In this video, Fr. David Friel, Vocation Director for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, discusses the apparition of Our Lady of Laus / Our Lady of Happy Meetings and reflects on how we can embrace the Blessed Mother’s example during Lent.

Transcript:

Hello, I’m Father David Friel. This beautiful apparition of Our Lady of Good Encounter actually goes by a number of different names: sometimes called Our Lady of Laus, referring to the village in southern France where this took place, in the foothills of the Alps.

What happened is that in the middle of the 1600s, a young girl named Benoîte, she had lost her father when she was 7 years old, and by the time she was 12 years old she was working as a shepherdess, taking care of a flock out in the fields. And while she was tending to the sheep, she received a message, really an encounter with a saint, Saint Maurice who appeared to her and told her to take her flock and go to another valley. So she goes to that other valley and he’d promised her that she would encounter Our Lady there. And sure enough, after some time, Our Lady appears to her. The Blessed Mother was standing on a rock. Benoîte asked what this lady’s name was, and she responded to say her name was Mary, confirming that this was, in fact, the Blessed Mother.

And Our Lady continued to appear to Benoîte almost every day for about 4 months. And at a certain point she made known her will that a church would be built, actually a church built on the same site where a chapel already was. Benoîte found this chapel by going to an area where Our Lady had directed her, and Mary had told her that she would find the smell of the beautiful perfume there. So she finds this chapel named for Our Lady of Good Encounter, and that is what has come about— it’s drawn many people to good conversion.

I think reflecting on this apparition during Lent is a great opportunity to be challenged towards conversion. No matter where we are in our faith, no matter how much conversion is necessary, all of us need to turn more to the Lord. Conversion means turning towards the Lord. And to whatever extent that’s still necessary in our lives, if it’s in big ways, if it’s in small ways, Lent is a wonderful opportunity to bring that turning about. Continue to turn more and more to the Lord, away from the things that distract us from Him, and more and more to Him.