Blessed Virgin Mary of Lourdes

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Read the story of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lourdes

Blessed Virgin Mary of Lourdes

World Day of the Sick

Blessed Virgin Mary of Lourdes (or Our Lady of Lourdes or Our Lady of the Rosary or, more simply, Our Lady of Lourdes) is the name with which the Church Catholic and the faithful venerate the Mother of Jesus in relation to one of the most venerated Marian apparitions.

The name of the place refers to the French municipality of Lourdes, in whose territory - between 11 February and 16 July 1858 - the young Bernadette Soubirous, a fourteen-year-old local peasant, reported having witnessed eighteen apparitions of a"nice lady" in una grotta poco distante dal piccolo sobborgo di Massabielle.

The first appearance

Regarding the first apparition, Bernadette stated: “I saw a lady dressed in white. She wore a white dress, a white veil, a blue belt and a yellow rose on each foot."

This image of the Virgin, dressed in white and with a blue belt around her waist, later entered classical iconography.

In 1864, a statue of the Madonna was placed in the place indicated by Bernadette as the theater of the apparitions. Over time, an imposing sanctuary has developed around the cave of the apparitions where over five million visitors (believers and non-believers) from all over the world come every year.

Apparitions

Detail of the main apparitions, according to Bernadette's story:

· February 11: first appearance. ThereLadyrecites the Rosary, Bernadette joins her. At the end of the prayer, the Lady vanishes.

• February 18: third apparition. For the first time thereLadyhe speaks to Bernadette:“Can you be kind enough to come here for fifteen days?”.
• February 21: sixth apparition. Word has spread and Bernadette is followed to the cave by about a hundred people. In subsequent apparitions the crowd grows, by the fifteenth there will be around eight thousand. At the end Bernadette is questioned by the police.
• February 25: ninth apparition. At the request ofLady, Bernadette digs into the ground with her hands and finds a source of water.
• March 1st: twelfth apparition. The first miracle occurs: a woman named Caterina Latapie immerses her dislocated arm in the water of the spring, and the limb regains mobility.
• March 25: sixteenth apparition. Finally thereLady, who until then had not wanted to give his name, answers the question with these words pronounced in Gascon dialect, the only language that Bernadette understood: “That was Immaculada Councepcio"(“I am the Immaculate Conception”).

The dogma

Four years earlier, on 8 December 1854, Blessed Pius IX (Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti, 1846-1878) with the bull “Ineffabilis Deus”, declared theImmaculate Conception of Mary a dogma, cioè una verità della fede cattolica, ma questo Bernadette non poteva saperlo.

So, in fear of forgetting this expression which was incomprehensible to her, the girl quickly left towards the house of Abbot Peyramale, repeating to him in one breath the phrase she had just heard.

L’abate, sconvolto, non ha più dubbi. Da questo momento il cammino verso il riconoscimento ufficiale delle apparizioni può procedere speditamente. Infatti, entrando alla Basilica Superiore, sulla parete destra in basso, si può leggere incisa nel marmo la dichiarazione solenne del Vescovo, Mons. Laurence, sulle Apparizioni :

"We believe that Mary Immaculate, Mother of God, really appeared to Bernadette Soubirous, on February 11, 1858 and the following days, eighteen times, in the cave of Massabielle, near the city of Lourdes; that this apparition has all the characteristics of truth, and that the faithful have well-founded reasons to believe it to be certain. We humbly submit our judgment to the judgment of the Sovereign Pontiff, who is responsible for governing the universal Church. "

This declaration by the Bishop of Tarbes is capital: 4 years after the apparitions, on 18 January 1862, he recognized them as authentic in the name of the Church.

From the homily of Pp Benedict XVI - Mass for the 150th anniversary of the apparitions

(Prairie, Lourdes – Sunday, 14 September 2008):

Dear pilgrims, brothers and sisters,

[…] Following the Jubilee journey in Bernadette's footsteps, we are reminded of the essence of the Lourdes message. Bernadette is the eldest of a very poor family, who possesses neither knowledge nor power, she is in poor health. Mary chooses her to convey her message of conversion, prayer and penance, in full harmony with the words of Jesus: "You have kept these things hidden from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to the little ones."(Mt11.25)... It is therefore a true catechesis that is proposed to us under the gaze of Mary. Let the Virgin instruct us too and guide us on the path that leads to the Kingdom of her Son! […]

Cari fratelli e sorelle, la vocazione primaria del santuario di Lourdes è di essere un luogo di incontro con Dio nella preghiera, e un luogo di servizio ai fratelli, soprattutto per l’accoglienza dei malati, dei poveri e di tutte le persone che soffrono.

