Divine Providence: When I was a seminarian, I did several talks around the country about Ministry with People with Disabilities. An all too generous person who heard me speak at one of these conferences paid for me to go on pilgrimage to the Shrine in France. What neither of us could know was that my first pariah assignment would also be to Our Lady of Lourdes in Richmond Virginia. Since then, this memorial has continued to hold a very special place in my life.
In the intervening 28 years I have learned an important lesson, something that I did not know when I travelled there. Perhaps the healing you need is not the one you think. We tend to focus on the physical, the visible. Often the deepest wounds are the invisible ones, the ones only God can see, the ones that we struggles to hide from others and even hide from ourselves.
There is probably no greater stigma in our society that the one associated with mental illness. It seems to be the only thing we won't talk about in public. And every day in this country that stigma has tragic consequences. Lives are cut short, and parents suffer their worst nightmare. Thankfully there are some organizations like The Cameron Gallagher K. Foundation, but not nearly enough and mental health services remain woefully inadequate.
Today let us turn to Our Lady and pray from healing: not just the healing of bodies, minds, and souls, but also a healing of society, of attitudes. Let us pray for every individual and every family suffering in silence. May the silence and the suffering be healed.
