Saint of the week: 8th February St Josephine Bakhita

St Josephine Bakhita, was born in Darfur, Sudan (around 1869) and sold to slavery at a young age. She is known as the patron saint of victims of modern slavery and human trafficking.

Her Feast Day is on February 8, also known as the World Day of Prayer, Reflection and Action Against Human Trafficking.

St Josephine Bakhita is an inspiring role model of forgiveness.

In her diary she writes, “If I were to meet the slave traders who kidnapped me and even those who tortured me, I would kneel and kiss their hands. If what happened to me had never take place, how would I become a Christian and religious?”

W/C 8th February:

Healing

Saint of the week: 8th February St Josephine Bakhita

St. Josephine Bakhita,

you were sold into slavery as a child

and endured untold hardship and suffering.

Once liberated from your physical enslavement,

you found true redemption in your encounter with Christ and his Church.

O St. Bakhita,

assist all those who are trapped in a state of slavery;

Intercede with God on their behalf

so that they will be released from their chains of captivity.

Those whom people enslave, let God set free.

Provide comfort to survivors of slavery

and let them look to you as an example of hope and faith.

Help all survivors find healing from their wounds.

We ask for your prayers and intercessions for those enslaved among us. Amen.

W/C 8th February:

Healing

“The way you help heal the world is you start with your own family.”― Mother Teresa

W/C 8th February:

Healing

MissionNever be afraid to ask God for Healing. Pray to find ways you could bring healing to those around you.

Prayer

Lord, You invite all who are burdened to come to You. Allow your healing hand to heal me. Touch my soul with Your compassion for others and my heart with Your courage and infinite love for all. Teach me to reach out to You in my need, and help me to lead others to You by my example. Most loving Heart of Jesus, bring me health in body and spirit that I may serve You with all my strength. Enrich this life which You have created, now and forever. Amen.

W/C 8th February:

Our Theme: Healing

Learn more about Our Lady of Lourdes:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xNUkYL1_Po

Prayer:God Our Father,

Give us strength so that, guided by Our Lady’s example,

we can have the courage to say yes to you.Help us to love like she loved, have faith like

she hadand follow Jesus’ example in all that we do.

Inspire in all of us a sense of togetherness, so that we can use

the gifts you have given us for the good of all in our community

and bring support and healing to those less fortunate than ourselves.

We ask Our Lady to guide us, just as she guided St Bernadette,

as we seek to bring Jesus’ message of loveand forgiveness to others.

We ask this through Jesus Christ, your Son, Our Lord.Amen

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.

This week we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of LourdesLet us pray for everyone who would have made the pilgrimage this year to Lourdes, especially from our Diocese and our school.

Saint of the week:Our Lady of Lourdes (feast day 11th Feb) On Thursday, February 11, 1858, a fourteen-year-old French girl, Bernadette Soubirous, in the town of Lourdes, France, was sent with her younger sister and a friend to gather firewood, when a very beautiful lady appeared to her above a rose bush in a grotto called Massabielle (Tuta de Massavielha).

The woman wore blue and white and smiled at Bernadette before making the sign of the cross with a rosary of ivory and gold. Bernadette fell to her knees, took out her own rosary and began to pray. Bernadette later described the woman as "uo petito damizelo," meaning "a small young lady. Though her sister and friend claimed they were unable to see her, Bernadette knew what she saw was real.

Though many townspeople believed she had indeed been seeing the Holy Virgin, Bernadette's story created a division in her town. Many believed she was telling the truth, while others believed she had a mental illness and demanded she be put in a mental asylum. Some believed Bernadette's visions meant she needed to pray for penance.

Church authorities and the French government rigorously interviewed the girl, and by 1862 they confirmed she spoke truth. Since Bernadette first caused the spring to produce clean water, 69 cures have been verified by the Lourdes Medical Bureau, and after what the Church claimed were "extremely rigorous scientific and medical examinations," no one was able to explain what caused the cures.

The Lourdes Commission that initially examined Bernadette, ran an analysis on the water but were only able to determine it contained a high mineral content. Bernadette believed it was faith and prayer that was responsible for curing the sick.

Bernadette asked the local priest to build a chapel at the site of her visions and the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is now one of the major Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world. Many other chapels and churches has been built around it, including the Basilica of St. Pius X, which can accommodate 25,000 people and was dedicated by the future Pope John XXIII when he was the Papal Nuncio to France.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us!