Day 2. little miracles

and we continue the Art Novena... MARY OF LOURDES
please join in!

after meeting Mary in the Fatima movie - I started going to Mass and eventually converted to Catholicism a year later.. and met some lovely women my age.. some of us started to hold a weekly prayer group..

praying the Rosary.

we continued on for a year or two and Bernadette, one of the group developed breast cancer..
we started to pray for her and quite often, Julie [a friend] and I would go walking in the bush, along a track to a grotto, where once stood a statue of Mary, where the Nuns use to go and pray.. around the grotto was a pool of water, being filled constantly by a little creek falling over rocks.. we would sit on the rock edge and pray the rosary..

I remember once, sitting there and it started to rain... and then suddenly the sun came out but not an ordinary sun.. this one was brilliant and seemed to come close then go away.. doing this little dance for a few minutes.. [I read later that this is sometimes a sign that Mary is with you]

another time, i was sitting praying the rosary and had my eyes closed.. [remember, I am in the middle of the australian bush, surrounded by native eucalypts, wattles and other native plants]... I opened my eyes and across the pool of water was a rose.. and as I gazed, a white bird alighted on the rose.. sat for a moment and flew off.. my friend and I just looked at each other in awe.. did that really happen?

just before Bernadette died.. Julie and I had just finished saying a rosary for her at the grotto and were walking back up the bush track and all of a sudden, we were both enveloped in the most powerful perfume of hundreds of roses.. it was so strong.. we kept smelling the air... in rapture..

all of these little miracles.. from Mother Mary... I still wonder often if they really did happen...

I dedicate this post to my own faith and trust - that it will grow stronger each and every day.. as I journey this Art Novena with Mary of Lourdes