Latest / Beyond The Beacon / 53: Miracles in Lourdes: love and healing to the sick

Transcript

53: Miracles in Lourdes: love and healing to the sick · Beyond The Beacon

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Beyond the Beacon with Bishop Kevin Sweeney, a podcast with the Diocese of Patterson, New Jersey.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: Join us for weekly conversations about our Catholic faith, and together let's strive to live a life of faith, hope, and love.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Jay Agnish, Communications Director for the Diocese.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: With me is Bishop Kevin Sweeney.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: Bishop Kevin, how are you?
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm good, Jay.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: How are you doing?
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm doing well.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: The weather's been pretty nice around here.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: How how was the weather in Lourdes, France where you were last week?
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_02: So when we arrived uh the days ago.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: So we arrived on May 1st, I believe.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um yes, Wednesday, May 1st.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: We left Tuesday evening, and it was overcast when we arrived and a little rainy.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm I've never been a big uh weather forecast guy.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um friends watch the weather channel.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: I've never been.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: Oh no.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I listened to weather radio and you know, glad when the forecast is good, not so but anyway.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um take it as a case.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: Those who were following the weather pretty closely were saying the whole week was gonna be cloudy and rainy.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: The um really, well, uh that didn't turn out to be the case.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_02: Thank be the good.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we had I think by that afternoon it was sunny and we had a number of beautiful sunny, warm days, not too hot.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um a little rain here and there, but um that was m more sun than rain.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: And um did you get pollen over there?
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: Because a lot of pollen happening here.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_02: I've heard that uh I shouldn't say, but uh that hasn't been an issue for me um over the years.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_02: So excellent um feel for those who it is, but um um so uh yeah, it was um wonderful and nice to come back to a warm sunny day yesterday.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: All right, good.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well we're gonna hear all about it.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um what else is going on?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: How your uh how your baseball how's how are the Yankees doing?
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: The Islanders are out of the Yankees are always the most important, but uh um the Knicks too.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: The Knicks uh this time.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: Uh boy, gritty gutty.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: They're so much fun to watch.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um they're losing.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: They might get eliminated by attrition if um if anything, but uh but they're up two games to nothing.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: They beat the Pacers.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: The old rivalry with the Pacers from the 90s.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and uh great when at the garden is um these three players from Villanova.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um, as a St.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: John's fan, didn't root for Villanova, but these guys are sure phenomenal Knicks.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: And uh so we'll see um game three in Indianapolis on on Friday night.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: And um, I think the Yankees have won five in a row or so.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: So uh wow.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: They've riddled a ship after a few bad days in Baltimore.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: When we left from Baltimore, it was a charter.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we bust from Basking Ridge to uh to Baltimore, and the plane was supposed to leave, I think, around 7 30.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um they were saying it was delayed and might be leaving by midnight.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um we got we're in the airport in Baltimore, I think by four o'clock, I realized the Yankee game was at 6 30.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um I could have left the airport, gone to Camden Yards down the road, caught the Yankee game and come back in time for the flight because it was delayed.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: But uh um but uh I didn't do that.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: And uh and then the Yankees lost that night, but uh and the Knicks lost that night, unfortunately, in overtime.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_02: But um that was the previous series that they won the next game.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: But uh the flight ended up leaving, I think, around 11 or 11 30.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: All good, yeah.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well, good thing you were there to catch it.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um do you want to open up and pray?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um we're moving now towards the Feast of Pentecost.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_02: We can mention that um we're recording today on uh Thursday, the ninth, right?
