Notre-Dame de Lourdes
La Vierge Marie est apparue 18 fois à Bernadette Soubirous, entre le 11 février et le 16 juillet 1858, à la grotte de Massabielle, près de Lourdes. Elle demande à Bernadette de devenir sa messagère et de travailler, à sa manière, à la conversion des pécheurs. Elle lui demande d'établir un lieu de prière et de pèlerinage. Elle lui confirme le dogme proclamé trois ans plus tôt par le Pape Pie IX : "Je suis l'Immaculée Conception". Bernadette sera une humble servante qui s'efface quand l'Eglise accepte le message de la Vierge Marie. Aujourd'hui plusieurs millions de visiteurs, de pèlerins et de malades viennent chaque année, du monde entier, prier Notre-Dame de Lourdes, afin d'obtenir la grâce de la conversion et le soulagement de leurs épreuves.
Notre-Dame de Lourdes
Martyrologe romain
Prière du Jubilé 2008
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/615/Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes.html
Bottom
panel of the left light of the fourth window in the south aisle, depicting Our
Lady of Lourdes and Saint Bernadette. Created by the stained glass artist William Earley (1872–1956) The two
angels present a scroll with the inscription Ad Jesum Per Mariam. The
dedication at the bottom reads: Pray for Donor T. J. Joyce, P.P. V.G /
Formerly Adm. Ballinasloe.
APPARITION
de NOTRE-DAME de LOURDES, 1858
Proclamée Immaculée dans Sa Conception, le 8 décembre 1954, Marie ne devait pas
tarder à montrer combien Elle agréait ce nouvel hommage de la sainte Église.
Quatre ans plus tard, en 1858, elle daigna Se montrer, à dix-huit reprises, à
une petite fille de Lourdes, bourgade des Pyrénées.
L'enfant, ignorante et candide, s'appelait Bernadette.
La Vierge paraissait dans une grotte sauvage. Son visage était gracieux et
vermeil; Elle était enveloppée dans les plis d'un long voile blanc; une
ceinture bleue flottait autour d'Elle; sur chacun de Ses pieds brillait une
rose épanouie. L'enfant regarda longtemps, étonnée et ravie; elle prit son
chapelet et le récita pieusement. L'apparition lui ordonna de revenir.
La dix-huitième fois, Bernadette supplia la vision de Se faire connaître.
Alors, l'Être mystérieux, joignant les mains devant Sa poitrine, et revêtant
une majesté toute divine, disparut en disant: "JE SUIS L'IMMACULÉE
CONCEPTION!" C'était la Sainte Vierge, patronne de l'Église et de la
France, qui venait appeler Son peuple à la prière et à la pénitence.
A partir de cette époque, la ville de Lourdes devenait immortelle. L'Apparition
triompha de toutes les impiétés et de toutes les persécutions. Des foules
immenses sont venues, selon le désir exprimé par l'Apparition, saluer la Vierge
Immaculée dans Sa grotte bénie et dans les splendides sanctuaires érigés à Sa
demande et en Son honneur, sur le flanc de la montagne.
De nombreux et éclatants miracles ont récompensé et récompensent toujours la
foi des pieux pèlerins; et chaque jour ce grand mouvement catholique va
croissant; c'est par centaines de mille, chaque année, que les dévôts de Marie
affluent, à Lourdes, de toutes les parties du monde.
La piété catholique a multiplié les Histoires et les Notices de Notre-Dame de
Lourdes; mille et mille cantiques de toutes langues ont été chantés au pied de
la Grotte bénie; partout, en France et dans toutes les parties du monde, se
sont multipliées les représentations de la Grotte de Lourdes et de sa
basilique, les images et les statues de la Vierge Immaculée. Les féeriques
processions aux flambeaux, les merveilleuses illuminations, les grandioses
manifestations qui s'y renouvellent souvent, ont fait de Lourdes comme un coin
du Paradis.
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame,
1950.
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/apparition_de_notre-dame_de_lourdes.html
Charles
Mercereau. Bernadette devant la grotte de Massabielle, le 11 février 1858.
Gravure
Notre-Dame de Lourdes
Extraits d'une homélie prononcée par le Pape Jean-Paul II, le 11 février 1988,
dans la Basilique Saint Pierre, pour célébrer la mémoire de la première
apparition de la Vierge de Lourdes
Aujourd'hui rappelons, chers Frères et Sœurs, une présence significative de
cette nouvelle Femme dans notre histoire. Nous célébrons la mémoire liturgique
de la première apparition de la Bienheureuse Vierge Marie à Bernadette
Soubirous dans la grotte de Massabielle.
Rappelons ensuite que - comme je le disais dans mon encyclique Redemptoris
Mater - “ Marie est présente dans la mission de l'Église, présente dans
l'action de l'Église qui fait entrer dans le monde le Règne de son Fils ” (n.
28). Cette présence se manifeste aussi, entre autre, “ par la force
d'attraction et de rayonnement des grands sanctuaires où non seulement les
individus ou les groupes locaux, mais parfois des nations et des continents
cherchent la rencontre avec la Mère du Seigneur ”.
Lourdes, comme tant d'autres lieux, est un signe particulier de cette action de
Marie dans le cours de notre histoire. En effet -comme le dit Vatican II
(Const. Dogm. Lumen Gentium, 62) - “ après son Assomption au ciel, son rôle
dans le salut ne s'interrompt pas ; par son intercession répétée elle continue
à nous obtenir les dons qui assurent notre salut éternel. Son amour maternel la
rend attentive aux frères de son Fils dont le pèlerinage n'est pas achevé, ou
qui se trouvent engagés dans les périls et les épreuves, jusqu'à ce qu'ils
parviennent à la patrie bienheureuse ”.
A Lourdes Marie accomplit une mission de soulagement de la souffrance et de
réconciliation des âmes avec Dieu et avec le prochain.
Les grâces que cette Mère de Miséricorde obtient aux foules immenses d'une
humanité endolorie et égarée, ont toutes le but de les conduire au Christ et de
leur obtenir le don de son Esprit.
A Lourdes, Marie, par l'intermédiaire de Sainte Bernadette, s'est révélée, de
façon éminente, comme “ porte-parole de la volonté du Fils ” (cf. Enc.
Redemptoris Mater, n. 21).
Tout ce que la Madone dit à la Voyante, tout ce qu'elle l'exhorta à faire, tout
ce qui ensuite est né, est arrivé et arrive, reflète, en un certain sens, la “
volonté ” de la Madone : mais au nom de qui a-t-Elle obtenu tout ceci, à la
grâce de qui, si ce n'est de son Fils divin ? Donc, Lourdes, nous pouvons le
dire, appartient au Christ encore plus qu'à sa Très Sainte Mère. A Lourdes,
nous apprenons à connaître le Christ à travers Marie. Les miracles de Lourdes
sont les miracles du Christ, obtenus par l'intercession de Marie.
Pour cela, Lourdes est un lieu privilégié d'expérience chrétienne. A Lourdes,
on apprend à souffrir comme le Christ a souffert. On accepte la souffrance
comme Il l'a acceptée.
A Lourdes la souffrance s'allège parce qu'on la vit avec le Christ. Pourvu
qu'on la vive avec le Christ. Soutenus par Marie.
A Lourdes, on apprend que la foi soulage la souffrance, mais pas tellement dans
le sens de la diminuer physiquement. C'est le devoir de la médecine, ou cela
peut arriver exceptionnellement de façon miraculeuse.
A Lourdes, on apprend que la foi soulage la souffrance en ce qu'elle la rend
acceptable comme moyen d'expiation et comme expression d'amour. A Lourdes, on
apprend à s'offrir non seulement à la justice divine, mais aussi - comme le
disait Sainte Thérèse de Lisieux - à l'Amour miséricordieux de Celui qui, comme
je l'ai dit dans ma lettre apostolique Salvifici Doloris (n. 18), a
souffert “ volontairement et innocemment ”.
_Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel_736.jpg)
Kirche
Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel in Margon (Eure-et-Loir) im Département
Eure-et-Loir (Centre-Val de Loire/Frankreich), Bleiglasfenster, Darstellung:
Lourdes-Madonna
Litanies
Seigneur, ayez pitié de nous Seigneur, ayez pitié de nous
O Christ, ayez pitié de nous O Christ, ayez pitié de nous
Seigneur, ayez pitié de nous Seigneur, ayez pitié de nous
Père du Ciel qui êtes Dieu, ayez pitié de nous
Fils, Rédempteur du monde qui êtes Dieu, ayez pitié de nous
Saint-Esprit qui êtes Dieu, ayez pitié de nous
Sainte Trinité qui êtes un seul Dieu, ayez pitié de nous
Sainte Mère de Dieu, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, Vierge très-sainte, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, Vierge très-digne, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, Vierge très-pure, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, Vierge très-illustre, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, Vierge très-glorieuse, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, Vierge très-précieuse, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, Vierge très-juste, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, Mère de la miséricorde, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, Mère de la prudence, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, Mère de l'obéissance, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, Mère de la grâce, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, Mère de la pureté, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, Mère de la confiance, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, Mère de la patience, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, Reine des cieux, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, Reine des Anges, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, Reine des Patriarches, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, Reine des Apôtres, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, Reine des Martyrs, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, Reine de tous les saints, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, source de l'humilité, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, source de la piété, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, source de la charité, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, source de la grandeur, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, source de la bonté, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, source de la vérité, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, source de la consolation, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, source du salut, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, source de la réparation, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, source de la douceur, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, source de la béatitude, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, source de la beauté, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, source de la perfection, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, plus élevée que les cieux, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, placée au-dessus des puissances, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, plus estimable qu'une pierre précieuse, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, plus belle que la lune, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, plus précieuse qu'un trésor, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, plus brillante que les étoiles, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, qui êtes au-dessus de tout éloge, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, fleur de la véritable sagesse, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, fleur de la véritable science, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, fleur de la véritable indulgence, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, fleur de la véritable excellence, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, fleur de la véritable justice, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, fleur de la véritable milice, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, fleur de la véritable joie, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, pierre la plus précieuse du ciel, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, qui êtes sans tache, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, porte du paradis, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, route du bon conseil, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, avocate des pécheurs, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, élevée au-dessus de toutes les créatures, priez pour nous
Sainte Marie, pendant toute l'éternité, priez pour nous
Priez pour nous, sainte Mère de Dieu.
Afin que nous soyons dignes des promesses du Christ.
Seigneur, protégez vos serviteurs, en leur accordant les bienfaits de la paix,
et faites que, pleins de confiance en la protection de la bienheureuse vierge Marie,
ils soient à l'abri des attaques de tous leurs ennemis. Par Jésus-Christ, notre
Seigneur. - Amen.
Apparition
de la Sainte Vierge Marie à Sainte Bernadette, Lourdes, vitrail, Eglise
Notre-Dame, Bonneval
Méditations
Il semble que le seul maintien d'une personne, son attitude, nous la révèlent
tout entière, comme si son extérieur semblait sculpter son âme. Certes, la
Vierge de Lourdes, en se montrant à sainte Bernadette, vient nous apporter un
message qui redit l'essentiel de l'Évangile : prière et pénitence. Presque
toutes les apparitions de la Sainte Vierge reprennent cet enseignement qui,
pour en être capital, est trop souvent bien vite oublié. Mais, avant de
l’entendre, il suffit de la regarder pour recevoir sa leçon : la révélation de
son état d'âme à l'image duquel ses enfants doivent se conformer afin de porter
la ressemblance maternelle. Contemplons cette image de l'Immaculée, tant
reproduite dans nos églises, regardons dans le recueillement son visage, ses
mains, ses pieds. Avant que de parler, elle apparaît et sa seule apparition
comporte une leçon morale.
Notre-Dame de Lourdes regarde le ciel. Dans ce visage, les yeux, qui sont le
sens le plus parlant, sont levés vers Dieu et semblent porter tout son être
vers Dieu seul d'un même élan total.
Ainsi, vient-elle nous révéler son nom d'Immaculée, en nous rappelant aux lois
fondamentales de la prière et de la pénitence. Sa seule attitude nous livre son
âme et nous invite à y faire la nôtre semblable par le seul mystérieux attrait
de sa beauté morale. Beau reflet de son privilège d'Immaculée, que ce don
entier d'elle-même à Dieu. Ce privilège, que notre pauvre langage humain
exprime d'une façon négative : « immaculée, sans tache, sans péché », est une
réalité positive, profonde et splendide. Il s’agit d’une plénitude de grâce de
la part de Dieu à laquelle correspond l'offrande totale de Marie au Seigneur.
Cette attitude d'âme est celle à laquelle nous devons tendre. Enfants de Dieu,
parce que nous tenons du Seigneur et la vie naturelle et la vie surnaturelle,
le premier mouvement en tout et toujours doit être de s'orienter vers Dieu. Dès
nos premières leçons de catéchisme, nous avons appris que Dieu nous a créés
pour le connaître, l'aimer, le servir et lui plaire, aussi, quelle que soit
notre vocation, notre état, nos occupations, tout ce qui fait notre vie cherche
Dieu et aboutit à lui.
A peine avons-nous commencé notre chapelet, qu’en récitant le Pater, reçu de la
bouche de Jésus, nous affirmons ne pas vouloir autre chose que sanctifier le
Nom divin, que faire advenir son règne et que faire sa volonté. Le saint apôtre
Paul, entrant plus avant dans le détail de nos vies, jusqu’aux actions les plus
simples et les plus naturelles, dira : « Soit que vous mangiez, soit que vous
buviez et quoi que vous fassiez, faites tout pour la gloire de Dieu » (I
Corinthiens X 31).
Les saints, singulièrement les fondateurs d'Ordres, ont tracé à leurs disciples
un chemin de perfection. Si, à première vue, ces chemins peuvent paraître
différents, en réalité, tous, avec des expressions semblables, portent au même
but : saint Ignace de Loyola veut que ses Jésuites travaillent « pour la plus
grande de Dieu », comme saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort veut que ses
religieux n’aient en tête que « Dieu seul », comme sainte Anne-Marie Javouhey
ordonne ses religieuses à « la sainte volonté de Dieu. » Voilà, en définitive,
ce que nous dit, la figure extatique de la Vierge de Massabielle au regard fixé
vers Dieu.
Habituellement, lorsqu’elle apparaissait à sainte Bernadette, l'Immaculée avait
les mains jointes sur sa poitrine, même s’il lui arriva d'ouvrir les bras.
Lorsqu’elle égrainait son chapelet avec Bernadette, tout le temps que la
voyante le récitait, ses mains devenaient jointes aux doigts entrelacés. Mains
jointes paume contre paume, ou mains jointes aux doigts entrelacés, c'est
toujours l’attitude de la prière. Par là, elle nous souligne que la prière est
le moyen de rester fixés à Dieu et de nous unir à lui.
Par la prière, mouvement de l'esprit et du cœur, avant d'être mouvement des
lèvres, se fait notre union à Dieu. Par la foi, l'adoration, la demande, la
prière donne à tout le reste de notre activité valeur d'hommage à Dieu.
