5 min ·
Preghiera a Nostra Signora di Lourdes
festa l'11 febbraio
Maria, tu sei apparsa a Bernardetta nella fenditura di questa roccia.
Nel freddo e nel buio dell’inverno,
hai fatto sentire il calore di una presenza,
la luce e la bellezza.
Nelle ferite e nell’oscurità delle nostre vite,
nelle divisioni del mondo dove il male è potente,
porta speranza
e ridona fiducia!
Tu che sei l’Immacolata Concezione,
vieni in aiuto a noi peccatori.
Donaci l’umiltà della conversione,
il coraggio della penitenza.
Insegnaci a pregare per tutti gli uomini.
Guidaci alle sorgenti della vera Vita.
Fa’ di noi dei pellegrini in cammino dentro la tua Chiesa.
Sazia in noi la fame dell’Eucaristia,
il pane del cammino, il pane della Vita.
In te, o Maria, lo Spirito Santo ha fatto grandi cose:
nella sua potenza, ti ha portato presso il Padre,
nella gloria del tuo Figlio, vivente in eterno.
Guarda con amore di madre
le miserie del nostro corpo e del nostro cuore.
Splendi come stella luminosa per tutti
nel momento della morte.
Con Bernardetta, noi ti preghiamo, o Maria,
con la semplicità dei bambini.
Metti nel nostro animo lo spirito delle Beatitudini.
Allora potremo, fin da quaggiù, conoscere la gioia del Regno
e cantare con te:
Magnificat!
Gloria a te, o Vergine Maria,
beata serva del Signore,
Madre di Dio,
Tempio dello Spirito Santo!
Amen 🙏 🌹 🌹 🌹 📿 📿 📿
Samo Faustina Padre PIO, Saint PIO, pray for us, amen
Saint Teresa of Avila
3 min ·
Today marks the first apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1858 to fourteen-year-old Marie Bernade (Bernadette) Soubirous. Between February 11 and July 16, 1858, the Blessed Virgin appeared eighteen times, and showed herself to St. Bernadette in the hollow of the rock at Lourdes. On March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation, she said to the little shepherdess: "I am the Immaculate Conception," perhaps in a sense giving her stamp of approval on this dogma that had been declared by Blessed Pope Pius IX just a mere 4 years earlier on December 8, 1854.
The Immaculate Conception had a youthful appearance and was clothed in a pure white gown and mantle, with an azure blue girdle. A golden rose adorned each of her bare feet. On her first apparition, without a word, the Blessed Virgin bade the girl to make the sign of the Cross piously and say the rosary with her. Bernadette saw her take the rosary that was hanging from her arms into her hands. This was repeated in subsequent apparitions. Our Lady prayed all of the prayers of the Rosary except for the “Hail Mary;” and, of course, she didn’t say that prayer because Mary cannot pray to herself.
After the 3rd visit, Mary invited Bernadette to come to the grotto daily for two weeks and during this time she frequently spoke to Bernadette. On one occasion, she ordered her to tell the ecclesiastical authorities to build a church on the spot and to organize processions. Bernadette also was told to drink and wash at the spring still hidden under the sand, which upon fervent digging with her bare hands as onlookers mocked her, Bernadette uncovered and it is now the source of miraculous cures.
The report of cures occurring at the grotto spread quickly and the more it spread, the greater the number of Christians who visited the hallowed place. The publicity given these miraculous events on the one hand and the seeming sincerity and innocence of the girl on the other made it necessary for the bishop of Tarbes (the diocese in which Lourdes is located) to institute a judicial inquiry. Four years later he declared the apparitions to be supernatural and permitted the public veneration of the Immaculate Conception in the grotto. The liturgical feast of Our Lady of Lourdes was established for February 11, approved by Pope Leo XIII, and first granted to the Diocese of Tarbes in the year 1890. Less than twenty years later, on November 13, 1907, his successor, Pope St. Pius X proclaimed that it be observed throughout the universal Church.
Soon after the final vision on July 16, 1858, a chapel was erected on the site. In 1876, the basilica at Lourdes was consecrated and the faithful, countless in number, flock in pious pilgrimage to the holy grotto. It is there that their faith and devotion are aroused and they recommit themselves to conform their lives to the Christian message. There, as well, miraculous favors are granted and healings, both physical and spiritual, have taken place. Great emphasis is placed on devotion to the Eucharist and just as at the wedding feast of Cana, Mary points to her Son.
Pope Benedict XVI, on Lourdes’ 150th anniversary in 2008, said: “. . . the message which Our Lady still offers at Lourdes recalls the words Jesus said at the beginning of his public mission and that we hear so often in these first days of Lent: ‘Convert and believe in the Gospel, pray and do penance. Let us respond to the call of Mary who echoes that of Christ and let us ask Her to help us ‘enter’ Lent with faith and live this season of grace with deep joy and generous commitment”
The Blessed Mother whispers in the midst of our prayers offered to her care: “Do whatever He tells you." Her words help us touch the depth of God’s compassion, the compassion she nursed and she worships. Pilgrims crowd her shrine at Lourdes confident of her maternal care as she stands at the side of her glorified Son. We gather at her Son’s altar to enter into the mystery of transformation and sacrifice, her gentle beckoning served amid the color and joy of the wedding feast. With her we gather to celebrate Christ’s loving pledge of future glory--the eternal wedding feast. We gather remembering water changed into wine, and beneath her trusting gaze with her we enter into and celebrate the mystery of wine that has become salvation.
The visionary Bernadette entered the Sisters of Notre Dame at Nevers in 1866 and was given the name of Sister Mary Bernarda. She worked there as sacristan and avoided publicity as best she could. She referred to herself as "a broom which Our Lady used, but now I have been put back in my corner." She died on April 16, 1879 at the young age of thirty-five, was beatified in 1925 by Pope Pius XI and canonized by him on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, 1933. She appears in the church records as St. Mary Bernarda but in the hearts of the faithful she is affectionately remembered as St. Bernadette.
February 11 was proclaimed World Day of the Sick by Pope John Paul II, as Our Lady of Lourdes is the patron of bodily ills. It would be appropriate, therefore, to celebrate a Mass of the Sick or to have a blessing of the sick in churches today. The Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick is only to be given to "anyone of the faithful begins to be in danger of death from sickness or old age", Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1514. This Sacrament must not be given indiscriminately to all who take part in Masses for the sick, and it must be administered by a priest, whereas the blessing can be given by a priest, deacon, or even a layperson, if necessary.
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