And you, young people,
be pure and ready like Bernadette
February 10th, 2022
Eve of Our Lady of Lourdes
Meditation of the day of Pontiff Samuel
(Draft)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Beloved faithful, we have just jointly said the Supplication to Our Lady so to be ready to live the eve of the Remembrance of the Apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes. As I have already said, the seer Bernadette was 14 years old when she saw Our Lady in 1858. She was a young girl with a pure and ready heart: ready to love God, ready to love the Blessed Virgin. Maria Giuseppina Norcia, the Maiden of God was likewise pure and ready when, at the age of only 7, she saw and welcomed the Child Jesus into her pure and holy heart.
Beloved young people, this is the example I want to give you today. The example of these two little girls who were already ready for God to welcome the Mysteries of Heaven.
And you, young people, do not measure God’s time by man’s yardstick. God loves the young ones. And God calls the young, pure and ready hearts. Keep your hearts untainted from all human ugliness and from every temptation to sin. And be ready at the moment of God’s call. Do not be afraid to accept His call. Do not say, “I am not ready. It is too soon”; or: ” I don’t understand these things”. Surrender yourselves to God’s will. Trust and entrust yourselves to His will. Do not be afraid to lose your human freedom. With Jesus you will never lose but you always win. This is what Bernadette did, despite the incomprehension and derision she endured from so many. She trusted and entrusted herself to Mary, she listened to Mary’s words and carried out her call to the full. And likewise did the Maiden of God, who since her childhood, entrusted herself every day to her Lord saying: “Do with me what pleases you. Your will be done”.
When the Lord calls you, dear young people, make sure to be ready. And entrust yourselves to Mary. Live everything of your life with balance but above all with faith. Only in this way will you experience God’s omnipotence working in each one of you. The more you trust and entrust yourselves to Jesus, the more He will work through you. Call Him, Jesus. Invoke Him, Jesus. Live Him as a true Friend, as your dearest Friend. Call upon Him and He will immediately come, to speak to you from Heart to heart, to guide you every day, to help you in every situation, whether small or big it may be. Don’t live Jesus as if He were a distant God but live Him as the Man God nearby, as the young man among you young people. Do this also with Mary, the young handmaid who was found to be pure and worthy to welcome Jesus into her womb since her young age. She too was young like you at the moment of Her call. Entrust yourselves to Her, and everything will become even easier.
Let us join the young Bernadette today, thus to invoke Mary all together, so that She may accompany us to love Jesus in plenitude and to welcome the living Sign that the Father has placed here, in the New Jerusalem. Not a memory, but a living Sign.
In Lourdes, the water has gushed out to cure many sick people. Here there is the Source of the living and gushing water that gives Life; there is the Font of the Holy Spirit that is ready to welcome all those who want to live the authentic Christianity, to be cleansed from every sin and to live grace every day.
You who are eager to be immersed in this spiritual Source Font of God, come and immerse yourselves. Here Jesus and Mary await you and will never let you be lacking of the holy nourishment that is Spirit and Life.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.