Episode Details

Fr. Aidan McCann of Katy Parish joins Carmela on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes to reflect on the apparitions at the grotto of Massabielle and the challenging side of what Our Lady actually said there, things we rarely hear. She asked penance three times, asked Bernadette to kiss the ground for sinners (Fr. Aidan notes wryly that doing this in a school today would earn him a long sabbatical), and to eat the bitter herbs of the grotto. He unpacks this through the symbolism of the Passover, the gall Christ drank on the cross, and the conversion of bitter wine into the best wine at Cana.

Our Lady’s identification of herself as “I am the Immaculate Conception” — not just something that happened to her but who she is — is explored alongside the point that young Bernadette could not possibly have invented such a phrase. Fr. Aidan draws out Our Lady’s promise that she guarantees not happiness in this life but in the life to come, yet observes that St. Bernadette was always a deeply joyful person, her serenity rooted in the Rosary and gratitude. He speaks about Bernadette as a victim soul: suffering ridicule, sickness, and embarrassment throughout her life; her incorrupt body at Nevers; and the prayer she composed asking that the crucifix be not only on her eyes and breast but in her heart. The episode closes with a reflection on “cause of our joy” (causa nostrae laetitiae) as one of Our Lady’s titles in the Litany of Loreto.

L'articolo Northern Soul – Divine Mercy Sunday and Quasimod – Carmela and Malachi proviene da Radio Maria.