Trust

1 Corinthians 13:1-8

ImageKristin's Crosses
[public domain]

Roses, by Henri Fantin-Latour, 1884

The Excellence of Love

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous;

love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly;

it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness,

but rejoices in truth;

bears all things,

believes all things,

hopes all things,

endures all things.

Love never fails

1 Corinthians 13:1-8 NASB

Our Lady of Lourdes

ImageKristin's Crosses

[public domain]

Prayer to Our Lady of Lourdes
by St. John Paul II

Hail Mary, Poor and Humble Woman,
Blessed by the Most High!
Virgin of hope, dawn of a new era,
we join in your song of praise,
to celebrate the Lord’s mercy,
to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom
and the full liberation of humanity.

Hail Mary, Lowly Handmaid of the Lord,
Glorious Mother of Christ!
Faithful Virgin, holy dwelling-place of the Word,
teach us to persevere in listening to the Word,
and to be docile to the voice of the Spirit,
attentive to his promptings
in the depths of our conscience
and to his manifestations in the events of history.

Hail Mary, Woman of Sorrows,
Mother of the Living!
Virgin spouse beneath the Cross, the new Eve,
be our guide along the paths of the world.
Teach us to experience and to spread the love of Christ,
to stand with you before the innumerable crosses
on which your Son is still crucified.

Hail Mary, Woman of Faith,
First of the Disciples!
Virgin Mother of the Church,
help us always to account for the hope that is in us,
with the trust in human goodness and the Father’s love.
Teach us to build up the world beginning from within:
in the depths of silence and prayer,
in the joy of fraternal love,
in the unique fruitfulness of the Cross.

Hail Mary, Mother of Believers,
Our Lady of Lourdes,
pray for us.

Amen.