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, um, in the Archdiocese of New York, I think Brooklyn, a few other dioceses.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um it's still Ascension Thursday.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_02: I for those who are not happy that it we've moved it to a Sunday, I understand.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I think there's good reasons and we can talk a little bit about that.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_02: So we'll celebrate the Ascension, the solemnity of Ascension on this Saturday evening and Sunday.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um will be the seventh Sunday of the Easter season, and then uh the following week we'll be celebrating the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: And uh so um great time to ask for those gifts of the Holy Spirit, that sevenfold gift that I'm privileged as bishop to uh call down in the sacrament of confirmation upon our candidates um on a pretty frequent basis at this time of year.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_02: So uh so um lots of confirmation is happening.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: Let's ask the help of the Holy Spirit as we place ourselves in God's presence in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_02: Come, O Holy Spirit, and fill the hearts of the faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love, send forth your spirit, and we shall be recreated, and thou shalt renew the face of the earth, O God, who has taught the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: Grant us in that same spirit to be truly wise and always rejoice in your consolation through Christ our Lord.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_02: Our Lady Seed of Wisdom, Mother of the Church, pray for us.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: Blessed Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, pray for us.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: All holy men and women, pray for us in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: So who's who's this blessed Teresa Demjongovich?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: Blessed Miriam Teresa Demjanovich.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: Miriam Teresa.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um sister of charity, I think, born in I just wrote about it, but uh in the 1920s, I want to say she was born, Bayonne, Bayonne, New Jersey, yes.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Cecile.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: Uh uh so a sister of charity, entered a little late, um, helped her family, worked, taught, went to um what is now St.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_02: Elizabeth's University in Convent Station, um, entered the community, um, and um I think socially she might have struggled a little bit, but a deep, deep spirituality, and um she had a spiritual director with the with Sisters of Charity, a priest um who would give spiritual conferences to the sisters.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um and after Blessed Miriam's death, the priest said, Well, these actually weren't my conferences, they were uh Bless Sister Miriam's um and profound um sense of uh trust in Jesus, intimacy with Jesus.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um and um Dr.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: Mary Mazzarella, um who was the director of our Respect Life Office, just retired recently, but we still see her.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_02: She's uh helping on on the cause uh for Blessed Miriam Teresa.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: And maybe we can put up a link to um uh more information.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_02: I wrote about it in the beacon last week and another blessed um well uh uh I think he's still servant of God, blessed um Marit Marinus, Brother Marinus.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, yeah.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um You mentioned him as well in your beacon column.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_02: The um Benedictines in St.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_02: Paul's Abbey in Newton.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_02: Great story.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: Leonard LaRue, a um uh captain of a ship and the merchant marines, and during the Korean conflict, loaded I think about 3,000 uh refugees in his ship and brought them around the peninsula of Korea to safety on the other side.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um and uh then just kind of walked away after a few years after that from his shipping career and um sailing career, and entered the Benedictine monastery in Newton and um worked in the gift shop and again a person of holiness and uh the apostleship of the sea um that cares pastorally for uh seafarers and travelers.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um Father Sinclair Ubre, who's in Beaumont, Texas, is working with us on the cause.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_02: So um as I shared, as we believe uh we have these friends in heaven that um can work miracles, and that's a good segue into a place of miracles.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_02: Uh yes.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: Recently a movie that I still have to see, somebody was watching it next to me on the plane, but the Miracle Club, uh four women in Ireland in the late 1960s who go on a parish pilgrimage to Lourdes.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um apparently it's pretty good.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: But um a place um of miracles I was privileged to visit in um Lourdes in France.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um Yeah, do tell so who'd who'd you go with?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: You just got back a couple days ago, and yeah, what what was it like?
