Project BLACK MAMBA

Today is the optional memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, amongst the most famous & celebrated of Marian apparitions: Our Lady-link ūna, Our Lady-link duae, & Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: Quoth the bulletin:

In 1858, Bernadette Soubirous reported a vision of Our Lady of Lourdes. She claimed she saw a miraculous Lady in white, with a golden rosary & blue belt fastened around her waist on a hill who asked her to request that the local priests build a chapel at the site of the vision. After Church investigations confirmed her visions, a large church was built at the site, Our Lady of Lourdes in France.

Our Lady of Lourdes is a private revelation, unlike Sacred Scripture, which is a public revelation, therefor no Christian is obligated to believe in the apparitions of the miraculous healings evinced at Lourdes ever since. To believe or not believe is the choice of every individual. As Saint Bernadette said, "One must have faith and pray; the water will have no virtue without faith."

Today we also remember Pope Saint Gregory II (669-731), opponent of iconoclasm: Pontiff-link ūnus, Pontiff-link duo, & Wikipedia-link.

Tuesday was the Memorial of Saint Scholastica, Virgin (c. 480-543): Saint-link ūna, Saint-link duae, & Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: Quoth the bulletin:

St. Scholastica, according to a ninth century tradition, was the twin sister of Benedict of Nursia (Wayback Machine). She consecrated her life to God from her earliest youth. She founded & governed a monastery of nuns.

Scripture of the Day (Tuesday)
Personal Reading
The Letter to Philemon.

Commentary: The Letter to Philemon is so short that it is not subdivided into chapters, comprised as it is of a mere twenty-five verses.

Mass Readings
The Book of Genesis, chapter one, verse twenty thru chapter two, verse four(A);
Psalm Eight, verses four thru nine;
The Gospel according to Mark, chapter seven, verses one thru thirteen.

Scripture of the Day (Today)
Personal Reading
Non-Biblical introduction to the Letter to the Hebrews.

Commentary: I was greatly impressed by the recent Mass readings of Hebrews, so I've decided to proceed with the whole letter rather than begin a chronological reading of the Pauline corpus.

Mass Readings
The Book of Genesis, chapter two, verses four(B) thru nine, fifteen thru seventeen;
Psalm One Hundred Four, verses one thru two(A), twenty-seven & twenty-eight, twenty-nine(BC) thru thirty;
The Gospel according to Mark, chapter seven, verses fourteen thru twenty-three.