Great Graces from Our Lady

 Blessed solemnity of the Assumption! How many beautiful blessings we have received today from the hands of Our Lady on this powerful dedicated to her honor. What a gift it was to end our time in Lourdes on this blessed Solemnity. 

Our day began early with Mass in the Grotto. Despite the crowds early in the morning, we were miraculously able to seat ourselves in the very front row. The Mass was celebrated by an Italian bishop, and con-celebrated by a multitude of other priests from all around the world. What a beautiful sign of the universal Church, represented by many nations. It was truly a representation of all that is Lourdes and all that we will enounter more powerfully in World Youth Day. 

Even more miraculously, after the Mass ended, we all were able to go forward and kneel at the feet of Our Lady in the Grotto, and recite the prayer of Consecration to Mary together. What a powerful moment of great grace, as we gave ourselves fully to Mary, so she could form us and lead us to union with the Heart of her Son. It was the most fitting way to end our time with her in Lourdes, and a perfect preparation for our entrance into Madrid and our encounter with the Holy Father. We left Lourdes both sad to go, but truly joyful and grateful for the time we were able spend her "home."

 

We then boarded the bus and were on our way to Madrid!

 

Our ride to Madrid was a very beautiful one, both in our enjoyment of the Lord's beautiful creation as we passed through the Pyrenees Mountains, and our time of sharing together on the bus. We began our ride with a Rosary of thanksgiving to Our Lady for all the graced we received. Following the rosary, Fr. Adam gave an explanation on the scapular and enrolled all those who were not already enrolled. We also had a time in which we shared our stories and experiences of the pilgrimage thus far. Jack and Katie also shared the story of their relationship, which.was a great joy and edification for our hearts.

Upon our arrival to Madrid we went to our home parish of Santa Maria del Pinar, where we were given a warm welcome by the beautiful priest and all the parishoners. We then were assigned to different families in the parish to begin our home stay experience. We are very grateful for the generous and open hearts that have received us into their hearts and homes. 

Estamos en Madrid!

Loving Mary

Our day began with a beautiful hike out of the city, away from the crowds, and into the mountains to visit the place where Bernadette lived for a period of her life. It was a wonderful moment of family in the midst of God's creation. When we got to the house and barn where she lived, we said a prayer to Bernadette, asking her to us accept, at all moments, the Lord's will for our lives, like her and the Blessed Mother.

Upon our return, in the afternoon, we celebrated Holy Mass for the last time in our dear St. Gabriel Chapel. In the Mass gave another beautiful homily about the necessity  of humility before God, about how we must, in love, bow before Him in order to receive all the graces that He desires to pour upon us. This is precisely the faith of the Canaanite woman that brought healing to her daughter.

The afternoon was a time of free time, in which we took the opportunity to pray, visit the grotto, go in the baths again, complete our shopping, and walk around the shrine and city. It was a time to recollect and allow the graces of the past five days to sink deeper into our hearts.

After dinner, we had another wonderful talk, given by Fr. Adam, about consecration to the Blessed Mother, in which he shared with us how his own beautiful devotion and consecration came about, and how his own priestly vocation came at the moment of his consecration to the Blessed Mother.  As well, he gave a wonderful summary of the life of St.Louis de Montfort and his treatise on True Devotion to Mary. Thanks be to his clear and powerful reflection on the beauty and importance of love and devotion to Mary, our hearts were left more disposed and prepared to make our lifelong consecration to her tomorrow a more authentic and truthful and loving act.

Humility and Poverty allow Him to Reign

A powerful day in which we experienced the fecundity of humilty and poverty of heart began first thing in the morning with the celebration of Holy Mass. At Mass, Fr. Adam delivered a powerful homily centered around the three-fold cry of Joshua to the Isealites about to enter the Promised Land: are we really ready to enter? Are we truly willing to embrace the responsibilty that the gift of Love calls forth from us? Are we willing to embrace the sweet yoke of Love?

 

Next we continued along our path of the day by following the "path" of Bernadette, embarking on her "Footsteps." This began with our visit to her museum, which featured photos and different articles from her life and the town. We continued on to the Boly Mill where Bernadette spent the first ten happy years of her life. Finally, we ended at the "cachot" or old prison cell rented out to her family - a single room unfit even for real prisoners, in which the six-member family lived after the family came upon hard times. This is where Bernadette was living when the apparitions began. We see from this that the Lord chooses the humble and poor of heart to carry out his work. Even when people began to offer gifts and money because of the apparitions, the poor family refused to take them, knowing they did not belong to them. This humble and poor family gives us a beautiful witness of the power of humility and poverty. 

