A Note to Readers

From now on, for the next two months I will be posting articles on Lent and on Easter specially on their "Spiritual Significance".

There will be just 1 post on Catholic Classics that will be most probably next week. It will be a "Catholic Classics Special" for Lent.

Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes 11th February 2014 World Day of the Sick

The Grotto of Massabielle is the heart of Lourdes. In the town, the road signs do not indicate "the Sanctuary" rather "The Grotto". Until recently, "The Grotto" was the name of the organisation  which managed the sanctuary.

The vault of the Grotto has been preserved in its original state, as we can see from the oldest photographs available. The engravings are less accurate as they present the area as a theatrical scene. The Grotto faces north and the sun never penetrates within. It is the Blessed Virgin herself who illuminates it with her presence, her smile, and her beauty. The symbolism speaks for itself.

In  Lourdes, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette Soubirous 18 times from 11th February to 16th July 1858 that year at a little niche and delivered messages through her to the world.

Bernadette obedient to Our Lady's command scratched the ground near the grotto and Lo and Behold a trickle of water issued forth from the ground she had scratched. This is the source of the miraculous waters of Lourdes.

Many Miraculous cures have been attributed to the waters from this spring which continues to flow to this day. Doctors have had no explanations for these scientifically inexplicable cures. One can see crutches hanging around the grotto left by pilgrims who were cured.

All in all Lourdes in France is a "Must Visit Destination" for anyone or everyone specially those who are sick with terminal illnesses or incurable diseases.

Check out the Sanctuary in Lourdes

http://en.lourdes-france.org/

Tallest Statue of Divine Mercy installed in India

Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Oct 2, 2013 / 04:11 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Sept. 30, Cardinal George Alencherry unveiled and blessed a shrine featuring a statue of the Divine Mercy of Jesus, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

“The statue is 43-feet tall and it proclaims that the Lord is ever merciful to all those who seek him,” Bishop Anthony Chirayath of the Syro-Malabarese Diocese of Sagar told CNA Sept. 28.
The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Bishop of Rome. It is of the East Syrian rite, and is headed by Cardinal Alencherry, who is Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly. Nearly all 3.8 million Syro-Malabarese Catholics are in India, though there is an eparchy located in the U.S.

Some 20 bishops attended the blessing, as well as around 100 priests and religious. When he spoke to CNA, Bishop Chirayath said that “a presence of about 3,000 Catholic devotees of the Divine Mercy is expected, including pilgrims from the U.S., Canada, France, Germany and Italy,” adding that “a great participation of staunch devotees, even of other faiths, is to be witnessed.”

Read more here http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/divine-mercy-statue-in-india-receives-cardinals-blessing/

A Happy and Holy New Year 2014

New Year Greetings from Mumbai, India. I wish all the readers of my blog a Blessed and Holy New Year 2014.

It is my fervent prayer that during 2014, peace should reign in the hearts of men and women in strife torn countries such as Iraq, Central African Republic, South Sudan, ans Syria.

The Blessed Sacrament by Father Faber An Awesome Catholic Classic

 The Blessed Sacrament by Father Faber:

This is an intellectual treatise on the Blessed Sacrament which I personally found to be fabulous and excellent in my spiritual journey and which I am sure you will too.

"A more intelligent understanding of the Blessed Sacrament will lead to a more intense love of it. And what insights Fr. Faber renders !! He affirms that the Blessed Sacrament is the very "Life of the Church", that it is the Queen of the Sacraments and that it surpasses them all in that it comprises the special excellencies of all the rest.

He calls it "the compendium of all miracles", the central theme of our religion, the universal devotion of the Church and last but not the least, "a picture of God".

Read the whole book here

https://ia600201.us.archive.org/1/items/a579622000fabeuoft/a579622000fabeuoft.pdf

Merry Christmas 2013

Christmas Greetings to one and all from Mumbai, India. Christmas reminds me of Traditional Christmas Sweets like Marzipan, Milkcream, Coconut Sweet, Guava Cheese, and Chocolate Fudge to mention a few.

I pray that all the readers of my blog had a Holy and Blessed Christmas.

Two Outstanding and Excellent Catholic Classics

Today, I will be talking about 2 Catholic Classics - One of which is very close to my heart.

A) Diary - Divine Mercy in my Soul , Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska. Published by Marian Fathers and Marian Press, Stockbridge, Mass U.S.A :

I feel blessed to have a hard copy Jubilee 2000 Edition of the Divine Mercy Diary. It was given to my family by a Polish Catholic Businessman visiting my family in India in 2000/2001.

This happens to be my favourite Catholic Classic. It is an excellent book in more ways than one. A little about it now.

"The Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska is the record of her life experience with the Merciful Jesus Christ primarily in her convent in Plock, Poland, in Vilnius now in Lithuania and finally in Krakow where she lived the last years of her life.

It is the journey of her precious soul. She was graced by a special communion with God and the Diary expresses her conviction that this communion ought to be the centre of our lives".

The Diary reveals the temperament, mind, and spirituality of Saint Faustina. The Diary of Saint Faustina is a Book of "Catholic Mysticism" of exceptional worth not only for the Church in Eastern Europe or Western Europe or the Americas but also for the Universal Church.

The Diary consists of 6 Notebooks, which were originally written in Polish and which were translated into English by the Marian Fathers of the Province of the Blessed Virgin Mary at least 50 years ago.

Saint Faustina is now known all over the world as the "Apostle and Secretary of Divine Mercy". Saint Faustina Kowalska is numbered by theologians among the outstanding mystics of the Church of the 20th Century. At the heart of the Divine Mercy Message is the essence of "Trust" in the person of the Merciful Jesus Christ. Hence, the inscription at the bottom of the Divine Mercy Image - Jesus, I trust in you.

This Book is a must buy for all devotees of the Divine Mercy specially for those who recite the Divine Mercy Chaplet and those just getting into it.


B) The Life and Revelations of Saint Gertrude the Great:

This is an Outstanding Catholic Classic. This Catholic Classic reveals the depth of love Saint Gertrude had for the "Sacred Heart of Jesus" and vice versa. 

Sacred Heart of Jesus appeared many times to Saint Gertrude - a German Cloistered Benedictine Nun who lived in the 12th Century in Germany. The encounters that Saint Gertrude had with the Sacred Heart of  Jesus are explained vividly in this book. Saint Gertrude ranks among the foremost of all Catholic Mystics.