The Water from Lourdes

Dear Diary,

Today our Reading Club had quite an adventure.

Father LeRoy told us this morning that he would not be able to come to our regular meeting because some church business had come up and he had to drive to Sioux City right away. We were all a little disappointed until Father looked at us and said, “Why don’t you all come along? You can have your meeting on the way, and afterward I’ll treat everybody at the Dairy Queen on Nebraska Street.”

That changed things in a hurry!

So Sister Mary Claire, Robert, Mini, and I piled into Father’s car, and off we went to Sioux City. Mini settled herself comfortably as though she had been invited personally.

Once we were well on our way, Father said it was time for the Reading Club meeting, so I took out my notes and gave today’s chapter summary.

The story was about a man whose eyesight had always been wonderfully strong. Then, in 1862, his eyes suddenly became so weak that he could scarcely read even a few lines. Doctors tried many different treatments, but nothing really helped, and before long he began to fear that his good eyesight was gone forever.

Then something very strange happened. One of his closest friends, who was a Protestant, visited Lourdes and heard about the remarkable cures connected with the water from the Grotto. He wrote and urged his Catholic friend to try it.

The man resisted—not because he thought God could not cure him, but almost for the opposite reason. Deep down he feared that if God really did perform a miracle for him, his whole life would have to change. He knew that such a gift would call him to become better and more faithful.

At last his friends persuaded him to write to the Curé of Lourdes, and a bottle of water from the Grotto was sent to him.

When it arrived, he prayed earnestly to God and Our Blessed Mother and washed his eyes and forehead with the Lourdes water.

Almost immediately, he knew that something had happened.

He was cured.

Only minutes before he could scarcely read a few lines. Now he picked up the little book about Lourdes and read more than one hundred pages without any weariness at all. Seven years later, when he wrote his account, his eyesight was still perfectly strong.

That gave us plenty to talk about.

Robert was the first to notice something unusual.

“Wait a minute,” he said. “He’s telling this whole story as ‘I.’ Do you suppose this is the author himself?”

That made all of us think.

Sister Mary Claire said it certainly sounded that way. The man was not simply repeating something he had heard about another person. He was describing his own fear, his own prayers, and exactly what happened when the Lourdes water arrived.

Father, keeping his eyes on the road, said, “I think Robert may have found something important. Perhaps Monsieur Lasserre has been telling us about his own cure without stopping to announce it.”

That made the chapter seem completely different to me. All this time the author had been telling us about the miracles of Lourdes, and now it seemed possible that Lourdes had touched his own life too.

Sister Mary Claire said the part that touched her most was that he had actually been frightened of receiving such a great grace because he knew it would ask something of him in return.

Father said, “Sometimes we ask God for something wonderful, but we ought also to ask ourselves what we will do with the gift if He gives it to us.”

By then Sioux City was getting close, and after Father’s church business was finished, he kept his promise and took us to the Dairy Queen on Nebraska Street—the same one we had visited before.

Father said we could have whatever we wanted.

That may have been the second miracle of the day.

There were cones, sundaes, shakes, and plenty of chocolate syrup involved. Mini received her own little dish of plain vanilla and considered the entire trip an excellent Reading Club meeting.

On the ride home we talked some more about Lourdes and especially about whether we had just read the author’s own miracle. Somehow that made the whole book feel more personal.

When we reached St. Mary’s, Father stopped the car before anyone climbed out.

He made the Sign of the Cross over us and gave us his blessing.

It seemed like the perfect ending to a Reading Club meeting that had begun on the road, traveled all the way to Sioux City, stopped for ice cream, and brought us very close indeed to the man who had written the story of Lourdes.

Good night, Diary.

Kathy