ARCHBISHOP NAUMANN’S CALENDAR

Dedication of Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine — Oklahoma City

Feb. 19

Mass — St. Paul, Olathe

Feb. 21

Envisioning Team meeting — chancery

CFNEK board meeting — chancery

Kansas City Pregnancy Center banquet — Children’s Mercy Park, Kansas City, Kansas

Feb. 22

Resurrection School Mass — Cathedral

Mass — St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center, Lawrence

Feb. 23

Servants of the Pierced Heart of Jesus and Mary leadership meeting — chancery

Confirmation — Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Topeka

Feb. 24

Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem winter meeting — Omaha, Nebraska

Feb. 25

Men Under Construction — Church of the Ascension, Overland Park

Benedictine College Scholarship Ball — Overland park Convention Center had instructed Bernadette to dig in the dry ground. Bernadette’s obedience to Mary’s request unleashed a vibrant stream of God’s healing love that continues today. This American Carmelite Sister introduced the Life Teen ministry to the Netherlands that is still bearing fruit today.

I am grateful to have the opportunity to cultivate a special friendship with St. Bernadette. I am asking her to intercede for me that the Holy Spirit might open my heart to nurture in my soul the faith, courage and humility that characterized the life of St. Bernadette.

With the increasing secularization of our culture, striving to renew and deepen faith in our society can feel like digging in arid ground. I ask Bernadette to intercede for me that I can remain faithful and resolute in proclaiming the gospel of life in a society where many of the powerful elite consider pregnancy a disease and the killing of innocent children as essential preventive health care.

In a culture that confuses love with using others for sexual pleasure, the soil can feel very dry for fruitful efforts to restore authentic love that seeks to sacrifice for the good of others.

One of the most beautiful features of Lourdes is how the sick are treated with the greatest respect and reverence. Among the thousands of visitors to the shrine, the sick and infirm are the celebrities of Lourdes. It is one place in the world where the sanctity of every human life is celebrated.

You might find St. Bernadette a good spiritual friend as well.

Ask her to help you as you strive to follow Jesus faithfully and live your Catholic faith with joy, despite cultural opposition. May we remain humble and obedient to whatever Mary or Jesus asks of us, even to dig in the dry soil of our increasingly unbelieving, secularized culture.