Lourdes
One
The Apparition
Lourdes, France, is a small village at the foot of the Pyrenees on the border between France and Spain.
The family of Bernadette Soubirous was so poor that they lived in one room of an old building that used to be a jail but even the worst jailer refused to keep prisoners there. There was no running water, no plumbing, obviously no electricity. Bernadette and her sister had to scrounge around the countryside for kindling for the stove. This is why on February 11th, 1858 she went to the dark and rocky grotto near the river to gather firewood.
Suddenly, Bernadette heard a noise like the sound of a storm. Frightened she stood up straight and turned her head toward the grotto where she saw an exceedingly beautiful young girl, 16 or 17 years old.
The beautiful Lady looked at Bernadette, smiled, and waved to her to come near. Bernadette rubbed her eyes, shut them, and opened them, but the Lady was still there. Without thinking, Bernadette took out her Rosary and fell to her knees. The Lady gave a nod of approval and then she too took out a Rosary. As Bernadette prayed, the Lady moved the beads through her fingers. Only at the end of each decade did the Lady say the Glory Be with Bernadette. As soon as they finished the Rosary the Lady disappeared.
Three days later, on February 14th, Bernadette, her sister, and a friend went to the grotto armed with holy water. When she knelt to pray the Rosary, the Lady appeared and again prayed with her.
The third time Our Lady appeared she asked Bernadette to come back fifteen times at regular intervals. She also said, “I do not promise to make you happy in this world but in the next."
All told, Mary appeared to Bernadette eighteen times between February 11th and July 16th, 1858. Through Bernadette Mary asked us to pray and do penance for the conversion of sinners. She asked everyone to come to Lourdes for a Rosary procession. She asked that a Church be built there in her honor.
Here we are, at the place where the Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven and Earth appeared. What should be concluded from this miraculous event? If the Mother of Jesus is real, then Jesus is real, then everything needs to change!
Two
Prayer
The most explicit elements in the message of Lourdes are prayer and penance.
Mary came to the world at Lourdes to ask everyone to pray and to do penance for the conversion of sinners because they were in danger of going to hell by their own free choice if they would not repent, turn back to God, and convert to a life of virtue.
Prayer is the first step because I need to convert, you need to convert before you can help someone else to conversion. Personal conversion comes from prayer. Why? Because sin is to turn away from God.
In prayer we turn back to God to speak with him, to be in relationship with him. So prayer is the first essential step of our conversion. Then if we keep turning to God in prayer we will keep converting. Only then can we help others to conversion.
First, you must put on your oxygen mask, then help the person next to you. Once we commit to our own conversion by prayer we need to offer our prayer for the conversion of sinners.
Bernadette offered many forms of prayer for the conversion of sinners. The most powerful prayer is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass which Bernadette offered daily. Then she offered her Rosary and the Stations of the Cross for the conversion of sinners.
Let’s not forget to offer our prayer for the conversion of sinners.
Three
Penance
During the apparitions, Our Lady said to Bernadette, “Penance! Penance! Penance!”
As we said in the last point, the main message from Lourdes is the call to pray and do penance for the conversion of sinners. Our Lady came at Lourdes, then again at Fatima and she continues to come at Medjugorje, but her message is always the same. People have turned away from God and have turned toward sin. If they do not turn back they are in danger of destroying the world and of destroying themselves forever in hell.
Mary is the Mother of all people. She is trying to get all her children to heaven. So she is calling on her children who are listening to offer prayer and penance for those who won’t listen because by our prayer and penance, we can help God save souls.
Penance can consist of prayer, fasting, almsgiving, works of mercy, service to others, voluntary self-denial, and sacrifices. But above all the patient acceptance of the cross we must bear is the most powerful penance to offer for the conversion of sinners. What we did not choose, do not like, and cannot change are the very things we should accept as from the hand of God and offer them up. Unite them to the suffering of Jesus and do it for the conversion of sinners.
As Mother Teresa would say, “Give what He takes and take what He gives with a big smile.”
Four
“I am the Immaculate Conception”
In 1854, Pope Pius IX proclaimed the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Four years later on March 25th, 1858 Bernadette asked the woman appearing to her to reveal her name.
The Woman slipped her rosary over her right arm. She unfolded her hands and extended them toward the ground (signifying the graces she gives to the world through her intercession). She then folded them at her breast, raised her eyes to heaven, and said, “I am the Immaculate Conception.”
St. Maximilian Kolbe was captivated by this and dictated his greatest insight about the relationship of the Holy Spirit and Mary to Br. Arnold in his office on the morning of February 17th, 1941. Around noon St. Maximilian was arrested by the Gestapo and ultimately taken to Auschwitz where he gave his life for another man.
Kolbe asked, “And who is the Spirit? He is the fruit of the love between the Father and the Son. Now, the fruit of created love is a created conception. Therefore, the fruit of divine love, the prototype of all love, is the first conception. The Holy Spirit is, therefore, the Divine Uncreated Immaculate Conception.”
Then Kolbe said, “At Lourdes, Mary did not define herself as “Conceived without sin,” but, as St. Bernadette related…She said in a voice in which you could notice a slight tremor…I am the Immaculate Conception.” If, among humans, a bride takes the name of her husband by the fact that she belongs to him, unites herself to him, is made similar to him and, together with him engenders new life, how much more should the name of the Holy Spirit, the Uncreated Immaculate Conception, be the name of Mary with whom the Spirit is united in supernatural love.”
According to Kolbe, the Holy Spirit is the Uncreated Immaculate Conception and Mary is the created Immaculate Conception. Mary and the Holy Spirit are two separate persons, but their union is so close that though Kolbe called Mary the “Spouse of the Spirit” it was not adequate.
In fact, Kolbe preferred to call Mary the “Quasi-Incarnation” of the Holy Spirit. Kolbe said, “The Son became manifest in Jesus. The Holy Spirit became manifest in Mary.”
If you want to experience the gifts, the inspiration, the care, and the power of the Holy Spirit, then turn to Mary. Mary is the perfect human expression of the Spirit. She is the human sign and instrument of the Spirit, the sacrament of the Spirit. In Mary, we experience the mission of the Holy Spirit to form Jesus in us!
Five
Spring of Healing Waters
On February 25th, 1858, Mary directed Bernadette to a specific spot and told her to drink from the spring and wash in it. There was no spring so Bernadette was confused. But Our Lady told her to dig in the dirt.
Bernadette dug a hole in the dirt with her hand and then washed her face with the mud and drank the dirty water. Everyone thought she was crazy. That afternoon some people returned to the Grotto. They shoved a stick in the little hole Bernadette had carved out and a fountain of water gushed forth.
From that little spring now comes forth a fountain that fills the baths of Lourdes. There have been seventy miraculous cures medically verified and authenticated by the Catholic Church. But there are thousands upon thousands, countless more that have never been reported.