« Memorial of St. John of Damascus | Main | Feast of St. Nicholas »

A Very Good Reason To See a Notre Dame Basketball Game Next Year

Make a visit to the Grotto before the game, and get a plenary indulgence. Be sure to dress warm, though, because South Bend in February can be quite brisk.

No, the Pope is not (necessarily) a Notre Dame basketball fan. But next year is the 150th anniversary of the apparition of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes, and those who visit Lourdes (under the normal circumstances -- which is to say, being in a state of grace, after confession, Mass, plus a pious meditation, the Lord's prayer, a Profession of Faith, and a Marian invocation), will receive a plenary indulgence.

Now you may say that Notre Dame is not Lourdes. You are correct. But as the Decree of the Major Penitentiary, Cardinal Stafford, sets out:

B.-if, from February 2, 2008, on the Presentation of the Lord, up to the complete day of February 11, 2008, in the liturgical memory of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lourdes and 150th anniversary of the Apparition, devoutly visit, in any temple, oratory, grotto, or decorous place, the blessed image of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lourdes, solemnly exposed to public veneration, and take part before the same image in a pious exercise of Marian devotion, or at least remain for a certain amount of time in pious meditation, concluding with the Lord's Prayer, the Profession of Faith in any legitimate form, and a Marian invocation.

The grotto at Notre Dame is a 1/7th scale replica of the grotto of Massabielle at Lourdes, complete with statue, and thus appears to fulfill the second condition of the indulgence.

nd_grotto.jpg

Looking at the schedule, the only game that falls into the windows of the indulgence is DePaul, on February 2.

As with any Notre Dame sporting event, you may want to fulfill the tasks of the indulgence before the game, as Notre Dame's sports teams have an unfortunate habit of making their fans leave the state of grace during the game.

Let's just be thankful the indulgence didn't fall during football season.

charlie_palooza.jpg
Vade retro, Charlie . . .

I kid . . .

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.virtualabbey.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/30

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

About

This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on December 5, 2007 6:04 PM.

The previous post in this blog was Memorial of St. John of Damascus.

The next post in this blog is Feast of St. Nicholas.

Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.