The Feast of the Apparition of Our Blessed Lady at Lourdes

FEB. 11. The Feast of the Apparition of Our Blessed Lady at Lourdes: From February 11 to July 16, 1858, Our Blessed Lady came down eighteen times from heaven and appeared to St. Bernadette Soubirous, in the cave of the rock at Massabielle. On March 25th, Our Blessed Mother said to St. Bernadette of 14 years of age: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Like the woman seen by St. John “clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars over her head,” the Virgin of Lourdes “is clothed in a robe and veil as white as snow, she wears a blue girdle and on her bare feet rests a golden rose,” all symbolic of her virginal love. Pope Pius X in 1908 ordered that this feast be kept in the Universal Church on this day. The miracles at Lourdes have continued to the astonishment of the world down to the present time. On December 8th in the year of Our Lord 1933 Bernadette was canonized by Pope Pius XI.

Remembering that the Blessed Virgin Mary is “the ark of the new convenant”  (Epistle), let us go with confidence to her who “full of grace” (Offeratory) visits our earth to multiply in us the gifts of her riches” (Communion).