The Seven Feasts of the Passion and the Apparitions at Lourdes

Fr. Higgins • Mar 05, 2022

Embedded within the Lenten liturgies of the Roman Missal there used to be seven special Masses related to the Passion of Christ which were celebrated as feasts on particular days each week from Septuagesima to the Fourth Week in Lent. They were not included in the 1962 Roman Missal. Formerly, these feasts were reserved for particular places and congregations where the Bishop allowed them. Before the growing Liturgical Movement revived an appreciation for the importance of the older Lenten daily Masses, these Passion Feasts enjoyed a wide popularity. They were observed, for example, in the diocese where Lourdes was at the time of the Apparitions in 1858.
The Feasts and their appointed days were as follows:
The Prayer of Our Lord Jesus Christ (in the Garden of Gethsemane)—on the Tuesday after Septuagesima Sunday.
The Commemoration of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Votive Mass of the Passion)—on the Tuesday after Sexagesima Sunday.
The Sacred Crown of Thorns of Our Lord Jesus Christ—on the Friday after Ash Wednesday.
The Sacred Lance and Nails of Our Lord Jesus Christ—Ember Friday in Lent (1st Week of Lent).
The Most Sacred Shroud of Our Lord Jesus Christ—on Friday of the Second Week in Lent.
The Five Sacred Wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ—on Friday of the Third Week in Lent.
The Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ—on Friday of the Fourth Week in Lent.


These Feasts were capped by the observance of the Compassion of Our Lady
(The Seven Dolours of Our Lady) on Friday in Passion Week—1 week before Good Friday.
In this way the Mystery of Christ’s Passion was continually kept before the eyes of the faithful as they journeyed through Lent.
Three of these Passion Feasts coincided directly with Bernadette’s Visions:
Friday after Ash, February 19th, 1858/ (First Apparition of the “Fortnight”)/ Feast of the Crown of Thorns .
Ember Friday in Lent, February 26th, 1858/ (Discovery of the Lourdes Stream coming out of the side of the rock, the day after the Lady had told Bernadette to drink from the stream which had then only been dirt (February 25th)/ Feast of the Lance and Nails.

In his best-selling book
Notre-Dame de Lourdes (1869) Catholic author Henri Lasserre saw this coincidence as being key to understanding the meaning of Lourdes. As he wrote:
The spring we are talking about, whose memory is glorified by special services in the diocese, was that great and divine spring that the spear of the Roman centurion, piercing the right side of the lifeless Christ, caused to gush forth like a river of life to regenerate the earth and save mankind.
Friday of the Second Week in Lent, March 4th, 1858/(Last Apparition of the “Fortnight”)/ Feast of the (Burial) Shroud of Christ.
These Passion Feasts (now considered “historic” feasts of the Roman Missal) help us to appreciate just how closely tied in the events of Lourdes are to Christ’s Paschal Mystery.

