Our Lady of Lourdes -- 150th Year

[jmm08]

News: “In 1858 [February 11], French peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous said the Virgin Mary appeared to her at Lourdes.”

11 February 1858 was a day in which Our Lady could stand by no more and merely watch such a sad situation. Not merely a sad situation for only Bernadette’s family, but also so many others who would be helped. So Our Lady of Lourdes appeared to St. Bernadette. Then it was the beginning of the first year.

Today is the first day of the 150th year of Our Lady of Lourdes.

 

[jmm08]

I went through RCIA only a few years ago. And just over two years ago, I prayed my first Novena – the Novena Prayer to Our Lady of Lourdes. My Novena to Our Lady was answered in full, and I am still working on keeping my end of the deal (which was to learn more about Our Lady’s virtues). I realized that I was too ignorant to promise to imitate Our Lady’s virtues and I changed my words to promise I would learn more about her virtues. And my revised prayer (which I could pray with honesty in my heart) was acceptable to Mary.

I went to the Franciscan Monastary near hear and asked for assistance in finding a suitable book to learn about Mary’s virtues. With good guidance, I selected “Mary Day by Day” (Catholic Book Publishing Co.). I also bought and read “The Imitation of Mary”.

Mary’s virtues are still quite lacking in my life, but I am trying and ask Mary to continue to work with me.

I have subsequently not prayed novenas much at all. But my first novena was answered so fully that I must regret not trying novenas much at all (if at all) any more.

However, that first Novena aimed me straight down what I think is a correct path for me – to continually make effort to learn about and to attempt to imitate Mary’s virtues. To honor Mary in any small way I can.

Currently I am reading St. Alphonsus de Liguori’s book “The Glories of Mary”. At the end of his book there is much more to learn about Mary’s virtues.

 

[jmm08]

Wouldn’t this the 150th year be a Jubilee Year for Our Lady of Lourdes? Shouldn’t we have an attitude of expectation that Our Lady is rejoicing and perhaps willing to grant extra graces at this time – if it is a Jubilee Year?

Personally, I think so.

Leviticus 25:10 “This fiftieth year you shall make sacred by proclaiming liberty in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when every one of you shall return to his own property, every one to his own family estate.”

And read the rest of Leviticus chapter 25.

The 50th year and every 50 years thereafter is a year of Jubilee. So let us be extra mindful this year of Our Lady of Lourdes and what graces she has brought the world. In these difficult days, I think she wants to do more. And I know that the world needs to study and imitate Our Lady’s virtues more. These two things go together in the Novena Prayer.

 

[Fergal]

Em…

Sorry to be a party pooper but the actual 150th Anniversary is not until the 11th of February 2008.

Just a little premature, but I laud your excitement!

 

[Georgess]

Thank you there for the sharing and the correction ; got worried there for a min . as to how The Church was not talking more about this event ; now we get even more time to prepare and anticipate - may be for really great events , esp. all that her message at Lourdes stand for - in area of papal infallibility , and the trusting acceptance of this being able to lead the whole Church , through our turbulent times ; a trust like the Israelites had towards Moses , who stood at the Red Sea , did not take a poll on who were courageous or approved of his actions - instead looked to The Lord alone and led !

 

[Della]

Thank you there for the sharing and the correction ; got worried there for a min . as to how The Church was not talking more about this event ; now we get even more time to prepare and anticipate - may be for really great events , esp. all that her message at Lourdes stand for - in area of papal infallibility , and the trusting acceptance of this being able to lead the whole Church , through our turbulent times ; a trust like the Israelites had towards Moses , who stood at the Red Sea , did not take a poll on who were courageous or approved of his actions - instead looked to The Lord alone and led !

Actually, you may not see any special mention of the 150th Anniversary of the Apparitions at Lourdes in your parish or in the USA, except at parishes named for Our Lady of Lourdes. There are special anniversaries of such events and of saints all the time that you and I would not necessarily hear about.

For example, when St. Therese of Lisieux was named a Doctor of the Church, our archdiocese and parishes did nothing to commemorate this event. However, at parishes named for St. Therese, no doubt they did celebrate it.

