- Luke 9:23-25 -
Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny
himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to
save
his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.
What
good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his
very self?"
______________________________________________________________
If this present life is most important to you, you will do everything you
can to protect it. You will not want to do anything that will endanger
your
safety, health or comfort. By contrast, if following Jesus is most
important
to you, you may find yourself in unsafe, unhealthy and uncomfortable
places.
You will risk death, but you will not fear it because you know that Jesus
will raise you to eternal life. Jesus' disciples are not to use their
lives
on earth for their own pleasure - they should spend their lives serving
God
and people.
<<>><<>><<>>
February 11th - St Bernadette
On 11 February 1858, St Bernadette, at the age of 14 first had a vision of
the Blessed Virgin Mary. She was out with her sister and a friend
collecting
firewood at Massabielle, near her home town of Lourdes in the South of
France.
I heard the sound of wind as in a storm. I turned towards the meadow,
and I saw that the trees were not moving at all...
I went on taking my stockings off, and was putting one foot into the
water, when I heard the same sound in front of me. I looked up and saw a
cluster of branches and brambles underneath the topmost opening in the
grotto tossing and swaying to and fro, though nothing else stirred all
around.
Behind these branches and within the opening, I saw immediately
afterwards a girl in white, no bigger than myself, who greeted me with a
slight bow of the head; at the same time, she stretched out her arms
slightly away from her body, opening her hands, as in pictures of Our
Lady:
over her right arm hung a rosary.
I was afraid, I stepped back. I wanted to call the two little girls; I
hadn't the courage to do so. I rubbed my eyes again and again: I thought I
must be mistaken.
Raising my eyes again, I saw the girl smiling at me most graciously
and
seeming to invite me to come nearer. But I was still afraid. It was not
however a fear such as I have at other times, for I would have stayed
there
forever looking at her: whereas, when you are afraid, you run away
quickly.
Then I thought of saying my prayers. I put my hand in my pocket. I
took
out the rosary I usually carry on me. I knelt down and I tried to make the
sign of the Cross, but I could not lift my hand to my forehead; it fell
back.
The girl meanwhile stepped to one side and turned towards me. This
time,
she was holding the large beads in her hands. She crossed herself as
though
to pray. My hand was trembling. I tried again to make the sign of the
Cross,
and this time I could. After that I was not afraid.
I said my Rosary. The young girl slipped the beads of hers through her
fingers, but she was not moving her lips.
While I was saying the rosary, I was watching as hard as I could. She
was wearing a white dress reaching down to her feet, of which only the
toes
appeared. The dress was gathered very high at the neck by a hem from which
hung a white cord. A white veil covered her head and came down over her
shoulders and arms almost tot he bottom of her dress. On each foot I saw a
yellow rose. The sash of the dress was blue, and hung down below her
knees.
The chain of the rosary was yellow; the beads white, big and widely
spaced.
The girl was alive, very young and surrounded by light.
When I had finished my rosary, she bowed to me smilingly. She retired
within a niche and disappeared all of a sudden.
That was the first of almost twenty visions that St Bernadette had of Our
Lady at Lourdes.
In that time, a spring miraculously appeared at the grotto, and people
began
to experience miraculous cures from it.
The Lady gave two public messages: the first was an urgent call to
Penance,
and the second was that Bernadette was to ask the priests to construct a
chapel on the site.
And straight away, the simple but most obedient little girl went to
face
the lion in his den: the stern, apparently autocratic parish priest, Abbé
Peyramale.
The Abbé took her into her house. She immediately gave her message:
"Monsieur le Curé, the Lady of the grotto has ordered me to tell the
priests
that she wishes to have a chapel at Massabielle."
In a surly tone (as the girl remembers) the Abbé said: "What is this
lady?"
"She is a very beautiful lady, all surrounded with light, who appears
to
me at Massabielle."
"I don't understand," said the Abbé, "How has this lady shown herself
to
you?"
Bernadette told the story simply and clearly, the story she had told
the
civic authorities previously. (Peyramale later told a friend that, as he
listened, he had to force back the tears that rose to his eyes.) Without
showing any visible emotion, when the girl was finished, the Abbé said:
"What is this lady's name?"
