Ad Jesum per te, Maria : 9/33

The Psalms of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary

By way of preparation for the great Feast of the Annunciation, I am re-posting a daily commentary on each of the Psalms of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin. The commentary includes text published by Father Ethelred L. Taunton in 1903.

 

To read the commentary on today's Psalm, click on the following link:

 

👉  Psalm 96

Here is an excerpt:

Qui diligitis Dominum,odite malum : custodit

Dominus animas sanctorum suorum, de manu

peccatoris liberabit eos.

O ye that love the Lord, hate ye the evil : The Lord

preserveth ye the evil : The Lord preserveth the souls

of His saints: He shall deliver them from the hand of

the ungodly.

Here is a test of true love of God; not only abstaining from evil, but hating it, shunning it for its repugnance to

the holiness of God, and not only because of the danger of indulging in it. The Evil is sometimes taken to mean

the Evil one, the father of lies. St. John Chrysostom says : Let no man deceive himself ; God and the devil

cannot be loved alike by one person, for either the devil is hated, or God is loved ; if the devil is loved, it must

needs be that God is despised. Now, then, can we find out whether we do truly love God ? St. Bernard shall

answer : You must ask your heart, your tongue, your work, whether you truly love God. Your heart, because it

thinks often on what it loves, and if you do not often think of God, you will know you do not truly love Him ;

and if you think more of the world than you do of God, you love the world more than God. Ask your tongue if

you love God, for it gladly speaks of what the heart loves ; therefore he whose conversation is chiefly of the

world is hereby proved to love it more than God. Ask your work whether you love God ; for if fire be placed

amidst straw it will burn, and if the fire of Divine love be in the heart it will show itself in action.

The Lord preserveth the souls of His saints. Here we may note two things He makes no promise at all as to

the bodies, nor yet as to the souls of any but His saints. The torments of the martyrs did not move their souls. He

offers salvation to all who will accept it. He will never allow a soul that trusts in Him to be separated from His

love. How freely He gives not only His help, but His very self, we hear when He comes to us in Holy

Communion : “ May the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve thy soul into everlasting life.”

And He shall deliver them out of the hands of the ungodly. Not only by His grace and the protection of His

holy angels here, but, says the Carmelite, by saving them from the accusations of the enemy in the Doom, and

appointing them to be where no minister of evil can ever trouble them more.

Previous Psalms

Psalm 8            Psalm 18            Psalm 23            Psalm 44            Psalm 45            Psalm 86            Psalm 94

Psalm 95

Prayers 

The following prayers follow the model written by St Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort and are recited in preparation for the renewal of consecration* to Lord Jesus Christ our King, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on the Feast of the Annunciation. *PEEKPTEE&A[E]

Veni Creator Spiritus [To see a translation of this hymn to the Holy Spirit, click here:  👉 Veni Creator Spiritus ]

Ave Maris Stella

 

Magnificat

 

Gloria 

+       +        +

The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam. 

Ad Jesum per te, Maria : 8/33

The Psalms of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary

By way of preparation for the great Feast of the Annunciation, I am re-posting a daily commentary on each of the Psalms of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin. The commentary includes text published by Father Ethelred L. Taunton in 1903.

 

To read the commentary on today's Psalm, click on the following link:

 

👉  Psalm 95

Here is an excerpt:

Confessio, et pulchritudo in conspectu Ejus : sanctimonia, et magnificentia in sanctificatione Ejus. 

Confession and beauty are in His sight : holiness and magnificence in His sanctification.

As the previous verse told us of the supreme power of God, so this one speaks of the royal pomp and dignity which attend Him : in Heaven, where He is encompassed by the shining ranks of the blessed spirits, or in His earthly Temple, with its adornment and stately ceremonial. St. Augustine takes the first word of this verse, confession, as signifying acknowledgment of sin, and points out how it precedes beauty, like washing and purifying is necessary before we can recognise the true grace of the features or loveliness of the complexion. He also bids us observe how holiness, as the only way to heaven, is the forerunner of magnificence, which can be attained there alone in His sanctification, that is, among the glorified saints ; whereas those who seek magnificence without holiness fall into destruction. The Carthusian says : In our true country there are in full perfection that confession of God’s praise and glory, which is so imperfect here in the way towards heaven ; and that inner beauty of the soul, which is now marred and defaced by sin : because in His sight, in the Beatific Vision, there can be nothing defective, since the holiness and magnificence thereof surpass all words and imagination.