By Fr. Higgins 16 Mar, 2024
At the end of our last Conference, we saw Charlemagne consecrated as “first champion” of the Catholic Church on Easter Day, 774 A.D. there at Rome, where he had delivered Pope Adrian and the Patrimony of Peter from the menace of the King of the Lombards. He had not used his immense military power to conquer Rome nor to make the Pope submit to him: rather he had made himself and his mighty force the sword and shield of the Church, ready to protect her against aggressors of any kind. Moreover, he had made himself the protector of the Roman Pontiff, as a loyal son of the Church. After his consecration in Rome, for the next twenty years, Charlemagne’s life was one of continuous warfare. There were 53 distinct military campaigns, almost all of them in connection with his role as wielding the royal defensive sword on behalf of the Catholic Church. There were 18 campaigns against the heathen Saxons in Germany, who were trying to eradicate Christianity with violent attacks. It was not until 785 that Wittekind, the Saxon warrior-chief, acknowledged, in his utter defeat, that the God of the Christians was stronger than his god Odin. He submitted at last to Baptism, and it was Charlemagne who stood as his godfather. In our very first Conference, we recounted Charlemagne’s siege of Mirambel Castle in the Pyrenees and the submission of the Muslim commander Mirat, who took the baptismal name Lorus, from which derives the town-name “Lourdes”. This was in the year 778, when Charlemagne had launched a campaign against the Muslim rulers of Spain. During this campaign there occurred the ambush of the Franks at the Pass of Roncesvalles (Roncevaux) where Roland blew his horn to summon Charlemagne and the rest of the army to their rescue, even as they were fighting valiantly to their death. This is the inspiration for the famous medieval epic poem, the “Chanson de Roland” (the “Song of Roland). On Christmas Day, 795, Pope Adrian I died, a man whom Charlemagne had revered as a spiritual father. The next day, December 26th, St. Stephen’s Day, on the very day in which Pope Adrian was buried, his successor was elected as Leo III. The new Pope immediately sent to Charlemagne the keys of the Confession of St. Peter and the standard of the city of Rome. In return, Charlemagne sent Leo a warm letter of regard and much treasure which enabled Leo to be a great benefactor to the churches and charitable institutions of Rome. Sadly, the new Pope Leo was bitterly hated by many relatives of his predecessor Pope Adrian. On April 25th, 799, during the Procession of the Greater Litanies, the Pope was attacked by a body of armed men. They seized him, flung him to the ground, and tried to mutilate him by pulling out his tongue and gouging out his eyes. Panic ensued. People fled away. Leo was left unconscious and bleeding on the street for some time. At night he was rescued and hidden in a monastery. In a miraculous manner he recovered the full use of his tongue and eyes. He then escaped from the city and went to seek Charlemagne, who was in Paderborn, Germany. The King received him there with the greatest honor. Charlemagne vindicated Pope Leo (whom the Church now honors as Pope St. Leo III). He had the Pope escorted back to Rome and re-installed, to the joy of the people and to the terror of his false accusers. The next year (800 A.D.) Charlemagne himself came to Rome. On Christmas Day, at St. Peter’s, after the Gospel had been sung, Pope Leo approached Charlemagne, who was kneeling before the Confession of St. Peter, and placed the imperial crown upon his head. Then he did him the formal reverence after the manner of ancient Rome and saluted Charlemagne as both Emperor and Augustus. Finally he anointed him. The Roman people in the assembly burst into acclaim, three-times repeating: To Charles, the most pious Augustus, crowned by God, to our great and pacific Emperor, life and victory!” By this act on Christmas Day 800 A.D. the Roman Empire in the West was revived. Leo, Successor to Peter and Roman Pontiff, had declared that the whole world was now subject to one temporal head as Christ had made the world subject to one spiritual head. And the first duty of Carolus Augustus, the new Roman Emperor, was to be the faithful protector of Holy Roman Church and of Christendom itself against the heathen aggressor.
