THE APPARITION OF THE IMMACULATE VIRGIN MARY AT LOURDES - MASS PROPERS

St. Bernadeta Soubirous

A simple, 14-year old peasant girl of no significant educational experience, reported that in her vision a woman in white spoke to her, Que soy era Immaculada Concepciou / I am the Immaculate Conception, and asked that a church be built there. At first ridiculed, questioned, and belittled by Church officials and other contemporaries, Bernadette insisted on her vision. Eventually the Church believed her and she was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1933.  

Apparition

On 11 February 1858, Bernadette Soubirous went with her sisters Toinette and Jeanne Abadie to collect some firewood and bones in order to buy some bread. After taking off her shoes and stockings to wade through the water near the Grotto of Massabielle, she said she heard the sound of two gusts of wind (coups de vent) but the trees and bushes nearby did not move. A wild rose in a natural niche in the grotto, however, did move.

"I came back towards the grotto and started taking off my stockings. I had hardly taken off the first stocking when I heard a sound like a gust of wind. Then I turned my head towards the meadow. I saw the trees quite still: I went on taking off my stockings. I heard the same sound again. As I raised my head to look at the grotto, I saw a lady dressed in white, wearing a white dress, a blue girdle and a yellow rose on each foot, the same color as the chain of her rosary; the beads of the rosary were white....From the niche, or rather the dark alcove behind it, came a dazzling light."

Bernadette tried to make the sign of the Cross but she could not, because her hands were trembling. The white lady smiled, and invited Bernadette to pray the holy rosary with her. Bernadette tried to keep this a secret, but Toinette told her mother. After parental cross-examination, she and her sister received corporal punishment for their story.

Three days later, 14 February, Bernadette returned to the Grotto. She had brought holy water as a test that the apparition was not of evil provenance: "The second time was the following Sunday. ... Then I started to throw holy water in her direction, and at the same time I said that if she came from God she was to stay, but if not, she must go. She started to smile, and bowed ... This was the second time."

Bernadette's companions are said to have become afraid when they saw her in ecstasy. She remained ecstatic even as they returned to the village. On 18 February, she spoke of being told by the Lady to return to the Grotto over a period of two weeks. She quoted the apparition: " The Lady only spoke to me the third time. ... She told me also that she did not promise to make me happy in this world, but in the next."

After that the news spread and her parents took interest. Bernadette was ordered by her parents to never go there again. It was a shock when people heard her story as it was so unlikely. She went anyway, and on 24 February, Bernadette related that the apparition asked for prayer and penitence for the conversion of sinners.

The next day, she said the apparition asked her to dig in the ground and drink from the spring she found there. This made her dishevelled and some of her supporters were dismayed, but this act revealed the stream that soon became a focal point for pilgrimages.

Although it was muddy at first, the stream became increasingly clean. As word spread, this water was given to medical patients of all kinds, and many reports of miraculous cures followed. Seven of these cures were confirmed as lacking any medical explanations by Professor Verges in 1860. The first person with a “certified miracle” was a woman whose right hand had been deformed as a consequence of an accident. 

Bernadette, knowing the local area well, managed to visit the barricaded grotto under cover of darkness. There, on 25 March, she said she was told: "I am the Immaculate Conception" ("que soy era immaculada concepciou"). On Easter Sunday, 7 April, her examining doctor stated that Bernadette, in ecstasy, was observed to have held her hands over a lit candle without sustaining harm. On 16 July, Bernadette went for the last time to the Grotto. I have never seen her so beautiful before, she reported.

In 1862, Pope Pius IX authorized Bishop Bertrand-Sévère Laurence to permit the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes. 

Recent Popes visited the Marian shine. Benedict XV, Pius XI, and John XXIII went there as bishops, Pius XII as papal delegate. Working with Le pèlerinage de Lourdes he also issued, an encyclical on the hundredth anniversary of the apparitions in 1958.

Pope Pius XII, commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the Immaculate conception dogma, announced a Marian year, the first one on Church history. In his encyclical Fulgens Corona, he described the events in Lourdes as follows:

It seems that the Blessed Virgin Mary herself wished to confirm by some special sign the definition, which the Vicar of her Divine Son on earth had pronounced amidst the applause of the whole Church. For indeed four years had not yet elapsed when, in a French town at the foot of the Pyrenees, the Virgin Mother, youthful and benign in appearance, clothed in a shining white garment, covered with a white mantle and girded with a hanging blue cord, showed herself to a simple and innocent girl at the grotto of Massabielle. And to this same girl, earnestly inquiring the name of her with whose vision she was favored, with eyes raised to heaven and sweetly smiling, she replied: "I am the Immaculate Conception."

Le pèlerinage de Lourdes, the only encyclical written on Lourdes, was issued on the centenary of the apparitions at Lourdes. The encyclical represents one of the strongest pronouncements of the papal magisterium on Marian apparitions in the history of the Catholic Church. The Pope presents Mary as the model of alternative lifestyle. The school of Mary teaches selflessness and charity.