Previous Psalms

Psalm 8            Psalm 18            Psalm 23            Psalm 44            Psalm 45            Psalm 86            Psalm 94

Prayers 

The following prayers follow the model written by St Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort and are recited in preparation for the renewal of consecration* to Lord Jesus Christ our King, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on the Feast of the Annunciation. *PEEKPTEE&A[E]

Veni Creator Spiritus [To see a translation of this hymn to the Holy Spirit, click here:  👉 Veni Creator Spiritus ]

Ave Maris Stella

 

Magnificat

 

Gloria 

+       +        +

The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam. 

Ad Jesum per te, Maria : 7/33

The Psalms of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary

By way of preparation for the great Feast of the Annunciation, I am re-posting a daily commentary on each of the Psalms of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin. The commentary includes text published by Father Ethelred L. Taunton in 1903.

 

To read the commentary on today's Psalm, click on the following link:

 

👉  Psalm 86

Here is an excerpt:

Sicut lætantium omnium habitatio est in te. 

As of all rejoicing ones, the dwelling is in thee.

What does this as mean ? asks St. Augustine. It tells us that our earthly joys are only a faint image of those delights which as yet we know not, and that the words our ignorance forces us to employ are quite inadequate to describe the gladness of heaven. The dwelling, too, is there, not the mere tabernacle of Jacob, shifting and uncertain in place, but eternally unshaken on the lofty hills of the Golden City. And lastly, they take the verse of our ever dear and blessed Lady as the holy place within which abode our true Isaac, our mystic “ laughter,” and in whom, therefore, the joy of the whole earth was for a time contained ; in which sense the words are used in the Antiphon.

Previous Psalms

Psalm 8            Psalm 18            Psalm 23            Psalm 44            Psalm 45           Psalm 94

Prayers 

The following prayers follow the model written by St Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort and are recited in preparation for the renewal of consecration* to Lord Jesus Christ our King, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on the Feast of the Annunciation. *PEEKPTEE&A[E]

Veni Creator Spiritus [To see a translation of this hymn to the Holy Spirit, click here:  👉 Veni Creator Spiritus ]

Ave Maris Stella

 

Magnificat

 

Gloria 

+       +        +

The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam. 

Ad Jesum per te, Maria : 6/33

The Psalms of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary

By way of preparation for the great Feast of the Annunciation, I am re-posting a daily commentary on each of the Psalms of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin. The commentary includes text published by Father Ethelred L. Taunton in 1903.

 

To read the commentary on today's Psalm, click on the following link:

 

👉  Psalm 45

Here is an excerpt:

Fluminis impetus lætificat civitatem Dei :

sanctificavit taberndculum suum Altissimus.

The fury of the river maketh glad the City of God : the

Most High hath made His tabernacle holy.

There is another obvious interpretation to this verse. The fury of the flood of sorrow which overwhelmed the Queen of Martyrs, never caused her, the City of God, in which He was pleased to dwell, to lose for a single moment the interior joy which made her ever keep singing in her heart the Magnificat. The very fury of the flood was an increase of joy, thrilling her with a grief beyond compare, as it did, yet it was happiness also ; for in all she saw God's holy Will, and knew that He was doing it.

Previous Psalms

Psalm 8

Psalm 18

Psalm 23

Psalm 44

Psalm 94

Prayers 

The following prayers follow the model written by St Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort and are recited in preparation for the renewal of consecration* to Lord Jesus Christ our King, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on the Feast of the Annunciation. *PEEKPTEE&A[E]

Veni Creator Spiritus [To see a translation of this hymn to the Holy Spirit, click here:  👉 Veni Creator Spiritus ]

Ave Maris Stella

 

Magnificat

 

Gloria 

+       +        +

The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam. 