By Fr. Higgins 10 Mar, 2024
In the Sacred History of Israel in the Old Testament, the emergence of the ruddy youth David as the Lord’s Anointed is a pivotal event in the progressive unfolding of the Divine Plan of Redemption. As we read in the First Book of Kings, Samuel is sent by the Lord to Bethlehem, to the House of a man named Jesse in order to make a sacred anointing as king of the son whom the Lord had chosen. Finally, the 8thand last son of Jesse, David, is brought before Samuel: “Now [David] was ruddy and beautiful to behold, and of a comely face. And the Lord said: Arise and anoint him for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward...” (I Kings 16:12b-13a) David is the Lord’s Anointed, the Messiah, who becomes the great heroic figure of Israel. And the Lord God makes him a promise that from his descendants shall come the long-foretold and long-awaited Great Messiah. David the Lord’s Anointed, the Ruler of Israel, is both Priest and King. He is the type and foreshadowing of his descendant Our Lord Jesus Christ who combines in His Person both Priesthood and Kingship. After the Redemption, the Priesthood of Christ continues in the persons of His Apostles and their successors, the Bishops. But what of the Kingship of Christ? Is that to have no continuity on the earth? Or should Christians look for a sacred kingship to be found? Where shall the Church find the Righteous Sword to defend her rights and protect her against aggressors? It is this element which is present in the sacred anointing of Pippin and his two sons Charles and Carloman by Pope Stephen III in 754. It is to this new Royal House from among the Frankish nation that the Holy See of Peter looks to provide its sword and shield amidst the ruins of the Roman Empire. So many parallels there are between the boy-king David and the future Charlemagne. Charles/Charlemagne, anointed at 12 years-old, growing up since boyhood in the rigors of warfare alongside his father. Like David, he is heroic on the battlefield. Like David, he is blessed with qualities such as great personal attractiveness, and like David he is devoted to God and his religion. In 768, Pippin divided his kingdom between his two royal sons shortly before he died. As David was betrayed by his son Absalom, so Charles was betrayed by his rivalrous younger brother Carloman, but by the death of this brother in 771, Charles inherited the whole of their father’s kingdom. Pope Stephen died in 772 and his successor as Pope was Adrian I. Didier, the King of Lombardy, opposed this choice and resolved to make war on the Patrimony of St. Peter. Pope Adrian appealed to Charles for help, as his predecessor had given him the title Patricius Romanus (Nobleman of Rome). Charles took his army over the Alps in 773 for a great invasion of Lombardy and struck hard. The result was total victory and Charles King of the Franks entered Rome, the “Eternal City”, as its savior. Everything was done to welcome Charlemagne as the old Roman generals had been welcomed in the pre-Christian times of ancient Rome. He was given the welcome of what was called a “Triumph”. The judges went forth to meet him 30 miles outside the City. The militia laid the banner of Rome at his feet and hailed him as “Imperator”, that is, “Emperor”. But Charlemagne came into Rome as a Christian Imperator. He prostrated himself to kiss the threshold of the Apostles, the limina apostolorum , and he spent seven days in conference with the Pope, days in which he was to c onceive many great ideas of what he might do for the glory of God and the exaltation of Holy Church in time to come. On Easter Day, 774, Charlemagne was consecrated as first champion of the Catholic Church. It seemed as if the Sacred Priesthood of Christ had found its champion in a new Sacred Kingship–of Christ and for Christ.
By Fr. Higgins 04 Mar, 2024
