Only a Taste of Lourdes Water.
A Jesuit Father writes the following account to a religious paper :
The horse which was to have brought me to the railway station, fell on the slippery streets, and, so I missed my train. This was indeed very vexing as I had taken every precaution to be in time. We arrived at the station just as the train was moving off; regrets were useless, so I patiently submitted to my lot, and thought I would say my Office during the time which would elapse before the next train, which was due in about an hour. This was no easy task in a busy station, but if I went away, I did not know what to do with a large bottle of Lourdes water, which I had with me. To put it in the luggage room did not seem quite reverent, but I noticed in the corner of the waiting-room, a man, closely wrapped up, who, to all appearance, meant to sit there for several hours. So I walked up to him, and asked if he were going to remain there for some time. “Yes,” was the reply. This 'Yes' was uttered shortly, and signified, rather, 'What does it matter to you?' “Are you going to stay till eleven o'clock?” “Yes,” was the curt rejoinder. His voice sounded still gruffer. “If I leave this article here, will you look after it?” “What is it”? he asked. “Oh, nothing very particular; but will you have, the kindness to take care of it?”
In a sulky voice, I at length got the reply- “Very well, leave it there.” I then went off to a quiet spot under some trees, near the station. Having finished my Office, I bought a newspaper, in order to pass away the remaining twenty minutes. Scarcely had I begun to read, when I seemed to hear a voice saying to me: “Go and see what has become of the bottle!” “Stupid bottle!” I could have said but the remembrance of its contents restrained me. I wanted to read, but the voice seemed to repeat: “Go and see what has become of your bottle!” I could stand this no longer, so I went; the man was still there, the man of the slow, rough and morose answers, but he sat with his face buried in his hands, and the tears welling through his fingers. “Oh, Father”, he said, “I will tell you all, yes all.” (How I wondered at this unexpected manner of address.) “You see that I am already an old man. I was born and baptized in the Catholic Church, and until the age of eleven, I practised my religion; then I lost my mother, and my father being already dead, I was left alone in the world.
Fortunately, I was in the hands of a good master, but he was a staunch Protestant, and he eventually constrained me to embrace his religion; and to please him, I became a Protestant.
Later on I married, and God gave me a good Catholic wife who continually entreated me to return to the religion of my childhood; but I put it off from year to year. When you went away, leaving this bottle standing here, I was curious to know what it contained, and to try what a papist priest's brandy tasted like, but I soon perceived that it was only water after all. As soon as I had taken a mouthful, a change came over me, I felt determined to become a Catholic once more; and I will do so immediately. So I beg of you, Father, to hear my confession.”
This announcement was so strange that at first I believed the good man had been drinking something more than my water, and so I wanted to get rid of him. "We have not any time now,” I replied, “for the train will be here in a few minutes; besides, this is not the place for such things. Come to me at X.”
“Now, Father, now,” was the rejoinder. “I cannot come to X; do hear my confession and I promise you that I will go to church next Sunday with my wife.” "Do you know,” I asked, “where this water comes from?” “No” he replied. “It is from the miraculous spring of the Immaculate Mother of God at Lourdes.” “Well then, it is the Blessed Virgin Mary who has obtained this grace for me,” he said. Thereupon I lost no more time and before the train left, I had reconciled this aged sinner to his God.
Abbe de Musy
The wonderful cure of the Abbe de Musy which took place at Lourdes on the fifteenth of August, 1873, is thus related by himself;-
“I had been ill for twenty years and utterly incapable of fulfilling the duties of my ministry, my sight was so weakened that I could not read my breviary. For ten years I could not even say Mass and for the same length of time, I have been like a dumb man. I was suffering from disease of the spinal chord, which almost deprived me of the use of my limbs. I had already consulted the most renowned doctors of France, Germany and Switzerland; when our Lady inspired me with the thought of going to Lourdes. I was driven there, helpless as a child in a little carriage; we arrived early on the 8th of August. I had myself carried to the church, where I daily heard Masses, from five o’clock until ten. I chose a quiet nook at the bottom of the church, in a side aisle, through which the crowd of men constantly streamed, without their being able to see me. By my side was a poor child, who was even in a sadder condition than myself, and who also sat on a wheeled chair, waiting for the ‘moving of the water’’ here I spent a great part of the day.
“On the Feast of the Assumption, I heard Mass said by a Sulpician priest, who had done much towards promoting our Lady’s honour. At the moment of the Consecration, I felt inwardly compelled to throw myself on my knees, human respect made me hesitate for a moment, but at length I yielded to the inspiration; I stood up and cast myself on the ground. At that moment, Mary indeed turned on me a look of pity and of love, for I was cured. A minute before, I had been blind, dumb and lame; now I could see, I could speak, and I could walk. I at once made trial of my new strength and descended from the church to the grotto, which is at some little distance. The people who had seen me so terribly afflicted could scarcely believe their eyes and with indescribable fervour the pilgrims entoned the ‘Magnificat,’ in thanksgiving. Afterwards, everyone, wishing to convince himself of the reality of the miracle, insisted on my walking, speaking or writing. For an hour and a half I was employed in signing little pictures for them and thus doubt was no long possible.
“In the evening, the ever-blessed Virgin Mary bestowed on me another consoling favour. A man of about sixty years old was ushered into my room: ‘Father,’ he said ‘I have seen all that has happened to you and it has touched my heart. I have not been to Confession for forty years and I will not go away from here until I have laid bare my past life to you.’
“Thus, our Immaculate Mother, who had healed my body, wished now to perform another miracle, the cure of a soul dead in sin.”
Each person (who has autism or an autism related condition) whose name is sent to be included in this novena will be prayed for regularly by a priest chaplain of Lourdes, France at the grotto. Only the first name of the person is needed for the purpose of this novena. Everyone is invited to send names: parents, grandparents, teachers, doctors, aunties, therapists etc. The novena is held twice every month from: the 1st to the 9th of the Month and from the 10th to the 18th of the month.
(My oldest child received a big healing from autism through prayer.)
Please also join in the novena and pray for healing for people who have autism.
The web page has accounts of the intercession of The Holy Souls in Purgatory, for their benefactors in cases of illness, addictions, cars that won't start, infertility problems, serious weight loss problems, protection in accidents, conversion, chronic insomnia, their help for people who are experiencing major trouble with city councils, success with projects, employment, real estate, television sets that don’t work properly, finding lost property and trouble with relations, etc. and prayers and ideas on how to help The Holy Souls in Purgatory.
