Today we celebrate the optional memorial of Our Lady’s apparitions at Lourdes, where our Blessed Mother in 1858, in Lourdes, France, appeared in this poor mill town marked by sickness, poverty, and marginalization. She appears to Saint Bernadette Soubirous, a fourteen-year-old impoverished girl who encounters a lady in the grotto of Massabielle while gathering firewood. This occurred on the 11th of February, 1858.
Our Blessed Mother was silent, radiant, and prayerful. On the 18th of February, seven days later, our Blessed Mother speaks her first words and asks Saint Bernadette to return for fifteen days, promising happiness not in this world, but in the next. On the 24th of February, six days later, she calls all of us to conversion. Her main message was penance, penance, penance. Saint Bernadette performs a humble yet misunderstood act of penance on behalf of sinners.
On the 25th of February, our Blessed Mother instructed Saint Bernadette to dig in the ground. A muddy trickle appears, soon becoming the spring whose waters are associated with healing, and this becomes the sacramental heart of Lourdes. Two days later, from the 27th of February to the 3rd of March, public attention begins to grow. Crowds gather, skepticism intensifies, and the corrupt authorities attempt to suppress events. On the 2nd of March, Our Lady commands, “Go tell the priests to build a chapel here and have people come in procession.”
Then on the 25th of March, on the feast of the Annunciation, our Blessed Mother declares, “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Saint Bernadette, uneducated and unfamiliar with theological titles and terms, repeats the phrase verbatim to the parish priests, stunning the clergy and authorities. On the 7th of April, Saint Bernadette holds a candle flame directly against her hand during ecstasy without injury. On the 16th of July, the final apparition, Saint Bernadette sees our Blessed Mother one last time from across the river, the grotto having been fenced off by anti-Catholic authorities.
In 1862, Bishop Laurence formally recognizes the apparitions as authentic. Saint Bernadette enters religious life with the Sisters of Charity of Nevers. She dies in 1879, is canonized in 1933, and remains incorrupt.
In today’s readings set for the memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, we hear the words through the prophet Isaiah: “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you” (Isaiah 66:13). Lourdes becomes a place of consolation, especially for the sick, the disabled, the grieving, the forgotten, and those seeking a miracle. Our Blessed Mother appears not in a palace, but in a muddy grotto to a sickly, poor child, embodying Isaiah’s vision of Jerusalem as a nurturing mother.
The spring that miraculously comes out of the mud and out of the earth at Lourdes echoes the words, “You shall be carried in her arms, fondled in her lap” (Isaiah 66:12). Pilgrims experience Lourdes as a maternal embrace, not merely a miracle factory. The flourishing bodies and rejoicing hearts are not always physical cures; often they are restored dignity, peace, and hope.
In the Gospel, we hear of the miracle at Cana, another miracle involving water, where our Blessed Mother beseeches our Lord on behalf of a newlywed couple who have run out of wine at their wedding feast (cf. John 2:1–11). Our Blessed Mother notices the human need before it is voiced, just as she notices our sickness and suffering at Lourdes and whenever we call upon her. Even before we call upon her, she intercedes. “They have no wine,” she says to Jesus, and then she says to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:3, 5).
My brothers and sisters, in Lourdes she asks for prayer, penance, the Sacraments, and obedience. Water becomes wine at Cana, and muddy water at Lourdes becomes healing water. In both cases, Mary does not act independently. She points away from herself and reveals Christ — his power, his glory, and his ability to help us even in our most dire needs.
Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary of Lourdes and of Saint Bernadette, who now enjoys her presence night and day as she glorifies the Lord God of Hosts with the Queen of Heaven, may Almighty God bless you.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord, thanking Him for all the blessings and graces He continually sends you. God love you.
Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes
Lectionary: 531
Below are the readings suggested for today's Memorial. However, readings for the Memorial may also be taken from the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary, #707-712.
Reading 1
Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad because of her,
all you who love her;
Exult, exult with her,
all you who were mourning over her!
Oh, that you may suck fully
of the milk of her comfort,
That you may nurse with delight
at her abundant breasts!
For thus says the LORD:
Lo, I will spread prosperity over her like a river,
and the wealth of the nations like
an overflowing torrent.
As nurslings, you shall be carried in her arms,
and fondled in her lap;
As a mother comforts her child,
so will I comfort you;
in Jerusalem you shall find your comfort.
When you see this, your heart shall rejoice,
and your bodies flourish like the grass;
The LORD's power shall be known to his servants.
Responsorial Psalm
- (15:9) You are the highest honor of our race.
Blessed are you, daughter, by the Most High God,
above all the women on earth;
and blessed be the LORD God,
the creator of heaven and earth.
R. You are the highest honor of our race.
Your deed of hope will never be forgotten
by those who tell of the might of God.
R. You are the highest honor of our race.
Alleluia
- Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are you, O Virgin Mary, who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee,
and the mother of Jesus was there.
Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.
When the wine ran short,
the mother of Jesus said to him,
"They have no wine."
And Jesus said to her,
"Woman, how does your concern affect me?
My hour has not yet come."
His mother said to the servants,
"Do whatever he tells you."
Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings,
each holding twenty to thirty gallons.
Jesus told them,
"Fill the jars with water."
So they filled them to the brim.
Then he told them,
"Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter."
So they took it.
And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine,
without knowing where it came from
(although they who had drawn the water knew),
the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him,
"Everyone serves good wine first,
and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one;
but you have kept the good wine until now."
Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs at Cana in Galilee
and so revealed his glory,
and his disciples began to believe in him.
Add comment
Comments