The Living Waters

of Lourdes.

Feb. 11 is the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes day. Lourdes is a place of profound healing and even miraculous healing on all levels and dimensions (bodily, emotionally, spiritually, etc.) See the official Lourdes link to the right.
This is a place that the Blessed Mother (who was once, recall a Jewish likely teen-age mother) is said to have appeared to a poor young girl tending sheep by a grotto and a river. The blessed mother appeared with a message over a period of days/weeks with instructions and prayers for peace. The authenticity of the vision was verified when she identified herself by terminology that would have been unknown to the poor girl, calling herself the Immaculate Conception, which was a doctrine coined in Rome only years before that the girl would not have heard of- as she didn't read Latin. She couldn't read at all in fact.
One of the signature features of Lourdes, one of the most visited Catholic shrines in the world, is their system of baths-healing baths, into which the pilgrims are immersed.
This reminds some of their "baptism"- and the baptism of the Lord which "John the Baptist" effected. What lots of Catholics don't realize is that the ritual cleansing bathing for purification and spiritual healing is something that is profoundly Jewish. Yesterday we had the Presentation at the Temple. It is almost certain that this was preceded by Mary's ritual bath cleansing after childbirth.
The water purification ritual of Baptism, was directly in keeping with the Jewish practice of water purification rituals called the "Mikveh." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikveh
This is something routinely done by Orthodox Jewish women after ever monthly period (menstruation) as well as after every baby born.
It is also done by men, particularly priests, during certain times-and prior to any ordination.
The act of this baptism in water was something that historically anyone converting to Judaism had to undergo, therefore it was natural and in keeping with tradition for John the Baptist to lead people to another Mikveh to purify them into the Way- as an act signalling the repentance of the heart that accompanied a baptism.

Jesus, of course, called himself the Living Waters. This is a direct reference to the Mikveh in that he is the cleansing agent- He is the force purifying the sons of Levi, He is the source of all Life Eternal just as water is the source that sustains all life on earth.
Salvation comes from the Jews. Jesus, of course was a Jew, and he came to his own but his own "received him not" it is written.
What Catholics would do well to remember is that their faith is rooted in Judaism, in all its ritual and practices.

http://judaism.about.com/od/sexinjudaism/a/familypuritylaw.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikveh