With Mary as Our Companion
The annual Lourdes Novena begins on Wednesday, 2nd February in our Oblate Church of Mary Immaculate and culminates on the 11th February with the celebration of the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.
Novena Prayer and Reflection will be given each day (except Sunday) at the 10am Mass and at 7pm during the Word and Benediction. On Sunday we will have the Novena during our Sunday Masses at 11.30am & 7pm.
On Friday, 11th February we will have the Feast day Mass at 7pm with the traditional Torchlight procession at the end of Mass to the Inchicore Grotto.
On February 11th, 1858, the Blessed Virgin Mary – the mother of Jesus – appeared to a poor and sickly 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous in a grotto in Lourdes, France. By July 16th, five months later, Mary had appeared 18 times and had declared herself to be the Immaculate Conception. During one apparition, the Lady asked Bernadette to drink from a spring that was coming from the grotto. The Lady would go on to request that a chapel would be built at the site of the Grotto. For over a century and a half, people have gone on pilgrimage to Lourdes and have experienced peace and healing – whether physical, spiritual, emotional. This Novena in honour of Our Lady of Lourdes invites us on a pilgrim journey with Mary as our Companion.
Respecting the current restrictions placed on us because of Covid-19 and in an effort to protect one another and the most vulnerable – you are invited to join us in person or via the parish webcam or radio link. Together, let us ask the Lord, through the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes, to deepen our faith, to strengthen our hope and to grant to all healing and peace.
“Open to the Holy Spirit, Mary gave herself totally as the handmaid to the person and work of the Saviour. She received Christ in order to share him with the world, whose hope he is. In her, we recognise the model of the Church’s faith and our own.”
OMI Constitution
Brother Michael Moore OMI will guide us in prayerful reflection on Mary’s life and faith journey as found in the Gospels in a way that speaks to our life experience and deepens our faith in Jesus who is our hope.
Br Michael has over 30 years of experience in parish pastoral ministry and in retreat ministry, especially in Celtic Spirituality. He has spent the last six years as a member of the Partners in Mission team in the UK, writing the Sunday Gospel reflection for the Oblate province website and developing various liturgies and programmes for those seeking to develop their faith and deepen their appreciation for the spirit and mission of St Eugene de Mazenod, the founder of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. He takes to heart the Oblate invitation that
“wherever our ministry takes us, we will try to instil genuine devotion to the Immaculate Virgin Mary who prefigures God’s final victory over all evil.”
OMI Constitution
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