Our Lady of Lourdes - Kissing the Ground

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CapitalistCatholic

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I wasn’t sure where to put this. Why did Our Lady tell St. Bernadette to prostrate and kiss the ground for penance? How is kissing the ground a form of penance? A protestant might look from the outside, and say that Mary commanded Bernadette to worship her by bowing and kissing the ground.
 
Mary’s words were “Kiss the ground as a penance for sinners.”

http://www.theotokos.org.uk/pages/approved/words/wordlour.html

Mary said nothing about worshipping her.
Protestants, or anyone else who wants to jump to wrong conclusions, can think what they like. They would be more likely to think Mary didn’t even appear and St. Bernadette had some mental disorder. Why should we care?
Do you think Our Lady plans her actions so as not to give wrong ideas to Protestants? She doesn’t.

Kissing the ground is a penance because
  • the ground is dirty
  • the position of prostrating yourself and kissing the dirt is humbling
  • many people watching would see Bernadette seemingly making a fool of herself by getting down in the dirt, same as how Mary told her to “drink at the spring” and pointed to a patch of dirt that Bernadette had to dig with her hands in order to make a mud pit and drink some muddy water, which got mud on her face and made her get sick in front of the crowd.
 
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It depends on what’s in your heart when you are doing it.

A person might kiss the earth when alone, not for penance but because they are expressing love for God’s creation or happiness to be in their own homeland.

But a person might also kiss the earth as part of some type of humble prostration, like “Lord have mercy on me, a sinner”.

God would know what is in the person’s heart and treat the gesture accordingly.
 
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