Reconnaissons que la faiblesse de nos conceptions et de nos interprétations
humaines nous font souvent négliger la prière ; sous prétexte que le saint
apôtre Jacques nous enseigne que la foi sans les œuvres est une foi morte, bien
des chrétiens n'accordent pas leur vie extérieure à leurs pratiques de piété ;
sous prétexte qu'il existe des dévots égoïstes, paresseux, orgueilleux, avares,
médisants et peu charitables, les beaux esprits entendent minimiser le rôle
cultuel de la religion et la veulent concentrer dans les activités extérieures
; c'est tout juste s’ils ne placent pas ce que le monde appelait autrefois
l’honnête homme, sans aucune religion et vaguement altruiste, au-dessus du
catholique pratiquant et observant. Assurément, Jésus lui-même demandait des «
adorateurs en esprit et en vérité »; il dit à des pharisiens, hypocrites : « Ce
peuple m'honore des lèvres, mais son cœur est loin de moi » ; il déclara : « Ce
ne sont pas ceux qui disent : Seigneur, Seigneur, qui entreront dans le royaume
des cieux, mais ceux qui font la volonté de mon Père qui m'a envoyé. » Mais
n'oublions pas non plus qu'il a recommandé : « Il faut toujours prier ». Et
pour toujours prier, pour que nos activités les plus charitables, pour que nos
œuvres de zèle restent toujours prière et ne dévient pas en satisfactions
personnelles, en quête de vaine gloire ou de popularité, voire même en simple
altruisme naturel, il est nécessaire de faire souvent retour à Dieu par la prière
bien comprise : élévation de notre âme vers Dieu pour reconnaître que tout
vient de lui et doit aller à lui, qu'il est tout et que nous ne sommes rien.
Telle est la leçon que nous donne l'Immaculée aux mains jointes et jusque dans
le concret, en tenant le chapelet qui est la prière des humbles.
Sur chacun des pieds nus de Notre-Dame de Lourdes, on voit une rose jaune qui
brillait comme de l'or. Ses pieds disparaissaient, pour ainsi dire, sous le pan
de la robe et les deux roses lui faisaient comme une chaussure. Comment ne pas
se rappeler ici l'enthousiasme du prophète : « Qu'ils sont beaux les pieds de
ceux qui annoncent la paix ! » Il exalte les pieds des missionnaires parce
qu'ils sont le signe de leur activité et de leur zèle. Ces deux roses, sur les
pieds de l'Immaculée, sont, comme toujours, symbole d'amour, de l'amour de Dieu
et du prochain, du double amour qui se résoud en un seul, la charité, vertu
théologale. Mais symbole de son amour agissant puisqu'elles fleurissent sur ses
pieds. Amour qui s'active, qui se dépense, qui s'épuise pour Dieu et pour les
âmes. Ainsi son union à Dieu indiquée par son regard, formée par la prière,
s'achève dans l'amour véritable, non celui des mots mais celui des actes.
Parfait modèle de la pleine justice, de la totale religion, de la dédicace sans
réserve à Dieu et, à cause de Dieu, aux autres.
Le montre-t-elle assez, Notre-Dame de Lourdes, qu'elle est venue secourir ceux
qui souffrent, par les innombrables miracles qui se répètent depuis un siècle !
Le montre-t-elle assez, Notre-Dame de Lourdes, qu'elle est venue purifier les
âmes aux piscines de la pénitence non moins miraculeuses que celles de la
Grotte ! Mais, déjà, sa seule attitude le révèle à tous ceux qui la regardent.
Si deux roses d'or ornent ses pieds, c'est qu'elle unit la contemplation de
Marie à l'activité de Marthe. Et, à son exemple, l'âme chrétienne qui tend à la
perfection ne doit pas s'isoler dans une sorte de recherche de Dieu qui ne
serait plus qu'une recherche de soi-même, de sa tranquillité ou de sa paix.
Si on aime Dieu, peut-on supporter de le voir méconnu et ignoré par tant et
tant d'âmes ? Si, pour Dieu, on aime le prochain, peut-on ne pas s’efforcer de
lui procurer ce qui peut l’aider à trouver les biens célestes ? Qu’elle est
petite, cette pauvre charité des biens matériels nécessaires qui ne vise pas à
communiquer le bien suprême de la sanctification ! Certes, qui peut le plus
doit le moins, mais le moins n’a jamais remplacé le plus. Faisons du bien quand
nous le pouvons, secourons les pauvres, adonnons-nous aux œuvres de
miséricorde, mais que nos actions n’aient pour but et pour mobile que la plus
grande gloire de Dieu, en dehors de quoi il n'y a qu'agitation humaine,
activité naturelle de solidarité et don passager de soi.
Ne méritons pas ce reproche du prophète qui disait : « Ils ont des yeux et ne
verront pas » ; agenouillons devant la statue de Notre-Dame de Lourdes pour
recevoir la leçon de sa religieuse et charitable attitude. Son image est une
prédication vivante : elle nous enseigne la primauté de Dieu, vers qui nous
avons à tourner notre visage et à fixer nos yeux ; elle nous enseigne la prière
par laquelle on se relie à Dieu ; elle nous enseigne la charité effective,
entreprenante, active qui en a fini avec le prétexte égoïste.
Daigne, l'Immaculée, prendre notre cœur avec le sien pour lui communiquer
l’amour de Jésus Dieu, afin que nous soyons fondus avec elle dans le cœur de
Jésus, pour aimer avec lui. Amen.
Abbé Chr.Ph Chanut
SOURCE : http://missel.free.fr/Sanctoral/02/11.php
AUX PREMIÈRES VÊPRES.
avant 1960
Ant. 1 Elle est un resplendissement * de la lumière éternelle, et son miroir
sans tache.
Ant. 2 C’est la femme * revêtue du soleil, ayant la lune sous ses pieds, et sur
sa tête une couronne de douze étoiles.
Ant. 3 Vous êtes la gloire de Jérusalem, * vous êtes la joie d’Israël, vous
êtes l’honneur de notre peuple.
Ant. 4 Vous êtes bénie, * Vierge Marie, par le Seigneur Dieu ! très-haut, plus
que toutes les femmes sur la terre.
Ant. 5 Aujourd’hui *le Seigneur a donné à votre nom tant de grandeur, que votre
louange ne cessera plus de se trouver sur les lèvres des hommes,
Capitule. Cant. 2, 13-14. Lève-toi, mon amie, ma toute belle, et viens ; ma
colombe cachée dans les trous de la pierre, dans le creux du mur d’enclos,
montre-moi ta face, que ta voix retentisse à mes oreilles.
Hymnus
Ave, maris stella,
Dei Mater alma,
Atque semper Virgo,
Felix cæli porta.
Sumens illud Ave
Gabriélis ore,
Funda nos in pace,
Mutans Hevæ nomen.
Solve vincla reis,
Profer lumen cæcis,
Mala nostra pelle,
Bona cuncta posce.
Monstra te esse matrem,
Sumat per te preces,
Qui pro nobis natus
Tulit esse tuus.
Virgo singuláris,
Inter omnes mitis,
Nos, culpis solútos,
Mites fac et castos.
Vitam præsta puram,
Iter para tutum,
Ut, vidéntes Iesum,
Semper collætémur.
Hymne
Salut, astre des mers,
Mère de Dieu féconde,
Salut, ô toujours Vierge,
Porte heureuse du ciel !
Vous qui de Gabriel
Avez reçu l’Ave,
Fondez-nous dans la paix,
Changeant le nom d’Eva.
Délivrez les captifs,
Éclairez les aveugles,
Chassez loin tous nos maux,
Demandez tous les biens.
Montrez en vous la Mère,
Vous-même offrez nos vœux
Au Dieu qui, né pour nous,
Voulut naître de vous.
O Vierge incomparable,
Vierge douce entre toutes !
Affranchis du péché,
Rendez-nous doux et chastes
Donnez vie innocente,
Et sûr pèlerinage,
Pour qu’un jour soit Jésus
Notre liesse à tous.
Louange à Dieu le Père,
Gloire au Christ souverain ;
Louange au Saint-Esprit ;
Aux trois un seul hommage.
Amen.
V/. Rendez-moi digne de vous louer, Vierge sainte.
R/. Donnez-moi de la force contre vos ennemis.
Ant.au Magnificat Celle-ci * est ma colombe, ma parfaite, mon immaculée.
Notre-Dame de Lourdes, Saint-Briac,
Saint-Briac-sur-mer, Ille-et-Vilaine
A MATINES. avant 1960
Invitatoire. Célébrons l’Immaculée Conception de la Vierge, * Adorons son Fils,
le Christ, le Seigneur.
Hymnus
Te dícimus præcónio,
Intácta Mater Núminis,
Nostris benígna láudibus
Tuam repénde grátiam.
Sontes Adámi pósteri,
Infécta proles gígnimur ;
Labis patérnæ néscia
Tu sola, Virgo, créderis.
Caput dracónis ínvidi
Tu cónteris vestígio,
Et sola glóriam refers
Intaminátæ oríginis.
O gentis humánæ decus,
Quæ tollis Hevæ oppróbrium,
Tu nos tuére súpplices,
Tu nos labántes érige.
Serpéntis antíqui potens
Astus retúnde et ímpetus,
Ut Cǽlitum perénnibus
Per te fruámur gáudiis.
Hymne
Nous vous célébrons dans nos chants,
Immaculée Mère de Dieu ;
répondez avec bonté à nos louanges,
en nous donnant votre grâce.
Postérité coupable d’Adam,
nous sommes engendrés enfants de corruption ;
vous seule, ô Vierge, n’avez point connu la tache
de notre premier père : la foi nous l’enseigne.
Votre pied écrase
la tête du dragon jaloux,
et seule vous avez la gloire
d’une origine sans souillure.
Honneur du genre humain,
vous qui effacez l’opprobre d’Ève,
protégez-nous, nous vous en supplions
et relevez-nous dans nos chutes.
Vierge puissante, confondez les ruses
et les attaques de l’antique serpent,
afin que, grâce à vous, nous partagions
les joies éternelles des habitants des cieux.
Gloire soit à vous, ô Jésus,
qui êtes né de la Vierge,
ainsi qu’au Père et à l’Esprit vivificateur,
dans les siècles éternels. Amen.
Au premier nocturne.
Ant. 1 Je vous salue, pleine de grâce, * le Seigneur est avec vous.
Ant. 2 Vous êtes bénie entre les femmes, * et le fruit de votre sein est béni.
Ant. 3 Ne craignez point, Marie, * vous avez trouvé grâce devant le Seigneur.
V/. Le Dieu tout-puissant m’a revêtue de vertu.
R/. Et il a fait ma voie sans tache.
Des Paraboles de Salomon. Cap. 8, 12-25 ; 34-36 ; 9, 1-5.
Première leçon. Moi, sagesse, j’habite dans le conseil, et je suis présente aux
savantes pensées. La crainte du Seigneur hait le mal : l’arrogance et
l’orgueil, une voie dépravée, et une langue double, je les déteste. A moi est
le conseil et l’équité : à moi est la prudence, à moi est la force. Par moi les
rois règnent et les législateurs décrètent des choses justes. Par moi les
princes commandent, et les puissants rendent la justice. Moi, j’aime ceux qui
m’aiment et ceux qui dès le matin veillent pour me chercher me trouveront.
R/. La sagesse qui atteint avec force d’une extrémité à une autre extrémité, et
dispose toutes choses avec douceur, s’est bâti une maison : * Voici le
tabernacle de Dieu parmi les hommes. V/. Je vis la sainte cité, la nouvelle
Jérusalem, descendant du ciel, parée comme une épouse et ornée pour son époux.
* Voici.
Deuxième leçon. Avec moi sont les richesses et la gloire [1] des biens superbes
et la justice. Car mieux vaut mon fruit que l’or et les pierres précieuses, et
mieux valent mes produits que l’argent le meilleur. Je marche dans les voies de
la justice, au milieu des sentiers du jugement, afin d’enrichir ceux qui
m’aiment, et de remplir leurs trésors. Le Seigneur m’a possédée au commencement
de ses voies ; avant qu’il fît quelque chose dès le principe. Dès l’éternité,
j’ai été établie ; dès les temps anciens, avant que la terre fût faite. Les
abîmes n’étaient pas encore, et moi déjà j’avais été conçue : les sources
d’eaux n’avaient pas encore jailli : les montagnes à la pesante masse n’étaient
pas encore affermies, et mol, avant les collines, j’étais engendrée [2].
R/. Comme l’arc resplendissant au milieu des nuées, comme la fleur des rosiers
aux jours du printemps, comme les lis près d’un courant d’eau. * Ainsi brille
la Vierge immaculée. V/. Je placerai mon arc dans les nues, et il sera un signe
de mon alliance avec vous. * Ainsi.
Troisième leçon. Bienheureux l’homme qui m’écoute, et qui veille tous les jours
à l’entrée de ma demeure, et se tient en observation auprès de ma porte [3].
Celui qui me trouvera, trouvera la vie et puisera le salut dans le Seigneur :
mais celui qui péchera contre moi blessera son âme. Tous ceux qui me haïssent
aiment la mort. La sagesse s’est bâti une maison, elle a taillé sept colonnes
[4]. Elle a immolé ses victimes, mêlé le vin, et .dressé sa table. Elle a
envoyé ses servantes pour appeler ses conviés à la forteresse et aux murs de la
cité. Si quelqu’un est tout petit, qu’il vienne à moi. Et à des insensés elle a
dit : Venez, mangez mon pain et buvez le vin que je vous ai mêlé [5].
R/. Lève-toi, mon amie viens, ma toute belle, et ma colombe : * Montre-moi ta
face, que ta voix retentisse à mes oreilles. V/. La voix de la tourterelle a
été entendue dans notre terre. * Montre-moi. Gloire au Père. * Montre-moi.
Au deuxième nocturne.
Ant. 1 Il a fait en moi de grandes choses, * celui qui est puissant ; et son
nom est saint.
Ant. 2 Il a sanctifié * son tabernacle, le Très-Haut : Dieu est au milieu
d’elle, elle ne sera pas ébranlée.
Ant. 3 Le Seigneur t’a possédée * au commencement de ses voies et il t’a aimée
d’un amour éternel.
V/. Dieu l’aidera de son regard.
R/. Dieu est au milieu d’elle, elle ne sera pas ébranlée.