Having said that, I too have a special affection for Our Lady of Lourdes who I consider instrumental in my conversion to the Catholic Church. How I’d love to be in Lourdes for the anniversary! But, since I probably won’t be able to go to France, I will probably help celebrate it at a parish in our area named for her. But, I don’t expect any special celebrations at other parishes in our archdiocese.

 

[jmm08]

Em…

Sorry to be a party pooper but the actual 150th Anniversary is not until the 11th of February 2008.

Just a little premature, but I laud your excitement!

You are correct in that today is the 149th anniversay.
However, it is also the start of the 150th year.

day 1 – day 365 is the 1st year
day 366 - day 730 is the 2nd year …

from the 149th anniversary to the 150th anniversary is the 150th year.

I stand by my earlier statements. The 50th year is a year of jubilee and subsequently each year 50 years later. I think the 150th year is a year of jubilee, and that the 150th anniversary is certainly a very high point in that year.

 

[jmm08]

I hoped that this thread would get responses telling about personal experiences. If you have something to share about Our Lady of Lourdes, please reply.

 

[BrooklynBoy200]

how do you pronounce lourdes?

 

[jmm08]

I am still fairly ignorant of many things in the Catholic faith. I only completed RCIA a little less than two years ago. And frankly I often find myself in difficulties. When I am afraid or discouraged, I find comfort in the Rosary. I pray the Rosary and I sometimes just hold it (almost always when sleeping). I find comfort whenever I am able to pray a single Hail Mary along with others.

Today, I was reading more about Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Bernadette. And there are at least a few fifteens in the stories. St. Bernadette loved the Rosary.

At the grotto, the Lady asked Bernadette if she would return daily for fifteen days.
St. Bernadette went back to the grotto each day for fifteen days.
Her sixteenth vision [the fifteenth time she went back?], which she claimed went for over an hour, was supposedly on March 25 1858. During this supposed vision, the second of two “miracles of the candle” was said to have occurred. St. Bernadette was holding a lighted candle; during the vision it burned down, and the flame was said to be in direct contact with her skin for over fifteen minutes but she supposedly showed no sign of experiencing any pain or injury.

There were fifteen mysteries in the Rosary (until Pope John Paul II added the Luminous Mysteries). By the way, I like the Luminous Mysteries and I am glad that they were added. I love Pope John Paul II – listening to a CD set where he prayed the Rosary helped me to love the Rosary more.

In praying fifteen decades of the Rosary, fifteenth decade is the last and its last bead is the 150th rose.

We are in the 150th year of Our Lady of Lourdes – we are on the 150th Rose.

Surely this must be a special time – a special year – to think about Our Lady, and to try to do what Our Lady wants us to do.

a) to pray for sinners and to do penance
b) to learn about and to try to grow Our Lady’s virtues in our lives (Novena prayer to Our Lady of Lourdes)
c) Reply to this post and let me know what else it is that Our Lady of Lourdes wants us to do. Thank you.

I hope that others will reply and tell me what Our Lady of Lourdes means to them.

jmm08

 

[JKirkLVNV]

I hoped that this thread would get responses telling about personal experiences. If you have something to share about Our Lady of Lourdes, please reply.

I’ve never had trouble believing in Our Lady of Lourdes. I’ve read that when the Blessed Mother said to Bernadette, “I am the Immaculate Conception!”, in response to her priest’s request for the Lady’s bona fides, Bernadette ran down the road to the priest’s house, saying over and over to herself,“I am the Immaculate Conception, I am the Immaculate Conception!”, which is precisely what any child would do if they had to remember something complicated and important. I’ve often meditated on that little scene of Saint Bernadette running down the road, breathlessly saying, “I am the Immaculate Conception!”

 

[LilyM]

I’ve never had trouble believing in Our Lady of Lourdes. I’ve read that when the Blessed Mother said to Bernadette, “I am the Immaculate Conception!”, in response to her priest’s request for the Lady’s bona fides, Bernadette ran down the road to the priest’s house, saying over and over to herself,“I am the Immaculate Conception, I am the Immaculate Conception!”, which is precisely what any child would do if they had to remember something complicated and important. I’ve often meditated on that little scene of Saint Bernadette running down the road, breathlessly saying, “I am the Immaculate Conception!”

