Afterwards, we spent some time at the statue of the parish priest of Lourdes at the time of St Bernadette. There was a girl of about St Bernadette's age for our reconstruction but as she is taller than I am, a younger girl played the part of St Bernadette while I played the part of Fr Peyramale. At first, he prudently rejected St Bernadette's story of the "beautiful lady": there were many such stories circulating at the time. He was converted when St Bernadette told him that the lady said "I am the Immaculate Conception." He knew that St Bernadette, who had very little formal instruction in the faith, could not have made this up.
Afterwards, the boys pinched my biretta to see if they could land it on the head of the Monsignore as he was later dignified. Mgr Peyramale is one of my heroes at Lourdes. He was a good and wise parish priest and once convinced of the truth of the apparitions, protected St Bernadette with determination.
Later we went to the Grotto for the Rosary in the afternoon and baked under the sun. I was able to give the children a special blessing at the Grotto. We're off now to the torchlight procession...
5 comments:
HA HA! Boys crack me up!!
Father, have you seen the two new St. Bernadette movies? Not that ghastly "Song of Bernadette" but other ones that were put out not too long ago. The second one is called The Passion of Bernadette I think. VERY GOOD!
Hm, reminds me of that time I wasn't allowed to play a child in my city's medieval plays, and a girl that was four years older got the part because she was small enough :)
Coffee Catholic - yes the two recent videos are excellent.
Dear Father Finigan
'I played the part of Fr Peyramale. At first, he prudently rejected St Bernadette's story of the "beautiful lady": there were many such stories circulating at the time. He was converted when St Bernadette told him that the lady said "I am the Immaculate Conception." He knew that St Bernadette, who had very little formal instruction in the faith, could not have made this up.'
"Jam lucis orto sidere"
Our Lady of the Rosary pray for us!
Hmmmm, looks a bit tricky, that game! Father, if you'd been wearing a saturno instead of a biretta think how much easier it would have been for them :)
They'd probably have gone on to explore the delights of "saturno frisbee"... endless fun.
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