Dear Diary,
This morning after Holy Mass, we met under the apple tree again for St. Mary’s Reading Club. Mini sat by my shoes, Shaggycoat held his book of trees, and Omelette scratched in the grass as if lunch crumbs were already there.
Father LeRoy began by asking us to close our eyes and imagine we were at Lourdes. He told us to picture the road, the crowd, the Grotto, and Bernadette kneeling before Our Lady. Then he said, “Let Our Lady speak to your hearts.”
I am not sure I heard anything exactly, but I did feel almost as if I were in France, standing near the rocks of Massabielle. When Father told us to open our eyes, we were back under the apple tree, with Iowa all around us.
Then I read my chapter summary.
“Today’s chapter tells about the peace that came over Lourdes during the Apparitions. The book says there were no new crimes for the courts to punish, as if Our Lady had passed over the country and left her blessing.
It also tells about Bernadette. Many people came to question her, but nobody could make her seem false. She answered simply and sometimes cleverly, because she was telling the truth.
When someone said Our Lady could not know Bernadette’s village dialect, Bernadette answered that if God and Our Lady did not know it, how could anyone else know it? When someone mocked her for eating grass, she smiled and asked if they thought of that when they ate salad.
Best of all, Bernadette stayed a child. She did not become proud. She still went to school, played games, and lived simply. Our Lady gave her a great mission, but protected her innocence.”
When I finished, Father LeRoy said, “Grace made Bernadette more truly herself.”
Robert liked the part about peace coming over the whole countryside. Sister Mary Claire said Our Lady’s peace begins in the heart and can spread farther than we know.
Then Father asked what we noticed most.
I said, “She didn’t try to be important.”
Sister Mary Claire smiled and said, “Yes. She told the truth, and then went back to being a child.”
After that came the funny part. Everyone thought someone else had brought lunch. Robert thought Sister Mary Claire had it. Sister Mary Claire thought Father had arranged it. Father thought Robert had brought something in the truck.
There was no lunch.
Father laughed first, and then we all did too.
“Well,” he said, “today we have had spiritual food.”
Robert said, “Father, that’s true, but spiritual food doesn’t go very far with a corgi.”
Mini agreed completely.
Father closed with a prayer, asking Our Lady to help us keep simple hearts like Bernadette. Then he blessed us, and we gathered our books.
On the walk home, my stomach was a little empty, but my heart felt full.
I kept thinking about Bernadette. She had been trusted with heavenly things, yet she stayed simple, truthful, obedient, and childlike.
Maybe that is what Our Lady wants from us too.
Love,
Kathy
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