16 April 2013 St Bernadette Soubiros, virgin On this day, in 1879, just after 3:00 o’clock PM, Sister Marie Bernarde, a Crucifix tightly clasped to her breast, left this life as a Sister of Nevers at St Gildard. (G Menotti, “Lourdes”, p16) Thirty years later, her body was exhumed and found to be quite incorrupt and flexible. Her body, clothed in the habit of her Congregation, reposes in a crystal casket near the high altar in the Mother House at Nevers. (C C Martindale, “St Bernadette”, p74) ‘... into the whole world’ Our Lord’s Resurrection is a call to apostolate. Each of his appearances ends with an apostolic command. To Mary Magdalene, Jesus says: “Go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and to your Father” (Jn 20:17); and to the other women, “Go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee and that they shall see me there” (Mt 28:10). The disciples of Emmaus reported that same night that Jesus is alive. (cf Lk 24:35) “Afterwards he appeared to the eleven as they sat at table ... he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation’” (Cf Mk 16:14-5). The Apostles began to preach “repentance and forgiveness of sins ...” (cf Lk 24:44-7) What they preach and testify to, are not mere speculations but salvific facts they have personally witnessed. The death of Judas brought the need to complete the number of twelve apostles. One condition is the candidate must be a witness to the Resurrection. (Cf Acts 1:21-2) “The Christian vocation is by its very nature a vocation to the apostolate” (Second Vatican Council, “Apostolicam actuositatem”, 2) and “all the faithful, from the Pope to the child who has just been baptized, share one and the same vocation, the same faith, the same Spirit, the same grace ... They all have an active and appropriate share in the single mission of Christ and of the Church.” (Cf A Del Portillo, “Faithful and Laity in the Church”) We cannot be prevented from exercising the right in fulfilling this duty. Nor can we remain silent. So much ignorance is around; error, too. Numerous people go through life lost and confused because they don’t know Christ. We must communicate daily to all, the doctrine and the faith. “No one after lighting a lamp puts it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all ... Let your light shine before men, so they may see your good works, and give glory to your Father in heaven.” (cf Mt 5:15-6) “At the end of his time on earth, Christ commanded: go out and teach. He wants his light to shine in the words and behaviour of his disciples, and in yours, too.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “Furrow”, 930) Ref: Cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 2:329-31 Hear His voice today: “Harden not your hearts.” (Ps 95:8) This prayer is relevant and necessary, but it is particularly recommended in the course of the forty days ‘that we hear the voice of the living God’. It is a penetrating voice, when we consider how God speaks in Lent not only with the exceptional richness of His Word in the liturgy and in the Church’s life; but above all with the paschal eloquence of the Passion and Death of his own Son. He speaks with His cross and with His sacrifice. In a certain sense, this is his last discourse in His dialogue with man, ... with his mind and with his heart, with his conscience and his conduct. The heart means man in his inner spirituality, the very center of his likeness with God. The interior man. ‘The man of conscience.’ Our prayer during Lent aims at awakening of consciences, arousing them to the voice of God. A man who has a hardened heart and a degenerate conscience is ‘spiritually a sick man’, even though he may enjoy the fullness of his powers and physical capacities. Everything must be done to bring him back to having a healthy soul. Ref: Cf Pope John Paul II, “Prayers and Devotions”, 1994, p131 Last Things — “Listen to me you who are up to your neck in science: your science cannot deny the reality of diabolic activities. My Mother, the holy Church, for many years — and it is also a praiseworthy private devotion — required the priests each day at the foot of the altar to invoke St Michael — ‘against the wickedness and snares of the devil’.” (Cf St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Way”, 750) • Our Lady of Victories, in the Church of St Mark, at Venice. This is the famous image which the Emperors John Zimisces and John Comnenus carried in a triumphal car; it is now borne in procession at Venice to obtain rain or fine weather. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; www.bethlehemobserver.com) • Our Lady of Victory / Victories. Church of St Mark, Venice. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm) • Our Lady of Victories in the Church of St. Mark, Venice. (www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html) • Our Lady of Victory (celebrated in the church of St Mark, Venice). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)