History, we are often reminded, is not a morality tale. The human chronological record as a whole is vast, contradictory, and incoherent. At the same time it is maddeningly incomplete–so much of the past is fragmentary or has simply been lost altogether. The best we can do is try to construct narrative frameworks to make sense of it, or at least parts of it. Sacred History, which is connected to our Profession of Faith, is our Catholic Christian way of making sense of human chronology based upon our belief in Divine Revelation. It overlaps so-called “scientific history” but it is not confined by it. Sacred History encompasses every mode in which humans have remembered their past by the telling of stories.History, we are often reminded, is not a morality tale. The human chronological record as a whole is vast, contradictory, and incoherent. At the same time it is maddeningly incomplete–so much of the past is fragmentary or has simply been lost altogether. The best we can do is try to construct narrative frameworks to make sense of it, or at least parts of it. Bolstered by this Sacred History then we expect to find (and we do) all kinds of golden threads of God’s Divine Providence in the historical record. Only in Eternity will we be able to see the “Big Picture” and how exactly it all worked out, but here and now we get glimpses and revealing threads which we try to follow. One of these “Golden Threads”, I suggest to you, is the relationship of the Roman Empire to Sacred History. In Our Lord’s Day, the Jewish People in their national homeland were a conquered, tributary people subject to the heathen Roman overlords. At the same time, the Roman Imperium enabled the migration and mingling of many peoples, including the Jews. In Our Lord’s Day there were millions more Jews living in the Diaspora across the Roman Empire than were living in Judea or Galilee. The Early Christian Church was fiercely persecuted by Rome, across three centuries. Rome is the Seat of the Anti-Christ, the “Belly of the Beast”, “Babylon”. And yet, it was to this Rome that Peter the Chief Apostle went to set up his Chair of teaching authority, his “cathedra”. The eventual conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity, practically as a result of the long Age of Martyrs, embedded the sense into Christian people that Rome and all that was the Roman Empire now belonged to God and was a very providential thing in sustaining the life of the Church and in the spreading of the Gospel. The “Pax Romana”, the “Roman Peace”, is fulfilled in the Peace of the Church, the “Pax Ecclesia Catholica”. The decline of Rome, especially in the western half of the Empire after the barbarian chieftain Alaric the Goth sacked Rome in 410 A.D., was therefore viewed by Catholics as a calamity and a trial for the Church. The idea of the Roman Imperium as an arm of Christ’s Church and of Christian Civilization persisted, especially as the Pope in Rome, the successor to Saint Peter, was a visible embodiment of what God had done in history to make the heathen Roman Empire the holy Roman Empire. We think of the Popes: St. Gregory the Great, St. Leo the Great, “Leo Magnus”! In 754 A.D., Pope Stephen III made an arduous journey across the Alps to go to the household of Pippin, the son of Charles Martel, who held the title “Mayor the Palace” and was, in effect the chief of the Christian Franks. At St. Denis on the Seine, on July 28th, 754, Pope Stephen anointed Pippin as King of the Franks, and not only Pippin but his two young sons as well: the older, Charles (our “Charlemagne”), who was but 12 years-old, and the younger, Carloman. All three were anointed with the oil of kingship by the Pope, Bishop of Rome and Successor to the Apostle Peter. Furthermore, the Pope commanded that the Frankish nation, under the gravest spiritual penalties, was he nceforth “never to choose their kings from any other family.” Why this favor to the Franks and to their leader Pippin and his two boys? The Franks were rightly seen by the Popes as the defenders and the vindicators of the rights and liberties of the Roman Church. Even when Rome, as a political reality, had fallen the spirit of Christian Rome still lived strong.
By Fr. Higgins 26 Feb, 2024
Our Lenten Parish Mission this year is entitled: “Blessed Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire.” Charlemagne–“Charles-Le-Magne”, “Charles-the-Great”–lived from 742 A.D. -814 A.D. The King of the Franks, he established a great and powerful Kingdom stretching across what is today France and Germany. On Christmas Day, 800 A.D., in the City of Rome, the Pope crowned him Roman Emperor, reviving the glory of that once-great Empire, which had first persecuted but finally embraced Christianity. He is one of those great figures of history who both shapes events and sets in motion developments which continue for generations after he is dead. In the human story, things could always have been