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Our Lady Of Lourdes

February 11, 2012 by · Comments Off on Our Lady Of Lourdes 

Our Lady Of Lourdes, ONE of the most renowned apparitions of our Blessed Mother happened in Lourdes, France. On February 11, 1858, the Blessed Mother appeared to a girl named Bernadette Soubrious. Her family was one of the poorest in town and Bernadette was sickly girl, uneducated but had a pure heart.

Bernadette went with her sisters Toinette and Jeanne Abadie to collect some firewood and bones in order to buy some bread. After taking off her shoes and stockings to wade through the water near the Grotto of Massabielle, she said she heard the sound of two gusts of wind but the trees and bushes nearby did not move.

She said she saw a light in the grotto and a girl, as small as she was, dressed all in white apart from the blue belt fastened around her waist and the golden yellow roses, one on each foot, the color of her rosary.

Amazed, Bernadette made the sign of the Cross and prays the rosary with the Lady who disappeared without saying anything.

Altogether, there were 18 apparitions of Our Lady to Bernadette in Lourdes. Three days after on February 14, sensing an inner call, Bernadette returned to the Grotto “to see if I was not deluded”. She begins her rosary and blesses herself with holy water; the Lady smiled at her without saying a word.

February 18, Thursday of Holy Week, she asked the Lady to write her name. The Lady answered: “It is not necessary,” and adds, “Would you be kind enough to come here for fifteen days? I can promise you that I cannot make you happy in this world but in the other.”

On Good Friday, accompanied by her mother and aunt, Bernadette came to the Grotto with a candle. The following day, 30 people came to see Bernadette in ecstasy. They were impressed by her calmness, her fervor and her joy.

Easter Sunday, February 21, a hundred people started to mill in the apparition site in the early morning to see Bernadette. The police who were unbelieving looked on.

February 23, at 5:30 a.m., 150 people, including Mr. Estrada, a tax collector who was critical and skeptical, saw Bernadette in ecstasy. He was moved by the experience and started telling the people about it.

The people doubled in number for the 8th apparition on February 24th. This time, when Bernadette was in ecstacy, her face expressed unutterable sadness reflecting that of Our Lady who told her: “Penance. Pray to God for the conversion of sinners. Go kiss the earth in penitence for sinners.”

Lourdes is famous for the healing powers of the water from the Grotto. It was on the 9th apparition February 25th that Bernadette discovered the source. There were more than 300 people, including dignitaries, who waited expectantly to see the ecstatic, radiant Bernadette.

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