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_02: The Order of Malta, thanks to the Order of Malta.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um I'll I want to do a little research.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um I've heard anecdotally about some of the history, but it goes back to very early in the church, um uh connected to uh St.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: John of God, I think, and the hospital's and um um to defend the faith, um connected with the shrines in the Holy Land, but also to care for the sick and the poor.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_02: And um it's developed over the years and is international, and um there's a year, excuse me, a week each year in I think early May when the Order of Malta from all over the world come to the Lourdes and they bring with them uh what they call Malads.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um French word for someone who's sick uh and disabled, handicapped, um different sicknesses and illnesses, they get a free trip with the companion, and um many of them are in wheelchairs or um how they um it was eight-hour flight on the way back, about seven hours and forty-five minutes, and uh not much uh I did have leg room, but uh the seat was kind of tight.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_02: But to think of how some of um those young people and older people who were pushed around lords in these um yeah um what's the French name for these large wheelchairs that they use?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um very distinct blue chairs and on your voice.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: Voitours, I think, yeah.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sorry.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: Voitours, I think they call them.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um we have some images on your on your Instagram social media account um of the trip, so you can follow along with the bishop's trip and and his companions on uh his Instagram account.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: And see see lots of photos.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for sending those out and your reflections.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: They're they were uh my privilege, and we thank Cecile again for her help with our Instagram and Facebook and yourself, Jay, uh for sharing um allowing others to travel with us.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: Uh came back and a number of people said, Oh, I love the pictures, love the pictures.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so uh um so um happy to share that and again so grateful to the Order of Malta, um Bob and Sue Samuth of Christ the King Parish in um in New Vernon.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um they didn't go this time, but they were um influential in inviting me to um join the um uh the order for the trip and yeah um uh a few parishioners of assumption um and a few other parishioners from the diocese.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Father Philip Michael Tangora, who's uh a chaplain, um and um Oh, he's a chip chaplain for he's a pastor of Our Lady Queen of Peace in Branchville and uh a chaplain of the Order in Malta.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: Oh okay.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um really wonderful to uh meet some brother priests and bishops who were traveling.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_02: I think there were about it was a big plane, I charter plane, I think around 300 on the plane.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um and that was just kind of from the northeast, um Boston, Connecticut, um a few other places, um uh St.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: Louis.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um uh but then there was uh a Midwest and uh they call the Federalist Group uh and then a Western group of the Order of Malta.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um so um Archbishop Um uh Alan Vigniron of Detroit um was with our group, as was um uh uh a few priests um from Father Joe Johnson from Minnesota is a very active chaplain.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um Father Enrique Salvo, the rector of St.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: Patrick's Cathedral in New York, um Father Bismarck, um you know Father Bismarck, right?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: The rector of Sacred Heart Cathedral in Newark so uh excuse me, Bishop Al Schlert, uh the bishop of uh Allentown, who I've had the chance to get to know a little bit, wonderful guy, he was um with us as well.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah um I feel like you've mentioned him before meeting him at a conference or something.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: So uh a real sense of community in traveling together and great organization.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um they've done it obviously a number of times.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: There were people there that um uh have been going since like I think their first trip was the late 90s or around 2000.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um and um so uh they've learned and they have this system down that so they have teams uh with the in these pods that are caring for a particular person who's sick, uh a charioteer they call them, the one who drives the cart.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: I think there's usually one in front, one in the back.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then uh uh uh doctors, nurses, um student nurses from Sacred Heart at the university and a couple of other places um again who are able to come on the trip.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, um, you know, there's a lot of medical needs, medications, um uh checking people, um uh and uh so um really well organized and then uh um the everyone learns, I think, the story of the apparition.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um I always forget whether it's 1953 or I'm pretty sure 58.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_02: 58 was when our lady appeared to St.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_02: Bernadette there in that place.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um obviously it was a deserted place.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um but the River Gove, um we we stayed at a hotel about a uh 15, 20 minute walk from the they call it the um uh there's a name for it, just went out of my head, but uh where the church is.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: So the church is the basilica and the grotto.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: The grotto is really the the central spot.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: So so is the cathedral is built on top of the grotto?
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I I read a a good history, um short history before I left, but um um there's a rec there's a the cathedral which is in the pictures, the one that stands out on top of the hill, which is above where the grotto is.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then they built a church underneath that.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: And then there's another huge church that um was the international mass on Sunday, thousands of people in uh underground also.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_02: And uh when you I put up a couple of pictures of it being empty, it looks like a a huge parking lot or you know, garage, the um underground parking garage.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: But uh it's um when it's filled, and uh the altars in the center, and um really, really beautiful.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so those I think are the three main um churches.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and one of the things about the apparition was our mother, our Mary, our blessed mother, asked Saint St.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: Bernadette to um ask the local parish priest and I guess bishop to to build a a church on the site, and that eventually got done.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um uh I think it was she after the operation in in 1858, I put up a picture of um uh a statue of Bernadette in ecstasy.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_02: The last of the operations.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: I I forget the number of times, I think it was.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: That sounds right, yeah.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: According to the movie, I I started watching the Song of Bernadette.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_02: Right, right.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: Did she ask her to come for how many straight days?
