Feast day of our Lady of Lourdes

On February 11th we celebrated the feast day of our Lady of Lourdes who appeared to St. Bernadette and informed her that she is the Immaculate Conception.  St. Bernadette is a very dear saint to me.  She always inspires me with the faith she had as a very young girl.  I always wonder whether I would ever be able to respond to our Lady despite all the serious troubles she had to face to present herself at the grotto for 15 days as Mary's instructed.

Last year I made a grotto made of coco puffs to celebrate the feast day.  I actually read the recipe wrong and used coco puffs instead of coco pebbles..lol  Anyways I think Mary was bit happy that I at least tried and it actually turned out pretty okay..  Praise God!!

Grotto made last year

Last year I was also able to make some blue jello 

This year I was better prepared and planned ahead.  It is probably appropriate to say that I planned a day before the feast day and actually bought all the items I needed on the day of the feast.  I am definitely not an expert like those moms who are very disciplined and plan things way ahead of time.

We specially prayed to our dear Lady of Lourdes that morning during our morning prayer.  We went to mass and celebrated afterwards with this grotto.  I actually painted the wooden peg doll of our lady of Lourdes that day also.  I probably should not have stretched myself so much but I did anyways.  Lesson to be learned for the future..  At the end it was all worth it except the fact that I was tired.  Either way even on a normal day I will be tired by end of day so I guess it really does not matter that I put in some extra effort to celebrated my dear heavenly mother.

We all enjoyed the grotto and prayed the rosary and watched St. Bernadette.   We were also able to take the grotto to our St. Valentines day Party the next day at my friends place.

Our dear mother, we love you dearly.  Help us to always come before you pleading for help and ask for graces from your Son.  Be with us mothers and help us to raise our children in the way you raised Jesus. Help us to love and respect our husbands the way you loved St. Joseph.