

Elizabeth-F“Therese, Faustina and Bernadette: Three Saints Who Challenged My Faith, Gave Me Hope, and Taught Me How to Love” ties beautifully together the theological virtues (faith, hope, and love) and shows us how they are particularly lived out in the lives of three of the most beloved saints of our modern era.  Author Elizabeth Ficocelli shares her personal relationship with these beautiful saints and how they helped her to grow in her understanding and trust in Christ.  More than just a biography of each saint, this work is a road map for the spiritual life based on the lives of women who are joyfully showing us the way.


Ttherese-Faustina-Bernade-195x300You can find the book here

“With openness and candor, Elizabeth Ficocelli reveals her personal experiences of living the challenges of her Catholic faith. Her peace and joy come in meeting these challenges by embracing the cross though the grace of prayer and the sacraments, as well as following the example of newfound friends, her favorite saints. This book will help anyone who also experiences challenges in life through the assistance of some wonderful friends!”–Mother Mary Assumpta Long, Prioress General, Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist

“Tender, honest, introspective, and deeply personal, this book provides beautiful witness to the loveliness and wonder of the feminine genius! Elizabeth Ficocelli, writing from the insightful perspective of a convert to Catholicism who seeks to understand and unpack the mysteries of her own spiritual journey, reminds us in this gem of a book that we should all seek to acquire friendship with the saints and grow in the theological virtues. I highly recommend this book!”–Rev. Donald Calloway, M.I.C., Author of Under the Mantle

St. Bernadette, “A Holy Life”…In Conversation with Patricia McEachern

Patricia-McEachernOne of the finest translations of St. Bernadette’s writings (her diary, etc) has been done by Patricia McEachern. The book is  called “A Holy Life:  The Writings of St. Bernadette of Lourdes”.  It’s just beautiful.  It reveals so much about this holy soul, St. Bernadette!  Her “little way” was much like another holy soul, St. Therese…who knew these daughters of France would have so much in common.  But then again, should we really be surprised?

You can find the book here

 

 

Our Lady of Lourdes – Prayer, Penance, Spiritual & Physical Healing – Discerning Hearts

From the official Lourdes website (visit it …. it’s fantastic!)

On 11th. February 1858 Bernadette, her sister Toinette and a friend of theirs, Jeanne, went looking for wood on the meadows and led towards “the place where the canal rejoins the River Gave”. They were in front of the Grotto of Massabielle. Toinette and Jeanne crossed the icy water, crying out with the cold; Bernadette hesitated to do this because of her chronic asthma. She heard “a noise like a gust of wind”, but “none of the trees were moving”. “Raising her head, she saw, in a hollow of the rock a small young lady, who looked at her and who smiled at her. This was the first Apparition of the Virgin Mary

More from the official site

On 25th. March 1858, the day of the sixteenth Apparition, Bernadette went to the Grotto, and on the instigation of the Parish Priest, Abbé‚ Peyramale, asked the Lady for her name. Three times Bernadette asked the question. On the fourth request, the Lady responds in dialect “Que soy era Immaculada Conception“. (“I am the Immaculate Conception”). Bernadette does not understand immediately the meaning of these words. The Immaculate Conception is, as the Church teaches, “Mary, conceived without sin, thanks to the merits of the Cross of Christ”. (The definition of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception 1854) She goes to the Parish Priest to tell him the Lady’s name. He understands that it is the Mother of God who has appeared at the Grotto of Massabielle. Later the Bishop of Tarbes, Monseigneur Laurence, confirms this.

The Immaculate Conception is, as the Church teaches, “Mary, conceived without sin, thanks to the merits of the Cross of Christ”. Thus the Immaculate Conception is also the sign of what all people, recreated by God are called to be.

A prayer to Our Lady of Lourdes by Pope John Paul II


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.

Our Lady of Lourdes – Prayer, Penance, Spiritual & Physical Healing

From the official Lourdes website (visit it …. it’s fantastic!)

On 11th. February 1858 Bernadette, her sister Toinette and a friend of theirs, Jeanne, went looking for wood on the meadows and led towards “the place where the canal rejoins the River Gave”. They were in front of the Grotto of Massabielle. Toinette and Jeanne crossed the icy water, crying out with the cold; Bernadette hesitated to do this because of her chronic asthma. She heard “a noise like a gust of wind”, but “none of the trees were moving”. “Raising her head, she saw, in a hollow of the rock a small young lady, who looked at her and who smiled at her. This was the first Apparition of the Virgin Mary

More from the official site

On 25th. March 1858, the day of the sixteenth Apparition, Bernadette went to the Grotto, and on the instigation of the Parish Priest, Abbé‚ Peyramale, asked the Lady for her name. Three times Bernadette asked the question. On the fourth request, the Lady responds in dialect “Que soy era Immaculada Conception“. (“I am the Immaculate Conception”). Bernadette does not understand immediately the meaning of these words. The Immaculate Conception is, as the Church teaches, “Mary, conceived without sin, thanks to the merits of the Cross of Christ”. (The definition of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception 1854) She goes to the Parish Priest to tell him the Lady’s name. He understands that it is the Mother of God who has appeared at the Grotto of Massabielle. Later the Bishop of Tarbes, Monseigneur Laurence, confirms this.

The Immaculate Conception is, as the Church teaches, “Mary, conceived without sin, thanks to the merits of the Cross of Christ”. Thus the Immaculate Conception is also the sign of what all people, recreated by God are called to be.

A prayer to Our Lady of Lourdes by Pope John Paul II


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.

Prayer of St. Bernadette and the miracles of Lourdes

Prayer of Saint Bernadette

“Let the crucifix be not only in my eyes and on my breast, but in my heart.O Jesus! Release all my affections and draw them upwards. Let my crucified heart sink forever into Thine and bury itself in the mysterious wound made by the entry of the lance.”

Prayer to St. Bernadette

O Saint Bernadette, who, as a meek and pure child, did eighteen times at Lourdes contemplate the beauty of the Immaculate Mother of God and received her messages, and who afterwards wished to hide yourself from the world in the convent of Nevers, and to offer thyself there as a victim for the conversion of sinners, obtain for us the grace of purity, simplicity and mortification that we also may attain to the vision of God and of Mary in Heaven. Amen.

 

The Life of St. Bernadette and the miracle of Lourdes