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: I think 13 or something like that.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: I thought it was.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um so And then the story goes that she was prevented by her by her mother, but then eventually her mother was.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: And then the the town was not happy about it, the civil authorities um who I think were pretty anti-religion at that point.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_02: And um right, um so um 1789 was the French Revolution when they really tore apart the church, you know, and uh the um uh the uh glorification of reason and um uh beheadings and um uh but the church survives and unfortunately like many places in Western Europe and even I think uh the church is not at her best moment in France at the at the moment, but you never know it by being Lourdes, because there's incredible faith.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um we the the bishop of the area, it's um um Tarbes, I think Lourdes is the name of the diocese.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_02: And uh he hosted a reception um on uh the Sunday evening for some of the other bishops, and um um uh you can see, and he talked about how um there's just such a strong spirituality there, and both from France and neighboring countries like Spain and many from Italy and then Ireland and all over the world.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um he said many are coming from India these days.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um so um um so thanks be to God, um it continues to be a place that inspires the faith.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um and so um uh we had our first mass, um the opening mass with the group in the chapel underneath the main church.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and then um I think it was the Friday evening that we did the candlelight procession, and I had heard about the candlelight procession uh Lord's for so many years and something at all.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: In your post you say it's famous, yeah, yeah.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_02: Well-known candlelight procession.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, and um what a beautiful experience of prayer, the light shining in the darkness.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, there's a sense of um hope for a miracle, certainly uh physical or healing um of an illness.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um but um you know sometimes it might sound like almost a throwaway line or uh well, you know, you can have a spiritual healing if you don't get the physical.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: But but there's truth in that.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_02: And um, you know, Jesus said that to follow him we have to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and and the cross comes in many forms.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_02: And um you know, as somebody myself who's never, thankfully to God, had a serious physical illness, um, you think of those who go through cancer or um other illnesses or physical um suffering, um yes, we pray that they would be relieved of that.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um but when we also know that many saints, um Saint Teresa of Lizou, Bernadette herself, Mer Miriam Tem Demzanovich, um many saints.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um uh I I was finishing a book on um one of my new favorites, um Monsignor Aloysius Schwartz, uh priest and beggar.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um that can be a s episode for another time, but um he's a priest who died um of ALS in I think 1990 or 91.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_02: And um to hear him describe that suffering is um um we don't know.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_02: Uh um uh there are things that that we can share and imagine, um, but I guess until someone goes through it.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_02: But sure certainly um uh physical and illness have have brought people closer to the Lord and the mystery of his cross.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um and um uh Jesus said whatever we do or fail to do for the least of our sisters and brothers, including caring for the sick, we do it for him.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: And to see um doctors, nurses who take time off from their practice, use their vacation time to give themselves to the service of bringing a person around the words to the baths, um, to the grotto, um to mass.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_02: We had an anointing mass that was very, very powerful.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um so uh you see that in caring for that sick person there, they're caring for the Lord Himself and um are being drawn closer to the Lord by that um self-sacrifice.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um and as is so often the case when my first pastor I've said before used to always say that God is never outdone in generosity.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_02: So um when we make a small act of generosity or kindness, um so often we get back um multiple times times, you know, the the blessings.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so man, yeah.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: What um so you now this is your first time at Lourdes, and and going into it, you had you had seen the uh Song of Bernadette movie, right?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: The classic.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um recently we saw this musical in in New York, Bernadette de Lourdes, a f a French musical.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: And um I'm you must have read something over the years, I'm imagining.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: What w so talk about maybe expectations or what you you thought you were going into and what what the reality was like.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um uh I they I'd say it lived up to very, very high expectations.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_02: Uh um I remember I was thinking we're gonna have a um a night of Eucharistic adoration with uh some young adults this evening at um Notre Dame and Mount Carmel Parish, um, and uh um thinking about um sharing some thoughts on devotion to our blessed mother.