I WENT UP TO THE SANCTUARY OF NOTRE DAME DE LA GARDE TO SAY A MASS OF THANKSGIVING FOR OUR SAFETY

Posted on February 19, 2024 by franksantucci

The violence of the day before having been suppressed, Bishop Eugene led a thanksgiving service. The city and its inhabitants were under the protection of “la Bonne Mère” (the Good Mother) whose sanctuary was on the highest hill of Marseilles.

I went up to the sanctuary of N.-D. de la Garde to say a Mass of thanksgiving for having been preserved, along with our whole city, placed under the protection of this Good Mother, from the catastrophe that the villains had prepared for us.

Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 29 April 1848, EO XXI

REFLECTION

“Let us entrust to her intercession the daily prayer for peace, especially in places where the senseless logic of violence is most ferocious; so that all people may be convinced that in this world we must help each other, as brothers and sisters, to build the civilization of love.” (Pope Benedict XVI)

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1 Response to I WENT UP TO THE SANCTUARY OF NOTRE DAME DE LA GARDE TO SAY A MASS OF THANKSGIVING FOR OUR SAFETY

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate says:
    February 19, 2024 at 13:12

    I think of Eugene walking through the city and up the hill to the top of a small mountain that was in and overlooked the city of Marseilles and how he would have been greeted by those he met as he moved past the shops and residences where many of his flock lived. I can only imagine that he invited each and every one of them to join him in thanking God and “la Bonne Mère”…

    I am reminded of how Jesus upon seeing Simon and his brother Andrew invited them to follow him: and they immediately left their nets and followed him.

    Pope Benedict XVI invited us to entrust ourselves and our world to the intercession of her to pray for peace and was convinced that “we must help each other, as brothers and sisters, to build the civilization of love.” It is an invitation to each of us which echo’s St. Eugene’s words in The Preface: “We must lead men to act like human beings, first of all, and then like Christians, and, finally, we must help them to become saints.” Even for the Pope as well as well as each of us, we are invited to lovingly serve each other…

    Reply

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