Lourdes Grotto in the Vatican. "From this grotto I issue a special call to women. Appearing here, Mary entrusted her message to a young girl, as if to emphasize the special mission of women in our own …More
Lourdes Grotto in the Vatican.
"From this grotto I issue a special call to women. Appearing here, Mary entrusted her message to a young girl, as if to emphasize the special mission of women in our own time, tempted as it is by materialism and secularism: to be in today’s society a witness of those essential values which are seen only with the eyes of the heart. To you, women, falls the task of being sentinels of the Invisible! I appeal urgently to all of you, dear brother and sisters, to do everything in your power to ensure that life, each and every life, will be respected from conception to its natural end. Life is a sacred gift, and no one can presume to be its master. Finally, Our Lady of Lourdes has a message for everyone. Be men and women of freedom! But remember: human freedom is a freedom wounded by sin. It is a freedom which itself needs to be set free. Christ is its liberator; he is the one who "for freedom has set us free" (cf. Gal 5:1). Defend that freedom! Dear friends, in this we know we can count on Mary, who, since she never yielded to sin, is the only creature who is perfectly free. I entrust you to her. Walk beside Mary as you journey towards the complete fulfilment of your humanity!" – Pope St John Paul II, from a homily given in Lourdes in 2004. This photo is of the copy of the Grotto of Lourdes built in the Vatican Gardens. On 1 June 1902, the Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, François-Xavier Schoepfer, presented the Grotto di Lourdes to Pope Leo XIII in the penultimate year of his pontificate. The reproduction in the Vatican Gardens was made by Constantine Sneider of the Apostolic Palaces. The beautiful altar gives us a sense of what the Lourdes Grotto itself used to look like before it was 're-ordered' after the Second Vatican Council.
Source: Lawrence OP on Flickr
"From this grotto I issue a special call to women. Appearing here, Mary entrusted her message to a young girl, as if to emphasize the special mission of women in our own time, tempted as it is by materialism and secularism: to be in today’s society a witness of those essential values which are seen only with the eyes of the heart. To you, women, falls the task of being sentinels of the Invisible! I appeal urgently to all of you, dear brother and sisters, to do everything in your power to ensure that life, each and every life, will be respected from conception to its natural end. Life is a sacred gift, and no one can presume to be its master. Finally, Our Lady of Lourdes has a message for everyone. Be men and women of freedom! But remember: human freedom is a freedom wounded by sin. It is a freedom which itself needs to be set free. Christ is its liberator; he is the one who "for freedom has set us free" (cf. Gal 5:1). Defend that freedom! Dear friends, in this we know we can count on Mary, who, since she never yielded to sin, is the only creature who is perfectly free. I entrust you to her. Walk beside Mary as you journey towards the complete fulfilment of your humanity!" – Pope St John Paul II, from a homily given in Lourdes in 2004. This photo is of the copy of the Grotto of Lourdes built in the Vatican Gardens. On 1 June 1902, the Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, François-Xavier Schoepfer, presented the Grotto di Lourdes to Pope Leo XIII in the penultimate year of his pontificate. The reproduction in the Vatican Gardens was made by Constantine Sneider of the Apostolic Palaces. The beautiful altar gives us a sense of what the Lourdes Grotto itself used to look like before it was 're-ordered' after the Second Vatican Council.
Source: Lawrence OP on Flickr