Lourdes: I am the Immaculate Conception
Everyone has in life his/her own sanctuary. Lourdes is my Sanctuary. Today is probably the largest Marian shrine in Europe. Anyone who has participated in the evening Marian procession with lanterns held there every day in many languages and sang along with thousands of others "Ave, Ave Maria...", will never forget it.
Crowds of pilgrims, buzzing, devotional shops in the streets that sometimes evoke mixed feelings, offering statues of the Mother of God in all sizes. A pilgrim can be stunned and disappointed at all of this. However, it is enough to go to the basilica to see the real, true Lourdes: a holy place where people from all over the world come to plunge into prayer, a place of strong faith and miraculous healing.
In the mid-nineteenth century, Lourdes was a town inhabited by only 4,000 people. What happened in this little village in France? In the mid-nineteenth century, all of Europe experienced a religious crisis. It was then strongly influenced by the notions that the future and all progress depend solely on science, strictly separatedfrom the realms of religion and the supernatural. Secularization first included the social elite and then the people as well. Workers and peasants in many regions of rapidly developing European countries have moved away from the Church. This was also the case in France. And then, several years apart, two famous apparitions took place in this country: the first - in 1846 at La Salette in the Alps, the second - in 1858 in Lourdes at the foot of the Pyrenees. They changed a lot in folk religiosity. Its spontaneous character was revived. Millions of people around the world have begun to feel that God is among them, interested in their lives, and able to help them. Mass pilgrimages to the places of apparitions began ...
A poor peasant girl
In La Salette, Our Lady appeared to two shepherds. Also, in Lourdes, she chose a poor peasant girl to whom appeared 18 times. In 1858, Bernadette Soubirous was 14 years old. She lacked everything: money, health, education. She was often sick and did not go to school. And it was she, her "poorest daughter", that Our Lady chose to convey special message to people.
On February 11, 1858, together with her sister and her cousin Bernadette left the house to collect firewood by the river, near the grotto, below the Massabielle Rock. She had to cross the river to catch up with her companions. She described what happened then: "When I took off my first shoe, I heard a noise like a gust of wind, then I turned my head towards the meadow. I saw that the trees were not moving, so I went back to taking my shoes off. Again, I heard the same noise. When I raised my head towards the grotto, I saw a Lady dressed in white. She wore a white dress, a white veil, a blue sash around the waist, and a rose on each shoe - yellow, the same color as her rosary chain. I was a little scared. I thought it was an illusion. I was rubbing my eyes. I looked again and saw the same Lady all the time. I put my hand in my pocket and found my rosary in it. I made the sign of the cross. The fear I felt disappeared. I knelt. I prayed the rosary in the presence of this beautiful Lady. she did not move her lips. When I finished my rosary - she suddenly disappeared." On Sunday, February 14, Bernadette returned to the grotto with her friends. She wanted to check that the vision was not an illusion. At the grotto she knelt down and began the rosary. After reciting one-decade, she saw the same Lady. She sprinkled her with holy water, wanting to chase her away, if she did not come from God. "The more I sprinkled her with holy water, the more she smiled ..." wrote Bernadette.
The Lady spoke
Our Lady did not speak until the third time, on February 18. The adults came with Bernadette. On their advice, she brought paper and ink. "When, after arriving there, I began to pray the rosary," wrote Bernadette, "I saw a beautiful Lady after the ten [Haile Mary]. I told her that if she is so good and wanted to tell me something, toplease write it down. Then she smiled and told me that what he has to say does not need to be written down. " Then the Holy Mother asked her if she would like to come to this place for 15 days. The girl agreed. She heard in response that the Lady did not promise her happiness in this world, but in the world to come. "I returned there for the next fifteen days. I saw the vision on all days except one Monday and one Friday. I was also given 3 secrets that I was not allowed to tell anyone." - she wrote later about these unusual meetings.
A wonderful spring
After four silent apparitions, filled with contemplation and prayer - on February 24, Our Lady gave Bernadette a command that she repeated for the next few days: "Ask God for the conversion of sinners". Then she asked if "it would be difficult for her to kneel down and kiss the ground as an act of Penance for sinners." For the first time she spoke the word " Penance."