Ad Jesum per te, Maria : 5/33

The Psalms of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary

By way of preparation for the great Feast of the Annunciation, I am re-posting a daily commentary on each of the Psalms of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin. The commentary includes text published by Father Ethelred L. Taunton in 1903.

 

To read the commentary on today's Psalm, click on the following link:

 

👉  Psalm 44

Here is an excerpt therefrom:

Astitit regina a dextris Tuis in vestitu

deaurato : circumdata varietate.

Upon Thy right hand did the Queen stand in golden

array : girt about with variety.

Who is the Queen but our ever dear and blessed Lady? What the golden array but her peerless sanctity ; what the variety with which she is girt about but the

assemblage of all those faithful souls who have ordered their life towards God in imitation of her who kept all the words in her heart. Thou, O Queen, art thyself the immaculate law, the faithful testimony of the Lord, the lucid precept, the right judgment, the holy fear of God, the sweet meditation, herald and interpreter of the entire God. It is to be noted, as St. Basil (379) remarks, that the Hebrew word for queen here used means a “queen consort” ; thereby teaching us that her dignity is derived from Christ and not inherent of her own right or merit. And observe, she stands at the King’s right hand, denoting the unassailable firmness of her position ; but she does not sit, as our Lord does, at the Father’s right hand. But the place, as Bellarmine (1621) points out, denotes not only precedence of honour, ranking above the angels themselves, but her blessed and prosperous state in His kingdom.

Audi filia, et vide, inclina aurem Tuam : et

obliviscere populum Tuum, et domum patris

Tui.

Hearken, daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear:

forget also thine own people and thy Father’s house.

If we interpret the Queen of our Lady, we may see here two persons who speak. It may be the Psalmist

speaking according to the flesh to her who was his descendant ; or it may be God, the Father, speaking to her, the

immaculate Bride. But truly this is one of the passages which above all others shows how inexhaustible are the

meanings of the Psalter. An Eastern writer calls this verse, and the following, the bridal song of the Mother of

God. St. Athanasius, comparing the words of the Angel Gabriel with those of the Psalmist, dwells on the

daughter of the one contrasted with the Mary of the other. If we take the Church to be the “ Queen “ (and,

indeed, the one explanation does not interfere with the other, Mary being the Mother of the whole Church, the “

Neck “ which joins the Body on to its Divine Head), we may see here, with St. Augustine, an exhortation to

forget her Judaic origin, to cast behind her the coldness of the letter and to enter into the liberty of the spirit.

Previous Psalms

Psalm 8

Psalm 18

Psalm 23

Psalm 94

Prayers 

The following prayers follow the model written by St Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort and are recited in preparation for the renewal of consecration* to Lord Jesus Christ our King, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on the Feast of the Annunciation. *PEEKPTEE&A[E]

Veni Creator Spiritus [To see a translation of this hymn to the Holy Spirit, click here:  👉 Veni Creator Spiritus ]

Ave Maris Stella

 

Magnificat

 

Gloria 

+       +        +

The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam. 

Ad Jesum per te, Maria : 4/33

The Psalms of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary

By way of preparation for the great Feast of the Annunciation, I am re-posting a daily commentary on each of the Psalms of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin. The commentary includes text published by Father Ethelred L. Taunton in 1903.

 

To read the commentary on today's Psalm, click on the following link:

👉  Psalm 23

Here is an excerpt:

Attollite portas principes vestras et elevamini portæ æternales : et introibit Rex gloriæ.

Lift up your gates ye princes and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors ; and the King of Glory shall come in.

There are six principal meanings of this verse.

1. The first applies to Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday after His many wanderings, even as the Ark finally rested on Mount Sion.