Quatrième leçon. La quatrième année depuis la définition dogmatique de
l’Immaculée Conception de la bienheureuse Vierge, aux bords de la rivière du
Gave, près de la ville de Lourdes, du diocèse de Tarbes, en France, la Vierge
elle-même s’est fait voir plusieurs fois dans le creux d’un rocher, au-dessus de
la grotte de Massabielle, à une jeune fille, appelée Bernadette dans l’idiome
populaire, très pauvre, il est vrai, mais candide et pieuse. L’aspect de
l’Immaculée Vierge respirait la jeunesse et la bonté ; elle était vêtue d’une
robe et d’un voile blancs comme la neige, et portait une ceinture bleue ; ses
pieds nus étaient parés d’une rosé d’or. Le jour de la première apparition, qui
fut le onze février de l’an mil huit cent cinquante-huit, elle apprit à la
jeune fille à faire dignement et pieusement le signe de la croix, et, prenant
en main un chapelet qui auparavant pendait à son bras, elle l’encouragea par
son exemple à la récitation du saint rosaire : ce qu’elle fit aussi pendant les
autres apparitions. Le jour de la seconde apparition, la jeune fille, redoutant
une ruse du démon, jeta, dans la simplicité de son cœur, de l’eau bénite vers
la Vierge : mais la bienheureuse Vierge, souriant avec grâce, lui montra un
visage encore plus bienveillant. Lorsqu’elle apparut pour la troisième fois,
elle invita la jeune fille à venir à la grotte pendant quinze jours. Depuis
lors, elle lui parla souvent et l’exhorta à prier pour les pécheurs, à baiser
la terre et à faire pénitence ; puis elle lui ordonna de dire aux Prêtres qu’on
devait bâtir dans ce lieu une chapelle et y venir en processions solennelles.
De plus, elle lui donna l’ordre de boire et de se laver à l’eau d’une fontaine
qui était encore cachée sous le sable, mais qui bientôt allait jaillir. Enfin,
le jour de la fête de l’Annonciation, la jeune fille demanda avec instance le
nom de celle qui tant de fois avait daigné lui apparaître, et la Vierge ayant
rapproché les mains sur sa poitrine, et levé les yeux vers le ciel, lui
répondit : « Je suis l’Immaculée Conception, »
R/. Quelle est celle-ci qui s’avance comme l’aurore se levant. * Belle comme la
lune, pure comme le soleil ? V/. Celle-ci est ma colombe, ma parfaite, mon
immaculée. * Belle.
Cinquième leçon. Le bruit de bienfaits qui, disait-on, avaient été reçus par
les fidèles dans la sainte grotte, allait en grandissant, et l’on voyait aussi
augmenter de jour en jour le concours des hommes attirés à la grotte par
vénération pour ce lieu. C’est pourquoi, déterminé par la célébrité des
prodiges et la candeur de la jeune fille, l’Évêque de Tarbes, quatre ans après
les événements précités et à la suite d’un examen juridique des faits, reconnut
dans son jugement que les caractères de l’apparition étaient surnaturels, et
autorisa le culte de la Vierge Immaculée dans cette même grotte. Bientôt la
chapelle fut bâtie : à partir de ce jour, des roules presque innombrables de
fidèles, venant accomplir des vœux et présenter des prières, y accourent chaque
année, de France, de Belgique, d’Italie, d’Espagne, des autres contrées de
l’Europe : et même des lointaines régions de l’Amérique, et le nom de
l’Immaculée de Lourdes de-lent célèbre par tout l’univers. L’eau de la
fontaine, portée dans toutes les parties du monde, rend la santé aux malades.
L’univers catholique, reconnaissant pour tant de bienfaits, a élevé près de la
grotte des monuments sacrés d’un travail merveilleux. Des étendards sans
nombre, qui témoignent des bienfaits reçus, et ont été envoyés par les cités et
les nations, forment au temple de la Vierge une parure et une décoration
admirables. Ce lieu qui semble la demeure de la Vierge Immaculée, la voit
honorée sans interruption : le jour, par des prières, des chants religieux et
d’autres cérémonies solennelles ; la nuit, par ces processions sacrées dans
lesquelles des foules presque infinies de pèlerins s’avancent à la lumière des
cierges et des flambeaux, et chantent les louanges de la bienheureuse Vierge.
R/. Il arrivera dans les derniers jours que la montagne préparée pour la Vierge
Marie sera établie sur le sommet des montagnes, et elle sera élevée au-dessus
des cieux, et beaucoup de peuples iront et diront : * Venez, et montons à la
montagne. V/. Ceux qui habitent en toi font la joie de tous ceux qui se livrent
à l’allégresse. * Venez.
Sixième leçon. Ces pèlerinages ont ravivé la foi dans un siècle plein de
froideur ; ils ont donné plus de courage pour professer la loi chrétienne, et
fait grandir d’une façon merveilleuse le culte de la Vierge Immaculée ; tout le
monde le sait. Dans cette admirable manifestation de foi, le peuple chrétien a
pour chefs les Prêtres qui conduisent leurs peuples à la Grotte. Les Évêques
eux mêmes visitent souvent le saint lieu, président aux pèlerinages et
assistent aux fêtes les plus solennelles. Il n’est pas rare de voir même des
princes de l’Église romaine, revêtus de la pourpre, s’y rendre comme d’humbles
pèlerins. A leur tour, les Pontifes romains, dans leur dévotion pour
l’Immaculée de Lourdes, ont comblé le saint temple des faveurs les plus
précieuses. Pie IX l’a honoré de saintes indulgences, du privilège d’une
Archiconfrérie et du titre de Basilique mineure. Il a aussi voulu faire
couronner solennellement, par son nonce apostolique en France, la statue de la
Mère de Dieu qu’on y vénère. Léon XIII lui a également conféré d’innombrables
bienfaits. Il a concédé des indulgences sous forme de jubilé lors du
vingt-cinquième anniversaire de l’apparition, provoqué le développement des
pèlerinages par ses actes et sa parole, et fait faire en son nom là dédicace
solennelle d’une église sous le titre du Rosaire. Il a mis le comble à tant de
faveurs, en accordant avec bonté, sur la demande d’un grand nombre d’Évêques,
de célébrer une fête solennelle, sous le titre de l’Apparition de la
bienheureuse Vierge Marie Immaculée, par un Office et une Messe propres. Enfin
le souverain Pontife Pie X, mû par sa piété envers la Mère de Dieu, et accédant
au vœu de beaucoup de saints prélats, a étendu la même fête à l’Église
universelle.
R/. Vous l’avez prévenue Seigneur, des bénédictions les plus douces ; vous avez
mis sur sa tête. * Une couronne de pierres précieuses. V/. Grande est sa gloire
par votre salut, vous la couvrirez de gloire et de beauté. * Une. Gloire au
Père. * Une.
Au troisième nocturne.
Ant. 1 La main du Seigneur * vous a fortifiée, et c’est pour cela que vous
serez bénie éternellement.
Ant. 2 Ne craignez point, * car cette loi n’a pas été établie pour vous, mais
pour tous fies autres.
Ant. 3 Le Seigneur vous a bénie * en sa puissance, puisque par vous il a réduit
à néant nos ennemis.
V/. La grâce est répandue sur vos lèvres.
R/. C’est pourquoi Dieu vous a bénie pour l’éternité.
Lecture du saint Évangile selon saint Luc. Cap. 1, 26-31.
En ce temps-là : L’Ange Gabriel fut envoyé de Dieu, en la ville de Galilée,
appelée Nazareth, à une vierge qu’un homme de la maison de David, nommé Joseph,
avait épousée, et le nom de la vierge était Marie. Et le reste.
Homélie de saint Bernard, Abbé.
Septième leçon. Réjouis-toi, ô Adam, notre père, mais toi surtout, ô Ève, notre
mère, tressaille d’allégresse. Comme vous avez été les premiers parents de tous
les hommes, vous êtes aussi la cause de leur mort ; et ce qui est plus
malheureux vous avez été meurtriers avant de donner la vie. Consolez-vous à
cause de votre fille et d’une telle fille ; consolez-vous, dis-je à tous deux,
mais principalement à celle qui fut la première cause du mal dont l’opprobre
s’est transmis à toutes les femmes. En effet, le temps vient où cet opprobre
sera effacé, où l’homme n’aura plus sujet d’accuser la femme ; cherchant
inconsidérément à s’excuser lui-même, il n’avait pas hésité à l’accuser
cruellement, disant : « La femme que vous m’avez donnée, m’a présenté du fruit
de l’arbre, et j’en ai mangé. » O Ève, cours donc à Marie ; ô mère, cours à ta
fille ; que la fille réponde pour la mère, qu’elle délivre sa mère de l’opprobre
; qu’elle donne satisfaction à son père pour sa mère ; car si l’homme est tombé
par une femme, il n’est relevé maintenant que par une femme._ R/. Vous donc,
invoquez le Seigneur, parlez au Roi pour nous. * Et délivrez-nous de la mort.
V/. ous tous qui avez soif, venez vers les eaux, et vous puiserez le salut dans
le Seigneur. * Et.
Huitième leçon. Que disais-tu, ô Adam ? « La femme que vous m’avez donnée, m’a
présenté du fruit de l’arbre, et j’en ai mangé. » Ce sont là des paroles
artificieuses par lesquelles tu augmentes plutôt ta faute que tu ne la
diminues. Cependant la Sagesse a vaincu ta malice ; Dieu, en t’interrogeant,
cherchait à trouver en toi une occasion de pardon et tu n’as pas su la lui
fournir, mais il l’a trouvée dans le trésor de son inépuisable bonté. Pour la
première femme, une autre femme est donnée à la terre : une femme prudente pour
une femme insensée, une femme humble pour une femme orgueilleuse ; au lieu d’un
fruit de mort, elle te fera goûter un fruit de vie ; à la place d’un aliment
amer et empoisonné, elle t’apporte la douceur d’un fruit éternel. Change donc,
ô Adam, une excuse injuste en paroles d’actions de grâces et dis : Seigneur, la
femme que vous m’avez donnée, m’a présenté du fruit de l’arbre de vie, j’en ai
mangé, et il a été à ma bouche plus doux que le miel, parce que c’est par lui
que vous m’avez rendu la vie. Et voilà pourquoi l’Ange a été envoyé à la
Vierge. O Vierge admirable et Incomparablement digne de tout honneur ! O femme
singulièrement vénérable, admirable au-dessus de toutes les femmes, réparatrice
de tes parents et source de vie pour toute leur postérité !
R/. Le Seigneur Dieu planta un jardin de délices, et l’arbre de vie, au milieu
du paradis : * De ce lieu de délices sortait un fleuve. V/. Ce qui sort de vous
est le paradis, Vierge Marie. * De. Gloire au Père. * De.
Neuvième leçon. Quelle autre femme te semble-t-il que Dieu ait annoncée, quand
il dit au serpent : « je mettrai des inimitiés entre toi et la femme ? » Et si
tu doutes encore qu’il ait parlé de Marie, écoute ce qui suit : « Elle te
brisera la tête. » A qui est réservée cette victoire, si ce n’est à Marie ?
C’est elle, sans aucun doute, qui a brisé la tête venimeuse du serpent ; elle
qui a réduit à néant toute suggestion de l’esprit malin, soit qu’il tente par
les séductions de la chair ou par l’orgueil de l’esprit. Quelle autre femme
Salomon cherchait-il quand il disait : « Qui trouvera la femme forte ? » Cet
homme sage connaissait, l’infirmité de ce sexe, la fragilité de son corps, la mobilité
de son esprit. Mais comme il avait lu la promesse divine, et qu’il lui
paraissait convenable que celui qui avait vaincu par une femme fût, à son tour,
vaincu par une femme, dans l’ardeur de son admiration, il s’écriait : « Qui
trouvera la femme forte ? » Ce qui revient à dire : Si de la main d’une femme
dépend ainsi, et notre salut commun, et la restitution de l’innocence, et la
victoire sur l’ennemi, il est absolument nécessaire de trouver une femme forte
qui puisse être capable d’une telle œuvre.
A LAUDES
Ant. 1 Elle est un resplendissement * de la lumière éternelle, et son miroir
sans tache.
Ant. 2 C’est la femme * revêtue du soleil, ayant la lune sous ses pieds, et sur
sa tête une couronne de douze étoiles.
Ant. 3 Vous êtes la gloire de Jérusalem, * vous êtes la joie d’Israël, vous
êtes l’honneur de notre peuple.
Ant. 4 Vous êtes bénie, * Vierge Marie, par le Seigneur Dieu ! très-haut, plus
que toutes les femmes sur la terre.
Ant. 5 Aujourd’hui *le Seigneur a donné à votre nom tant de grandeur, que votre
louange ne cessera plus de se trouver sur les lèvres des hommes,
Capitule. Cant. 2, 13-14.Lève-toi, mon amie, ma toute belle, et viens ; ma
colombe cachée dans les trous de la pierre, dans le creux du mur d’enclos,
montre-moi ta face, que ta voix retentisse à mes oreilles.
St. Michael's Church, Ballinasloe, County Galway, Ireland, Fourth two-light window in the south aisle, depicting Our Lady of Lourdes and Saint Grellan by the stained glass artist William Earley (1872–1956) . Note that the left light is similar to a stained glass window at St. Mary's and St. Michael's Church in New Ross, see here
Hymnus
Auróra soli prævia,
Felix salútis núntia,
In noctis umbra plebs tua
Te, Virgo, supplex ínvocat.
Torrens nefástis flúctibus
Cunctos trahens vorágine,
Leni resídit æquore
Cum transit Arca fœderis.
Dum torret aréscens humus,
Tu rore sola spárgeris ;
Tellúre circum rórida,
Intácta sola pérmanes.
Fatále virus évomens
Attolit anguis vérticem ;
At tu dracónis túrgidum
Invicta cónteris caput.
Mater benígna, réspice
Fletus precésque súpplicum,
Et dimicántes, tártari
Victrix, tuére ab hóstibus.
Hymne
Aurore qui précédez le soleil,
heureuse messagère du salut,
ô Vierge, c’est vous que votre peuple invoque
et supplie, dans l’ombre de la nuit.
Le torrent aux flots néfastes
qui entraîne tous les hommes vers l’abîme,
arrête doucement ses eaux
quand passe l’Arche d’alliance.
Tandis que la terre est desséchée et brûlante,
vous seule recevez la rosée ;
tout autour de vous la rosée couvre la terre,
et vous seule restez sans être atteinte.
Le serpent lève la tête,
vomissant son fatal poison ;
mais vous , invincible,
vous écrasez la tête orgueilleuse du dragon.
O bonne Mère, voyez les pleurs
et les prières de ceux qui vous supplient ;
vous qui triomphez de l’enfer, protégez-nous
dans le combat que nous soutenons contre nos ennemis.
Gloire soit à vous, ô Jésus,
qui êtes né de la Vierge ;
ainsi qu’au Père et à l’Esprit vivificateur,
dans les siècles éternels. Amen.
V/. La grâce est répandue sur vos lèvres
R/. C’est pourquoi Dieu vous a bénie pour l’éternité.
Ant. au Bénédictus Brillante aurore du salut, * c’est de vous, Vierge Marie,
qu’est sorti le soleil de justice, qui nous a visités, venant d’en haut.
.JPG)
Vitrail
de la basilique de l'Immaculée-Conception - Deuxième apparition
de la Vierge à Bernadette
AUX DEUXIÈMES VÊPRES.
Hymnus
Omnis expértem máculæ Maríam
Edocet summus fídei magíster ;
Vírginis gaudens célebrat fidélis
Terra triúmphum.