In the evening, we gathered in the convent chapel in which we are staying to hear a beautiful talk of Sr. Silvia on the virtue of humilty. She led us to deepen our understanding of authentic humilty, of how the Lord is only able to work and bear fruit in a humble heart. She led us through an examination of humilty,  and how to attain it through a better "seeing" of ourselves, of our relationship to God and our relationship to others.

Finally, we ended the night with a very powerful time of adoration, in which the Lord called us to praise Him, as in heaven. To humbly bow before our God. Only in this way would we truly be able to open our hearts to receive Him. He called us individually to fully surrender ourselves, without reserve, to his plan for our lives, to his love and his will. It was a powerful night of true praise and adoration of our Lord and God. Praise and glory to Him forever.

 

Triumph of Love

It was another beautiful day in the sanctuary of Our Lady, receiving graces from her maternal heart and womb. It was a day dedicated to knowing, receiving, and responding to God's love. 

The day began in the morning with the Stations of the Cross. We meditated upon the love Jesus poured upon us, as we walked up the mountain and prayed in front of the life size golden Stations - a powerful work of art that help so many faithful enter more fully into the Passion of our Lord. Pausing at the 9th Station to touch the hand of the fallen Jesus, we sought to console with our gesture of love the heart that suffered so much out of love for us.

After finishing the Stations, we visited the Grotto, passing by the fountian and the image of Our Lady. What a powerful moment in which the love our Mother has for us was so palpable. What a gift of her maternal presence. 

In the afternoon, among the increasingly large crowds - many of which are also here on the way to WYD - we found a place to pray a Rosary, sing praise and worships songs, and listen to a beautiful testimony from Beatriz about her experience with a group of young people from Mexico. After this, we listened to a beautiful talk by Sr. Faustina about the virtue of charity. In her talk she encouraged us all to love, not according to the world's definition of love, but to the Lord's: to the extreme; thinking of others first and above ourselves; and offering ourselves as a gift, without reserve, to God and others. Throughout the day, the Lord was a revealing more deeply our call to be "missionary souls", filled with God's love and willing to go out and give it all without reserve. 

Father brought our day of charity to a culmination with the celebration of Holy Mass. In his homily he beautifully explained our call to a spousal love that does not harden from sin, but that opens itself and allows itself to be pierced out of love. In the Eucharist we saw this love become incarnate before our very eyes, and were able to receive Him into our very person.

Finally, in the evening, we again had the gift of taking part in the Rosary procession, in which we were able to place everything at the feet of Our Lady so that she can teach us to be true "witnesses to Love."

Day of Purity, August 11

On the feast of St. Clare, and in the city of Our Lady, the Lord poured powerful of purity into our hearts. The day began with the great gift and priviledge of going into the baths of Lourdes. Through a miracle we were able to enter as a group in front of the line. Before going in, we had a time of profound silence and prayer in order to prepare ourselves for the graces of healing that the Lord would be giving us through the miraculous waters. With us spiritually, we took all of our families, loved ones, and those who in need of healing. We asked Our Lady to purify us from deep within, going down to the very root of our sins. In a special way, we went in for all those who remained at home, receiving graces on their behalf. It was a profound and deep moment of grace for all our hearts. 

After we gathered to pray a Rosary in order to thank Our Lady for the graces received. Following the Rosay, Sr. Sara gave a teaching and reflection on the virtue of purity, calling us to a purity of heart like Our Lady: a heart that loves only One; a heart that accepts suffering as a gift of purification from a loving Father; and a heart lovingly trusts the Lord and is willing to go forward on the path to holiness. 

 

Our day culminated by receiving and being with the only One who can bring this purification about: our Lord. We had Mass together again in St. Gabriel chapel, in which Fr. Adam exhorted us to take up more fully Our Lady's call to penance, in order to purify the world and ourselves. We culminated our encounter with our Eucharistic Lord with a powerful time of Adoration. In this time, the Lord personally invited us to make Him Lord of our hearts and lives, knocking gentely on the door of our hearts, inviting us to open. He "opened the floodgates of heaven" pouring down a torrent of healing water for all those who would choose to receive him. 

Finally, we made a final night visit to the grotto to thank Our Lady for all the graces that she bestowed on us today. We praise and thank the Lord for all that he has been healing, restoring and rebuilding in us. May He praised forever.

