What would you pay for healing?

The cost of a trip to Lourdes? The price of a device which captures the healing power of the waters of Lourdes?
The Roman Catholic Church has officially recognised 67 miraculous healings through the waters of Lourdes, on the basis of stringent tests ruling out other possible physical or psychological cures.

But it's a long way from South Korea to France, so South Korean professor Kim “invented a device” for digitally capturing the elements of holy water from Lourdes: “if the medical properties are changed into digital signals, and radiated onto any water, the water will adapt those properties, for onward transmission” and so, he said, cure many illnesses. He made £870,000, before he was arrested for fraud.

Lourdes became a place of healing following the spiritual experiences of a girl, Bernadette in 1858 at the local grotto, which was then a dirty, hidden, damp and cold place, where pigs feeding in the area usually took shelter. But it was there that the Virgin Mary, dressed in white, a sign of total purity, the sign of the Love of God, appeared to Bernadette.

As the Roman Catholic church says, this reminds us of the Gospel message that Jesus came to “sit at the table of sinners", because He came to seek the lost; and that God comes to join us where we are, in the midst of our poverty and failures. The Grotto is not only a place where something happened - a geographical place - it is also a place where God leaves us the Gospel message that he loves us, - this is the heart of the Message of Lourdes - and he loves us as we are with all our successes but also with all our wounds, our weaknesses and our limitations.

Sometimes the real healing that we need is not of our bodies but of our being. Our bodies may be well but our hearts and our lives may be bruised by the trials of the world. We feel unloved, rejected, uncared for, neglected

When this happens there is a great and grave danger that we will judge ourselves and condemn ourselves. As we do this to so we believe others only see us the same way. And though we were made for life in all its abundance we en-grave ourselves in our own despair. But Jesus says:
“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” [Luke c6:37-38]

This refers to your relationships with others – but it also applies to your relationship with yourself. Perhaps you can't afford to go the Grotto at Lourdes but it costs no cash to turn to Jesus. He is willing to meet you in all the grot of your life where you are & in that place renew your being.