Sunday, February 3
Our Lady of Lourdes: 150 Years
Get your plenary indulgences the way the Protestants like them: Free!*
Rorate Caeli reminds us that, this week only:
Each and every member of the Christian faithful who, truly repentant, is purified through sacramental confession, restored through the Most Holy Eucharist and offers prayers for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff, will be able to gain a Plenary Indulgence daily, which may also be applied, by way of suffrage, to the souls of the faithful in Purgatory:
...
B) If, from the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord on 2 February 2008 until the end of the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lourdes on 11 February 2008, which is also the 150th Anniversary of the Apparition, they devoutly visit a blessed image of the Holy Virgin Mary of Lourdes in any church, chapel, grotto or other suitable place in which it is solemnly displayed, and in the presence of that image perform some pious act of Marian devotion, or at least pause to reflect for an appropriate length of time, concluding with the Lord's Prayer, some legitimate form of the Profession of Faith, and the Jubilee prayer or some other Marian invocation.
I don't know if "solemnly displayed" means that the image has to be specially set up or decorated for the occasion. If so (and even if not so), it would certainly be nice it pastors acted in harmony with the Holy Father to provide such venues to their flocks!
* Yes, every time you see the word "free," it is followed by an asterisk. But, this time, it is to point out that, obviously, all indulgences are always "free." But even the ones "sold" in 16th century Germany were actually just given, in that case, for donating alms to the construction of St. Peter's Basilica--albeit, with excessively aggressive marketing. Even today, the donation of alms to the poor is still an indulgenced act--and rightly so.
![[SMMMHDH]](http://www.mgilleland.com/music/smmmhdh.png){kind=small}