Ipsa se præbens húmili puéllæ
Virgo spectándam, récreat pavéntem,
Seque concéptam sine labe, sancto
Prædicat ore.
O specus felix, decoráte divæ
Matris aspéctu ! veneránda rupes,
Unde vitáles scatuére pleno
Gúrgite lymphæ !
Huc catervátim pia turba nostris,
Huc ab extérnis peregrína terris
Affluit supplex, et opem poténtis
Vírginis orat.
Excipit Mater lácrimas precántum,
Donat optátam míseris salútem ;
Compos hinc voti pátrias ad oras
Turba revértit.
Súpplicum, Virgo, miseráta casus,
Semper o nostros réfove labóres,
Impetrans mæstis bona sempitérnæ
Gáudia vitæ.
Hymne
Le maître suprême de la foi enseigne
que Marie est exempte de toute souillure ;
la terre croyante célèbre avec joie
le triomphe de la Vierge.
La Vierge elle-même se fait voir à une humble enfant,
dont elle calme la frayeur,
et, de sa bouche sainte, se proclame
conçue sans tache.
O heureuse grotte, honorée
de l’apparition de la divine Mère !
rocher vénérable, duquel ont jailli à pleins flots
des eaux vivifiantes.
Ici se rendent par troupes la foule pieuse
de nos contrées et celle des pèlerins des terres étrangères,
suppliant la Vierge puissante
et implorant son secours.
La céleste Mère regarde tes larmes de ceux qui la prient ;
elle accorde aux malheureux la santé qu’ils désirent,
et la foule revient, ayant ses vœux exaucés,
au pays de ses pères.
O Vierge, soyez sensible aux malheurs de ceux qui vous supplient ;
soulagez toujours nos peines, et obtenez-nous,
après la tristesse présente, les douces joies
de l’éternelle vie.
Gloire soit au Père, et au Fils engendré de lui,
et à vous, vertu de l’un et de l’autre, Esprit
toujours égal à eux, ô Dieu unique,
dans toute la durée des temps. Amen.
Ant. au Magnificat Aujourd’hui la glorieuse Reine du ciel * est apparue sur la
terre ; aujourd’hui elle a apporté a son peuple des paroles de ^salut et des
gages de paix ; aujourd’hui les chœurs des Anges et des fidèles tressaillent de
joie en célébrant l’Immaculée Conception, alléluia.
[1] Marie fut pauvre en ce monde ; mais « le Seigneur a placé en ses mains
toutes les richesses de sa grâce pour qu’elle en enrichisse ceux qui l’aiment
». (Saint Liguori).
[2] « A cause de la sagesse, Dieu a créé le ciel et la terre ; c’est-à-dire,
qu’il a créé le ciel et la terre pour l’amour du Messie, son divin Fils, à qui
dans les choses divines on attribue la sagesse, et pour l’amour de l’Immaculée
Vierge qui est la sagesse du monde. » (Onkélos) « Jésus-Christ et sa Mère ont
donc précédé la création en tant que cause finale. » (Corn. a Lapide).
[3] « Bienheureux celui qui se tient aux portes de Marie, pour la prier, comme
les pauvres assiègent les portes des riches. Quiconque a recours à Marie trouve
non seulement le remède mais encore la vie. » (Saint Liguori). « Marie est
appelée porte du ciel, parce que nul ne peut entrer au ciel que par Marie. »
(Saint Bonaventure).
[4] « La sagesse qui était de Dieu et qui était Dieu même, s’est bâti une
demeure, a savoir sa mère, la Vierge Marie, dans laquelle il s’est taillé sept
colonnes ; c’est-à-dire, qu’il l’a rendue digne de lui par la foi et les
œuvres. Le nombre trois se rapporte à la foi, à .cause de la Trinité, et le nombre
quatre aux quatre vertus principales. » (Saint Bernard). Ces sept colonnes
s’entendent aussi des sept dons du Saint-Esprit.
[5] « La Sainte Vierge ne désire rien tant de ses serviteurs que de les voir
approcher de la Table Sainte. Venez, nous dit-elle ; mangez mon pain, le pain
céleste formé de ma chair et de mon sang, nul ne fortifie davantage le cœur de
l’homme, il est le Pain de vie. — Et que boirons-nous, ô Marie, nous n’avons
point de vin ? — Buvez, dit-elle, le vin que je vous ai moi- même préparé. Je
suis Vierge, mon Fils est Vierge, ce vin engendre les vierges et rend les âmes
pures. » ( Saint Liguori).
Katholische
Kirche St-Trophime in Eschau im Département Bas-Rhin in der
Region Grand Est (Frankreich), Bleiglasfenster von Ott Frères in Straßburg, von
1913; Darstellung: Unbefleckte Empfängnis
Dom Guéranger, l’Année Liturgique
Mon arc apparaîtra sur les nuées, et je me souviendrai de mon alliance [6].
Dans la nuit du onze février de l’année 1858 [7], les lectures liturgiques
avaient rappelé cette parole à la terre ; et bientôt le monde apprenait que ce
jour même Marie s’était montrée, plus belle que le signe d’espérance qui fut au
temps du déluge sa figure gracieuse.
C’était l’heure où se multipliaient pour l’Église les signes précurseurs d’un
avenir devenu le présent que nous connaissons. L’humanité vieillie semblait
menacée de sombrer bientôt dans un déluge pire que l’ancien.
Je suis l’immaculée conception, déclarait la Mère de la divine grâce à l’humble
enfant choisie pour porter en un tel moment son message aux guides de l’arche
du salut. Aux ténèbres montant de l’abîme elle opposait, pour phare, le
privilège auguste que le pilote suprême avait, trois ans auparavant, proclamé
comme dogme à sa gloire.
Si, en effet, d’après Jean le bien-aimé, c’est notre foi qui possède ici-bas
les promesses de victoire [8] ; si, d’autre part, la foi se nourrit de lumière
: quel dogme aussi bien que celui-ci,-supposant et rappelant tous les autres,
les illumine en même temps d’un éclat si doux ? Au front de la triomphatrice
redoutée de l’enfer, il est vraiment la royale couronne où, comme en l’arc
vainqueur des orages, se donnent rendez-vous les diverses splendeurs des cieux.
Mais pourtant fallait-il encore ouvrir les yeux des aveugles à ces splendeurs,
rendre courage aux cœurs angoissés par l’audace des négations d’enfer, relever
de leur impuissance à former l’acte de foi tant d’intelligences débilitées par
l’éducation des écoles de nos jours. Et convoquant les multitudes aux lieux de
son apparition bénie, l’Immaculée subvenait aussi forte-^ ment que suavement à
la faiblesse des âmes en guérissant les corps ; souriant à la publicité,
accueillant tout contrôle, elle confirmait de l’autorité du miracle en
permanence sa propre parole et la définition rendue par le Vicaire de son Fils.
Aussi bien que le Psalmiste chantait des œuvres de Dieu qu’elles racontent en
toutes langues la gloire de leur auteur [9] ; aussi bien que saint Paul taxait
de folie, non moins que d’impiété, quiconque ne se rendait pas à leur
témoignage [10] : on peut dire des hommes de notre temps qu’ils sont sans
excuse, s’ils ne reconnaissent pas à ses œuvres la Vierge très sainte.
Puisse-t-elle étendre ses bienfaits, prendre en pitié les pires malades : ces
âmes infirmes qui, dans la crainte inavouée d’importunes conclusions, refusent
de voir ; ou, luttant de front contre la vérité, contraignent au paradoxe leur
pensée, enténèbrent leur cœur, comme dit l’Apôtre [11], et donneraient à
redouter que le sens réprouvé dont les païens portaient le châtiment dans la
chair [12] ait frappé leur raison.
« O Marie conçue sans péché, priez pour nous qui avons recours à vous ! ».
C’était la prière que, dès l’année 183o, vous-même nous appreniez devant les
menaces de l’avenir. En 1846, les deux bergers de la Salette nous rappelaient
vos exhortations et vos larmes. « Priez pour les pauvres pécheurs, pour le
monde si agité », nous redit de votre part aujourd’hui la voyante des grottes
Massabielle : « pénitence ! pénitence ! pénitence ! »
Nous voulons, Vierge bénie, vous obéir, combattre en nous et partout
l’universel autant qu’unique ennemi : le péché, mal suprême d’où dérivent tous
les maux. Louange au Tout-Puissant qui daigna vous en épargner la souillure, et
réhabiliter tout d’abord en vous si pleinement notre race humiliée ! Louange à
vous qui, sans nulles dettes, avez soldé les nôtres dans le sang de votre Fils,
dans les larmes de sa Mère, réconciliant la terre et le ciel, écrasant la tête
de l’odieux serpent [13] !
Prière ; expiation : n’était-ce pas dès longtemps, dès les temps apostoliques,
en ces jours d’introduction plus ou moins immédiate chaque année au Carême,
l’instante recommandation de l’Église ? O notre Mère du Ciel, soyez bénie
d’être venue si opportunément joindre votre voix, à celle de notre Mère de la
terre. Le monde ne voulait plus, ne comprenait plus le remède infaillible, mais
indispensable, offert par la miséricorde et la justice de Dieu à sa misère ; il
semblait avoir bientôt oublié pour toujours l’oracle : Si vous ne faites
pénitence, vous périrez tous [14].
Votre pitié nous réveille de l’engourdissement fatal, ô Marie ! Sachant notre
faiblesse, vous accompagnez de mille suavités la coupe amère ; pour amener
l’homme à implorer de vous les bienfaits éternels, vous lui prodiguez ceux du
temps. Nous ne serons point de ces enfants qui reçoivent volontiers, les
caresses maternelles, et négligent les instructions, les corrections que ces
tendresses avaient pour but de leur faire accepter. Nous saurons désormais avec
vous et Jésus prier et souffrir ; durant la sainte Quarantaine, avec votre
aide, nous nous convertirons et ferons pénitence.
[6] Gen. ix, 14-15.
[7] Jeudi de Sexagésime.
[8] I Johan. V, 4.
[9] Psalm. XVII, 2-5.
[10] Rom. I, 18-22.
[11] Rom. I, 21.
[12] Ibid. 28.
[13] Gen. III, 15.
[14] Luc. XIII, 3, 5.
.JPG)
Vitrail
représentant l'apparition de la Vierge Marie à Bernadette Soubirous, église
Saint-Pierre-ès-Liens, Bourdeilles, Dordogne, France. Don de la famille Boissat
de Lagrave (branche aînée des Boissat de Mazerat)
Bhx Cardinal
Schuster, Liber Sacramentorum
Cette fête fut étendue à toute l’Église latine sous Pie X seulement, un
demi-siècle après l’apparition de la Vierge à la Bienheureuse Bernadette
Soubirous. Comme jadis un grand nombre de diocèses fêtaient l’apparition de
l’Archange Michel sur le mont Gargan, ainsi maintenant que la dévotion envers
le sanctuaire marial de Lourdes a atteint une renommée mondiale, il a semblé
convenable que toute l’Église occidentale fêtât pareillement les multiples
apparitions de la Vierge Immaculée à la candide et naïve pastourelle. Ces
révélations, authentiquées par des milliers de miracles, étaient certainement,
dans l’intention de la Providence, comme le sceau du Ciel à la promulgation du
dogme de l’Immaculée Conception de Marie, faite par Pie IX quelques années plus
tôt. Elles font donc partie en quelque sorte de l’histoire de nos dogmes
catholiques, et sous cet aspect la fête liturgique de ce jour a une haute
signification apologétique, en tant qu’elle démontre que l’Esprit Saint, selon
la promesse divine, deducet... in omnem veritatem.
L’antienne pour l’introït est tirée de l’Apocalypse (XXI, 2) : « J’ai vu la
sainte cité, la nouvelle Jérusalem, qui descendait du ciel où est Dieu, et elle
était toute ornée comme une épouse parée pour son époux. » Suit le premier
verset du psaume 44. La beauté extérieure de la Vierge, alors que, vêtue de
blanc, avec la ceinture bleue à la taille et les rosés sur les pieds, elle
apparut à la pieuse Bernadette, indique les sublimes vertus par lesquelles elle
attira à elle le Verbe de Dieu, de telle sorte qu’il se la choisit pour Mère.
La première partie de la collecte est prise de la messe de l’Immaculée
Conception. Comme Dieu a voulu l’Immaculée Conception de Marie en vue de
l’Incarnation de son Christ, qui s’épanouit comme une fleur sur une tige
plantée dans une terre vierge et sans souillure, qu’ainsi il garde également de
tout mal notre corps et notre âme, afin que nous aussi puissions être à notre
tour le temple digne et sans tache du Saint-Esprit et le tabernacle de la
divinité.
La lecture est tirée de l’Apocalypse (XI, 19 ; XII, 1, 10) là où saint Jean
décrit le temple céleste et l’arche du Testament, figures sous lesquelles
l’Esprit Saint désigne précisément Marie. Elle est en effet cette femme dont il
est parlé dans les versets suivants, à laquelle le soleil sert de manteau, la
lune d’escabeau sous ses pieds, les étoiles de diadème, et qui apparut à
l’Apôtre toute remplie de majesté et de gloire, préludant ainsi au triomphe
définitif du Christ.
Le répons-graduel est tiré du Cantique (II, 12-14) : « Les fleurs s’épanouirent
dans notre champ ; c’est le temps de tailler, parce que l’on entend déjà
roucouler les tourterelles. Lève-toi, ô ma bien-aimée, ma belle, et viens, ma
colombe, entre les fentes des roches, entre les pierres des cavernes. » -—
Cette application à la grotte de l’apparition est vraiment heureuse.
Le verset alléluiatique est tiré du même texte (Cant. II, 14 : « Montre-moi ton
visage, que ta voix résonne à mes oreilles, car ta voix est suave et ton visage
splendide. » — En la Vierge Marie, tout était sainteté et grâce, parce que tout
procédait de cet Esprit Paraclet dont elle était le tabernacle.
Après la Septuagésime, au lieu du verset précédent, on devrait chanter le
psaume-trait. Toutefois le rédacteur moderne semble en avoir ignoré la
structure, car, au lieu d’un psaume, il nous a fait une petite rapsodie de
versets enchaînés tant bien que mal.
Marie est l’honneur et la gloire du genre humain, car en elle la postérité
d’Adam a remporté la victoire sur le dragon infernal dont le souffle empoisonné
n’arriva jamais à flétrir le cœur de la Vierge.
La lecture évangélique de ce jour est constituée par un simple passage de celle
du mercredi des Quatre-Temps d’Avent. La Vierge est saluée par l’Ange, qui lui
annonce la sublime dignité à laquelle Dieu l’élève, la choisissant pour Mère de
son Fils unique incarné. C’est Marie qui imposa à son divin Fils le nom de
Jésus, l’Esprit Saint voulant nous indiquer par ce fait que, si Jésus est le
Sauveur du genre humain, Marie toutefois est la dispensatrice de ces trésors de
rédemption.
Le verset de l’offertoire est le même que pour la fête de l’Immaculée
Conception, sauf l’Alléluia que l’on omet aujourd’hui.