In this place Mary comes to us as a mother, always available to the needs of her children. Through the light that emanates from her face, it is the mercy of God that shines through. Let us be touched by her gaze: it tells us that we are all loved by God, never abandoned by Him! Mary comes to remind us that prayer, intense and humble, confident and persevering, must have a central place in our Christian life. Prayer is essential to welcome the strength of Christ. “Those who pray do not waste their time, even if the situation has all the characteristics of an emergency and seems to push only for action" (Enc.Deus caritas est,no. 36). […]

Holy Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, teach us to believe, hope and love with you. Show us the way to the kingdom of your Son Jesus! Star of the sea, shine upon us and guide us on our path! (see Enc.Spe save,n.50). Amen.

© Copyright 2008 – Libreria Editrice Vaticana

To read the entire homily>>> September 14, 2008:Holy Mass for the 150th anniversary of the apparitions

For further information:
en.lourdes-france.org/

Main sources: wikipedia.org; vatican.va gospeloftheday.org (« RIV. »).

Today's liturgical memory recalls the apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Lourdes, starting from 11 February 1858.

The protagonist of this event is a girl named Bernadette Soubirous, today counted among the ranks of Saints. Mary appears to her 18 times near a cave along the Gave river. The details of this experience have today been collected by the diocesan commission responsible for examining the facts.

From here, we know that Bernadette was along the river with her companions when she hears a sort of "gust of wind" coming from a cave. She comes closer, but the leaves on the trees were still. As she tries to understand, she hears a second “noise” and sees a white figure that looks like a lady. Fearful of having a hallucination, she rubs her eyes, but She was always there.

Not knowing what to do, he takes the rosary from his pocket and begins to recite it: the Virgin joins in his prayer. In the group of girls, there was also her sister: she confides in her what happened to her, and so she tells her mother, who arrives at her house, who forbids her from returning to that place.
The news spreads throughout the town, and on February 14th Bernadette returns to that place with a group of friends: a second apparition occurs.

The invitation to return for 15 days

On February 18th another apparition and on this occasion the Virgin asks her to return for 15 consecutive days. On the 25th of her life, the "Lady" invites Bernadette to eat grass, do penance, dig with her hands to find water.

I am the Immaculate Conception

On March 25, at Bernadette's request, the Virgin tells her that she is the Immaculate Conception: the dogma of faith had been promulgated by Pope Pius IX on December 8, 1854.

The apparitions

The apparitions lasted from 11 February to 16 July, with different cadences: 11, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28 February 1858; 1, 2, 3, 4 and 25 March; 7 April and 16 July. The apparitions were officially recognized by the bishop of Tarbes on 18 January 1862.

Sanctuary for the sick

The fame of Lourdes is due not so much to the apparition itself, but to the message of hope for humanity suffering in body and spirit. Starting from here, Lourdes is known as the place that welcomes the sick in body and spirit and who, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, the Immaculate, seek to find peace, health and serenity. There are 70 physical healings recognized - by an independent medical team - and many conversions.

At that time there was a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine ran out, Jesus' mother said to him: "They have no wine."

And Jesus answered her: “Woman, what do you want from me? My time has not yet come." Her mother said to the servants: “Whatever he tells you, do it.” There were there six stone amphorae for the ritual purification of the Jews, each containing from eighty to one hundred and twenty liters. And Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water”; and they filled them to the brim. He said to them again, “Now take some and bring some to the one in charge of the banquet.”

And they brought it to him. As soon as he had tasted the water that had become wine, the person in charge of the banquet - who did not know where it came from, but the servants who had taken the water knew - called the groom and said to him: "Everyone puts the good wine on the table at the beginning and, when you have already drunk a lot, the less good one. You, on the other hand, have kept the good wine aside until now." This, in Cana of Galilee, was the beginning of the signs performed by Jesus; he manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him (Jn 2,1-12)

Cana and Lourdes

In this context, we understand the meaning of today's memory: the Virgin Mary is the one who still today continues to intercede for her children, even more so the weak and sick in body and spirit, to trust in Jesus, Lord and Savior, the It is the only one that can turn water into wine; that is, he can transform every effort into joy, every mourning into hope, every illness into new trust.

World Day of the Sick

The message of the wedding at Cana and that of Lourdes lead us to understand why in 1992 Saint John Paul II chose to call the World Day of the Sick on this occasion: after all, through Lourdes it is reiterated that every sick person, any sick person, cannot never be discarded, but needs to find full citizenship within life.

source © Vatican News – Dicasterium pro Communicatione

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