different. For us as Christian believers therefore we are always alert to the golden threads of God’s Providence. Let us begin our story in the year 732 A.D. The leader of the Christian Franks Charles Martel (“Charles-the-Hammer”) decisively defeated the Islamic invaders who had entered France through Spain. This was the Battle of Tours which prevented Europe from being overrun by the Muslims. The invader retreated back over the Pyrenees Mountains but some Muslim groups held out in their fortresses of Aquitaine (southwestern France). One of these was the castle of Mirambel which is on the rock overhanging Lourdes.Our Lenten Parish Mission this year is entitled: “Blessed Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire.” Charlemagne–“Charles-Le-Magne”, “Charles-the-Great”–lived from 742 A.D. -814 A.D. The King of the Franks, he established a great and powerful Kingdom stretching across what is today France and Germany. On Christmas Day, 800 A.D., in the City of Rome, the Pope crowned him Roman Emperor, reviving the glory of that once-great Empire, which had first persecuted but finally embraced Christianity. He is one of those great figures of history who both shapes events and sets in motion developments which continue for generations after he is dead. In the human story, things could always have been different. For us as Christian believers therefore we are always alert to the golden threads of God’s Providence. Forty-six years later, in the Year 778 A.D., the grandson of Charles Martel, another Charles (our “Charlemagne”), 36 years-old and now the King of the Franks, was on his return from a military campaign against the Muslim Saracens in Spain. He laid siege to this Mirambel Castle. The fortress was impregnable. Charlemagne tried to starve its defenders into submission. The siege went on and on. The Muslim commander, a man named Mirat, had sworn an oath by the Prophet Mohammed that he would  never surrender the castle to any mortal man. One day, an eagle carrying a trout caught from the River Gave, dropped it inside the Saracen castle walls. Mirat had a clever idea. He had the still floundering fish thrown over to the Christian besiegers as if to show them that it was an unwanted extra to the supplies of his garriso n. “Hey, Christian Infidels! We’ve still got plenty of food! We’re fine!” Thinking he had been besieging the fortress in vain, Charlemagne was on the point of giving up and marching away. But his chaplain, the Bishop of Le Puy, had a hunch that this was a bluff. He asked for and obtained a meeting with Mirat and he immediately saw that the Saracens were indeed starving and at the point of collapse. The Bishop encouraged submission on honorable terms but Mirat fell back on his oath to the Prophet. So, the Bishop replied: “Brave Prince, you have sworn never to yield to any mortal man. Could you not with honor make your surrender to an immortal Lady? Mary, Queen of Heaven, has her throne at Le Puy, and I am her humble minister there.” This persuasion broke the deadlock. Mirat the Saracen came to terms with Charlemagne. In a token of his vassalage, he brought to the sanctuary of Mary, to whom he had surrendered, some handfuls of grass from the banks of the River Gave. Mirat accepted Christianity and was baptized under the name Lorus. Charlemagne knighted him and gave him back the command of the fortress of Mirabel. It is from the Knight Lorus that the name of the town of Lourdes is derived. This is the story of Charlemagne at Lourdes. Let us close our First Conference then with this thought: Mirat/Lorus surrendered his castle to Mary in 778. In 1858, one thousand and eighty years later, Mary the Queen of Heaven appeared on earth to manifest her particular sovereignty over this place. (Source for the story of Charlemagne at Lourdes: St. Bernadette: A Pictorial Biography, By Leonard von Matt and Francis Trochu; Translated from the French by Herbert Rees, Henry Regnery Company, Chicago, 1957 A.D., “The Dedication of Lourdes to the Blessed Virgin Mary”, pp. 1-2.)
By Fr. Higgins 18 Feb, 2024