"I don't know"
"You have not asked her?"
"Yes, but when I ask her, she smiles but does not reply."
"And you assert that she has instructed you to tell me that she wants
a
chapel at Massabielle?"
"Yes"
At this firm assertion of the little girl, the excitable Abbé flared
up.
"Girl," he cried, "you are out of your mind! A lady who goes and perches
on
a rock, a lady you do not know, a lady who is perhaps as lunatic as you!
This lady comes and tells you to invite us to have a chapel built for her!
And you accept such messages? And you think we are fools enough to listen
to
them?"
Then calming down a bit: "Since you stick to this lady, find out first
who she is, and if she thinks she has a right to a chapel. Ask her from me
to prove it by making the rose-bush at the grotto flower immediately."
Bernadette asked several more times for the Lady's name, but the Lady
continued to smile and tell her to ask the priests to build the chapel.
Then the visions stopped for three weeks. In that time, the Abbé could not
help but notice not only the miraculous cures taking place in his parish,
but also an incredible resurgence of the faith and a return to the
sacraments by the townspeople.
Then on the Feast of the Annunciation, 25 March, Bernadette again
experienced the 'irresistible urge' to go to the grotto. When she came
with
relatives, there were over a thousand people gathered there. The beautiful
lady was already in the niche and waiting for her. The rosary and prayers
were said, and during her ecstasy, the little visionary plucked up her
courage and asked the beautiful visitor, once, twice, and then a third
time:
"Madame, will you be so kind as to tell me who you are?"
At the third entreaty, the Lady opened her arms and lowered them,
letting the rosary slip down to her wrist, then she rejoined her hands,
raised her eyes and delivered her secret: "I am the Immaculate Conception"
As she went from the grotto, Bernadette kept repeating these words
which
she did not understand; they were but sounds to her. And when she came
before the Abbé Peyramale, she burst out without any formality: "I am the
Immaculate Conception".
"What's that you say, you conceited little thing?"
"It is the Lady who has just said these words to me."
"Do you know what that means?"
"No, monsieur le Curé."
"I see you are still being deceived. How can you say things that you
don't understand?"
"All the way from the grotto, I have been repeating, 'I am the
Immaculate Conception'."
The Abbé sent her away with no sign of emotion. Mme Ribette, owner of
the grocery store, recalls that M. Peyramale came in that morning for some
goods, and said to her: "Listen to what Bernadette Soubirous has just told
me the Lady said to her 'I am the Immaculate Conception'. I was so amazed
that I felt myself stagger and I was on the point of falling."
The Bishop of Tarbes approved the Apparitions in 1862 after exhaustive
investigations as to their authenticity:
"We judge that Mary the Immaculate, Mother of God, did truly appear to
Bernadette Soubirous on 11 February 1858, and on subsequent days, to the
number of 18 times in all, in the grotto of Massabielle, near the town of
Lourdes."
Before Bernadette left Lourdes in 1866 to enter the novitiate of the
Sisters
of Charity in Nevers, she walked in procession to the grotto with the
Children of Mary on the occasion of the blessing of the newly-build crypt
of
Lourdes' famous Basilica.
Saint Quote:
"One day of humble self-knowledge is a greater grace from the Lord,
although
it may have cost us many afflictions and trials, than many days of prayer"
-St. Teresa
Bible Quote:
Whoever humbleth himself shall be exalted. -Lk. 14:11
<><><><>
Prayer to Lady of Lourdes
Blessed Mother, our Lady of Lourdes, we thank you for appearing to the
child
Bernadette so as to show the world the power of God. The miracles brought
forth then and even until now are a great testimony of His Love and Mercy.
Thank you, Mother, not only for the miraculous healing power of the waters
of Lourdes but also for the love and compassion that prevails there. We
thank our Father in heaven for you, dear Mother and also for Saint
Bernadette and we implore your intercessions for us that we will always be
like little children, docile and loving and open to His Will. Amen.
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