2. The second, adopted by St. Gregory the Great, refers it to our Lord’s descent into hell, His bursting the gates of brass, and smiting the bars of iron in sunder. St. Epiphanius has, in one of his sermons, a magnificent passage in which he represents our Lord attended by an army of angels, Michael and Gabriel in the fore-ranks, demanding admission at hell-gate, bursting open the unwilling doors, tearing them from their hinges, casting them forth into the abyss, commanding that they shall never be raised any more. Christ, he exclaims, Christ the Door is present ; unto God the Lord belong the issues of death.

3. The third signification would see in this verse the exclamation of the angels attending our ascending

Lord. O faith, exclaims Gerohus, O eternal gate by whose present vision thou art perfected and exalted !

And thou, O hope of the elect, which fixed on eternal blessings canst never disappoint, now exult, now

rejoice, for lo, the King of Glory is about to enter in, to disappoint His servants of no part of the

blessings which have been promised by thee.

4. The fourth meaning, St. Augustine’s, is that the princes are the kings of the world who are called, by

accepting the Gospel, to permit the King of Glory to enter into their several territories. This would give

to the verse the idea of a prayer for the Propagation of the Faith that the earth which is the Lord’s might

be His by faith, hope, and charity.

5. The fifth meaning sees in the verse a prophecy of the Incarnation ; and on this account it forms the

offertory in the Mass for the Vigil of Christmas. This sense is adopted by St. Jerome, though here also

he would find a spiritual reference to the virtual opening of the gates of heaven by the fact of our Lord

taking flesh.

6. The sixth interpretation is in this wise : Ye who were once the sharers of sin, but are now not only free, but princes, as gods, kings, and priests, lift up your gates, removing the barriers which sin puts between you and God, and those once gone be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors of virtue and holiness which cannot pass away, and then the King of Glory shall enter His palace of the believing soul. So St. Bruno, and Richard Rolle, after Origen.

Previous Psalms

Psalm 8

Psalm 18

Psalm 94

Prayers 

The following prayers follow the model written by St Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort and are recited in preparation for the renewal of consecration* to Lord Jesus Christ our King, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on the Feast of the Annunciation. *PEEKPTEE&A[E]

Veni Creator Spiritus [To see a translation of this hymn to the Holy Spirit, click here:  👉 Veni Creator Spiritus ]

Ave Maris Stella

 

Magnificat

 

Gloria 

+       +        +

The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam. 

Ad Jesum per te, Maria : 3/33

The Psalms of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary

By way of preparation for the great Feast of the Annunciation, I am re-posting a daily commentary on each of the Psalms of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin. The commentary includes text published by Father Ethelred L. Taunton in 1903.

 

To read the commentary on today's Psalm, click on the following link:

 👉    Psalm 18

Here is an excerpt:

In sole posuit tabernaculum suum : et ipse

tamquam sponsus procedens de thalamo suo

In the sun He hath set His tabernacle : and He Himself as a

Bridegroom coming forth from His chamber.

In this and the following verse the Church has, from the beginning, seen a marvellous type of the Incarnation. In the sun He hath set His tabernacle. In the literal sense, of natural objects, the sun is the best and clearest representation of the Creator. So the wise man in Ecclesiasticus : The sun when it appeareth declareth at his rising a marvellous instrument, the works of the most High. In it many nations of the earth have seen the image of the God they adore. But for us, knowing that it shall pass away and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, it is but God’s tabernacle. The true Sun is that which shall no more go down, when the Lord shall be our everlasting Light and the days of our mourning shall be ended. 

Then, in the mystical sense, the sun and the tabernacle are the Lord's abiding in the Womb of Mary ; and the writers do not fail to quote from Ecclesiasticus that text : As the sun when it ariseth in the high heavens so is the beauty of a good wife in ordering her house. The sun is also the spotless soul of Mary shining with the splendour of her pre-eminent redemption, a meet resting place for the most High God, the tabernacle He Himself hath made holy. The tabernacle is the flesh of the Lord which was united for ever to His Divinity. Or again, as they who go out to war dwell not in houses or tents, so our Lord going forth to His war with Satan dwelt in the tabernacle of His flesh while He entered into the conflict with and when He overcame His enemy. 