The Apparitions of Our Lady at Lourdes to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858 can be best understood by correlating them to the liturgical calendar then in use. There we can see how well they align with the Patristic Church’s Easter Baptismal Catechesis. Here follows an outline, continued from last week: The Fortnight: Weeks I & II of Lent The first of the two Signs given to the world at Lourdes was the water of the underground spring gushing forth from the side of the great rock of the Massabielle, as the water and blood gushed forth from the side of Christ as He hung on the Cross: “But one of the soldiers with a spear opened His side: and immediately there came out blood and water.” (John 19:34) The people of Lourdes discovered this on Friday, February 26th (Ember Friday in Lent) the day after Bernadette had been told by the Vision to dig in the dirt and drink from the then non-existent spring (February 25th). This Friday was also the day of the Feast of Holy Lance and Nails. The Gospel Lesson for this Mass is the Gospel of the water and blood flowing from the side of Christ. (John 19:28-35) 10th Apparition: Ember Saturday in Lent (February 27th). Lenten Gospel Lesson: The Transfiguration of Christ, Mathew 17:1-9. Bernadette, in ecstasy of prayer, is seen to perform acts of penance in obedience to the Vision and drink from the miraculous spring— “Go and kiss the ground as a penance for sinners.” —The Vision also tells the girl: “Go and tell the priests to have a chapel built here.” 11th Apparition: Second Sunday in Lent (February 28th). Lenten Gospel Lesson: The same Transfiguration Gospel (Matthew 17:1-9) as the previous day Ember Saturday. Bernadette again performs a penitential exercise climbing the rock and kissing the ground. 12th Apparition: Monday of the Second Week in Lent (March 1st). Lenten Gospel Lesson: Christ in the Temple, assailed by His enemies, makes a cryptic allusion to His coming Crucifixion and His Divinity: “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I AM and that of Myself I do nothing…” (John 8:21-29). 13th Apparition: Tuesday of the Second Week in Lent (March 2nd) Lenten Gospel Lesson: Christ in the Temple at the beginning of Holy Week: “The greatest among you will be your servant. The man who exalts himself will be humbled and the man who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Matthew 23:1-12) After the Apparition, Bernadette goes to the Parish Priest to convey the Lady’s request that people come in procession to the Grotto and for a chapel to be built there. The Parish Priest, with an explosion of temper, rebuffs her and says he must know this Lady’s name first. 14th Apparition: Wednesday of the Second Week in Lent (March 3rd) Lenten Gospel Lesson: Christ, on the Pilgrim Road to Jerusalem for the Passover and His Coming Passion, quells the rivalrous spirit of ambition rearing its ugly head among His Apostles: “But Jesus called them to Him and said: You know that the rulers of the gentiles lord it over them and their great men make them feel their authority. Among you this must not be … The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:17-28) The Vision does not appear to Bernadette in the early morning when the crowds are gathered. Later in the day, however, Bernadette receives an interior calling and returns to the Grotto. The Vision tells her the reason why she did not appear earlier: Some curiosity-seekers had wished to see what Bernadette looked like in ecstasy and they were unworthy of it. 15th Apparition: Thursday of the Second Week in Lent (March 4th) Lenten Gospel Lesson: Parable of Lazarus and the Dives (the rich man), (Luke 16:19:31). 20,000 people gather at the Grotto, expecting a great miracle. Bernadette receives an audience with the Vision, but there is no public miraculous sign. The Fortnight has come to its close. The Second Sign: “I am the Immaculate Conception” 16th Apparition: (March 25th) Feast of the Annunciation, Thursday in Passion Week. Feast-day Gospel Lesson: The Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38); Passion Thursday Gospel Lesson: The Sinful Woman before Christ in the House of Simon the Pharisee (Luke &:36-50). The Vision gives Bernadette her name: “I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION”.) This is the second sign to the world at Lourdes: “[God said to the serpent] I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.” Genesis 3:15, the “Proto-evangelium”, the First Proclamation of the Gospel. 17th Apparition: Easter Wednesday (April 7th) Gospel Lesson: The Breakfast on the Shore of the Risen Christ with His Disciples (John 21:114). 18th Apparition: The Feast of Mount Carmel (July 16th) Gospel Lesson: Luke 11:27-28.