Le rédacteur moderne des collectes de cette messe est trop préoccupé des guérisons
prodigieuses qui se font à la grotte de Lourdes, pour que, après avoir demandé
déjà la santé du corps et de l’âme dans la première collecte, il croie pouvoir
se dispenser de répéter la même supplication dans la prière sur l’oblation. Il
nous fait donc demander au Seigneur que, par les mérites de la Vierge
Immaculée, le Sacrifice que nous allons offrir à la Divine Majesté monte au
ciel comme un parfum délicieux, et nous obtienne la santé physique et morale
désirée.
Le verset pour la communion est tiré du psaume 64 : « Vous avez visité la terre
et l’avez désaltérée, vous l’avez rendue immensément riche. » Cette visite qui
fait déborder le cœur d’œuvres saintes est celle que nous fait Jésus dans la
sainte Communion.
C’est aux trésors de Jésus que Marie puise à son tour cette source abondante
de- grâces symbolisée à Lourdes par cette eau jaillissant de la roche vive de
la grotte, et qui, recueillie dans les piscines, donne la santé à tant de
malades.
A Lourdes, les pèlerins, après la messe et la communion, demandent à la Vierge
une dernière bénédiction, avant de prendre le chemin de retour. C’est le
concept dont s’inspire la collecte d’action de grâces de ce jour : « Que la
bienheureuse Vierge réconforte par sa droite puissante tous ceux que vous avez
rassasiés de l’aliment céleste, afin qu’ainsi tous puissent arriver
heureusement à l’éternelle patrie. »
Dom Pius Parsch, le Guide
dans l’année liturgique
La femme vêtue du soleil avec la lune à ses pieds.
Il faut que nous comprenions bien la fête d’aujourd’hui. La liturgie utilise
souvent un fait historique pour représenter et développer une idée plus haute.
C’est ainsi que nous devrons interpréter les fêtes de la Croix et d’autres
messes votives. Au reste, depuis des siècles, on célèbre aussi l’apparition de
saint Michel. Nous verrons donc, dans la fête d’aujourd’hui, une extension de
la fête de l’Immaculée-Conception.
1. L’Apparition de la Sainte Vierge. Les nombreux miracles qui se sont produits
par l’intercession de Marie, sur la terre privilégiée de Lourdes, en France,
ont déterminé l’Église à instituer une fête spéciale de « l’Apparition de la
Bienheureuse Vierge Marie Immaculée ». Le bréviaire raconte les événements
historiques, sur lesquels s’appuie cette fête. Quatre ans s’étaient écoulés
depuis la proclamation du dogme de l’Immaculée Conception de Marie (1854),
quand la Sainte Vierge apparut plusieurs fois, dans une grotte, aux bords du
Gave, auprès de Lourdes, à une pauvre et pieuse jeune fille nommée Bernadette.
L’Immaculée, qui avait un visage juvénile, était vêtue d’une robe blanche et
d’un manteau blanc, avec une ceinture bleue et elle avait une rose d’or sur ses
pieds. Le premier jour des apparitions, c’était le 11 février 1858, la sainte
Vierge exhorta l’enfant à faire pieusement la signe de Croix et à réciter son
chapelet. Elle-même prit dans ses mains le rosaire qui pendait à son bras, elle
fit de même aux apparitions suivantes. A la seconde apparition, Bernadette,
dans sa simplicité enfantine ; lui jeta de l’eau bénite, car elle craignait d’être
victime d’une illusion du Malin Esprit, mais la sainte Vierge, souriant
doucement, montra un visage encore plus bienveillant. A la troisième
apparition, Marie invita la jeune fille à venir pendant deux semaines à la
grotte. A partir de ce moment, elle parla assez souvent à Bernadette. Plus
tard, elle lui ordonna de demander au clergé de lui bâtir là une chapelle et
d’organiser des processions. Elle reçut de même l’ordre de boire de l’eau à la
source, qui était encore cachée sous le sable, mais ne devait pas tarder à
jaillir, et de s’y laver. Enfin, le Jour de la fête de l’Annonciation, la
Vierge indiqua à la jeune fille son nom : « Je suis l’Immaculée Conception. »
Plus se répandait le bruit des guérisons qui, au dire des croyants, se
produisaient dans la sainte grotte, plus les chrétiens se rendaient en foule au
lieu saint. Poussé par la renommée des événements merveilleux et par
l’innocence de la jeune fille, l’évêque de Tarbes fit faire une enquête
juridique et déclara ensuite, quatre ans après les apparitions, que celles-ci
étalent surnaturelles et il autorisa le culte public de la Vierge Immaculée,
dans la grotte. Bientôt on éleva, au-dessus de la grotte, une chapelle et,
depuis, les foules de pèlerins affluèrent à Lourdes tous les ans, soit pour accomplir
un vœu soit pour implorer une grâce.
2. La messe (Vidi civitatem). — La plupart des textes de la messe sont propres
et se rapportent à l’apparition miraculeuse de Lourdes. L’Immaculée est la cité
sainte qui descend comme une fiancée parée (Intr.) L’Oraison reprend, dans sa
première partie, les termes de celle du 8 décembre. « Un grand signe nous est
apparu dans le ciel, la femme vêtue du soleil, avec, sur la tête, une couronne
de douze étoiles » (Leç.). « Lève toi, ma bien aimée, ma toute belle, viens, ma
colombe, dans le creux de la pierre, dans la grotte » (Grad.). Ce verset
s’applique ici à la grotte de l’apparition. L’ »Ave » qui retentit sans cesse à
Lourdes se fait entendre à l’Évangile et dans le chant de l’Offertoire.
L’Eucharistie est la source jaillissante qui fertilise la terre de l’âme. La
source miraculeuse de Lourdes en est le symbole (Comm.). Dans la
post-communion, le pèlerinage de Lourdes est encore une image et un symbole ;
nous demandons la protection pour notre pèlerinage vers la céleste patrie.
SOURCE : http://www.introibo.fr/11-02-Apparition-de-la-Vierge
Peut-on douter de Lourdes ?
Vittorio
Messori - Publié le 10/02/21
Bernadette ne nous a pas trompés, c’est la conviction
du journaliste Vittorio Messori qui a consacré trente ans de travail à enquêter
sur les événements de Lourdes. Pour lui, le dossier historique des apparitions
est limpide, aucune objection ne résiste à l’analyse. Lourdes est une sorte de
poignée à saisir quand le doute sur la vérité du Credo nous guette.
Les apparitions de Lourdes sont simples et
authentiques, et l’établir avec certitude permet de confirmer encore que tout
dans la foi est vrai : Dieu existe, il s’est révélé en Jésus, et l’Église
continue le message de Jésus. Lourdes est un cas exemplaire. Un don de Dieu.
Une sorte de solide poignée qui nous est offerte et qu’on peut saisir dès que
le doute vient à nous menacer.
Les dates choisies des apparitions de Marie
Il y a comme un fil rouge entre les apparitions
mariales. La première des temps modernes, en 1830 à la Rue du Bac à Paris s’est produite l’année
du premier voyage de passagers dans un train, de Liverpool à Manchester :
comme un symbole de l’entrée dans la modernité, le début de l’ère dans laquelle
nous vivons. 1858, l’année des apparitions de Lourdes est aussi l’année
de parution de deux livres déterminants pour notre époque : l’Origine
des espèces de Darwin, une source pour tout l’athéisme moderne, et la
Vie de Jésus de Renan, qui a lancé la critique moderniste. En 1917, les apparitions de
Fatima sont contemporaines de la prise de pouvoir de Lénine en Russie.
En 1933, l’année de Banneux, est le mois de la prise de pouvoir
d’Hitler en Allemagne. En 1981, à Kibeho, au Rwanda, elle précède le terrible génocide dans
ce pays, une tragédie affreuse qui est annoncée par la Vierge aux jeunes
voyants.
La Vierge est une mère très attentive aux soucis et
aux besoins de ses enfants. Elle vient au secours quand il faut nous rappeler
l’espérance de l’Évangile. Dans le livre, Gli occhi di Maria (« Les
Yeux de Marie ») j’ai montré qu’il existe une sorte d’histoire parallèle que la
foi seule peut discerner à côté de l’histoire officielle mais qui n’est pas
celle qui compte vraiment pour le destin du monde. À chaque étape de cette
histoire, la Vierge paraît pour donner confiance ou pour mettre en garde ses
enfants.
Un envoi vers l’Église
La réponse à Bernadette qui lui demandait son
nom : « Je suis l’Immaculée conception », est un écho direct du dogme
de l’Immaculée Conception que l’Église venait de proclamer solennellement à
Rome quatre ans plus tôt. À Lourdes, la Vierge nous envoie directement vers
l’Église : « Allez dire aux prêtres de bâtir ici une chapelle et
qu’on y vienne en procession ! » En ce sens, Lourdes est entièrement
catholique, l’Apparition même exige que ce soit le clergé qui guide le peuple
de Dieu. Il est intéressant de noter que là où il y avait la Grotte de
Massabielle, le terrain appartenait à la paroisse Saint-Pierre, comme pour
souligner le lien avec le pape. N’oublions pas que les dix-huit apparitions ne
se réalisent pas en une succession de dates au hasard mais en suivant le
calendrier liturgique romain. C’est bouleversant de voir comme les textes de la
messe du jour sont en accord avec le message qui sera donné à la Grotte.
La plus documentée de toutes les apparitions
Sur Lourdes, il n’y a aucun doute : on sait tout.
Il y a même trop de documents et c’est cela qui est le plus épuisant pour
l’historien, mais tout est cohérent, simple, clair. Ce n’est pas le cas
partout : à Fatima, il y a eu beaucoup de questions et cela a pris du
temps. À La Salette aussi. Il a fallu travailler et l’évêque
du lieu a conclu favorablement, mais beaucoup étaient contre. C’est différent à
Lourdes, où il n’y a jamais eu de questions et de discussions.
Quand le cardinal Ratzinger a ouvert les archives du
Saint-Office, nous nous y sommes précipités, mon maître et ami l’abbé René
Laurentin et moi-même : lui depuis Paris, moi depuis Milan. Nous avons
demandé le dossier sur Lourdes mais surprise : il était vide ! Le
fichier existait, mais il n’y avait rien eu à contester, à discuter. Le
Saint-Office n’a jamais eu besoin d’intervenir sur Lourdes, alors que les
dossiers de Fatima, de La Salette, ou d’autres lieux sont énormes. Les papes
ont été très présents à Lourdes, non pas comme juges mais au contraire, comme
pèlerins (Jean Paul II deux fois, Benoît XVI en 2008) ou comme auteurs de
messages convaincus, souvent émus pour dire leur amour du sanctuaire.
Aucune objection ne tient
Dans Bernadette non ci ha ingannati (« Bernadette
ne nous a pas trompés », Mondadori, 2012), j’ai examiné toutes les
objections possibles, toutes celles qui ont été émises sur le plan historique,
et aucune ne tient. Neuf chapitres s’interrogent en historien, sur chacune des
objections imaginées par Zola, Renan, Charcot, les libres penseurs, jusqu’à nos
jours. Il n’y a pas de discussions sur la vérité des apparitions à l’intérieur
de l’Église mais il y a eu une guerre de la part d’intellectuels athées. On ne
pouvait pas (on ne peut pas, aujourd’hui même) concevoir une telle visite du
Ciel, au surplus à une petite analphabète.
On a d’abord émis l’idée que ce pouvait être les
parents de Bernadette qui l’auraient poussée à jouer la comédie. Mais pauvres,
ruinés, sous la surveillance de la police, avec une mère présumée alcoolique et
un père qui avait fait faillite, qui sortait de prison pour vol et risquait d’y
retourner, ils n’étaient absolument pas en état de faire les malins. Les
parents de Bernadette ont été terrorisés par les apparitions et ils la
suppliaient de ne pas aller à la Grotte. Les prêtres alors ? Auraient-ils
organisé cela pour créer un sanctuaire et gagner de l’argent ? Tous ces
soupçons ont été avancés mais ils ne tiennent pas. Au contraire : le
clergé a été longtemps à côté des autorités civiles pour en finir avec celle
qu’ils croyaient illusionnée.
L’Histoire n’est pas une science exacte, mais il y a
des événements où le dossier est tellement sûr et tellement convaincant qu’on a
du mal à hésiter.
Bernadette n’est non plus ni une comédienne, ni une
hystérique, ni une illuminée. Elle n’a pas été très bien traitée à Nevers, et
des sœurs là-bas n’ont pas cru aux dires de Bernadette. Même la maîtresse des
novices, Mère Vozous, qui est devenue mère générale de l’Ordre et qui s’est
opposée au procès de béatification de Bernadette (« attendez au moins ma
mort ! »). Mais tout cela s’explique et c’est courant dans l’histoire
de l’Église. Et finalement, la Mère Vozous (on l’oublie trop souvent) a voulu
terminer ses jours à l’Hospice tenu par la congrégation à Lourdes. Elle est morte
en invoquant la Vierge Immaculée parue à la Grotte ! On a même imaginé que
ces visions pouvaient venir de l’Adversaire, mais rien ne tient. Enfin,
Bernadette n’a jamais rien gagné à maintenir son témoignage. Sa famille aussi a
toujours refusé tout don. Elle a toute sa vie refusé tout revenu, tout
don : « Ça brûle » disait-elle !
Le texte de référence
Ainsi, il est bien plus raisonnable de croire à
l’authenticité de Lourdes que de ne pas y croire, même si c’est la liberté de
tout catholique de ne pas croire, car Lourdes n’est pas un dogme. Il est
cependant plus facile d’accepter le mystère plutôt que toutes les tentatives
ratées, d’expliquer autrement ce qui est confirmé par l’histoire. Lourdes est
un lieu unique, fascinant aussi pour le chercheur.
Si Lourdes est vrai, tout est vrai !
SOURCE : https://fr.aleteia.org/2021/02/10/peut-on-douter-de-lourdes/
.JPG)
Notre-Dame de Lourdes
Notre-Dame de Lourdes, in the Department of Hautes Pyrenées, France,
is far-famed for the pilgrimage of
which it is a centre and for the extraordinary events that have occurred and
still occur there.
History
The pilgrimage of Lourdes is
founded on the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin to
a poor, fourteen-year-old girl, Bernadette Soubiroux. The
first apparition occurred 11 February, 1858. There were eighteen in
all; the last took place 16 July, of the same year. Bernadette often
fell into an ecstasy.
The mysterious vision she saw in the hollow of the
rock Massabielle was that of a young and beautiful lady.
"Lovelier than I have ever seen" said the child. But the girl was the
only one who saw the vision, although sometimes many stood there with her.
Now and then the apparition spoke to the seer who also was the only
one who heard the voice. Thus, she one day told her to drink of
amysterious fountain, in the grotto itself, the existence of
which was unknown, and of which there was no sign, but which immediately gushed
forth. On another occasion
the apparition bade Bernadette go and tell the priests she
wished a chapel to
be built on the spot andprocessions to be made to the grotto. At first
the clergy were
incredulous. It was only four years later, in 1862, that the bishop of
thediocese declared
the faithful "justified in believing the
reality of the apparition". A basilica was built upon the
rock of Massabielle by M. Peyramale, the parish priest.
