our lady of lourdes

Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus, while before your face I humbly kneel, and with burning soul pray and beseech you to fix deep in my heart lively sentiments of faith, hope and charity, true contrition for my sins, and a firm purpose of amendment, while I contemplate with great love and tender pity your five wounds, pondering over them within me, calling to mind the words which David, your prophet, said of you, my good Jesus: “They have pierced my hands and my feet; they have numbered all my bones” (Ps 21, 17-18).

Our Lady of Lourdes is one of the most popular and beloved titles of Mary venerated in the Catholic Church and all over the world.  On February 11, 1858, a young, French peasant girl named Bernadette was collecting firewood with her sister and a friend near a dumping ground in the town of Lourdes where they lived.  Suddenly, Bernadette saw a beautiful maiden appear with a golden rosary, so she began praying the Rosary with the lady, not knowing who she was.  The lady asked Bernadette to return to the Grotto, and after a while, she revealed herself as “the Immaculate Conception,” which was a title unknown to Bernadette due to her lack of education.  Only those theologically learned enough to understand the new dogma could interpret this to mean that this was, in fact, a woman claiming to be Mary, the Mother of God.