Our Lady of Lourdes

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. John F. Kippley has an interesting article entitled The Exquisite Timing of Lourdes: Confronting the Skeptics about the appearances at Lourdes over at Catholic Exchange.

Here is a snippet:

The timing of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes
beginning on February 11, 1858 was not only providential in the sense of God's
loving kindness to us sinners but was absolutely exquisite in terms of what was
going on in European intellectual circles at that time.

The sex scandals involving priests and bishops, the very low rate of
acceptance of Humanae Vitae, the continuing liturgical abuses, the surveys
purporting to show the unbelief of Catholics, and other negative indicators lead
many of us to dream of living in more faith-filled times. The times in which
Bernadette Soubirous lived in Lourdes were not such times.

Read the rest here. For more about Lourdes, read this.