In 1873 the great "national" French pilgrimages were
inaugurated. Three years later the basilica wasconsecrated and
the statue solemnly crowned.
In 1883 the foundation stone of another church was
laid, as the first was no longer large enough. It was built at the foot of
the basilica and was consecrated in
1901 and called the Church of
the Rosary. Pope
Leo XIII authorized a special office and a Mass, in commemoration of
the apparition, and in 1907 Pius
X extended the observance of this feast to the
entire Church; it is now observed on 11 February.
Never has
a sanctuary attracted such throngs. At the end of the year 1908, when
the fiftieth anniversary of the apparition was celebrated, although
the record really only began from 1867, 5297 pilgrimages had
been registered and these had brought 4,919,000pilgrims. Individual pilgrims are
more numerous by far than those who come in groups. To their number must be
added the visitors who do not come as pilgrims,
but who are attracted by a religious feeling or sometimes merely by
the desire to see this far-famed spot. The Company of the Chemins de Fer du
Midi estimates that the Lourdes station receives over one million
travellers per annum. Every nation in the world furnishes its contingent.
Out of the total of pilgrimages given
above, four hundred and sixty-four came from countries other than France.
They are sent by the United
States, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Hungary, Spain, Portugal, Italy, England, Ireland, Canada,Brazil, Bolivia,
etc. The bishops lead
the way. At the end of the year of the fiftieth anniversary, 2013 prelates,
including 546 archbishops,
10 primates,
19 patriarchs,
69 cardinals,
had made the pilgrimage to Lourdes.
But more remarkable still than the crowd of pilgrims is
the series of wonderful occurrences which take place under the protection of
the celebrated sanctuary. Passing over spiritual cures, which
more often than not escape human observance, we shall confine ourselves
to bodily diseases. The writer of this article has recorded every recovery,
whether partial or complete, and in the first half-century of the
shrine's existence he has counted 3962. Notwithstanding very
careful statistics which give the names and surnames of the patients
who have recovered, the date of
the cure, the name of the disease, and generally that of the physician who had
charge of the case, there are inevitably doubtful or
mistaken cases, attributable, as a rule, to the excited fancy of the afflicted
one and which time soon dispels. But it is only right to
note: first, that these unavoidableerrors regard
only secondary cases which have not like the others been the object of special
study; it must also be noted that the number of cases is equalled and exceeded
by actual cures which are not put on record. The afflicted who have
recovered are not obligedto
present themselves and half of them do not present themselves, at the Bureau
des Constatations Médicales at Lourdes, and it is from this bureau's
official reports that the list of cures is drawn up.
The estimate that about
4000 cures have been obtained at Lourdes within the first fifty years
of the pilgrimage is
undoubtedly considerably less than the actual number. The Bureau des
Constatations stands near the shrine, and there are recorded and checked the
certificates of maladies and also the certificates of cure; it is free to all
physicians, whatever their nationality or religious belief.
Consequently, on an average, from two to three hundred physicians annual visit
this marvellous clinic. As to the nature of the diseases which are
cured, nervous disorders so frequently mentioned, do not furnish even the
fourteenth part of the whole; 278 have been counted, out of a total of 3962.
The present writer has published the number of cases of each disease or
infirmity, among them tuberculosis, tumours, sores, cancers, deafness,
blindness, etc. The "Annales des Sciences Physiques",
a sceptical review whose chief editor
is Doctor Ch. Richet, Professor at
the Medical Faculty of Paris,
said in the course of a long article, apropos of this faithful study:
"On reading it, unprejudiced minds cannot but be convinced that
the facts stated are authentic."
Their cause
There exists
no natural cause capable of producing the
cures witnessed at Lourdes which dispense
an unbiassed mind from tracing them back to the particular
agency of God.
Those who refused to believe in
a miraculous intervention
sought at first the scientific interpretation of the occurrences in
the chemical composition of the water of the Grotto. But it was then declared
by an eminent chemist officially appointed to make the analysis and
his statement has since been corroborated, that the water contains no curative
properties of anatural character. Then the incredulous said, perhaps it
operates through its temperature, or the results obtained
at Lourdes may be accounted for by the bathing in cold water.
However, every one knows that hydrotherapy is practised elsewhere
than at Lourdes, and that it does not work the miracle of
curing every kind of disease, from cancers to troubles which bring on
blindness. Besides, many ailing ones are cured without ever bathing in the
basins of the Grotto; this decides the question. Therefore, those who
deny supernaturalintervention
attribute the wonderful results seen at Lourdes to two
other causes. The first is suggestion. To this we answer unhesitatingly
that suggestion is radically powerless to furnish the hoped-for explanation.
Omitting nervous or functional diseases, since they are in the minority among
those registered as cured at the Medical Office of the Grotto,
and the fact we are now establishing does not require them to be taken into
account, we may confine our attention to organic diseases. Can suggestion be
used efficaciously in diseases of thisnature? The most learned and daring of
the suggestionists of the present day, Bernheim, a Jew,
head of the famous school of Nancy,
the more advanced rival of the Ecole de la Salpétrière, answers in the negative
in twenty passages of the book in which he has recorded the result of his
observations: "Hypnotisme, Suggestion, Psychotherapie" (Paris, 1903,
2nd edition). Studying this work, we find also that in the very cases
where suggestion has a chance of success, as in certain functional
diseases, it requires the co-operation of time, it cures slowly and
progressively, while the complete cures of Lourdes are instantaneous.
Therefore curative suggestion is no explanation. It is not suggestion that
operates at Lourdes; the cause which
cures acts differently and is infinitely more
powerful.
There remains the last resource of having recourse to some unknown law and of saying, for instance, "How do we know that some naturalforce of which we are still ignorant does not operate the marvellous cures which are attributed directly to God?" How do we know? In the first place, if a law of this nature did exist, the pilgrims of Lourdes would not be cognizant of it any more than the rest of mankind; neither would they know any better than others how to set it in motion. Why should this law operate for them and not for others? Is it because they deny its existence and the others believe in it? Moreover, not only there does not exist, but there cannot exist, and consequentlywill never exist, a natural law producing instantaneously the generation of tissues affected with lesion, that is to say, the cure of an organic disease. Why so? Because any growth and consequently any restoration of the tissues of the organism is accomplished — and this is a scientific fact — by the increase and growth of the protoplasms and cells which compose every living body. Every existing protoplasm comes from some former protoplasm, and that from a previous one and so on, back to the very beginning; these generation (the fact is self-evident) are necessarily successive, that is, they require the co-operation of time. Therefore, in order that a natural force should be able to operate a sudden cure in an organic disease, the essential basis of life as it is in the present creation would have to be overthrown; nature as we know it would have to be destroyed and another created on a different plan. Therefore, the hypothesis of unknown forces of nature cannot be brought forward to explain the instantaneous cures of Lourdes. It is logically untenable. As a matter of fact, no natural cause, known or unknown, is sufficient to account for the marvellous cures witnessed at the foot of the celebrated rock where the Virgin Immaculate deigned to appear. They can only be from the intervention of God.
Sources
LASSERRE, Notre-Dame de Lourdes; BOISSARIE, L'oeuvre de Lourdes;
BERTRIN, Histoire critique des événements de Lourdes, apparitions et
guérisons (Paris, 1909), tr. GIBBS; IDEM, Un miracle d'aujourd'hui
avec une radiographie (Paris, 1909).
Bertrin,
Georges. "Notre-Dame de Lourdes." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company,1910. 11
Feb. 2018 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09389b.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Victoria Theresa Scarlett. Dedicated
to Lucille Chapman Jonas (1913-1995).
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2020 by Kevin
Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09389b.htm
Profile
The memorial commemorates
the eighteen (18) apparitions of the Blessed
Virgin Mary to Saint Bernadette
Soubiroux that occurred between 11
February and 16
July of 1858 near
the town of Lourdes in the Hautes-Pyrenees region of France.
Though there would be other people with her, only Saint Bernadette could
see the Lady.
During the 9th
appearance, on 25
February, the Lady told Bernadette to drink from a spring that suddenly
appeared in the grotto where the apparitions occurred. During the 12th
appearance, on 1
March, a visitor washed her arm in water from the spring, and some nerve
damage in it was immediately cured.
There is a tradition of miraculous cures at
the grotto, or received by those who drink or are bathed in its waters. Bernadette later
said that the water had no special properties, but it helped focus the faithful who
received the cures through
faith and prayer.
During the 13th
appearance, on 2
March, the Lady told Bernadette to
tell local priests that
they should build a chapel at
the grotto, and have processions to be made to it; the priests were
understandably skeptical, but due to the numbers of pilgrims coming
to the area, construction of several churches was started within a few years.
During the 16th appearance,
on 25
March, the Lady identified
herself as “the Immaculate
Conception“.
Due to the number of
people gathering at the site, and making treks to the area, on 8
June 1858,
the mayor of Lourdes barricaded the grotto and stationed guards to prevent
public access; visitors were fined for kneeling near the grotto or talking
about it, and Bernadette saw the last appearance of the Lady from
outside the barricade. The grotto was re-opened to the public in October 1858 by
order of Emperor Louis Napoleon III, and the pilgrims have
not stopped coming since.
Approval
on 18
January 1862 Bishop Bertrand-Sévère
Mascarou-Laurence, with the authorization of Pope Pius
IX, declared that the faithful are
“justified in believing the reality of the apparition”
national French pilgrimages to
the site began in 1873
the basilica of
Notre-Dame de Lourdes was consecrated in 1876
Pope Pius
IX formally granted a canonical coronation to the statue of Our
Lady in the courtyard of the basilica on 3
July 1876
Church of the Rosary
consecrated in 1901
a special office
and Mass were
authorized by Pope Leo
XIII
observance of the feast extended
to the whole Church by Pope Pius
X in 1907
Lancaster, England, diocese of
Storefront
Additional
Information
Bernadette
Soubirous, Our Lady of Lourdes, Lourdes, Its Grotto, Apparitions and Cures,
by Monsignor John Walsh
Lourdes,
by Father Robert
Hugh Benson
Lourdes
and Modern Miracles, by Father Francis
Woodlock, S.J.
Miracles
at Lourdes, The Facts Behind The Story, by the Catholic Truth Society
Recognized
Miraculous Cures at Lourdes
books
Book
of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Our
Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other
sites in english
Aleteia:
The Message of Our Lady of Lourdes
Catholic
Encyclopedia: Notre-Dame de Lourdes
Catholic
Exchange: Our Lady of Lourdes
Catholic
Exchange: Our Lady Makes a Splash at Lourdes
Catholic
News Agency: Lourdes 2008 Healing Officially Declared Supernatural
Le
Pelerinage de Lourdes, by Pope Pius XII
Wikimedia:
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Father
Lawrence Lew, OP: 2007 Pilgrimage
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with Mary: Message of Lourdes
video
ebooks
A
Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes, by A W E
Bernadette,
by Paul Joseph Henri Lasserre de Monzie
Lourdes,
by Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson
Lourdes:
A History of Its Apparition and Cures, by Georges Bertrin
Lourdes,
its inhabitants, its pilgrims, and its miracles, by Richard Frederick
Clarke
Miraculous
Episodes of Lourdes, by Paul Joseph Henri Lasserre de Monzie
Our
Lady of Lourdes, by Paul Joseph Henri Lasserre de Monzie
Our
Blessed Lady of Lourdes, by Frederick Charles Husenbeth
The
Wonders of Lourdes, by Louis Gaston de Ségur
sitios
en español
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MLA
Citation
“Our Lady of
Lourdes“. CatholicSaints.Info. 18 July 2020. Web. 10 February 2021.
<https://catholicsaints.info/our-lady-of-lourdes/>
Igreja de Nossa Senhora de Lourdes em Porto Alegre, Brasil
Lourdes and Modern Miracles, by
Father Francis Woodlock, S.J.
The “modern mind”
of the mid-nineteenth century definitely decided against supernatural
Christianity when it laid down the dogma, principle and axiom that “the
supernatural is impossible.” It was at work rewriting the Gospels
with the miraculous elements eliminated, when God sent His mother to speak to a
peasant child in Southern France and began to confound the “modern mind” and
its conclusions by a repetition of the wonderful cures which had been recorded
by the Evangelists, the record of which had been regarded by rationalists as
sufficient proof of the unreliability of the Gospel accounts of the life of
Christ. These cures have continued for over sixty years and have been submitted
to the scrutiny of modern science. They emerge with their supernatural
character established, and the facts of Lourdes have given proof of miracles to
an age that rejected traditional Christianity solely because it rests on
miracles.
We do not believe that rationalists of the type of
Huxley, Anatole France and countless others who deny the existence and even the
possibility of the supernatural, could be convinced by any argument and we do
not write for such. When Renan declared that “The supernatural is impossible”
he put himself outside the range of serious argument by his dogmatic assertion
of an assumption that was neither proved nor evident, and, as a matter of fact,
was false.
Dr. W. Inge, Dean of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London,
is probably correct when he says, speaking of his fellow Protestants:
“There are few among our ecclesiastics and theologians
who would spend five minutes in investigating alleged supernatural occurrences
in our own time. It would be assured that if true it must be ascribed to some
obscure natural cause.” He adds, however, that “there is still enough
superstition left to win a certain vogue for miraculous cures at Lourdes.”
The Catholic who believes the miracles of healing to
have occurred at Lourdes is not “superstitious.” He is the real “rationalist” –
taking the word in its etymological sense for the man who holds to conclusions,
which have been demonstrated by reliable processes of reason.
No Catholic is obliged to accept any particular
miraculous occurrence at Lourdes as a doctrine of faith. He is free to examine
each case and accept or reject it as beyond nature’s powers according to the
scientific evidence on which it is attested. Though we may not know all that
nature CAN perform, we do know that there are certain things she CANNOT do.
Lourdes may be and indeed is ignored. It cannot be
explained away by those who study the evidence and nature of the facts which
occur there.
The Origin of the Shrine
What are those facts? First let us briefly describe
the events which led to the world-wide pilgrimages to the Pyrenean Valley and
the Rock of Massabielle.
Three peasant children were walking along the banks of
the river Gave on a bitterly cold day, the 11th of February, in the year 1858.
One of them, Bernadette Soubirous, alleged that she saw a lady “young and
beautiful, the like of whom I had never seen,” standing in a niche in the rock,
across a streamlet which flowed into the Gave. “She beckoned to me to advance,
as if she had been my mother. All fear left me. I rubbed my eyes, I shut and
opened them but the Lady was still there.” The child felt that she was in the
presence of holiness and began to say her rosary. She found that her arm was
unable to make the sign of the cross, till she saw the heavenly visitor do so.
