1. Remembering the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes
2. Our Lady Appears
Our Lady appeared to Bernadette Soubirous 18 times in 1858. The first of these apparitions was on February 11th. Bernadette did not know who “the lady in white” was at first. Bernadette experienced medically inexplicable ecstasies during some of the apparitions The lady implored “penance, penance, penance” in one her apparitions, asking Christians to pursue, deep, interior conversion for their own sake and the sake of unrepentant sinners. During of the apparitions, the beautiful lady asked Bernadette to dig a hole in the ground and a spring of water began to flow. This has baffled scientists since there is no underground source of water! This spring is now the source of the healing baths in Lourdes, France, where people from all over the world come to pray for physical, mental, and spiritual healing.
3. The Lourdes Grotto is one of the most popular pilgrimage destinations in the world
- The Grotto at Lourdes receives millions of pilgrims every year.
- There have been thousands of miraculous healings reported
- The international Medical Committee of Lourdes was created in 1947 to evaluate, using very strict criteria, each reported healing
- Of the thousands of reported healings, only 70 have been proven using the CMIL’s criteria
- The last “proven” healing was in 2018
- Even more than medical healings, thousands of spiritual and emotional, and mental healings are reported every year.
4. Bernadette Soubirous was declared a saint
Bernadette was declared a saint, but not because she had visions of Our Lady. Supernatural visitations aren’t proof of sainthood. In fact, when asked if she was tempted to pride for having seen Our Lady, Bernadette’s response was, “”How can I?” The Blessed Virgin chose me only because I was the most ignorant.” It was Bernadette’s humility and striving for holiness that made her a saint. She spent the rest of her short life after having received the messages from Our Lady as a sister of Charity. She died from tuberculosis at the age of 35.
5. The last words of St Bernadette are a prayer for us all
