How did St Bernadette reveal herself to me?
My friend Michelle told me about her during our visit to Medugorje in 1995. While in Belgium visiting the gravesite of my Uncle Bruce we decided to look for St Therese ... we found St Bernadette. How did this happen? To this day it remains a mystery.
In Brugges, Belgium we went looking for a church and a priest ... we figured that was our best chance of finding directions to St Therese. Before long we found a kind elderly priest who spoke some English. He retrieved an old book from a cupboard and looked up St Bernadette. He turned to us and explained that St Therese was in a place called Nevers ... south of Paris ... a long ways from Brugges. While we were both exhausted from all our travelling in the past couple of weeks ... we nonetheless get in the car and head south.
Several hours later we arrive in Nevers and we stop at the first church we see ... again to get directions. Since I speak some French I am delegated to go and find help in the church. A pleasant older lady explains that there is no St Therese in Nevers but there is another Saint here if we are interested ... turns out to be St Bernadette ... who is well known to Michelle but news to me. I'm not even sure if I had heard of Lourdes before.
Before leaving Nevers I discovered that the pommegrams from Medugorje ... a local elderly lady had given them to me on my first visit to the Blue Cross in Medugorje ... were quickly becoming over-ripe in the trunk of the car. several were cracked open and 'bleeding' ... remembered thinking to myself at the time ... "these 'bleeding' pommegrams symbolize the members of my family ... all wounded souls ... and I am leaving them here in your hands St Bernadette". I left them in Nevers.
Since that time ... whenever some member of my family is helped through some trauma ... I think of the pommegrams and St Bernadette. I am still counting on her to help all of my family through their 'healing journey' ... much remains to be done. :-)
I would return to Nevers on several occasions ... as well as Lourdes ... always tearful events. St Bernadette burned two thoughts into my memory ...
1) She his known for her quote ... "Love without Limit"
2) "They loved each other tenderly" ... I got 'drunk on Love' the first time I read these words ... written on a wall in Lourdes ... about St Bernadette's parents ... I'm still looking to find such a relationship ... any two people ... anywhere. :-)
St Bernadette is associated with December 8th ... the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Our Lady of Lourdes identified Herself to St Bernadette as the Immaculate Conception ... Catholic Doctrine that had just been accepted at the time of the apparition in Lourdes. Of course, St Bernadette ... being a simple peasant girl ... would have known nothing about it.
December 8th has always been a special day for me as well. I particularly remember December 8, 2003 ... the year I went to Mount Carmel Israel on Decmber 8th because I believed the Virgin Mary wanted me to go ... and this is the same trip that I almost got arrested. Always Yin and Yang eh!
My friend Michelle told me about her during our visit to Medugorje in 1995. While in Belgium visiting the gravesite of my Uncle Bruce we decided to look for St Therese ... we found St Bernadette. How did this happen? To this day it remains a mystery.
In Brugges, Belgium we went looking for a church and a priest ... we figured that was our best chance of finding directions to St Therese. Before long we found a kind elderly priest who spoke some English. He retrieved an old book from a cupboard and looked up St Bernadette. He turned to us and explained that St Therese was in a place called Nevers ... south of Paris ... a long ways from Brugges. While we were both exhausted from all our travelling in the past couple of weeks ... we nonetheless get in the car and head south.
Several hours later we arrive in Nevers and we stop at the first church we see ... again to get directions. Since I speak some French I am delegated to go and find help in the church. A pleasant older lady explains that there is no St Therese in Nevers but there is another Saint here if we are interested ... turns out to be St Bernadette ... who is well known to Michelle but news to me. I'm not even sure if I had heard of Lourdes before.
Before leaving Nevers I discovered that the pommegrams from Medugorje ... a local elderly lady had given them to me on my first visit to the Blue Cross in Medugorje ... were quickly becoming over-ripe in the trunk of the car. several were cracked open and 'bleeding' ... remembered thinking to myself at the time ... "these 'bleeding' pommegrams symbolize the members of my family ... all wounded souls ... and I am leaving them here in your hands St Bernadette". I left them in Nevers.
Since that time ... whenever some member of my family is helped through some trauma ... I think of the pommegrams and St Bernadette. I am still counting on her to help all of my family through their 'healing journey' ... much remains to be done. :-)
I would return to Nevers on several occasions ... as well as Lourdes ... always tearful events. St Bernadette burned two thoughts into my memory ...
1) She his known for her quote ... "Love without Limit"
2) "They loved each other tenderly" ... I got 'drunk on Love' the first time I read these words ... written on a wall in Lourdes ... about St Bernadette's parents ... I'm still looking to find such a relationship ... any two people ... anywhere. :-)
St Bernadette is associated with December 8th ... the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Our Lady of Lourdes identified Herself to St Bernadette as the Immaculate Conception ... Catholic Doctrine that had just been accepted at the time of the apparition in Lourdes. Of course, St Bernadette ... being a simple peasant girl ... would have known nothing about it.
December 8th has always been a special day for me as well. I particularly remember December 8, 2003 ... the year I went to Mount Carmel Israel on Decmber 8th because I believed the Virgin Mary wanted me to go ... and this is the same trip that I almost got arrested. Always Yin and Yang eh!