She imitated her gesture and from that day till the day of her death there was
something of unearthly grace and quasi-sacramental power in the child’s oft
repeated sign of the cross. The sight of it converted hardened sinners. The
Lady listened to the child’s prayer. The “Paters” and the “Aves” she counted on
her beads, her lips recited the Glorias with Bernadette. The “Glorias” are
fitly said in Heaven, while the “Paters” with their petition for daily bread
and help against temptation are prayers for us who are still on earth, and the
“Aves” were really addressed to the Lady who stood in front of the child,
though she did not yet know who she was, whom she was watching with such
delight. “The Lady” sent the child to carry a message to the Cure of the
village. She wished people to come. She begged for a chapel. She asked the
child to come to the spot daily for a fortnight and daily she appeared to her,
except on two occasions when the child, eagerly expecting to see her visitor
and coming by her invitation to their rendezvous, waited and watched yet saw no
vision. Those two days of disappointed expectation were one of the facts which
psychologically disproved any theory of hallucination as an explanation of the
visions. No one who knew the child could suspect her of conscious deception.
She was cross-examined by the skilled police officials again and again and her
transparent honesty and the coherence of her story remained unshaken.
The child was delicate, but not with the nervous
instability of an hallucinée. She was from her birth till her death a constant
invalid from asthma. Only those who had not examined her gave the explanation
of hysteria. They did so a priori and on general grounds because they assumed
that the vision could not be true.
The Miraculous Water
On the second Friday of Lent, the Gospel read at Mass
throughout the Church describes the Pool of Probatica. whose water became an
instrument of healing when an Angel had stirred it. That day at the command of
her heavenly visitor, now seen for the ninth time, the child was bidden to
scrape on the dry ground and at once a thin trickle of water flowed around her
obedient fingers. The trickle grew in volume and swelled to a steady flow till
it poured out a perennial stream, giving a thousand gallons an hour. That water
has been again and again analyzed. It is common spring water, devoid of any
radio-active or natural healing properties. Yet within a few days of the
appearance of the spring a dying baby was plunged in its icy waters by its
despairing mother and was taken out in perfect health. A man whose vision was
affected by a grievous, organic lesion, bathed the affected eye in the water of
Lourdes and instantly received perfect sight. These first wonders drew the
people in ever increasing crowds. Since those days, there are few bodily ills
that have not been suddenly cured at the touch of this water. The cures have
been scrutinized by medical science and declared to be complete and certified
to be the effect of a power beyond that of nature.
The Immaculate Conception
The child had been told to ask the Lady her name. The
Lady graciously replied. “I am the Immaculate Conception,” abstract words,
unintelligible to the child who repeated the message to herself all along the
way to the Cure’s house, fearful of forgetting them. She asked afterwards:
“What does the name mean?” Yet those abstract words, better than any concrete
term, expressed the unique privilege of Mary, Mother of God and Queen of
Heaven, who thus revealed herself, deigning to visit the earth and converse
with a peasant child.
The Blessed Virgin promised no miracles, but expressed
the wish “that people should come.” Yet she has given the miracles, thus to
strengthen and amplify the child’s voice carrying her message till it has
reached to the very ends of the earth.
The day after the Blessed Virgin asked for “people,”
there came 100 to that out of the way spot; the next day 500. A few days later
there were between 3,000 and 5,000 in the crowd as the child prayed. On March
4, the last day of the fortnight, during which she came by special invitation
from her heavenly visitor, some 30,000 people were gathered about the child as
she knelt at her rosary. Since then as many as 100,000 people have been there
together on occasions. Nor was it merely women who came. In one year there was
a pilgrimage of men numbering 30,000; the following year 50,000 and the next
55,000 men were present at the shrine in a compact body on one day. There have
been years when the total number of pilgrims surpassed a million. Is it not
evident that there was divine power in the message borne on the lips of the
poor child? Our Lady asked for people and people have come at her bidding.
That deserted rock became the focus of immense
spiritual activities. In one year more than a million Communions were received
there and over ninety thousand Masses celebrated at the shrine.
Our Lady asked for “a chapel.” Through the generosity
of her clients in all parts of the world, first the Basilica was built, and
then the vast circular Church of the Rosary below it, as year by year the
crowds grew in numbers and the need of more accommodation for the devotional
exercises of the pilgrims was felt to be necessary.
Agnostic Errors
Thomas Huxley, the agnostic, illustrates (in the
account of Lourdes contained in his autobiography) the careless mentality of
the scientist when confronted with the supernatural. The inaccuracies of detail
in describing the origin of the shrine are paralleled by the typical
inaccuracies of later unbelieving writers in dealing with the cures. He tells
us:
“It was a case of two peasant children, sent in the
hottest month of the year into a hot valley to collect sticks, when one of
them, after stooping down opposite a heat reverberating rock, was, in rising,
attacked with a transient vertigo, under which she saw a figure in white
against the rock. This mere fact being reported to the Cure of the village, all
the rest followed.”
Practically every detail, except the fact that the
children were collecting sticks and that Bernadette saw a white figure, are the
result of Mr. Huxley’s constructive imagination and in contradiction to the
actual facts as established by incontrovertible evidence!
“Dormitat Homerus” applies to the scientist when he
studies the supernatural. The insinuation that the Cure was responsible for the
exploitation of a peasant child’s deception or hallucination is equally at
variance with the well authenticated facts of history. The Church stood aloof:
the clergy were forbidden to frequent the spot and it was only after miracles
had occurred and four years of critical investigation that the Bishop
promulgated his decision that the Queen of Heaven had appeared to Bernadette
Soubirous and that the child’s story, authenticated by the miraculous sequel,
bore on it the marks of truth.
Bernadette lived for eight years in Lourdes after the
last and eighteenth vision. She and her family were poor and remained in their
poverty, refusing all gifts that were offered them by pilgrims who came to talk
to the child in her cottage home. Then she was admitted to the Order of the
Sisters of Nevers, where she lived for fourteen years as a nun. Her life was
ever one of great suffering and sanctity, and marked by that simplicity which
characterizes great saints like Saint Therese of Lisieux. Our Lady, who was to
heal so many sufferers at her shrine, had told her favored child, “I do not
promise to make you happy in this world.” She had said: “Penance, Penance,
Penance;” “Pray for sinners!” and Bernadette was a glad victim-soul, sanctified
by the Cross of suffering till the year 1879, when she died at Nevers.
Beatification of Bernadette
Thirty years later, when the process of her
beatification was begun, the coffin which contained her earthly remains was
opened in the presence of the Bishop, some doctors and other witnesses. The
body was found incorrupt. The eyes that had, in life, seen the beauty of
Heaven’s Queen had not been allowed by God to suffer the natural decay of death
in the grave. It was a final sign given from heaven of the truth of the child’s
message to the world. The peasant child so favored by Heaven’s Queen was
beatified by Pope Pius XI, himself a devout client of Our Lady of Lourdes and a
pilgrim to her shrine.
In the above brief account we have confined ourselves
to the narration of the few essential details connected with the origin of the
shrine of miraculous healing at Lourdes. The life of Blessed Bernadette has
been written many times and those of our readers who are interested will have
no difficulty in studying the biographies. The Personal Souvenirs of an
Eyewitness, by J. B. Estrade, give the diary of one who studied at first hand
and recorded the events as they occurred day by day. He was at first, like
many, incredulous, but like all who honestly and without prejudice examined the
facts on the spot, Estrade was finally convinced that the Queen of Heaven had
eighteen times visited the rock of Massabielle and had spoken to Bernadette,
the simple peasant child, and given her a message for mankind.
The Miraculous Cures
Lourdes is also a center of moral miracles worked on
the souls of pilgrims who visit the shrine and on the multitudes who are unable
to journey to Massabielle, but who are devout clients of Mary Immaculate who
appeared at Lourdes. Thousands of sick who visited the holy spot full of hope
for a cure of their bodily ills, returned without the cure, yet happy in heart
and even glad, to bear the cross of suffering which God and His Mother had left
upon their shoulders. Seldom does one meet a despairing or even depressed
invalid on the trains returning home from a pilgrimage – surely a moral miracle
of grace. The “Health of the Sick” is also wonderful as “Consoler of the
Afflicted,” and she consoles the mind and heart when she does not remove the
bodily afflictions of the sick. This moral miracle shows the folly of the
unbelieving doctor who said: “Those who go to Lourdes and return without cure
are proof that heaven is empty.”
Lourdes stands apart from all other religious shrines
of healing in that it has a Medical Bureau where science examines and passes
judgment on the nature of the alleged cures. Unlike Christian Science, which on
principle keeps doctors at a distance, Lourdes welcomes the testimony of
medical men and gives them every faculty for examining cases of cure. The religious
authorities await their judgment before allowing the public “Magnificat” of
thanksgiving to be sung by the pilgrims for a healing favor.
The crowd is naturally over credulous. If any patient
rises from his stretcher it is prone to cry “Miracle,” and it is often mistaken
in invoking a supernatural cause for a natural cure. A restoration to health in
a case of some nervous, functional disease which may be the natural result of
strong religious suggestion, satisfies its appetite for miracle as well as does
an instantaneous organic cure involving divine creative power.
The Medical Bureau des Constatations, established in
the year 1882 to test the nature of the individual cases of cure, is a unique
scientific clinic of the miraculous. Any doctor of any nationality, of any or
no religious belief, is welcomed within its doors and is at once invited to
share in the examinations of the patients who report themselves as cured.
Sometimes as many as sixty doctors have sat in judgment on a single case.
In the six years preceding the Great War, 3,310
doctors visited the office. During the period 1923 to 1925, more than 1,800
doctors took part in the work of the Bureau. A number of doctors have written
on the cures, testifying to their being outside and beyond the natural
processes of healing known to their science. Georges Bertrin, in his scholarly
work on Lourdes, testified that there were recorded cures of over one hundred
and fifty different kinds of diseases in the dossiers at Lourdes. The most
famous chronicler of Our Lady’s work, Dr. Boissarie, President of the Bureau
for a quarter of a century, published at intervals detailed accounts of a
number of cases which occurred during his presidency. He was succeeded by Dr.
Le Bee, formerly senior surgeon of a Paris hospital, and his record of ten
selected cures, published under the title, Preuves Medicates du Miracle, has
been translated and is within reach of American readers who would wish to study
for themselves some of the evidence on which the case for miracles at Lourdes
rests. We recommend Medical Proof of the Miraculous to our readers as a book to
lend to doctors, whether Catholics, Protestants or unbelievers. It is
unanswered and unanswerable.
An Authenticated Miracle
Let us give a resume of a case which Dr. Le Bee
himself examined both before and after cure. The nature of the malady takes it
outside the range of healing by psychotherapy, or any natural form of mind
influence. No medical man can suggest any explanation of such a cure. If he is
confronted with the case, he may obstinately declare that it never happened, a
statement which involves an accusation of lying against eminent and respected
surgeons. The nature of the case makes a mistake in diagnosis inconceivable and
any natural explanation would wreck the whole fabric of medical science.
Dr. Le Bee had the patient under observation just
before his pilgrimage and examined him and testified to his cure immediately on
his return.
A French priest began to suffer from varicose veins at
the age of thirty-five. The disease developed steadily, and at the age of
forty-two had reached the stage of ulceration. Dr. Roesch of Marlotte observed
seven characteristic ulcers on the right, and eight on the left leg. From
forty-two to fifty years of age suppuration was persistent, in spite of
treatment, and the pain was such that the patient had to abandon all work.
Complete rest produced so little change that Dr. Roesch held out no hopes of a
cure. At fifty-one the patient was persuaded against his will to undertake a
pilgrimage to Lourdes, his disease having progressed during sixteen years; and
it was only three days before this journey that Dr. Le Bee examined him. The
doctor describes at length the condition of the limbs. Let a summary of his
judgment suffice here, viz., that the limbs had old-standing enormous varicose
veins in an ulcerated condition, and that the ulcers had suppurated for ever
seven years. When the patient returned from Lourdes, Dr. Le Bee declares that
the legs were those of a normal healthy man; the varicosities had disappeared;
seven pink spots on one leg and eight on the other marked the places where he
had observed the ulcers a few days before. The patient’s account was that,
after a moment of acute burning pain, as he bathed his legs in Lourdes water, the
varicose veins and ulcers disappeared. In a case of this sort no explanation of
the facts by religious suggestion can be accepted. The time factor for a
natural cure was absent. We may quote here the admission of Dr. Jules Besangon,
editor of the Journal de Medicine Interne:
“The suggestive methods employed by doctors have never
gone so far as to replace in a few hours the loss of extended substance or to
cicatrise in a moment old ulcers. Yet it is certain that such visible changes
take place at Lourdes.” The cure of these varicose veins is a case in point.
Bernheim tells us: “Suggestion is a remedy which is almost exclusively
functional. It may succeed in establishing again disturbed functions, but it
cannot cure diseased organs. This last statement is true at least with regard
to sudden cure.”
The priest was examined again by Dr. Le Bee just
before the Preuves Medicates was published. Seven years had passed since the
instantaneous cure and there had been no relapse.
Dr. Le Bee, in the introduction to his book, develops
the scientific reason why instantaneous organic cures cannot be explained by
any natural cause. The “time factor” is essential to natural cure of organic
disease, for this is of its own nature a process, a building up of tissue.
There is a limit to the speed with which this process can naturally be
completed. For example, among other factors limiting the speed of organic cure
is the fact that the human heart-beats cannot be indefinitely accelerated
without death resulting. The natural processes of healing have some relation to
the circulation of the blood and therefore to the mechanism of the “blood-pump”
– the heart. It cannot work at turbine speed without bursting! Le Bee then
takes a number of organic cases of cure and shows that they are either
instantaneous or at least miraculously rapid. A diseased or fractured limb may
not be incurable – given time and suitable treatment. In the cases which he
discusses in his book the cures took place in a few moments where weeks would
naturally be needed; and they took place, after medical treatment had been
tried and failed, on the application, with prayer, of a little spring water or
on the passing of the Blessed Sacrament in the hands of a priest during the
procession, or sometimes even without these accompanying circumstances. The
miraculously speedy cure without medical or surgical treatment of extended
organic lesions is a fact to which he and hundreds of other doctors testify as
having occurred at Lourdes.
Lourdes and Psychoanalysis
Hardly ever is Lourdes mentioned in the press without
the false statement that the cures wrought there have not exceeded the limits
of functional disorders. The cure of such diseases is frequently arrived at by
skillfully applied “suggestion” or psychoanalytic methods. The Medical Bureau
rejects in a few moments the claims of all such cases as readily accounted for
by the activity of natural causes.
