Dear Diary,
Our Reading Club met along Indian Creek again today, and I think it may be one of my favorite places for us to meet.
Today is the Feast of the Assumption of Our Blessed Mother, so Father LeRoy reminded us before we began that this was a very special day for Mary. It seemed just right that our chapter today should also be about her help and about the gratitude people offered to her at Lourdes.
I sat on the enormous rock along the bank to read my chapter summary. Before I started, though, I asked Sister Mary Claire something I had been wondering about ever since our last meeting.
If a glacier nearly a mile high once covered this country, why didn’t it grind this great rock into little pieces?
Sister smiled and patted the rock beside me.
She said this rock was a traveler in time, just as all of us are. Thousands of years ago it became frozen inside a great glacier far to the north. When the glacier slowly moved south, the rock traveled along inside the ice almost like something packed safely in a suitcase. Then, when the glacier finally melted and could carry it no farther, it simply left the rock behind.
“So here it sits,” Sister said, “a glacial erratic—a very old visitor from Canada.”
I liked thinking about that. This rock had been sitting beside Indian Creek long before Father LeRoy, Robert, Sister, Mini, or I ever came along.
Then Father said perhaps our old rock had something to teach us about today’s chapter, too.
I read my summary.
The Bishop’s Commission carefully investigated the cures connected with Lourdes. They did not simply believe every story they heard. They visited people, questioned witnesses, and examined the facts.
One of the most remarkable cases was Madame Rizan, who had been terribly ill and partly paralyzed for more than twenty years. Her doctors believed she was dying. During her last night she asked for water from the Grotto at Lourdes.
The next morning her daughter brought some. Madame Rizan drank it and was washed with it.
Almost immediately she declared that she was cured.
Her strength returned. She got out of bed, dressed herself, knelt before a statue of the Blessed Virgin, and asked everyone to thank Our Lady with her.
Even years later she remained well.
One doctor readily admitted that something extraordinary had happened. Another doctor had refused to investigate the cure because he did not believe in miracles. The author told him that a scientist ought to examine facts first instead of refusing to look at them because they do not agree with what he already believes.
That gave us plenty to talk about.
Sister tapped the great rock beneath me and said, “Suppose nobody studied this rock because they had already decided a glacier could never have carried it here. They would miss the story written right in front of them.”
Father nodded.
“Truth isn’t afraid of being examined,” he said.
I looked down at that enormous old traveler beneath me and thought about Madame Rizan. One came quietly from Canada inside a glacier, and one wonderful morning in France brought a story that people would still be examining many years later.
Before we left, Sister opened the picnic basket.
Inside were chocolate chip cookies and a big jar of cold Jersey cow milk.
Robert said perhaps scientific investigation should always end with cookies.
Father said he wasn’t certain the Bishop’s Commission would agree, but he certainly did.
We ate beside Indian Creek while the water slipped past our old traveler in time.
Because it was the Feast of the Assumption, I kept thinking about Our Lady too. The old rock had traveled such a long way before coming to rest here, and I thought how all of us are travelers through time too, hoping one day to reach Heaven, where Mary already is.
I wonder how many stories are sitting quietly around us, waiting for someone to notice them.
Good night, Diary.
Kathy
No comments:
Post a Comment