If I remember correctly, the point was also that Bernadette wasn’t well educated, and actually hadn’t been taught the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in any event. So for her to even come out with the phrase was remarkable.

 

[JKirkLVNV]

If I remember correctly, the point was also that Bernadette wasn’t well educated, and actually hadn’t been taught the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in any event. So for her to even come out with the phrase was remarkable.

Exactly! Her priest hadn’t used the title in her catechesis (I get my years mixed up, but wasn’t it after VI?).

 

[Georgess]

While The Church as ’ family’ and family as church are well recognised truths , and as seen in the way our Lord too chooses to be born into a family, later His disciples also reflect family connections ( Sts. Peter and Andrew , Sts John and James , St Jude ) ; the apparitions at Lourdes ( unlike those of Fatima where again biological connections are there among the visionaries ) are remarkable for the family of devotions and faith matters connected with it - The Miraculous Medal , the Green Scapular ( and also the red scapular ) as well as the papal infallibility connection , an area that require faith , as it would have for the family of Noah !

One of the scenes of Lourdes , that stand out , is also the scene where St. Bernadette was asked to dig up the spring , drink and eat of the muddy stream and the leaves , as an act pf penance - to be subject to the humiliation of the onlookers and she did ( from where now the miraculous spring exists !) ; that verse in The Psalms - He drank from the wayside stream … , might be connected to this ( as well as other meanings - how our Lord too humbled Himself , to be incarnate , in the pure spring …)

And those green leaves that St. Bernadette was asked to eat , like healing leaves, may also symbolise the healing devotion and gift of conversion , esp. of the Green scapular .

In our era , where we hear so much of sexual impurities ( and as Bl. Mother warned in Fatima , how sins of the flesh send many to hell !) , the Green Scapular devotion could be a powerful weapon - may be even for married couples , who also need chastity ; also for any that need the rest of the green pastures from the fire and heat of temptations …priests handing them out to penitents …persons wearing it and putting them /sending them hidden with children going off to college and then storming the heavens …, with that little extra trust that it brings …that the promise of Bl. Mother , in Fatima -’ my Immaculate Heart will triumph ', that persons will become pure , loving and adoring towards God and His ways - can be anticipated , even in the midst of all darkness!

.

 

[maryj]

Let me see if I can make a long story short. Last summer my mother who is 88 had three strokes. We as a family were bound and determined to keep her at home instead of a nursing home. I spent most of the summer 24/7 taking care of her and nursing her strength back. On labor day weekend I got some help from family members, and my husband and I took off for a few days at the cabin. Now we had travelled around in this area before on Sundays, and found different catholic churches to attend Mass at. This time we had read a flyer at a local cafe inviting people to come to a very small church, in an even smaller town, (I believe the population was 65) for Sunday Mass. Imagine my surprise when we arrived to find out that Mass is held outside during the summer months in the Grotto that was adjacent to the church. It was a replica of Our Lady of Lourdes. This small community swelled to hundreds on Sunday mornings. I can not even begin to explain the peace I found there. After months of being literally exhausted, I found peace and finally found myself feeling rested after that morning Mass. Coincidence? I think not! Let’s see if I can post a picture of the Grotto.

 

[jmm08]

The Franciscan Monastery (see myfranciscan.org/ ) in Washington DC has some lovely gardens and they also have an outdoor grotto replica of Our Lady of Lourdes. A few years ago when I visited in late December or early January, it was cold with no snow on the ground. And it was comforting to pray alone outdoors by the grotto. There were hardly any distractions except for the beauty of a large quiet garden in Winter waiting for the warmth and sunshine of Spring. There were some nice red roses placed near Mary despite the cold.

 

[Della]

Another aspect about the apparitions that moves me is the last apparition occured on July 16, the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Mary said nothing to Bernadette during that apparition. Rather, they both just gazed lovingly on one anther in silent contemplation. As a lay person with Carmelite spirituality, that means a great deal to me. Bernadette, if her health had permitted, would have entered Carmel, as was her desire. I therefore feel a kinship with her because of that, and because she and Our Lady of Lourdes were instrumental in bringing me into the Catholic Church.