Above all: centers of devotion to the Eucharist...

 Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes*

February 11

34th World Day of the Sick

Pope Leo's message for World Day of the Sick: 2026

https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2026/01/20/260120d.html

 Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, France

  

“All the shrines of Mary,

scattered throughout the world,

have become above all centers 

of devotion to the Eucharist,

as if the Mother of Jesus had 

appeared, here or there, in order to 

lead the faithful to the adoration 

and love of her blessed Son.”

Pope St John XXIII
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*Lourdes, France, has become a place of pilgrimage and healing, 

but even more of faith.  It is a continuation of Jesus’ 

healing miracles. Many who visit Lourdes return home with 

renewed faith and a readiness to more generously serve God. 

There still may be people who doubt the apparitions of Lourdes.  

Perhaps the best that can be said are the words

 that introduce the film, Song of Bernadette:

"For those who believe in God, 

no explanation is necessary.

For those who do not believe, 

no explanation is possible."

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Click here: Our Lady of Lourdes - YouTube (2 mins)

Click here: Our Lady of Lourdes

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Only known picture of St Bernadette at the Grotto

(taken after the apparitions of 1858)

Our Lady of Lourdes, 
pray for us, 
and especially the sick and  suffering!

From Thee - strength and zeal...

Ah! Hasten, Lord, make no delay!
Come, wed my heart this very day,
That thus united here below,
I may not fear eternal woe.  
From A Hymn to Jesus

“From the Eucharist comes strength 
to live the Christian life 
and zeal to share that life 
with others."- St John Paul II

St Scholastica
Italy ~ 480-547
Benedictine Abbess
Twin sister of St Benedict
Feast Day – February 10

 

"She was able to do more because she loved more." 

St Gregory the Great in

regarding St Scholastica

Click here: St. Scholastica - YouTube (2 mins)

St Scholastica, pray for us!

    St Scholastica, twin sister of St Benedict of Nursia who founded of the Benedictine order, was consecrated to God at a very early age but probably continued to live in her parents' home. It is said that she was as devoted to Jesus as she was to her brother. So, when Benedict established his monastery at Monte Cassino, Scholastica founded a convent in nearby Plombariola, about five miles south of Monte Cassino. The convent is said to have been under the direction of her brother, thus she is regarded as the first Benedictine nun.
    The siblings were quite close. The respective rules of their houses proscribed either entering the other's monastery. According to Saint Gregory, they met once a year at a house near Monte Cassino monastery to confer on spiritual matters, and were eventually buried together, probably in the same grave. Saint Gregory says, "so death did not separate the bodies of these two, whose minds had ever been united in the Lord."
    Saint Gregory tells the charming story of the last meeting of the two saints on earth. Scholastica and Benedict had spent the day in the "mutual comfort of heavenly talk" and with nightfall approaching, Benedict prepared to leave. Scholastica, having a presentiment that it would be their last opportunity to see each other alive, asked him to spend the evening in conversation. Benedict sternly refused because he did not wish to break his own rule by spending a night away from Monte Cassino. Thereupon, Scholastica cried openly, laid her head upon the table, and prayed that God would intercede for her. As she did so, a sudden storm arose. The violent rain and hail came in such a torrential downpour that Benedict and his companions were unable to depart.  
    "May Almighty God forgive you, sister" said Benedict, "for what you have done." "I asked a favor of you," Scholastica replied simply, "and you refused it. I asked it of God, and He has granted it!"Just after his return to Monte Cassino, Benedict saw a vision of Scholastica's soul departing her body, ascending to heaven in the form of a dove. She died three days after their last meeting. He placed her body in the tomb he had prepared for himself, and arranged for his own to be placed there after his death. 
    From the Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great

Prayer in Honor of Saint Scholastica 

O God, to show us where innocence leads, you made the soul of your virgin Saint Scholastica soar to heaven like a dove in flight. Grant through her merits and her prayers that we may so live in innocence as to attain to joys everlasting. This we ask through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever. Amen.

Come to know Him...

 "Communion and contemplation belong together:

a person cannot communicate with another person

without knowing him." - Pope Benedict XVI

"You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, 

to run by running, to work by working,

and just so, you learn to love by loving. 

All those who think to learn 

in any other way deceive themselves."

St Francis de Sales

 

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Plan for it!

Consider more frequent or even daily Adoration 

or holy Mass attendance during Lent.

ASH WEDNESDAY is Feb 18!
Come to know Jesus and watch 

your communication and love grow!

"Close the door, because I'm staying."...

The Lord's Day is the lord of days...

but also remembering today.... 

St Jospehine Bakhita

 Better is one day in your courts

than a thousand elsewhere... Psalm 84:10a

St. Josephine spent hours in Eucharistic Adoration and,

when one Sister asked if it tired her, she said,

"Not at all!  I have been having a

wonderful time with Him. 
He has waited so long for me."...

"Our Lord has always been so good to me ...

If I were to stay on my knees for my entire life,

I still would not be able to 

express my gratitude sufficiently."