In the school of Mary one can learn to live, not only to give Christ to the world, but also to await with faith the hour of Jesus, and to remain with Mary at the foot of the cross. Wherever providence has placed a person, there is always more to be done for God's cause. Priests should with supernatural confidence, show the narrow road which leads to life. Consecrated and Religious fight under Mary's banner against inordinate lust for freedom, riches, and pleasures. In response to the Immaculate, they will fight with the weapons of prayer and penance and by triumphs of charity. Go to her, you who are crushed by material misery, defenseless against the hardships of life and the indifference of men. Go to her, you who are assailed by sorrows and moral trials. Go to her, beloved invalids and infirm, you who are sincerely welcomed and honoured at Lourdes as the suffering members of our Lord. Go to her and receive peace of heart, strength for your daily duties, joy for the sacrifice you offer.

Lourdes water

The location of the spring was described to Bernadette Soubirous by an apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes on 25 February 1858. Since that time many thousands of pilgrims to Lourdes have followed the instruction of Our Lady of Lourdes to "drink at the spring and wash in it".

Although never formally encouraged by the Church, Lourdes water has become a focus of devotion to the Virgin Mary at Lourdes. Since the apparitions, many people have claimed to have been cured by drinking or bathing in it and the Lourdes authorities provide it free of charge to any who ask for it.

On December 8, 1933, Pope Pius XI declared Bernadette Soubirous a Saint of the Catholic Church. Her feast-day was fixed for February 18, the day her Lady promised to make her happy, not in this life, but in the next.

THE APPARITION OF THE IMMACULATE VIRGIN MARY AT LOURDES

Greater – double     White vestments

INTROIT - Apocalypse 21: 2; Ps. 44: 2

Vidi civitatem sanctam, Jerusalem novam descendentem de cœlo a Deo, paratam sicut sponsam ornatam viro suo. Ps. Eructavit cor meum verbum bonum: dico ego opera mea Regi. Gloria Patri.

I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Ps. My heart hath uttered a good word: I speak my works to the King. Glory be to the Father.

COLLECT

O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin didst prepare a worthy habitation for Thy Son; we humbly beseech Thee, that we who celebrate the feast of the Apparition of the same holy Virgin, may obtain health both of soul and body. Through our Lord.

Collect of the Feria in Lent

O God, who by sin art offended, and by penance pacified, mercifully regard the prayers of thy suppliant people: and turn away the scourges of thy wrath, which we deserve for our sins. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

EPISTLE - Apocalypse 11: 19; 12: 1, 10

And the temple of God was opened in heaven; and the ark of His testament was seen in His temple, and there were lightnings and voices, and an earthquake and great hail. And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying: Now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ.

GRADUAL - Canticles 2: 12, 10, 14

The flowers have appeared in our land, the time of pruning is come, the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come; my dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hollow places of the wall.

TRACT - Judith 15: 10

Thou art the glory of Jerusalem, thou art the joy of Israel, thou art the honour of our people. Thou art all fair, O Mary, and the original stain is not in thee. Truly happy art thou, O holy Virgin Mary, and most worthy of all praise; for with thy virginal foot thou hast crushed the serpent’s head.

GOSPEL - Luke 1: 26-31

In those days, the Angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David: and the virgin's name was Mary. And the Angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. Who having heard, was troubled at his saying and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. And the Angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for thou has found grace with God. Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shalt bring forth a Son: and thou shalt call His name Jesus.

OFFERTORY - Luke 1: 28

Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou amongst women.

SECRET

May the sacrifice of praise, which we offer Thee, O Lord, by the merits of the glorious and Immaculate Virgin, rise up to heaven as a sweet savor: and may it obtain for us that physical and moral health which we desire. Through our Lord.

Secret of the Feria in Lent

Look down favourably, we beseech Thee, O Lord, on these Sacrifices, that they may profit us both unto our devotion and salvation. Through our Lord.

PREFACE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN

It is truly meet and just, right and for our salvation, that we should at all times and in all places, give thanks unto Thee, O holy Lord, Father almighty, everlasting God and that we should praise and bless, and proclaim Thee, on the feast of the Immaculate Blessed Mary: ever Virgin: Who also conceived Thine only-begotten Son by the over-shadowing of the Holy Ghost, and the glory of her virginity still abiding, gave forth to the world the everlasting light, Jesus Christ our Lord. Through whom the angels praise Thy Majesty, the Dominations worship it, and the Powers stand in awe. The Heavens and the Heavenly hosts together with the blessed Seraphim in triumphant chorus unite to celebrate it. Together with them we entreat Thee, that Thou mayest bid our voices also to be admitted, while we say with lowly praise:

COMMUNION - Psalm 64: 10

Thou hast visited the earth, and hast plentifully watered it; thou hast in many ways enriched it.

POSTCOMMUNION

O Lord, may the right hand of Thine Immaculate Mother uplift us whom Thou hast satisfied with this heavenly food: that by her help we may deserve to come to our eternal fatherland: Who livest and reignest.

Postcommunion of the Feria in Lent

Having received the blessing of this heavenly gift, we humbly entreat Thee, almighty God, that it may be to us an assurance both of sacramental grace and of salvation. Through our Lord.

PRAYER OVER THE PEOPLE

Spare, O Lord, spare Thy people: that whereas they are deservedly chastised, they may find relief in Thy tender mercy. Through our Lord.