April 16—St. Bernadette of Lourdes, Virgin
St. Bernadette received the grace of a series of visions of
the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1858 in Lourdes, France. A spring also had sprung from the grotto
where she had experienced the visions.
The water from this spring cured many sick and lame people. But it was the proclamation that the
Immaculate Conception had appeared to St. Bernadette that was of utmost
importance. In 1854 Pope Pius IX had
defined the infallible dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, that she had
been conceived without original sin.
Although the Church had held this doctrine throughout her life, it had
never been definitively declared until Bl. Pius IX. This dogma assures for us that Mary indeed
was the perfect Mother of God and had been give a special grace to be so. She is the new Eve, the woman who brings us
to Christ, her son.
St. Bernadette humbly accepted the gift that she had been
given. She bravely proclaimed the truth
of her vision to both civil and Church authorities. Her story has been commemorated in the movie,
Song of Bernadette. Our lives may not be the stuff of movies, but
our humility and our steadfast adherence to the truths of faith and morals are
the stuff of sainthood. We are all
called to salvation, to redemption, and to eternal beatitude with God and all
the saints. As we live our lives in
hiddenness, in the daily ebb and flow of doing the right things with love and
dedication, we can live like St. Bernadette.
We do not necessarily receive visions, but we have the presence of God
in our lives at every moment. We can
receive the Eucharist, Jesus’ own body, blood, soul, and divinity. We are blessed with the glory of God.
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