 Jesus
brings a miraculous catch of fish
Luke 5:1-11
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"Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to Heaven." --Saint Pope Pius X |
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INDEX: | PLEASE PRAY FOR THE END OF ABORTION IN THE UNITED STATES Pray for a constitutional amendment to ban all abortion 
"Then people brought little children to him, for him to lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples scolded them, but Jesus said, 'Let the little children alone, and do not stop them from coming to me; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of Heaven belongs.' Then he laid his hands on them and went on his way." The Bible, Matthew 21:13-15 "You created every part of me; you put me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because you are to be feared; all you do is strange and wonderful. I know it with all my heart. When my bones were being formed, carefully put together in my mother's womb, when I was growing there in secret, you knew that I was there you saw me before I was born. The days allotted to me had all been recorded in you book, before any of them ever began." The Bible: Psalm 139: 13-16 DIVINE MERCY PRAYER TO END ABORTION IN U.S. : You expired, Jesus, but the source of life gushed forth for souls, and the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world. O Fount of Life, unfathomable Divine Mercy, envelop the whole world and empty Yourself out upon us.
(Repeat three times) O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in You! PRAY THE DIVINE MERCY CHAPLET FOR AN ABORTION BAN 

SEE MORE ON ABORTION
MISSOURI'S BAN ON ABORTION
Missouri's ban on abortion began on June 24, 2022, when the
state's "trigger law" took effect.
The law was signed into effect by
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt in response to the U.S. Supreme
Court's ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.
Officials in Missouri signed the state's "trigger law" into effect after
the Supreme Court ruled that abortion was not a constitutional right. (The
Beacon) |
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"At the evening of life, you will be examined in love. Learn to love as God desires to be loved and abandon your own ways of acting." Saint John of the Cross |
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MASS READINGS FOR TODAY
Tuesday, February
11, 2025Tuesday
of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Reading 1
Genesis 1:202:4a
God said,
"Let the water teem with an abundance of living creatures,
and on the earth let birds fly beneath the dome of the sky."
and so it happened:
God created the great sea monsters
and all kinds of swimming creatures with which the water teems,
and all kinds of winged birds.
God saw how good it was, and God blessed them, saying,
"Be fertile, multiply, and fill the water of the seas;
and let the birds multiply on the earth."
Evening came, and morning followedthe fifth day.
Then God said,
"Let the earth bring forth all kinds of living creatures:
cattle, creeping things, and wild animals of all kinds."
and so it happened:
God made all kinds of wild animals, all kinds of cattle,
and all kinds of creeping things of the earth.
God saw how good it was.
Then God said:
"Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
the birds of the air, and the cattle,
and over all the wild animals
and all the creatures that crawl on the ground."
God created man in his image;
in the divine image he created him;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them, saying:
"Be fertile and multiply;
fill the earth and subdue it.
Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air,
and all the living things that move on the earth."
God also said:
"See, I give you every seed-bearing plant all over the earth
and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food;
and to all the animals of the land, all the birds of the air,
and all the living creatures that crawl on the ground,
I give all the green plants for food."
And so it happened.
God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.
Evening came, and morning followedthe sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth and all their array were completed.
Since on the seventh day God was finished with the work he had been doing,
he rested on the seventh day from all the work he had undertaken.
So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy,
because on it he rested from all the work he had done in creation.
Such is the story of the heavens and the earth at their creation.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
R. (2ab) O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
When I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars which you set in place
What is man that you should be mindful of him,
or the son of man that you should care for him?
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
You have made him
little less than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet.
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
All sheep and
oxen,
yes, and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea,
and whatever swims the paths of the seas.
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
Psalms 119:36, 29b
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Incline my heart, O God, to your decrees;
And favor me with your law.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Mark 7:1-13
When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem
gathered around Jesus,
they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals
with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.
(For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews,
do not eat without carefully washing their hands,
keeping the tradition of the elders.
And on coming from the marketplace
they do not eat without purifying themselves.
And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed,
the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds.)
So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,
"Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders
but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?"
He responded,
"Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites,
as it is written:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.
You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition."
He went on to say,
"How well you have set aside the commandment of God
in order to uphold your tradition!
For Moses said,
Honor your father and your mother,
and Whoever curses father or mother shall die.
Yet you say,
'If someone says to father or mother,
"Any support you might have had from me is qorban"'
(meaning, dedicated to God),
you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother.
You nullify the word of God
in favor of your tradition that you have handed on.
And you do many such things."