On February 25, Mary repeated: "Penance! Penance! Penance!" Then she ordered Bernadette to eat the plant that grew there, to go to the spring, drink and wash in it. "Not seeing the source," says Bernadette, "I headed for the river. The Lady told me, however, that it was not there, and she gestured for me to go under the rock. I did so. I found only a little water there, like mud, and I could barely get it. I started digging the ground. After a while I was able to scoop the water, but I threw it three times. It was only the fourth time that I could drink, it was so dirty. " In this way, the spring that never dried up was discovered and became the tool of numerous healings.
On March 2, 1858, Bernadette was given a double mission: to tell the priests to come in procession and to build a chapel. She did not know who was the Lady thatappeared to her. The parish priest asked her to ask about it. When the girl asked a question, the Lady, instead of answering, smiled silently.
Smiling Mother of God
On March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation, Bernadette wrote: "I asked her three times who she was. She was smiling all the time. Finally, I tried a fourth time. Only then did she tell me, folding her hands at chest level, that she is the Immaculate Conception."
Two more times, Bernadette saw the Holy Mother, silent, smiling and praying, in a Massabielle cave. On April 7, the apparition lasted nearly an hour and several hundred people were present. The candle flame touched Bernadette's fingers for many minutes, leaving no trace of them, as attested by those present. On July 16, Bernadette saw for the last time Mary more beautiful and radiant than before. Last time here on earth ... The apparitions were approved on January 18, 1862 by the Bishop of Tarbes, J. E. Laurence, as authentic and unmistakable.
The apparitions of Our Lady in Lourdes took place in 1858. Four years earlier, in 1854, Pope Pius IX announced the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a special document. The following words were found in the bull "Ineffabilis Deus": " We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful. "
Thanks to Lourdes, the Marian cult gained unprecedented strength. A Church was built in Lourdes shortly after the apparitions. In 1876, work on the basilica near the Massabielle grotto was completed. Currently, the basilica has two levels. At the end of the 19th century, the Rosary Church was added. In 1958, the underground St. Pius X was built.
In the Grotto, there is a statue of the Mother of God carved in marble by a French artist of Polish origin, Joseph Fabisch. It stood in a niche on April 4, 1864. It was difficult for the artist to determine the appearance of the Beautiful Lady. None of the reproductions of the paintings shown to Bernadette matched what she had been able to see. Determining the facial features turned out to be the most difficult. In none of the works Bernadette did not found the unusual expression of Mary's eyes and smile. Finally, seeing no other way, the artist asked the girl to try to smile and look in a similar way ... The statue was consecrated by Bishop Bertrand Laurence.
Every time when I visited my sanctuary in Lourdes, in my heart sounds the words of St. John Paul II: “Kneeling here, before the grotto of Massabielle, I feel deeply that I have reached the goal of my pilgrimage. This cave, where Mary appeared, is the heart of Lourdes. It reminds us of the cave of Mount Horeb where Elijah met the Lord, who spoke to him in "a still small voice" (1 Kg 19:12). Here the Blessed Virgin asked Bernadette to recite the Rosary, as she herself said the beads. This grotto has thus become a unique school of prayer where Mary teaches everyone to gaze with burning love upon the face of Christ”.
SAINT JOHN PAUL II PRAYER TO OUR LADY OF LOURDES
This prayer was said during the Holy Father’s August 15, 2004 visit to Lourdes, France.
The Pope asked her among other things to "be our guide along the paths of the world."
Hail Mary, poor and humble Woman, Blessed by the Most High! Virgin of hope, dawn of a new era, we join in your song of praise, to celebrate the Lord’s mercy, to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom and the full liberation of humanity.
Hail Mary, lowly handmaid of the Lord, Glorious Mother of Christ! Faithful Virgin, holy dwelling-place of the Word. Teach us to persevere in listening to the Word, and to be docile to the voice of the Spirit, attentive to his promptings in the depths of our conscience and to his manifestations in the events of history.
Hail Mary, Woman of sorrows, Mother of the living! Virgin spouse beneath the Cross, the new Eve, Be our guide along the paths of the world.
Teach us to experience and to spread the love of Christ, to stand with you before the innumerable crosses on which your Son is still crucified.
Hail Mary, woman of faith, First of the disciples! Virgin Mother of the Church help us always to account for the hope that is in us, with trust in human goodness and the Father’s love.
Teach us to build up the world beginning from within: in the depths of silence and prayer, in the joy of fraternal love, in the unique fruitfulness of the Cross.
Holy Mary, Mother of believers, Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us. Amen.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george