By Fr. Higgins 11 Feb, 2024
The Apparitions of Our Lady at Lourdes to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858 can be best understood by correlating them to the liturgical calendar then in use. There we can see how well they align with the Patristic Church’s Easter Baptismal Catechesis. Here follows an outline: 1st Apparition: Thursday in Shrovetide (February 11th, 1858), the Night Office for this day presents the Covenant of God with Noah after the Great Flood and the Rainbow in the heavens as the sign of God’s reconciliation. The waters of the Great Flood prefigure the waters of Christ’s Baptism and Noah’s Ark the Ark of Christ’s Catholic Church—the Ark of Salvation. 2nd Apparition: Shrove Sunday (February 14th) 3rd Apparition: Thursday after Ash Wednesday (February 18th): The Vision addresses Bernadette for the first time and asks the girl to visit her there for a fortnight. The Fortnight: Weeks I & II of Lent 4th Apparition: Friday after Ash. Also, the Feast of the Sacred Crown of Thorns, the Third in the series of seven particular Feasts of the Passion which were said on designated days in Septuagesima and Lent. In 1858, these were observed in the diocese to which Lourdes belonged. (February 19th) 5th Apparition: Saturday after Ash (February 20th) Lenten Gospel Lesson: Jesus walks on the water and calms the storm. Mark 6:47-56 6th Apparition: First Sunday in Lent. The Gospel Lesson is of the Temptation of Christ in the Desert. Matt. 4:1-11 (February 21st) Monday of the First Week in Lent, the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter at Antioch (February 22nd): No Apparition to Bernadette. 7th Apparition: Tuesday of the First Week in Lent (February 23rd). Lenten Gospel Lesson: Jesus cleanses the Temple on Palm Sunday, Matthew 21:10-17. 8th Apparition: Ember Wednesday in Lent (February 24th). During her ecstasy Bernadette is heard to say: “Penance … Penance … Penance.” Lenten Gospel Lesson: Jesus tells the Pharisees the only sign that will be shown them is the “Sign of Jonas” (i.e., His own death and Resurrection from the Tomb). Matthew 12:38-50. 9th Apparition: Thursday of the First Week in Lent (February 25th) The Apparition commands Bernadette to “Go and drink at the spring and wash yourself in it.” Bernadette digs in the dirt where the Vision indicates. Only on her 4th attempt is she able to drink a little muddy water. Lenten Gospel Lesson: The Canaanite mother who begs Christ to deliver her possessed daughter. Matthew 15:21-28. Ember Friday in Lent (February 26th) and the Feast of the Holy Lance and Nails. The Beautiful Lady does not appear to Bernadette, but the people of Lourdes are amazed to find water gushing from the side of the great rock, from the very place were Bernadette had been digging in the dirt the day before. This is the first Sign given to the people: the water gushing from the side of the rock is a symbol of the water and blood flowing from the side of Christ on the Cross, John 19:35.
By Fr. Higgins 04 Feb, 2024
On Friday, February 2nd, we concluded the Christmas Cycle for this year and we are very quickly preparing for Lent which is the Church’s ver sacrum (“sacred spring”) in the lead-up to Easter. Shrovetide begins on Thursday of this week. Next Sunday is Shrove Sunday—we will be celebrating our Parish Patronal Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, February 11th—and a week from Wednesday, February 14th, we will observe Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the holy fast. As has become the custom here at Mary Immaculate of Lourdes during Lent we will hold a Holy Hour with the Stations of the Cross every Friday from 7:30-8:30 P.M., from Friday after Ash (February 16th) to The Feast of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady (March 22nd). After the Stations, I will offer a series of Sermons on a particular Lenten Mission theme. This year, I have chosen to give a Mission around the life of Blessed Charlemagne and the reconstitution of the fallen Roman Empire as the Holy Roman Empire (Christmas Day, A.D. 800). This Lenten Mission is open to all, not just for parishioners. I encourage you to make this Mission with the Stations as part of your Lenten practices on as many of the Friday evenings as you can.
