This past week we celebrated Our Lady of Lourdes, and with that feast day we are poignantly reminded of St. Bernadette, Our Lady, and our upcoming pilgrimage to Lourdes. The excitement and expectation of the pilgrimage is building and those members, candidates in formation, auxiliary, and volunteers that have been accepted are busy getting their connecting flights, making sure they have work uniforms, and waiting for their team assignment.
But we are also getting spiritually ready, in that regard Barbara and I invited all the pilgrims to join us in starting a 54-day Rosary Novena on March 7th and ending on April 29th the day we embark for Lourdes. Even if you can’t join us in Lourdes you can still serve our malades by joining our pilgrims in praying the 54 day novena beginning March 7th.
Our theme for the Pilgrimage “Hope through the virtue of union with Mary“ has its roots in our family devotion to the 54 day Rosary Novena and the 5th Glorious Mystery of Mary’s Coronation as the Queen of Heaven. In that mystery we concentrate on the coronation of Mary as the Queen of Heaven and union with Mary as our most powerful intercessor with the Trinity, God the Father as His Daughter, God the Son as His Mother, and God the Spirit as His chosen Spouse.
Barbara and my devotion to the 54-day Rosary Novena comes from my Mother Betty who was a Dame of Malta and prayed this devotion for 77 years daily. As you will see the Novena is broken down praying a rosary daily in 27 days of petition and in 27 days of thanksgiving. We will be praying for the petition that our Country might experience a spiritual healing, and that our Lourdes Pilgrimage might bring the hope of both spiritual and physical healing for our Malades and Pilgrims through a closer relationship with Mary and her son as our Divine Physician.
Please click here to join us and sign up to pray the 54 Day Rosary Novena with Barbara and I on March 7th. For each member that wants to participate we will supply a Novena book so you can participate with us, in that regard please sign up by February 25th at the link attached to give us time to get the Novena in your hands physically.
As we prepare for our Lourdes Pilgrimage and think more deeply about our theme of “Hope through the virtue of union with Mary” we would like to share with you Archbishop Vigneron’s closing statement at the rite for the Solemn Opening of the Jubilee Year of Hope in Detroit in December of last year.
“The idea of a Church on pilgrimage is essential to the spirit of the jubilee year. By making our way through the busy world, pilgrim journeys help us to appreciate the beauty of creation, recall the need for silence and recollection, form friendships with fellow travelers, and seek Christ, who is the way (John 14:6) and the gateway (John 10:9) to eternal life, in every encounter and situation”
Your Brother and Sister in Christ,
Robert & Barbara
Lourdes Pilgrimage Co-Hosts