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_02: And um, you know, I had heard about Our Lady of Nock and I guess went there as a kid.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um but um it was a movie, I I don't remember the title of it, but I I remember as a kid, probably late grammar school, early high school, uh about these flowers growing in the snow.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: and this guy talking to the Blessed Mother.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_02: It was the story of uh Juan Diego in Guadalupe and um being involved in the pro-life movement and our lady Guadalupe as a symbol as she came to Juan Diego as uh expected mom um and uh put an end really to child sacrifice in the ax amongst the Aztecs at at that time uh and brought the faith to the Mexican people and they've helped to spread it across the continent across the world uh um so something had in me high school into college I'd love to go to that place Guadalupe uh and as a seminarian in two years before I was ordained in in January of 1996 I think I got to go to Guadalupe.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_02: That was a profound experience.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um when I was in college I went to uh Mejigori which has not been fully approved yet but uh the most recent investigation by the church says that in the first days of that apparition or reported apparition or I think the church is saying now apparition okay uh in 1981 to six children um in um the town of Mejigori and I think it's in Bosnia um the former Yugoslavia uh so I went there in college um is that the most recent apparition or there are reported apparitions uh Kibeho in in Rwanda is a very interesting um reported apparition um and again might be approved at some level okay so um going back to Good Friday and the the Lord's last words Mary at the foot of the cross and John and the women I think representing all of us and Jesus saying to them and to us here is your mother and he gave her to us as our blessed mother and you know so often her message is as she said to Bernadette penance, penance, penance, conversion, come back to God, come back to the sacraments um and uh um interesting with those experiences of our blessed mother and her apparitions in the church um I had heard a lot about Fatima and Lourdes and many people who had been to Fatima and Lourdes and I had never been to Fatima nor Lourdes um until um uh Pope Francis chose Lisbon uh for World Youth Day and uh I was able to go last summer with uh the Assin group to um Lisbon in Portugal but first two days in Fatima so wow that was um a very powerful experience um also also well documented on your Instagram right um and uh so um so now I got to go to both Fatima and Lourdes and um you know you go back to Pentecost and Mary being where they were with the apostles on um on the uh holding them together I think uh as in the days after the resurrection and between the ascension and Pentecost and um she was there when the Holy Spirit came down upon them and the church was born and so um uh she's um a great advocate for us and she gives us motherly care.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um Cecile reminded us and we don't want to forget that uh Mother's Day is coming up this Sunday and we can maybe talk about that at the end.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_02: But uh um as we give thanks for our own moms and receiving life to our parents the gift of life uh we also are grateful for our blessed mother Mary who watches over us with that mother's care and love and um and intercedes for us um and um and visits us, you know and um uh when you have the opportunity to go on a pilgrimage to one of these holy places where she has visited there's something there, you know?
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah it's uh and and thank you Bishop for um praying for the intentions of the people in the diocese who you who whom you pray for.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_02: I almost forgot like Tim Potter our um director of development who's had a good relationship with the Order of Malta over many years.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_02: I think he's 30 plus years now as the director of development here in our diocese and the order had invited Tim to um join this trip as well and that I was very happy that uh we get to travel together and uh grateful to his wife and daughters for allowing him to be away for that time.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_02: But um uh yeah it was great uh being with Tim and um uh sharing that um experience and and Tim um then um put me in contact with some uh parishioners in the diocese who were asking for special intentions and then oh okay the social media very important uh that that connection I think back to the lockdown and um receiving intentions for mass and um during that really difficult time but uh that's where the internet and social media can kind of bring us together and as Cecile and yourself were sharing with me some prayer requests I was able to bring them to the grotto um and and to mass and and and prayer on the rosary um yeah at Lourdes.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_02: So um and you know as I was praying I asked for prayers for the group and I'm grateful for all those who were praying for us.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah that's cool.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: All right good so um so take it take us there so in the grotto so is it is it like what you see on the on the screen is I started to say about Bernadette in ecstasy um yeah you know there's that river called the River Ga beautiful river clear water uh I'm like I've never seen you can see right through it um because it's coming off the Pyrenees mountains.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um and um so the river I think you can kind of get a sense of that river was a river in 1858 you know when Bernadette was living in poverty in that little village and um went out to get firewood and had across the river.