February 11—Our Lady of Lourdes

What would you do if someone told you to dig in the ground and drink water?  Would you do it?  Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year old girl, did precisely that at a grotto a mile from Lourdes, France.  A spring did come from the ground and many have been healed by its waters.  But it is not the waters that are important.  "One must have faith and pray; the water will have no virtue without faith,” as St. Bernadette herself said.  What is more important is the person who told her to do the digging, Mary, the Immaculate Conception.

The Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette numerous times, starting on this date in 1858 and eventually called herself the Immaculate Conception.  Only four year earlier, Pope Pius IX dogmatically defined that Mary was conceived without original sin.  This dogma holds that Mary was never touched by original sin, which is the lot of the rest of humanity since the time of Adam and Eve.  God chose her to be the Mother of God and she accepted that calling when the Archangel Gabriel proclaimed to her, “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you,” (Lk. 1:28) or as we say in the Hail Mary: “Hail Mary, full of grace.  The Lord is with thee.  Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.”

St. Bernadette prayed the rosary with Mary when they were together.  We invoke Mary’s intercession when we complete each Hail Mary:  “Holy Mary, Mother of God.  Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”  We know that we need God’s grace in our daily lives and we pray for the grace of final perseverance so that we may eventually be with Jesus, and Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes, in heaven.