St Josephine Bakhita

Sudan/Italy ~ 1869-1947

Religious (Canossian Daughters of Charity)

Click here: Canossian Daughters of Charity - Who We Are

Pope Benedict XVI, on 30 November 2007, in the beginning of his 

second encyclical letter Spe Salvi (In Hope We Were Saved), 

relates her entire life story as an outstanding example of the Christian hope.

Feast Day - Feb 8

Toward the end of her life, Mother Bakhita used to smile and say: 

"I travel slowly, one step at a time, 

because I am carrying two big suitcases. 

One of them contains my sins, and in the other,

 which is much heavier, are the infinite merits of Jesus. 
When I reach heaven I will open the suitcases and say to 

God: 'Eternal Father, now you can judge.' And to 

St. Peter: 'Close the door, because I'm staying.'"

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Click here: St. Josephine Bakhita - YouTube

St. Josephine Bakhita, patron saint of survivors of human trafficking, inspires books and hope - The Dialog

Why St. Josephine Bakhita is the patron saint of South Sudan

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St Josephine was known for her smile, gentleness & holiness. 
She even went on record saying, 

“If I were to meet the slave-traders who 

kidnapped me and even those who tortured me, 
I would kneel and kiss their hands, 

for if that did not happen, I would not 

be a Christian and Religious today.”

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"Love the Lord and pray for those

who do not know Him.

What a grace it is to know God!"

St Josephine Bakhita

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"In God's Will there is great peace."

St Josephine Bakhita

St Josephine Bakhita, pray for us!

Our Lord comes to our aid...

  "Thoughtful men and women with hearts craving 

the truth, have come to seek in the Catholic 

Church the road which leads to eternal life.

Painting: Mary Engelbreit

There is in the Sacred Heart the symbol and 

express image of the infinite love of Jesus Christ 

which moves us to love in return.

Our Lord came to the aid of each great tribulation with 

a special devotion.  The present and future tribulations 

of the Church and of nations are greater than at any 

other period, and this persecution is more dangerous 

than those of previous times. 

Hence, the devotion which God sends to the 

succor of His Church and of the nations at the present time 

is the devotion to the Most Holy Eucharist. 

It is the highest of all devotions."

St Leo the Great

They stayed for love of Him...

 May I never boast except in the cross 

of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which 

the world has been crucified to me,

and I to the world. - Galatians 6:14

"Fr Paul Miki was the son of an affluent Japanese military chief and a gifted evangelist who strongly defended the faith against Buddhism.  When the political climate became hostile to Christianity in Japan, the missionaries were ordered to leave.  He and fellow Jesuit missionaries decided to continue their ministry in secret.  The Jesuits did not want to leave the faithful without the Holy Eucharist and Sacraments. They were eventually arrested.

Fr Miki was martyred along with two other Jesuits and 23 other Christians - united in a common faith and love for Jesus Christ and His Church.  They were killed simultaneously by being raised on crosses and then stabbed with spears. The people pushed near, dipped cloths into the wounds and cut off pieces of the clothing of the holy martyrs as holy relics.

When missionaries returned to Japan in the 1860s, at first they found no trace of Christianity. But after establishing themselves they found that thousands of Christians lived around Nagasaki and  that they had secretly preserved the faith.  The survival of Japanese Catholicism is one of the most moving stories in the entire history of the Church. For over two centuries the people had no priests but lived the faith as best they could, in secret, not daring to keep written materials but handing down their beliefs by word of mouth." 

Excerpt ~ James Hitchcock, The Nagasaki Martyrs

Photo credit:  Jeffrey Bruno 

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St. Paul Miki and Companions

Martyrs ~ Japan (d. 1597)

Feast Day - Feb 6

Click here: St. Paul MIki - YouTube

Click here: St. Paul Miki and the Rise of Japan’s Hidden Christians | Crisis Magazine

 While hanging upon a cross Fr Paul Miki 

preached to the people gathered for the execution:

“The sentence of judgment says these men came to Japan from the Philippines, but I did not come from any other country. I am a true Japanese. The only reason for my being killed is that I have taught the doctrine of Christ. I certainly did teach the doctrine of Christ. I thank God it is for this reason I die. I believe that I am telling only the truth before I die. I know you believe me and I want to say to you all once again: Ask Christ to help you to become happy. I obey Christ. After Christ’s example I forgive my persecutors. I do not hate them. I ask God to have pity on all, and I hope my blood will fall on my fellow men as a fruitful rain.”

At this point, he turned his eyes toward his companions and began to encourage them in their final struggle.  The faces of them all shone with great gladness.  Another Christian shouted to him that he would soon be in paradise.  "Like my Master," murmured Paul, "I shall die upon the cross.  Like Him, a lance will pierce my heart so that my blood and my love will flow out upon the land and sanctify it to His name."

As they awaited death the entire group sang the Canticle of Zechariah (see Luke 1:67–79). The executioners stood by respectfully until they had intoned the last verse. Then at a given  signal they thrust their spears into the victims’ sides.  - Excerpt from Bert Ghezzi, Voices of the Saints

St Paul Miki and Companions, pray for us!