As a Bridegroom cometh out of His chamber. And here none can fail to see the Lord’s entrance into the world from the Womb of Mary. The Bridegroom, hereafter to be betrothed to the Church on the Cross, came forth, as it were, in the morning of that day of which the sufferings of Calvary were the evening. The Eternal Light, says St.John of Damascus (c. 756), which, proceeding from the Co-eternal Light, had His existence before all worlds, came forth bodily from the Virgin Mary, as a Bridegroom from His chamber.

Previous Psalms

Psalm 8

Psalm 94

Prayers 

The following prayers follow the model written by St Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort and are recited in preparation for the renewal of consecration* to Lord Jesus Christ our King, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on the Feast of the Annunciation. *PEEKPTEE&A

Veni Creator Spiritus [To see a translation of this hymn to the Holy Spirit, click here:  👉 Veni Creator Spiritus ]

Ave Maris Stella

 

Magnificat

 

Gloria 

+       +        +

The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam. 

Ad Jesum per te, Maria : 2/33

The Psalms of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary

By way of preparation for the great Feast of the Annunciation, I am re-posting a daily commentary on each of the Psalms of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin. The commentary includes text published by Father Ethelred L. Taunton in 1903.

 

To read the commentary on today's Psalm, click on the following link:

 👉   Psalm 8

Previous Psalms

Psalm 94

👈 This is an image of King David, author of the Psalms. By Willem Vrelant (early 1460s), Bruges, Belgium. 

Prayers 

The following prayers follow the model written by St Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort and are recited in preparation for the renewal of consecration* to Lord Jesus Christ our King, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on the Feast of the Annunciation. *PEEKPTEE&A

Veni Creator Spiritus [To see a translation of this hymn to the Holy Spirit, click here:  👉 Veni Creator Spiritus ]

Ave Maris Stella

 

Magnificat

 

Gloria 

+       +        +

The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam. 

Ad Jesum per te, Maria : 1/33

The Psalms of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary

By way of preparation for the great Feast of the Annunciation in thirty-three days' time, I am re-posting a daily commentary on each of the Psalms of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin. The commentary includes text published by Father Ethelred L. Taunton in 1903.

 

To read the commentary on today's Psalm, click on the following link:

 👉   Psalm 94

👈 This is an image of King David, author of the Psalms. By Willem Vrelant (early 1460s), Bruges, Belgium. 

Prayers 

The following prayers follow the model written by St Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort and are recited in preparation for the renewal of consecration* to Lord Jesus Christ our King, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on the Feast of the Annunciation.

*PEEKPTEE&A

Veni Creator Spiritus [To see a translation of this hymn to the Holy Spirit, click here:  👉 Veni Creator Spiritus ]

Ave Maris Stella

 

Magnificat

 

Gloria 

+       +        +

The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam. 

"I am the Immaculate Conception"

From a decorative tile in Holy Cross Church,
Carshalton. Taken by author.

Sainte Bernadette Soubirous

On Thursday, February 11, 1858, fourteen-year-old Bernadette was sent with her younger sister and a friend to gather firewood, when a very beautiful lady appeared to her above a rose bush in a grotto called Massabielle. From the 11th of February until the 16th of July, the lady appeared 18 times. She revealed her identity to Bernadette in the words: 

Que soy era immaculada councepciou. ('I am the Immaculate Conception'). 

She caused a spring to pour forth water in the grotto which was to become a world-famous place of pilgrimage for the sick in soul and body from the lifetime of Bernadette until today.

  

Her life

Marie-Bernadette Soubirous est née le 4 janvier 1844 dans le bourg de Lourdes.  Ayant survécu à une épidémie de choléra, elle demeure de santé très précaire. Pour apprendre à lire et à écrire, elle est accueillie, en janvier 1858, dans la classe des petites filles pauvres de l’Hospice de Lourdes dirigé par les Sœurs de la Charité de Nevers.

