Our Lady of Lourdes - Feb. 11th

 

Today, we celebrate the memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes. At the time of Bernadette, the Grotto was a dirty, hidden, damp and cold place. The Grotto was called the "pigs' shelter" because that was where the pigs feeding in the area usually took shelter. It was there the Virgin Mary, dressed in white appeared.

During one of the apparitions, Bernadette moved on her knees to the back of the Grotto. She kisses the dirty disgusting ground of the Grotto. She eats some bitter grass. She scrapes the ground three times trying to drink the muddy water, at the back of the Grotto, she tries sucking in a little and then throwing it away, she takes mud in her hands and she smears her face.

Then the young girl turns to the crowd with her hands apart. They all say: "She's mad!" During four Apparitions, she carried out the same actions. What is happening? Nobody understands! Yet, Our Lady asked this of Bernadette to reveal the young girls humility and obedience.

At the ninth Apparition, "the Lady" asked Bernadette to scrape the ground, at the back of this "pigs’ shelter", saying to her: "Go to the spring, drink of it and wash yourself there". There is only a little muddy water to begin with, enough for Bernadette to drink. At first this water is muddy and dirty then, little by little, it becomes clear.

During one of the apparitions, Bernadette was asked: 'Did the Lady say something to you?' She replied: 'Yes, now and again she would say: "Penance, penance, penance, pray for sinners". During the thirteenth Apparition Our Lady said to Bernadette: "Go, tell the priests to come here in procession and build a chapel here."

On the 25^th of March 1858, the day of the sixteenth Apparition, Bernadette went to the Grotto, and on the instigation of the Parish Priest, she asked the Lady her name. Three times Bernadette asked the question. On the fourth request, the Lady responds in the French dialect ("I am the Immaculate Conception"). Bernadette does not understand immediately the meaning of these words. The Immaculate Conception is, as the Church teaches, "Mary, conceived without sin, thanks to the merits of the Cross of Christ".

She then went to the Parish Priest and told him the Lady's name. He understands that it is the Mother of God who has appeared at the Grotto of Massabielle. And later the Bishop of Tarbes, confirmed this.

The Catholic Church has officially declared 70 miraculous cures at Lourdes, many of which occurred by the miraculous spring of water. One example is Jean-Pierre Bely, who was stricken with multiple sclerosis in 1972. In 1987, he came to Lourdes and bathed in the waters. The next day, after attending Mass, he experienced a high fever, causing him severe pain. Suddenly, he woke, able to move is arms and legs and sensed feeling. The following night, Bely awoke abruptly and could walk. Within 12 hours, he regained his physical abilities and showed no further symptoms of illness.

Recently in the news, Fr. John Hollowell, a priest from Indiana, with brain cancer went to Lourdes, bathed in the water and was miraculously healed.

In 2018, when the priest abuse scandal came out, he told Jesus he wanted to offer up any sufferings he would have for the victims of clerical abuse. He was a very popular you-tube priest, whose homilies were very well liked. He was diagnosed with brain cancer in Feb of 2020 and began to offer up his sufferings for the victims.

He had brain surgery, chemo and radiation, but the tumor started growing back. The MRI had also showed a tumor on his pituitary gland. But, when he got back from Lourdes he felt stronger and no longer needed to have prepared texts when preaching. He said when they did an MRI the tumors were gone, and nothing was there except scar tissue. He said, "I want to thank Jesus for the gift not just of my healing but also the gift of the tumor surgeries, radiation and chemo as well."

There are thousands of alleged miracles that have never been investigated. The most common occurrence at Lourdes, is those who come hoping for a miracle, though the return home without it, they have a conversion and are able to accept and embrace their suffering.

Today, may we turn to Our Lady of Lourdes and ask Her to help us to do as She asked, to pray the Rosary for the conversion of sinner, to do penance, and turn to Her as the Immaculate Conception, knowing through Her intercession She can ask Jesus to heal us, so that our body and soul make be like Mary’s-- pure and spotless-- when the day comes for us to enter eternal life.