Marie-Bernarde Soubirous was a miller’s daughter born in Lourdes, France. She was said to have had witnessed the virgin Mary appearing to her, which resulted in her becoming a saint and Lourdes becoming a sacred place. According to the story, when Bernadette, who could not read or write and who barely passed her religious education classes, asked the lady her name, she responded, “I am the Immaculate Conception.” The faithful believed her to be the Virgin Mary, and she is said to have appeared to Bernadette 18 times. The Roman Catholic Church recognized Lourdes as a holy place in 1862 and Bernadette’s visions of Mary in a cave as authentic. Saint Bernadette was canonized in 1933, as patron of the sick, and Lourdes emerged as one of the premier pilgrimage sites in the world.
Martin de Porres was that he was known for his unique healing powers. An example of one of his healing miracles is when an 87 year old lady from Paraguay, was given a few hours to live. She several severe intestinal blockage and had suffered a heart attack. All the doctors had given up on her and were already making arrangements for her funeral the following day. However her daughter and some friends were praying to St. Martin and said 15 decades of the Rosary, asking above all through the intercessions of St. Martin that her mother would still be alive by the time she herself could reach her mother’s home in Paraguay.
They wear flowers in their bonnets and they give each other flowers. They do it in my name” (Gaiman). The statement is wrong, as Wednesday called her attention towards a chilling fact, “…I agree millions upon millions of them give each other tokens in your name, and that they still practice all the rites of your festival, even hunting for hidden eggs. But how many of them know who you are?” (Gaiman). According to Neil Gaiman, people celebrate this goddess, but do the people who are celebrating know that she is a goddess and not just a Christian holiday.
Having fled so far from Vietnam, I can no longer imagine what to say, or how I should address my prayers, or for that matter what promises I could possibly make to the long departed. My mother, on the other hand, lives in America the way she would in Vietnam. Every morning in my parents’ suburban home north of San Jose, with a pool shimmering in the backyard, my mother climbs a chair and piously lights a few joss sticks for the ancestral altar which sits on top of the living room's bookcase. Every morning she talks to ghosts. She mumbles solemn prayers to the spirits of our dead ancestors, and to the all-compassionate Buddha.
The Connectional Officers’ Chorus performed two musical selections. Plenary IV convened at 2:45 p.m. with the worship experience, Give Me a Clean Heart, with Mrs. Aurelia Scott serving as worship leader. Rev. Carolyn Brailsford sang “Speak to my Heart.” Readings, A Clean Heart and A Heart for God, were written and read by Mrs. Odessa Simmons, 7th Episcopal District, and Mrs. Dorothy Davis, 9th Episcopal District. Mrs. Robin Porter Smith, 2 nd Episcopal District, presented a video, “Give Me a Clean Heart.” Mrs. Arvella Austin Strong, Prayer Team Coordinator, prayed a prayer for the prayer requests presented through the Executive Board Meeting.
Have your friends ask the patient to sing Christmas carols about celebrating the birth of Christ and put a smile on their face. Urge your friends to sing Christmas carols at a hospital dressed as an angel. This is the nicest thing to do for someone in the hospital. Friends will feel an accomplishment of giving back by singing Christmas carols at the hospital. Persuading your friends to sing Christmas carols at the hospital is a rewarding experience for making someone’s day a little
At the age of eighty-one Hildegard also known as “Saint Hildegard” and “Blessed Hildegard,” died in September during the year 1179, but not before leaving behind a reputation and list of achievements. Primarily being known for her leadership in the convent at Disibudenburg Monastery, the Saint was also praised for her use of a unique gift, Vox Dei or what we know as the “voice of God.” This remarkable woman also used curative powers of natural objects to heal and doctrine the sick, she was an author counselor, linguist, scientist, philosopher, physician, poet, chancellor, visionary, composer, Abbess, and founder of two convents. Of her many accomplishments, Hildegard was most
So that was that. The composer and the performers had a stunning success, with a standing ovation and flowers and all the rest of it. I alone was disappointed, a crank who cared about the language. That is pretty much the end of the story about my requiem, premiered three years after Andrew Lloyd Webber’s, except that my wife Jill subsequently ran into Lloyd Webber in London. She said to him, “My husband also wrote a
LOURDES IN FRANCE The origins of its sanctity begin with the fourteen-year old girl Bernadette Soubirous. Between February and July of 1858, Bernadette saw apparitions of a white-robed lady 18 times in a small grotto called Massabiele, near the town of Lourdes. In the apparitions Bernadette was told to instruct the village priest to build a chapel in the grotto, which many people would soon come to visit. On the day of the 16th apparition, March 25, the lady revealed herself as the Blessed Virgin Mary. She is also called Maria de Lourdes.
Based on how Rudolph Otto described religious experience as a mystery that is both awe-inspiring and attractive and John Smith defended the position that religious experience is somehow part of the life of every human being, I think that the best religious experience that I can share which I really remember is when my goddaughter was baptized. It was on the morning of July 29, 2012. Her mother (my best friend), was not able to be there so I stand as her mother on that day. It was a very special day because it was the day that I was given the gift to be her godmother and I was there for her when she needed me, and it was the day that she was welcomed into the Christian world. It was a very simple yet touching ceremony.