Marie-Bernadette Soubirous was born on the 4th of January 1844 in the town of Lourdes. She survived a cholera epidemic but her health remained fragile. In order to learn to read and write, she was accepted in January 1858 into a class for poor little girls in a Home run by the Sisters of Charity from Nevers.

Entre le 11 février et le 16 juillet 1858, sur la grotte de Massabielle, la Vierge Marie lui apparut 18 fois. Comme Bernadette lui demandait avec insistance son nom, elle répondit: « Je suis l’Immaculée Conception. » Le 18 février 1858, la Vierge Marie dit à Bernadette : « Je ne vous promets pas de vous rendre heureuse en ce monde mais dans l’autre. »

Between the 11th of February and the 16th of July 1858, in a grotto of Massabielle, the Virgin Mary appeared to her 18 times. Bernadette asked several times for the lady's name and she replied: "I am the Immaculate Conception." On the 18th of February 1858, the Virgin Mary said to Bernadette: "I do not promise to make you happy in this world, but in the next." [Some say the dialect used is more accurately translated as : 'I do not promise you the happiness of this world, but of the next.']

Après avoir transmis aux prêtres l’affirmation solennelle d’identité et d’autres messages célestes, Bernadette, pour mieux échapper à la vue du monde, demanda son admission chez les Sœurs de la Charité et de l’Instruction chrétienne de Nevers. Elle arriva à Nevers en juillet 1866. Modèle de fidélité religieuse, supportant avec la plus grande patience toutes sortes de croix et des infirmités prolongées, elle se livrait fréquemment à l’oraison et à la méditation de la Parole du Seigneur. Elle avait un amour filial la Vierge Immaculée. Elle portait sur elle la Médaille Miraculeuse.  Dans l’infirmerie devenue aujourd’hui un oratoire, âgée de trente-cinq ans, elle rend le dernier soupir et s’endort dans le Seigneur à 3 heures de l'après-midi, le 16 avril 1879.

Having passed on to the priests this solemn affirmation of identity  and other heavenly messages, Bernadette, in order to flee from the prying eyes of the world, asked to be admitted into the Sisters of Charity and Christian Instruction in Nevers. She arrived in Nevers in July 1866. A model of religious fidelity, enduring with the greatest patience all sorts of crosses and extended periods of illness, she gave herself over to frequent prayer  and meditation on the Word of the Lord. She had a daughter's love for the Immaculate Virgin. She wore the Miraculous Medal. Within the infirmary (which is today a place of prayer), aged 35 years, she breathed her last and fell asleep in the Lord at 3.00 pm on the 16th of April 1879. 

 

Ste Bernadette in death. [Public Domain]

Elle se tint, des années durant, silencieuse près de Marie au pied de la Croix, jusqu’au dernier moment, où elle, en murmurant:

Sainte Marie Mère de Dieu, priez pour moi, pauvre pécheresse

Year after year she stood silently next to Mary at the foot of the Cross, right up to her last moment, saying softly:

  Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for me a poor sinner.

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Seeking Colloquy with Marie

Today, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, is the anniversary of my first consecration in 2019 to Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through His Mother Mary, the Glorious and Blessed Virgin of Virgins, and our own dearest Mother. Laudetur Jesus Christi et Maria Immaculata!

Here is a verse I began recently and finished today. I offer it to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in thanksgiving for all the graces, favours and help she has given to me in recent years, particularly since October 2017 (when I was delivered from a great affliction).

The Virgin of Tenderness >12th century.

Seeking Colloquy with Marie

To thee Marie, divine Marie:

I fain would pen a verse to thee!

But where or whence or whither be

The theme or thought to sing of thee?

Perhaps a shelt’ring willow tree

That weeps yet gives us graces free?

Or else a lily’s purity

Whose scent is sweet sublimity?

But no, ‘tis in thine eyes I see,

As through a window wondrously,

Thy gentle soul which tenderly

Pours forth a Mother’s love for me.

Envoi

Crave of thy Son His clemency

That I a son of thine may be!

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.