Arrival in Lourdes

August 10, 2011

Arrival in Lourdes!  After a long day of travel, we finally arrived in the blessed city of Lourdes, France. Immediately, we sensed the strong maternal presene of Our Lady. What a gift that we have made it to be with Our Lady to enter into her Heart and School to begin our formation under her care and guidance.  

Our Eucharistic Lord greeted us, as we arrived just as the daily Eucharistic procession was beginning. The students were overwhelmed to see the splendor of the universal Church as she gathered to adore her Lord, care for her treasures - the sick, and unite themselves in honoring our Blessed Mother. They were moved to understand how human suffering opens the heart to receive graces of interior conversion.

We celebrated Mass next in St. Gabriel Chapel. Through the Gospel and the homily, the Lord exhorted us to be willing to die to self so that others may have life. In the evening, we came together with pilgrims from all over the world, uniting ours joys, sufferings, and prayers in the recitation of the Rosary, a procession of the Blessed Mother, and the singing of hymns - in all languages.

The night ended by greeting Our Lady in the Grotto, giving her thanks for the work she has begun and will continue to do. Our Lady has begun to prepare our hearts for an ecclesial experience with the univrsal Church, as the World Youth Day encounter approaches. 

How I Got to WYD.....Part 3

Hannah Adams

The Lord has a plan for each one of us. Each of our plans have many sufferings and sacrifices, but also more blessings and graces than we could ever imagine. I would have never imagined that one of the blessings that he had in store for me was to make the pilgrimage to World Youth Day.

I first heard about World Youth Day on Holy Thursday 2010. Liz Kunkel, Sister Silvia, Sister Sara and I were driving to the cathedral in Peoria for Mass. The sisters and Liz were all talking about this event coming up next summer. It sounded really cool and everything, but I had no clue what they were talking about. I didn’t want to sound stupid so instead of asking everyone in the car I texted Liz who was sitting right next to me in the car asking her what World Youth Day is. She texted me back, and I thought it sounded amazing. I felt the desire in my heart to go to World Youth Day. Although I felt the desire to go I didn’t think I would actually get to go. But, though the grace of God and intercession of Blessed John Paul II I’m leaving in three days to go on this pilgrimage.

When I first signed up to go I was extremely worried about coming up with the money in order to go. The sisters reassured me saying that if I really am supposed to go God has a plan of how I am going to get there. Throughout the school year I was able to take part in many fundraisers for World Youth Day. It was a blessing to be a part of these fundraisers. I met a lot of very generous people. I thank God for their generous hearts because it is by their sacrifices not only of their money, but of their prayers as well that I have to amazing gift of going to World Youth Day.

Noelle Curry

God has put the desire in my heart to attend the WYD pilgrimage. He has blessed me with a job, supportive parents, family, and friends. My tita sold tons of raffle tickets for me as a fundraiser. When she gave them back to me she was sorry because she wished she could have sold more. God bless her! She sold more than I ever had the guts to ask for. God has blessed me even through donations from other individuals I may not even know that well. God is so good! And I truly thank everyone who has helped us along the way through their donations, offerings and prayers. I wish everyone could go. God has blessed me with beautiful people and has shown me love. I know all of us will come back and share our blessings just as we received them. As the Sisters have taught, God gives us gifts to give back.

Anonymous

When I first heard about the World Youth Day trip I thought it sounded pretty cool, but I never expected that I would actually be going.  I had very briefly considered it, but quickly dismissed the idea due to the financial obligation and missing the start of the school year. The deadline passed and I thought nothing more about it, but then a couple weeks later there was a last call to sign up.. Ever since then, this has become my total leap of faith year.  I am not the kind to make hasty decisions, but within three days after the opportunity presented itself again I just decided to say yes.  Beneath all the doubts and insecurities, I felt like I was supposed to challenge myself and all my fears.  That's why it became my leap of faith.  I had no idea if I would be able to afford it, among several other obstacles, but I figured it would all work out in the end.  When I told one of my friends about the decision, she responded by saying, "That is so unlike you!"  She thought that I always had everything planned out, and it surprised her that I would make such a big decision without being able to anticipate the possible outcomes.  She was happy with my decision, and I will never ever forget that conversation.  Since then, I have faced some of my fears and grown in so many ways: public speaking, friendships, faith, and my thoughts and actions are just a few examples.  I have noticed a lot of subtle changes in my life, and I know there are many more to come.  As much as I am looking forward to this journey, I know that it will be an extremely challenging and emotional one.  Leap of faith: ready, set, go!