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SAINT FOR TODAY OR FEAST DAY February
11
OUR LADY OF LOURDES

LOURDES, which is now probably a household
name all over the civilized world, was a somewhat obscure country town of France
near the Pyrenees, down to the middle of the last century, though the place was
not without its history. Roman and Saracenic remains proclaimed its antiquity
and importance, and during the horrifying wars of religion in France, Leaguers
and Huguenots had more than once contended fiercely for its possession. The
natural beauty of the surroundings, too, made it a favourite resort for tourists
and " trippers," brought hither in the char-a-bancs, that very practical French
vehicle of the Thirties, which Louis Philippe made known in this country when he
gave a fine specimen to Queen Victoria as a souvenir of his visit in 1844. Among
the six thousand inhabitants of Lourdes that same year, was a miller and his
family, named Soubirous. Francois Soubirous had received the mill as part of the
" dot " of his wife, Louise Casterot, but bad managementa very rare fault in
France !soon brought the business to ruin, and husband, wife and little ones
had to leave the commodious mill-house and make their abode in a building in the
Rue des Petits-fosses, once used as the local prison, and still at that time
generally known as " the lock-up " (le cachet !). Bernadette, the eldest child
of the marriage of this ill-starred pair, was born 7th January, 1844, and
baptized the next day, receiving the name of Marie Bernard, later abridged to
Bernadette. She was not a strong child, for early in life, asthma and other
troubles manifested themselves, but notwithstanding all this, she was very
cheerful and lively. In fact, she cared for nothing or anybody as the saying is,
and was entirely free from any kind of conceit or tendency to pose. It is very
important to bear these facts in mind, as, of course, had it not been so, the
future events which have made her history so wonderful would no doubt have been
ascribed either to subtle artifice or to the " unnatural state of mind " of a
sickly child given to dwelling on the preternatural ! Towards the end of 1857,
she went to live with a family at Bartres, named Aravant, where she was employed
in the healthy, if rather monotonous, occupation of a shepherdess. While there,
she was instructed in the Catechism by the local Cure, an old man, who, it is
said, wished to leave his parish to join the Benedictines. Bernadette was not
happy at Bartres. She yearned for her home in the " Cachot," and in January,
1858, she had her wish, going back to Lourdes, where she continued her
preparation for her first Holy Communion. A few days after the little girl
returned, she went with her little sister, Toinette, and a girl friend, named
Jeanne Abardie, to gather sticks on the banks of the Gave. All of a sudden,
Bernadette, while intent on this necessary but prosaic work, heard a noise like
that of a gust of wind, and looking up saw in the grotto of the rock opposite, a
lady dressed in white. The child was frightened, as she afterwards said. She
tried to say her rosary, but could not make the sign of the Cross till after one
or two attempts, when she succeeded. Then fear passed from her and the saying of
the rosary went forward easily. Meantime she observed carefully the dress and
appearance of " the Lady." It was white, with a veil covering head, shoulders
and arms. The sash was blue and there were yellow roses on the feet. The figure
was surrounded with light. On Sunday, 14th February, Bernadette again went to
the grotto, accompanied by some of her girl friends. She had spoken of the
supposed apparition to her mother, who made light of it as a mere natural
occurrence. On the fourteenth, the vision came again, and only with difficulty
could Bernadette, who appeared " smiling and beautiful," be got away from the
spot by some of the neighbours who had been called to the place by the children,
who, alarmed at the long absence of their companion, had gone off to get help.
From this time till 18th July, of the same year, some eighteen apparitions took
place and then the manifestations ceased. Meantime, the reports of these
extraordinary occurrences caused the greatest excitement in the district. The
local priest, the Abbe Pomian, as well as the nuns of the Convent who had
instructed Bernadette for her first Communion, were long quite incredulous. Some
pious persons thought the " Petito Damizelo," as Bernadette, in the patois of
the districtone bordering on the Pyreneesalways styled the figure of the
apparitions, might be the soul of a girl friend of the child who had recently
died, and of course, most people regarded the affair as " hallucination ! " Not
only that, but the general excitement was causing large crowds to assemble
almost daily near the grotto, and under the Second Empire, the Government of
Napoleon III did not favour these demonstrations. They were too often the
prelude of those anti-dynastic and anti-law and order enzeutes, which meant "
barricades," and pitched battles with the military. The grotto was carefully
searched by the police to discover any evidences of " trickery," and persons
were forbidden to enter it. Bernadette herself was closely examined, both by the
local Commissary and the Imperial Prosecutor, but her replies were always
humble, straightforward and entirely free from the slightest trace of vanity or
love of notoriety. The gist of these communications was that the vision she had
seen in the grotto of the rock " Massabielle," was that of a young lady "
lovelier than I have ever seen " ; also that she, Bernadette, was bidden to
drink of a mysterious fountain in the grotto, which, before unknown, began to
gush forth from that time, and that she was to tell the clergy that a Chapel was
to be built on the spot and processions made to the place Bernadette frequently
fell into ecstasy during these visions, but after one of them, she addressed the
following question to the apparition, three times : " Madame, will you have the
goodness to tell me who you are ? " At the third request the Lady raised her
eyes and said : " Que soi era Immaculado Concepcion "--I am the Immaculate
Conception.
The temporary closing of
the grotto, which was done by order of the Prefect of Tarbes, Baron Massey, was
not in consequence of any really untoward incident, though there had been a
certain amount of tumult now and then, and, of course, some claims to
supernatural manifestations made by a few neurotic and excitable persons. The
closing of the place was on the ground that the spring that had suddenly sprung
up, was a medicinal one, and, therefore, ipso facto, Government property. Upon
analysis, however, the water was proved to have no special medicinal or chemical
properties whatever, and by a decree of Napoleon III the place was again opened
to the publicpious and the reverse.