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_02: Her friends and uh sister I think were able to get across a lot more quickly and she struggled and that's when she first saw and um the grotto is you know it's probably um 200 yards from the bank of the river 300 yards maybe um and uh that statue of her in ecstasy was when she had a she saw her from the other side of the river okay um because there was a fence preventing her to get to the grotto um at that time in July after the first apparitions which I think were in February so um but um um interesting in the the movie uh Miracle Club that I was watching over the shoulder of someone on the plane but uh and somebody had mentioned how they got they got great access and uh they somehow showed it as it would have been maybe in the late 60s where there was a little more uh pilgrims go right up to the grotto and kind of walk and touch the walls.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um I didn't get to the baths um that's a a common experience um but um the the first the they had a when they went first the Malads went and okay they cared for them and then there was an opportunity later but I had some other things um but um I felt I was at the bath because in the mess at the grotto um the the altar is right under so uh the altar is here and and the the where Mary appeared and there's a statue of her you can see it in the pictures yeah yeah um so um the bishops fortunately were right around the walls of the grotto um around the altar and uh where I was sitting um there was a drip coming down so during the mass I was uh wow getting dripped on by Lord's water so I thought I was in the bats.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah yeah um so um inside this thing there has to be and you know the sacramentally I uh we had the mass to celebrate sacrament of anointing and we might not always you know think about it that much but that idea of grace building on nature or God working through his creation and you know in every sacrament there's a a visible or sensible sign something you can see touch taste smell or hear um whether it be the oil or the the bread and wine that become his body and blood okay um but water certainly in baptism and um so um and and Mary as we if those who know the story said to Bernadette go dig where the the spring is in the water there.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_02: And you know the movie Song of Bernadette they show it in the the she's just in the in the ground and she's washing her face it looks as she's washing her face in the dirt.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_02: I haven't gotten a but um uh eventually um there's a little spring there and they come back the next day and there's a larger spring uh and very often it was those who um either I don't know whether they drank or you know put the water on themselves.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah the water often was seen as uh an instrument of of healing.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um so Lord's water is very popular.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_02: I um I brought back a bottle to share with some um but um uh so uh so yeah uh just you know a beautiful um natural spot in terms of the the river and the the the mount little mountain and and the grotto in the side of the mountain topography there um uh right uh so that spring now is covered with with glass right it's uh encased in in glass right oh that's I think that's right.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's where the the the bats are I didn't get there but now that you mentioned it yeah I saw some of those pictures right yes right at least according to the photos.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yes yes yes that's right yeah yeah so uh so you know for especially those who go and physically are sick they they used to be able to sit into the beds um that used to be apparently uh and there were many volunteers who helped them as they went in I guess one at a time um but now uh since COVID apparently they've changed it a little bit and it's more like maybe instead of a bathtub it's a sink and you can kind of wash your face or you know uh so they've modified it a little bit and some people say it's almost um easier as they're doing it now but um um yeah uh we can get caught up I think in some of those details but yeah the the the faith of um people who are there asking for God's grace and healing um and that healing I think is received physically at times in a miraculous way but also it's received in other ways as well.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm not sure if I was answering your first question about uh uh taking us uh oh the k like the comparison of well I want to ask you too another question um so as as bishop as a bishop is it is it different going to a pilgrimage I mean as opposed to maybe being a priest or being a member of the better mess uh there you go I mean do you get the experience uh in the same way or different way I I mean what you know being the celebrant for the anointing mess was a real and this was a kind of a new experience uh where this father Johnson from Minnesota was very good in terms of arranging everything and um so there was other bishops there which I knew um but then um this older um bishop walked in it turns out he was a cardinal um uh Tomasi who was connected you know looked over the Order of Malta um and there's another was another cardinal there who celebrated the um um international mass on Sunday but um I'm getting ready to celebrate this mass of anointing and now I hear there's gonna be a cardinal at the Mass say uh oh uh but uh and I offered you know if he wanted to say the mass he could um but he said no no you go ahead so no pressure but uh um but then again um mass is always a gift to celebrate and um uh so and you know being able to celebrate mass of anointing of the sick and then the priests the bishops actually went out and um we anointed the the Malads and those others who were um you know in need of the anointing of the sick.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_02: So um yeah I think the the priests concebed and it was great to have them there.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um so some differences uh but um I think back to World Youth Day I went as a seminarian in 1993 as a priest vocation director in 05 and 08 uh and now last year as a bishop it was a little um uh different uh as a bishop at World Youth Day um I didn't have to sleep in the park overnight although I was happy to do that the three previous times um uh I I I didn't mind going back to the hotel um yeah Saturday night uh be being with the bishops uh um so small differences but uh nothing nothing and I'm sure you would have slept out there if if given that if someone told you to so uh all right well well great so um anything else about the pilgrimage or the experience that you want to share?
