Honor Our Lady for her approved apparitions at Lourdes, and for all the healings in which she mediates, especially through the Eucharistic processions. As Fr Paul says, "Mary and Jesus in the Eucharist are inseparable. Genuine devotion to Mary leads inevitably to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament."

                                                             OUR LADY AND THE EUCHARIST

     In 1911, St. Pius X pointed out that Mary, the Mother of God, draws people from all over the world to Lourdes.  Why?  “For the adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.”  Lourdes, says the Pope, “is at once the center of devotion to Mary and the throne of the Eucharistic Mystery.”
     Many thousands of people receive Holy Communion every day at the grotto.  And all the cures of the sick and the spiritually troubled take place in the afternoon during the procession of the Blessed Sacrament when the priest, walking among the sick blesses them with the Blessed Sacrament.  Mary brings her children to her Son in the Eucharist, and it is He who works the miracles, just as He did at Cana in Galilee.
     The little girl, Bernadette, to whom Mary appeared 18 times in 1858, made her first Holy Communion a few months after Mary appeared to her for the first time.  A friend asked Bernadette, “Tell me, which of the two brought greatest joy to you—receiving your God in Holy Communion, or speaking with the Blessed Virgin Mary?”
Bernadette replied, “I do not know.  The two things go together and cannot be compared.  All I know is that I was intensely happy in them both.”
     Mary and Jesus in the Eucharist are inseparable.  “The two things go together,” says Bernadette.  Genuine devotion to Mary leads inevitably to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
No one has more eloquently testified to the inseparability of Mary and Jesus in the Eucharist than has St. Thomas Aquinas in the Pange Lingua, a hymn to Mary as well as to the Blessed Sacrament:  “Sing, my tongue, of the mystery of the Glorious Body and Precious Blood, the fruit of a generous womb, which the King of Nations poured forth for the ransom of the world.”
     The body and Blood of Jesus given to us in the Eucharist are the fruit of Mary’s noble womb.  These words of Aquinas make us think at once of Mary’s generous words at Nazareth, “I am the handmaid of the Lord:  Be it done to me according to your word!” 
     Hers is moreover, a noble womb because it is forever virginal, consecrated to God, accepted by Him, and made fruitful by the Holy Spirit.
     Her generosity which began at the Annunciation reached its perfection on Calvary when she nobly consented that the Body and Blood which she had formed in her womb be sacrificed for our salvation.
     Since in the mind of Thomas Aquinas, Mary is just as inseparable from Jesus on Calvary and in the Eucharist as she is inseparable from Him at Bethlehem and Nazareth, in the same breath in which he speaks of Calvary and the Eucharist, Thomas praises Mary and her generous womb.
     Just as she stood at the cross and generously offered the sacrifice of her Son with Him, so too, she is present with Jesus when He says to each one of us personally in the Eucharist, “Take this and eat it, this is my Body given for you; take this and drink it, this is my Blood poured out for you.”  She who gave Him His Body and Blood, and joined Him in offering them on the cross, generously gives Him to each of us in the Eucharist.  Authentic devotion to Mary always leads to the Eucharist.  Otherwise she gave birth to Him in vain, otherwise He died in vain, for it is in the Eucharist that He gives Himself for us and to us.

Reach out and touch others with God's Love!

                                                             Unclean, Unclean! Do Not Touch Me!

          “Unclean, unclean!” was a cry of warning—not primarily fear of contagion. “Do not touch me—or you will be contaminated! You will be ritually impure, unable to take part in Israel’s community worship!   
          It was not simply a code of fear of infection by disease, but a case of being cut off from God and the community of his people.  “He (the leper) shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp.” (Ps 32:1-2)
          The Hebrews tended to identify sin and sickness in such a way that sin and suffering were considered a sign of one’s sinfulness, so avoid the sick, avoid the sinner! The excommunication of the leper from the community becomes a striking symbol of the effects of sin—separation, division, disunity, loneliness, despair, heart break.  Where there is disunity and separation, there must be sin.
          Excommunication [meant to be] unloved, unaccepted, unwanted.  This was the bitterest wound of all!  It must have been a despairing lot indeed. What psychological wounds it must have inflicted.
          “Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him.” (Mk 1:41, Mt 8:3)  God came among us and touched us to show we are acceptable, his sons and daughters in communion with Him.  [He] ate and drank with us.
          The Lord’s touch [is a] sign of God’s presence.  The Lord touches us in the Eucharis; He is present to unite us in love. ”Imitate me, as I imitate Christ.” (1 Cor 11:1)
          “By this we know we have passed from death to life, by our loving presence and touch of one another.” (1 John 3:14)  To love is to touch, to be present to, to be attentive, to draw to one self.
           “God has shown me that I should not call any man common.” (Acts 10:28)  “Call no man unclean!” (Acts 10:15)  [This was] Peter’s vision. No more untouchables! No more segregation! No more shutting people out of heaven by your superstitions and taboos. No more divisions! Wherever there is separation and disunity there is sin.  Jesus [tells us] the only uncleanness is guilt: sin. What comes out of the heart! Reach out and touch others in love!

​Fr. Paul prayed the rosary daily from his youth, deeply meditating on the mysteries and applying the truths to his life, which bore the fruit of maturing virtue in his soul. He jotted down many short notes about his meditations, and even taught a method of meditating on the rosary. Many of his notes have been typed, and hopefully someday can be edited to be published, as nourishment for our growth in the life of the virtues, toward union with God.
 
Fr. Paul wrote:
“…the chief purpose of meditation is to bring you into contact with God… Reliving the Rosary mysteries by faith, hope and love brings you into this contact with Christ. He is the object of your meditations; you relive the details of His life in His presence; and thus you give Him the opportunity to make you the object of His attention and goodness, as were the people who walked the earth with Him, and whom you see in the mysteries. …So faithfully attend “the most efficacious school of Christian life” – your Rosary, the school of all virtues.”
[From Rosary Meditations Introduction: The Life of Jesus by Mary, Talk 2, 1951]

In these turbulent days of social moral upheaval, we often pray the Rosary in reparation for offences against God, as Our Lady's weapon against evil, in intercession for the triumph of good, for specific intentions dear to our hearts, and many laudable intentions. Fr. Paul gives us a fresh approach of meditating on the Rosary as a type of Lectio Divina on the life of Jesus and Mary in which we allow Christ to conform our interior to His in the grace of the virtues. Try it and share your experience.