Meditations given by the Rev, Bede Jarrett, O.P., during the Novena preached in the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in preparation for the celebration of the Seventy-fifth Anniversary of the Apparitions at Lourdes, February 2nd - February 10th, 1933
Old age, hard on you to be thrown out into the world, your work taken from you. Learn, learn from her. That is the day of God’s mercy, if you choose to find it, God’s mercy. "Ah,” you say, "that is foolish. You are asking too much.” Yet think! You have lost your work; you have lost it. Have faith and at least you have not lost peace. Do not be full of panic. Do not walk out into the other world with your courage gone, leaving others to face the trouble. Do not act so. Learn, if you can, God’s discipline. "Life is hard?” No, life is happy, but this is not life. Real life comes later, eternal — joy, happiness, peace.
Middle age — in a sense it is harder to be flung out of your work with others dependent on you when you are just at the age to use all your experience, when you are still full of life. Go down to your grotto: "Mother of Mercy, hail!” Help me to see my life as something deliberate — managed, governed by God.
Ah, in youth, that is when we need discipline, but it is hard to impose it on ourselves when we are young. We have come out of school, we have gone out into business, and we found another world where the things that were sacred are no longer sacred; where their stories hurt us, at first; where all they have to teach is to throw away discipline. "What! You believe in hell, and all that nonsense? Oh, don’t be so foolish. You are young. Take life as you find it.” Discipline thrown to the winds. Plays, pictures, books, what do they teach you? To throw aside discipline. They only teach you to unlearn.
God will teach you. Learn now. Youth, middle age, old, learn not to be bitter. Go to the grotto: "Mother of Mercy, hail!” She that had to watch sorrow, she is not speaking to you as someone who does not know what sorrow was. He was all her Child, and she had to watch Him going through torments. Let where she is be your home. In talking to her you are talking to a Mother who knows all sorrows: "Mother of Mercy, hail!” Teach me to see God’s mercy in all that happens to me.” The world of crisis will not alter because of your prayers. But you will. The world will still be harsh, forbidding, unlovely, but for you roses will bloom in the rock. The waters of life will be bitter cold to you, ah, but there will be healing for you at the grotto: "Mother of Mercy, hail!”
Our Life, Our Sweetness, and Our Hope!
Old age, hard on you to be thrown out into the world, your work taken from you. Learn, learn from her. That is the day of God’s mercy, if you choose to find it, God’s mercy. "Ah,” you say, "that is foolish. You are asking too much.” Yet think! You have lost your work; you have lost it. Have faith and at least you have not lost peace. Do not be full of panic. Do not walk out into the other world with your courage gone, leaving others to face the trouble. Do not act so. Learn, if you can, God’s discipline. "Life is hard?” No, life is happy, but this is not life. Real life comes later, eternal — joy, happiness, peace.
Middle age — in a sense it is harder to be flung out of your work with others dependent on you when you are just at the age to use all your experience, when you are still full of life. Go down to your grotto: "Mother of Mercy, hail!” Help me to see my life as something deliberate — managed, governed by God.
Ah, in youth, that is when we need discipline, but it is hard to impose it on ourselves when we are young. We have come out of school, we have gone out into business, and we found another world where the things that were sacred are no longer sacred; where their stories hurt us, at first; where all they have to teach is to throw away discipline. "What! You believe in hell, and all that nonsense? Oh, don’t be so foolish. You are young. Take life as you find it.” Discipline thrown to the winds. Plays, pictures, books, what do they teach you? To throw aside discipline. They only teach you to unlearn.
God will teach you. Learn now. Youth, middle age, old, learn not to be bitter. Go to the grotto: "Mother of Mercy, hail!” She that had to watch sorrow, she is not speaking to you as someone who does not know what sorrow was. He was all her Child, and she had to watch Him going through torments. Let where she is be your home. In talking to her you are talking to a Mother who knows all sorrows: "Mother of Mercy, hail!” Teach me to see God’s mercy in all that happens to me.” The world of crisis will not alter because of your prayers. But you will. The world will still be harsh, forbidding, unlovely, but for you roses will bloom in the rock. The waters of life will be bitter cold to you, ah, but there will be healing for you at the grotto: "Mother of Mercy, hail!”
Our Life, Our Sweetness, and Our Hope!