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_01: Questions if those viewers have questions right they can uh listeners uh we can always follow up if uh something you want to ask about Lourdes uh feel free what's the uh yeah email address again to email it's beyond at patterson diocese dot org and I have seen a couple emails coming in so we might have some questions coming up for you soon so uh we'll keep an eye on that and we we always welcome questions about any topic um and we have some exciting episodes coming up in the upcoming weeks so but what uh what's going on for you in the upcoming days, uh upcoming weekend what are you looking forward to?
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_02: So tonight we have this evening of Eucharistic revival with young adults um confirmations are most uh evenings uh for a few more weeks but happy to do that uh and on the weekends as well um this Saturday evening we're having something somewhat new um the uh charismatic renewal um I heard Bishop Barron speaking recently about the uh charismatic renewal but uh um the charismatic renewal focuses on the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the fruits of the Holy Spirit and um uh it's been a gift for the church really especially since the Second Vatican Council.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_02: And um we have very active um uh charismatic uh uh movement renewal in um in our Spanish speaking community here in the diocese and they've had a vigil of Pentecost over the last number of years which I've been happy to celebrate in the last couple um uh and they usually have the mass in um the center here at in Clifton at our Dyson Center what was a high school gym of JP2 high school um or JP2 Center now um because the larger space but um because it's growing um Father Dubernay Villa Mizar or um Vicar for Hispanic Affairs working with Father Vidal uh excuse me father um uh Yacid Salas Father Yacid who's the um chaplain coordinator for the uh charismatic renewal or spiritual director really um there they've been working with some of our other um Spanish speaking priests and leaders Maria Moncaliano of our Hispanic office to have the Vigil of Pentecost which is actually going to be the vigil for the novena um of Pentecost um uh this coming Saturday night in Marstown at the armory so um uh hopefully we're gonna have a few thousand um there for that um uh then I think um the date of um the Great Adventure right we're going to Great Adventure is that um Sunday Pentecost the Feast of Pentecost where better what better place to be on Pentecost than Mass at Great Adventure six flags uh um uh it'll be great to be with the the young church there and uh I hope many of our youth groups I believe are gonna have buses going down to the New Jersey um Catholic youth rally right Cecile um uh the um uh so that'll be on the Feast of Pentecost uh so looking forward to that um and um the Neocatechuminal Way um is uh a movement in the church uh and they're in a couple of our parishes here um but they're very active in Newark they have a seminary and um they've been kind enough to um they're honoring me at their gala I'm not sure for what but uh okay um uh they're wonderful and uh I'm very uh humbled by the the honor.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I think uh the other honoree is um uh has connection with the movie uh Cabrini so um that's this coming Sunday night which is Mother's Day and uh I want to make sure we wish a happy Mother's Day to Cecile here with us and to all of our moms um thank God for moms and uh uh the moms here on earth and the moms in heaven um so um wishing everybody uh a very very happy Mother's Day all right well why don't we leave it there thank you Bishop and uh looking forward to the to the next one yes um we're gonna have some young people on at the next we have we're gonna have Pope John some students from Pope John High School uh on next week and then we're gonna have a special episode for uh Memorial Day coming up right and so stay tuned so plenty of good stuff ahead and thanks so much for joining us please subscribe comment and leave a positive rating get to know us better by following Beyond the Beacon on Facebook or Instagram email questions and podcast topic ideas to beyond attersondes.org discover our other podcasts Coffee with Kupke and the Paul Street Journal.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_01: See you next time.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks everybody happy Mother's Day have a good day God bless you