On 17th November, 1858,
Bernadette was again subjected to an inquiry, and this time before the
Commission authorized by the Bishop of Tarbes, Mgr. Lawrence. Her replies, as
usual, were perfectly honest and simple, and without any ulterior motive. After
four years of due consideration of all the facts and circumstances of the cases,
the Bishop of Tarbes officially declared that the alleged apparitions had all
the " appearances of truth, and that the faithful were justified in believing in
them."
From 1858 to 1860,
Bernadette lived on with her family, but in the latter year the Cure of Lourdes
and the Mayor, M. Lacade, considered it best for her to go and reside with the
Sisters of Nevers, and so avoid the very undesirable public curiosity and
attention her extraordinary experiences had evoked. At first, Bernadette simply
lived in the Convent as a sort of boarder, but in 1864 she was accepted at her
own urgent request, supported by the warm approval of the Bishop of the diocese,
as a prospective postulant of the Convent of her retreat. Her bad state of
health, however, delayed her reception two years, and it was not until 4th July,
1866, that she actually entered as a postulant at Nevers. Meanwhile, she had
returned to her family at Lourdes, where she continued to follow as far as
possible the rule of her future life in religion.
The Congregation of her
choice" The Sisters of Charity and Christian Instruction of Nevers "had been
founded in 168o by Dom Jean Baptiste de Lavergne, O.S.B., for the care of the
sick and the education of the young. The Rev. Mother, when Bernadette entered,
was Mere Josephine Imbert, a religious of great holiness and prudence. She
wisely caused the interesting novice to describe simply, but fully, to the
community her experiences at the grotto, and then forbade the subject to be
discussed again. During the thirteen years of her life as a Sister of the
Convent, Sceur Marie Bernard, as Bernadette now was, practised the virtues of
self-effacement and mortification to a wonderful extent. When once a new-corner
to the Convent, who had expected to see in the famous Sister something "
seraphic," but who saw nothing extraordinary, and who, in an outburst of
disappointment, could not help exclaiming : " Just fancy ! only that ! " Sister
Marie Bernard, who, like the St Cure d'Ars on a similar occasion, greatly
enjoyed the whole incident, replied laughingly: " Yes, only that ! " After eight
years of devoted service in the infirmary attached to the Convent, Sister Marie
Bernard, in view of her rapidly declining health, was given charge of the
Sacristy. A favourite ejaculatory prayer with her was, " My soul, rejoice that
you resemble Jesus in remaining hidden in your weakness." During the winter of
1877, her old trouble, asthma, increased, and to this was now added spitting of
blood and an abscess in the right knee. On 22nd September, 1878, she made her
perpetual vows, and on the 28th March following, received the last Sacraments.
She publicly asked pardon of the Community for any faults she might have
committed, and on the Wednesday of Easter week, i 6th April, 1879, calmly
expired, while appropriately repeating the last part of the " Hail Mary."
Her body, which remained
flexible four days after her death, was interred in the Chapel of St Joseph
within the Mother House at Nevers. Her cause was introduced at Rome, 5th August,
1913, and on the 13th of the same month, the decree was ratified by the Pope
(Pius X). The Ven. Sceur Marie Bernard was declared Blessed June 14, 1925. Ever
since ecclesiastical sanction was given to the public demonstrations of devotion
at Lourdes in 1862, the reputation of the place as a Sanctuary of Catholic-ism,
has increased with phenomenal rapidity, till today, the Shrine is easily the
most popular with the faithful as a place of pilgrimage. The fame of the humble
peasant girl, Bernadette, has far eclipsed that of Bernadotte, who alone of all
Napoleon's mighty Captains retained the throne that was the guerdon of his
genius, and whose family is still the reigning house of Sweden.
In 1873, the great national
French pilgrimages were commenced, and three years later the splendid basilica
at Lourdes was completed, and the Statue of Our Lady therein solemnly blessed.
The second Church, that at the foot of the former was commenced in 1883 and
completed in 1901, as the Church of the Rosary. The Feast of Notre Dame de
Lourdes, 11th February, was extended by Pius X to the whole Church (1907), and
Lourdes itself is now a separate diocese. The pilgrims to the shrine probably
exceed a million a year, while it has been officially recorded that about four
thousand persons have been cured there of diseases regarded by medical science
as " hopeless." A board of physicians, some of them not Catholics, or even
believers, certify the cases as not likely to be cured by medical means before
the fact is accepted, and no patient suffering from a mental or nervous disorder
is entered in the recorded lists of persons believed to have been supernaturally
restored to health as the result of a devotional pilgrimage to the world-famed
grotto.
Bernadette was
beatified in 1925 and canonized in 1933 by Pope Pius XI (r. 1922-1939).
[Blessed Bernadette Soubirous, by Abbe J.
Blazy. Translated by the Right Rev. Mgr. Charles Payne, Vicar-General of
Nottingham. With an Introduction by His Lordship the Bishop of Nottingham.
(London: Burns Oates & Wash-bourne, Ltd., 1926).]
INCORRUPT BODY OF SAINT BERNADETTE

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