By Fr. Higgins 27 Jan, 2024
Even before we have finished with the 40 Days of Christmas (February 2nd, Friday of this week) we begin our remote preparation for Easter. In the older Roman Missal there is a distinct period of “pre-Lent” called “Septuagesima”, (the Latin word for “seventieth”). We are today (approximately) seventy-days away from Easter. Here is an explanation of Septuagesima from the Missal note of the 1961 St. Andrew’s Missal: Man, “justly punished for his sins” (Collect prayer for Septuagesima Sunday), is deeply conscious of his pitiful state and implores divine mercy. The Septuagesima liturgy, which serves as an introduction to Lent, emphasizes man’s sorry state, but speaks of it to God with the whole strength of Christian hope founded on the Redemption wrought by Christ; the Introit and the chants of today’s Mass, the Epistle and the Gospel urge us to respond to God’s summons, calling all men, every generation of mankind, at whatever time this summons comes, to work for their salvation. In the old Liturgy also the Scriptures Lessons for the night-v  igil of Matins lay out the framework for the work of Redemption by taking key readings from the Book of Genesis. We have the patriarchal figures of Sacred History who also pre-figure Jesus Christ in His Coming. I. Septuagesima Week, the Creation Story and the Fall of Man into Sin. The Expulsion of Adam and Eve, our First Parents, from the earthly paradise and the promise of a future Redeemer, born of a Woman (Mary). Jesus Christ is the New and Second Adam. II. Week of Sexagesima (Shrovetide). Noah’s Ark and the Great Flood are the central consideration. The great destructive Flood which wiped out life on the earth was an act of divine justice. The Flood of Noah, however, pre-figures the waters of Baptism which are the expression of God’s mercy. The Ark of Noah is an image of the Catholic Church and the Patriarch Noah is a figure of Christ . The rainbow in the heavens, which is the sign of God’s reconciling covenant with His renewed creation, will be fully realized in the Reconciliation accomplished by Jesus’ Death on the Cross. III. Week of Quinquagesima (Shrovetide/Ash Wednesday and the Three Days after Ash). The Patriarch Abraham is promised a descendance as numerous as the stars in the heavens, but God commands Abraham to sacrifice His only son Isaac, the Son of the Promise. Abraham nonetheless obeys God, but at the last moment an Angel of the Lord intervenes and a ram is miraculously provided for the sacrifice. That ram is a figure of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, the Beloved Son of the Father, who will die in our place on the Cross at Mount Calvary. The Sacrifice of the only Son is prefigured in Isaac, but fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
By Fr. Higgins 13 Jan, 2024
Epiphanytide is completed, but the Time-after— Epiphany keeps us within the Christmas feastspan of 40 days, as Dom Prosper Guéranger reminds us: We apply the name of Christmas to the forty days which begin with the NATVITY of OUR LORD, December 25th, and end with the PURIFICATION of the BLESSED VIRGIN, February 2nd. It is a period which forms a distinct portion of the Liturgical Year, as distinct, by its own special spirit, from every other, as are Advent, Lent, Easter, or Pentecost. One same Mystery is celebrated and kept in view during the whole forty days. Neither the Feasts of the Saints, which so abound during this Season; nor the time of Septuagesima, with its mournful Purple, which often begins before Christmastide is over, seem able to distract our Holy Mother the Church from the immense JOY of which she received the good tidings from the Angels on that glorious Night…..The custom of celebrating the Solemnity of Our Savior’s Nativity by a feast or commemoration of forty days’ duration is founded on the Holy Gospel itself; for it tells us that the Blessed Virgin Mary, after spending forty days in the contemplation of the Divine Fruit of her glorious Maternity, went to the Temple, there to fulfill, in most perfect humility, the ceremonies which the Law demanded of the daughters of Israel, when they became mothers. —The Liturgical Year, Christmas-Book I  The yearly Octave Week of Prayer for Christian Unity always falls between January 18th-25th, traditionally important feasts of the Apostles Peter and Paul (January 18th was formerly the Feast of St. Peter’s Chair-at-Rome). These words of Cardinal Newman, himself a convert from Anglicanism, set the tone for our prayer.
By Fr. Higgins 06 Jan, 2024
Let us recall at this time the blessed memory of Pope Benedict XVI, who reigned as Pope for 8 years, 2005-2013, and who accompanied the Church by his prayers on earth for nearly ten years more.  PHOTOS below: Pope Benedict XVI on his visit to Lourdes in 2008 for the 150th Jubilee of the Apparitions. Benedict announced his resignation on February 11th, 2013, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.
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