Our Lady of Lourdes and 31st World Day of the Sick

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

The Catholic Church recalls Mama Mary (who later identified herself as the Immaculate Conception) and her 18 apparitions to the 14-year old French peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous, which began February 11 and ended by July 16, 1858.

Four years later, in 1862, these apparitions were declared worthy of belief by the local bishop.

Worth noting, four years earlier, on December 8, 1854, Pope Pius IX, in the bull Ineffablis Deus, proclaimed the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The story of Bernadette and Mama Mary’s 1858 apparitions came years ahead of the 1917 apparitions of Mama Mary (who identified herself as the Lady of the Rosary) to the three children in a tiny village of Fatima, Portugal.

The same message of “Penance! Penance! Penance! Pray to God for sinners, for the conversion of sinners” was echoed by Mama Mary both to Bernadette in France and to the three children in Fatima.

It is written that “Bernadette left Lourdes in 1866 to join a religious order in central France, where she died after several years of illness in 1879. By the time of her death, a basilica had been built and consecrated at the apparition site.”

This grotto where Mama Mary appeared to Bernadette has since become a popular pilgrimage destination.

”Thousands of people say their medical conditions have been cured through pilgrimage, prayer and the water flowing from a spring to which Bernadette was directed by the Blessed Virgin. Experts have verified 69 cases of miraculous healing at Lourdes since 1862”- refer to https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/our-lady-of-lourdes-144.

Until now, testimonies from those cured after visiting the Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto in France continue. Many visitors and pilgrims also collect/save what they believe is miraculous water from the same spring Mama Mary directed Bernadette to drink water from.

Blessed to visit this grotto in 1982, I never tire of sharing experiencing “heaven on earth” there.

Amidst prayers/masses/processions and music, palpably present were so much order/peace/unity/love/compassion/care for those with different types of disabilities!

This Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes beautifully coincides with the World Day of the Sick introduced by Pope John Paul II to remind all about the “important opportunity to reflect on caring for those who are sick as well as those who provide care to them.”

Below is Pope Francis’ message for this 31st World Day of the Sick:

“Take care of him: Compassion as a synodal exercise of healing.

“As the whole Church journeys along the synodal path, I invite all of us to reflect on the fact that it is especially through the experience of vulnerability/illness that we can learn to walk together according to the style of God, which is closeness, compassion, and tenderness.

“We are all fragile and vulnerable, and need that compassion which knows how to pause, approach, heal, and raise up.

“Indeed, we were created for a fulfilment that can only be found in love. We cannot be indifferent to suffering.

“Let us turn our thoughts to the Shrine of Lourdes, a prophetic lesson entrusted to the Church for our modern times.

“Sick people, in fact, are at the center of God’s people, and the Church advances together with them as a sign of a humanity in which everyone is precious and no one should be discarded or left behind.

“To the intercession of Mary, Health of the Sick, I entrust all of you who are ill; you who care for them in your families, or through your work, research and volunteer service; and those of you who are committed to weaving personal, ecclesial, and civic bonds of fraternity.

“To all, I impart my heartfelt blessing.”