“If you make my word your home, you will indeed be my disciples, you will learn the truth and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:31)
It’s been great to be back home, here at Holy Cross Family Ministries headquarters, before returning to service at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in France. We started our mission at Lourdes about 10 years ago, having realized that Father Peyton had a great devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes.
Father Peyton was very careful not to identify with any particular Marian place or group publicly, so as to keep his Rosary mission at the same time very clear and for all. However, on the personal side, for many years he did in fact make an annual pilgrimage to Lourdes. What happened at Lourdes, the Lourdes event, was a wellspring for him for the global mission Our Lady had entrusted to him.
Our Lady of Lourdes
The essence of what happened is simple yet profound. In 1858, an unimaginably beautiful young woman appeared eighteen times to Bernadette, a poor, uneducated and sickly girl. It wasn’t till near the end that the beautiful young woman finally identified herself as the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady.
Eighteen times. Each time she appeared, the Lady led Bernadette in meditation of the Holy Rosary. In a profound relationship of love, the Lady introduced and led Bernadette into a deep and living encounter with Jesus, the Word, God incarnate, the truth that sets us free through praying the Rosary.
Rosary Prayer
Because this simple girl who possessed a pure and loving heart said an authentic yes to God through Our Lady in prayer of the Rosary, everything that Lourdes has meant to the Church and the world as a place of healing and Christian witness in our world could unfold.
Our Lady had chosen Father Peyton, too—for another global mission for our times. Perhaps he found that his personal trips to Lourdes were a way of returning to the wellsprings of his own mission, in relative quiet and deep prayer.
Our mission at Lourdes in fact has been simple: giving out a lot of Rosaries and helping people to pray.
Of course, life is not always simple. Because of that, make sure that you, too, let Our Lady help you to experience the essence of our relationship with Christ in prayer, making Christ’s word your home, being disciples, learning the truth that makes us free.
- Father Jim's inspirational homily was recorded live during Mass at the Father Peyton Center this morning. You can view the Mass (and the Rosary at the 30-minute mark) on the Family Rosary YouTube page.
- To join the Rosary and Mass Livestream, visit the Family Rosary YouTube or Facebook page at 11:30 a.m. Eastern, Monday – Friday. Consider inviting others to join too! (*If you are not a member of Facebook and a signup window appears, simply select the X at the top of the pop-up message and continue to the livestream.)
