In Lourdes, ebbhere Our Lady calls. Photo courtesy: By -bLy- [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
But to clarify, for two months in the summer of 2010, I was travelling in a van through Catholic France praying to Our Lady in Lourdes, whilst writing these expressing these very traditional Catholic fragments of my soul.
From 2010:
Webbursts. Things bursting in my soul in France. Unfinished things.
The voices of my friends, the voices in my psyche:
“Do not be so radical, Roger.
Do not be so Manichaen.
So dualistic.
So black and white.”
More voices:
“The pre-Revolution Church of the Ancien Régime was not whiter-than-white.
The Revolution though filled evil, was not quite blacker-than-black. There was concern for the poor … (even while it killed them by the thousands).
Protestantism is not simply an aberration – purely and simply. There was noble motive there too …”
These last voices, these particular voices – they are not false.
Yet they can seduce, deceive, lure one into complacency.
Into apathy.
Into doing absolutely nothing.
Nothing at all.
Our Lady of Lourdes called out:
“Penitence! Penitence! Penitence!”
She was NOT apathetic about the direction France was taking.
She was weeping.
Weeping, as She appeared on the Holy Mountain of La Salette.
Our Lady of La Salette. French postcard 1896
That Holy Mountain, which has marked my soul forever.
Weeping quietly. With dignity. Neither wailing nor whining.
Weeping and acting decisively to save Her children.
She is calling me, she is calling us still to penitence.
And I think to DECISIVE ACTION.
This is what I felt in Lourdes at any rate. That I was being called … called to be more decisive.
Those voices in my head:
“Do not be dualistic and Manichaen.
Do not be polarising.
Do not say yes or no.
Do not be decisive.
Look! Over there – see that fence?
Doesn’t it look it comfortable, over there on that fence?
Well, maybe not comfortable, sitting perched there.
But safe, anyway.
Safe.
Don’t stick your neck out.
Something might get chopped off.”
To be Continued …
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Next Installment:
3 Comments
interesting… what comes next?
Ever since I first started reading your former blog, my inner guidance has always been that you need to be supported. So know that I do.
I support your introspection and I support your action, when it comes. May it flow forth in an abundance of God’s love.
Epsilon and Billy
Epsilon. Well by the time I have now got to this cybercafé you will have seen. But thank you for your interest
Billy – thank you so much. In a difficult time, this helps indeed.
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