It is sad to think that the majority of cultured
non-Catholics only know 7 of Lourdes through the scandalously dishonest novel
by Zola, which deals with the shrine and its sick pilgrims. Zola wrote the
history of some actual cases and introduced them as characters in his story. He
was a historian up to the point of the miraculous cure of “La Grivotte,” one of
the chief characters in his story. From that point he ceases to write history
and becomes a writer of fiction. Let us look at the details of this case of
consumption which, when at its last stage, was suddenly cured by Our Lady. Many
medical men have written at length of this wonderful case which became of
special interest because of the notoriety given it through Zola’s novel. The
summary of the case of Mile. Lebranchu sets forth how both parents had died of
tuberculosis. She herself lay dying in a hospital when she was removed on a
stretcher to Lourdes. There was a profusion of tuberculosis bacilli in the
sputum and copious night sweats, and a temperature in the evenings between 102°
and 105°. Daily blood spitting occurred and many lung cavities had been
observed. These facts are medically attested. The girl’s condition is
elaborately described by Zola, who traveled to Lourdes with her. She is “La
Grivotte” of his novel. In describing her illness and journey to Lourdes, Zola
narrates facts.
Zola Falsifies the Facts
She was restored to perfect health after the first
bath and her restoration was attested by the declaration of about thirty
doctors in the medical bureau. Zola saw her restored to health; later, though
he was aware that there had never been any relapse, he deliberately falsifies
the facts and in his book on Lourdes, makes her relapse and die. Marie
Lebranchu lived for twenty-eight years after she had been “killed” by Zola, and
Dr. Boissarie, President of the Medical Bureau, covered the novelist with shame
by producing her and other characters whose cases Zola had falsified in his
book, at a public conference in a theater in Paris shortly after Zola’s lying
romance had appeared as a “best seller.”
Another case of similar interest is that of Marie
Lemarchand. Zola describes her as he saw her when on her way to Lourdes. He
says: “It was a case of lupus, which had preyed upon the unhappy woman’s nose
and mouth. Ulceration had spread and was hourly spreading and devouring the
membrane in its progress. The cartilage of the nose was almost eaten away, the
mouth was drawn all on one side by the swollen condition of the upper lip. The
whole was a frightfully distorted mass of matter and oozing blood.” Ail this is
true as far as it goes, but the account given by Zola was incomplete. She had
been coughing and spitting blood and every evening there was a high
temperature. The apices of both lungs were affected and she had sores on her
leg and other parts of her body.
Dr. d’Hombres saw the patient immediately before and
immediately after her bath. He says: “I saw her waiting her turn to go into the
piscina. I could not help being struck by her aspect, which was particularly
revolting; both her cheeks, the lower part of her nose, and her upper lip was
covered with a tuberculous ulcer and secreted matter abundantly. On her return
from the baths I immediately followed her to the hospital. I recognized her
quite well, although her face was entirely changed. Instead of the horrible
sore I had so lately seen, the surface was red, it is true, but dry and covered
with a new skin. The other sores had also dried up in the piscina.” Dr.
d’Hombres at once took Marie Lemarchand to the medical office, which was full
of doctors, literary men and reporters. The doctors could find nothing the matter
with her lungs and they testified to the presence of the new skin on the face.
Zola was there. He had said before, “I only want to see a cut finger dipped in
water and come out healed.” “Behold the case of your dreams, M. Zola!” said the
President, Dr. Boissarie, presenting the girl, whose hideous disease had
evidently made such an impression on the novelist before the cure: “A visible
sore, suddenly healed.” “Ah no!” said Zola, “I do not want to look at her. She
is still too ugly” – alluding to the red color of the new skin. Before he left
Lourdes Zola had hardened his soul. “Were I to see all the sick at Lourdes
cured, I would not believe in a miracle,” he said to Dr. Boissarie.
Blindness Cured
There have been many cases of blindness cured, two
which I record because of their specially interesting details. The first
contains an unusual feature – if indeed any one miracle can be said to be more
“unusual” than another. Mme Bire arrived at Lourdes completely blind from
atrophy of the optic nerves, due to some cerebral cause. The blindness had
lasted six months. This was certified by her doctor, Dr. Hibert of Lucon. She
received back her sight suddenly at Lourdes as the Blessed Sacrament was being
carried by after the procession. She was at once taken to the Medical Bureau
and was found able to read easily the smallest print. As the examination was
proceeding, Dr. Lainey, a Rouen specialist in eye disease, entered the Bureau
and was at once asked to examine her eyes. He did so and on returning from the
inspection declared that the case was quite straightforward, that the woman
evidently had atrophy of the optic nerves and was stone blind, the fundus in
each case being pearly white and the blood-vessels filiform and hardly
traceable. “But she can read!” said the President; and she read easily as
before Dr. Lainey’s entrance. It was true! The function had been given back
before the organ had returned to its normal condition. It was nearly a month
before the appearance of the optic nerve was certified as normal. “It seems,”
said Dr. Cox, who gave the writer these details, “as though the Almighty were
having a little joke with us medical men.” The full account of the case with
the certificates of Dr. Hibert and Dr. Lainey is given in Dr. Boissarie’s
Guerisons. Professor Bertrin gives details of a case of blindness, that of Mr.
Vion-Dury, due to double detachment of the retina, which was cured in a moment
at the third application of Lourdes water. This cure occurred after the disease
had lasted for seven years and a half. The patient felt a violent pain in the
eyes and then – to use his own words – “suddenly, like a pistol-shot, I could
see!” This case was described by Dr. Dor at a meeting of the French Opthalmic
Society at Paris. The doctor asserted that the case had been certified by a
number of specialists, the fact that the patient was a soldier regularly
drawing a pension on account of his infirmity probably involved these periodic
examinations.
Cancer Cures
A young surgeon once said at the end of a lecture on
Lourdes cures delivered by the writer to a meeting of Army Doctors, “If I were
cured of cancer, did I believe in God I should thank Him I had never suffered
from cancer!” It was his way of saying that true cancer was incurable and that
mistakes are sometimes made in diagnosing as malignant, growths which turn out
to be non-malignant. So I do not lay undue stress on two cases of cancer fully
dealt with by Dr. Le Bee in his book. One was a cancer of the tongue, and one
of the cheek. Both were relapses after the first operation wound had healed,
and both were cured completely and permanently during the course of a novena,
or nine days’ prayer, with no surgical or medical treatment.
In the case of the epithelioma of the cheek Dr. Moynac
saw the patient two days before the cure, and had no doubt of the presence of
the returned cancer, which was then a projecting tumor, almost the size of a
hen’s egg. The patient’s doctor, Dr. Gentilhe, who had taken the case to the
surgeon, Dr. Moynac, saw the patient the day after the cure, which took place
during sleep. It was not a benign tumor, such as lipoma, for it had recurred in
situ; nor a mere gumma, or it would have recurred before the healing of the
first operation wound and not two years later. Dr. Moynac is a surgeon of repute
in Southwest France and a mistake in his diagnosis is hardly credible in such a
case. Cancer does at times get gradually re-absorbed in the system of an old
man – Mr. Butlin describes such a case in the British Medical Journal: but the
“time factor” required in his case was absent in the case quoted by Dr. Le Bee.
Two days is manifestly insufficient time for such reabsorption – still less a
single night’s rest as in this case.
In the case of the cancer of the tongue, the cancer
recurred in situ three months after the first operation, the glands became
enlarged and there was much pain in the ear. The characteristic wax tint of the
patient’s complexion and cachexia showed that the blood was infected by the
cancerous toxins. This was the state when the patient began her novena. Perfect
cure occurred on the ninth day, and had lasted for eight years without relapse
when Dr. Le Bee wrote his book.
Non-Catholic Testimony
We have given above a few samples of the type of
diseases whose cures have been accepted by the doctors sitting in judgment upon
them in the name of modern science. Only the most ignorant could put forward
psychotherapy as the cause of such cures. Only the most bigoted could suggest
that the doctors who testified to them lacked bona fides as witnesses. The late
Sir William Barrett, a non-Catholic, well-known as a doctor and as President of
the Society for Psychical Research, closed the discussion after a lecture on
Lourdes cures, given a few years ago by the writer to a Protestant audience
which included many medical men. His final words before resuming his seat were:
“If evidence counts for anything, and I am not without experience in weighing
the value of evidence, I affirm that supernatural, miraculous cures have taken
place at the Roman Catholic Shrine of the Virgin at Lourdes.”
A doctor, writing in the Anglican Church Times a
report of the lecture and of the discussion which followed it, included in his
article the following wise reflection:
“It would seem to the writer that if the evidence for Lourdes
be true, if what is said to have happened there really has happened (and it is
hard to doubt the validity of much of that evidence), then we must on the fact
of it acknowledge the fact of its miracles. Can we do so? Is it not for each
one a personal question? If the answer be ‘I cannot/ may it not be well to look
within, as well as without? Wherein lies the cause of my inability? Miracles
rest on moral evidence, make a moral appeal and are the divine response to a
moral quality in man. Have I that moral quality?”
Zola, confronted with evidence which convinced others,
was goaded into the skeptical declaration, “Were I to see all the sick at
Lourdes cured, I would not believe in a miracle.” Professor Vergez of
Montpellier, after spending, like Dr. Boissarie, twenty-five years in studying
the cures of Lourdes, testified solemnly on his deathbed: “At Lourdes I have
seen and touched the miraculous.” Vergez was not a foolish fanatic, but a
scientist. He was also a good Christian. And Zola? Well, one would not wish to
compare the moral perception of the two men.
Lourdes is a “talent” which Catholics should not “wrap
in a napkin.” They should carry clearly in their memory and be able to impart
to others certain established facts with regard to Lourdes. They owe this to
the honor of Our Lady and their prayer, oft repeated, should be, “Dignare me,
laudare te Virgo Sacrata, da mihi virtutem contra hostes tuos.” “Grant O Holy
Virgin that I may be made fit to praise thee and give me strength against thy
enemies.”
Part of that “strength” will be the definite knowledge
of, and power to prove to others, the truth that Mary’s divine Son, Who at her
request worked His first miracle at Cana though His “hour was not yet come,”
has deigned, even in these later days of unbelief, once again to exert His
divine power of healing at her prayer. In this He gives a proof of His pleasure
at the development of her cultus in His Church, under the guidance of her
Spouse the Holy Spirit, and gives us confidence that our hearts are more Christ-like
in proportion to the love they bear to “our” mother – His and ours.
Facts About Lourdes
Here are some facts to be remembered:
(1) The visions given to Bernadette were free from
every one of those classical signs by which hallucination is diagnosed. Even if
no miracles had followed, her story is credible. The psychology of the child,
subjected to long and deep study by experts, is seen to be incompatible with
either delusion or deception.
(2) The cures that take place at Lourdes are of two
classes. There are cures of nervous and purely functional diseases which are
capable of being explained by a “suggestive” theory. There are also quite
sudden cures of organic lesions. Only these latter kind are put forward as
supernatural, and a very large number of cases of such organic diseases have
been medically examined and authentically certified to by reputable doctors as
having taken place at the shrine in answer to prayer to Our Lady.
(3) Small children and babies, who are incapable of
receiving “mental” treatment, are among those who have been cured of organic
diseases. “Faith cures” in such cases are not naturally possible.
(4) The “faith” at Lourdes, which has been so often
rewarded with a cure, is not the “faith cure” of mental healers such as the
auto-suggestion conviction on which M. Coue relies to preserve, develop and
restore health in his patients. It is not a subjective conviction that God will
cure, but that God can cure; and it is accompanied by a limiting condition
resigning oneself to God’s will. “If it be possible, let this chalice pass from
Me; yet, not My Will but Thine be done,” is the model of the sick man’s prayer.
God can cure, but He may not will to cure, is the faith at Lourdes. They hope
for, but are not sure of a cure. Thus the “faith” at Lourdes is no
self-hypnotism into a certainty that health will be restored.
(5) Only a very small percentage of the sick are
cured, and that percentage does not allow of any statistical analysis which
could point to some hidden natural law at work. Those who seem to have most
faith have been passed over and some who have had no personal faith have been
cured at the prayer of the believing bystanders. Some big pilgrimages have no
cures to record; at least one small pilgrimage had all its sick cured. Men,
women and children have all been selected. Though more women than men have been
cured and very many more women than men have gone in hopes of a cure, yet
nothing can be predicted of the prospects of any single sick person who visits
Lourdes in pilgrimage.
(6) Though Lourdes has attracted the attention of the
world mainly by its miracles, the most wonderful thing about it is its
atmosphere of devotion and the almost visible power of prayer pervading the
pilgrimages.
(7) Lastly, “Per Mariam ad Jesum,” is once more
verified at Lourdes. Men kneel at the grotto and drink of the water and then
pass on to the great procession of the Blessed Sacrament as the chief and
central devotion of the day. When Pope Pius X stirred the heart of the Catholic
world to the renewed practice of frequent and daily Communion and invited
little children to receive Our Lord in their innocence, before temptation and
sin should soil their souls or the love of pleasure hypnotize their hearts, God
from His Heaven showed His satisfaction. Up to that time the baths of Lourdes
water in which the sick are bathed had been the usual place where the favored
sick received their healing. From that date onwards the vast majority of the
miraculous cures have been granted in the big open space where the sick were
being blessed individually by Our Lord in the Procession of the Blessed
Sacrament.
Jesus of Nazareth passes by and He sees the sick at
Lourdes lying before Him in their thousands – as He did in the bygone days of
His earthly life. The faithful crowds throng around Him as of yore. The very
words, recorded in the Gospel, with which the blind and halt and lepers prayed
to Him are now on the lips of thousands who cry to Him: “Lord, heal our sick!”
and then thunder out the Gospel invocations. What wonder that the graces are
given! The Heart of Jesus today is what it was when “it was moved with pity for
the multitudes.” If He does not heal all. He loves and pities all, and the
greater graces of patience and courage, yea even a love of the cross of pain,
may well be a sign of a more tender predilection towards those to whom these
graces are given, than would be some great miracle of healing which would
obtain from the doctors their verdict of a supernatural cure.
(8) Lastly, let Catholics remember that Our Lady of
Lourdes is today worldwide in her empire and that her benefactions have reacted
all corners of the earth where she is known and loved. A little shrine in a
Catholic home brings Our Lady, Health of the Sick, to the bedside of many who
are unable to journey to Europe. Our Lady of Lourdes is not French – she is
Catholic, and her dwelling place is Heaven, where she reigns as Queen. No radio
carries to its hearers its message over the earth as surely or as speedily as
the cry of human sorrow and pain is borne from earthly sufferers to the ever
attentive ear and pitiful heart of her who is the “Consoler of the Afflicted.”
Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us!
– text taken from the booklet Lourdes
and Modern Miracles, by Father Francis Woodlock, S.J., published
by the Paulist Press of New York
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/lourdes-and-modern-miracles-by-father-francis-woodlock-s-j/
Catholic Truth Society – Saint
Bernadette – Miracles at Lourdes, The Facts Behind The Story
“. . . Your life begins, Bernadette.” So ends the
story of the earthly life of that little girl whose revelations astonished the
world. And today, sixty-six years after that day in 1879, millions thrill to
the sweet song she made, unconsciously, for all the world to hear — a song of
innocence, humility and love — made not for bodily ears, but for the ears of
the soul.
She learnt it from the lovely lady that she saw in the
grotto of Massabielle, whose words she might well make her own: “My soul does
magnify the Lord . . . for He has looked upon the lowliness of His handmaid . .
. and He that is mighty has done great things to me.” For in a lesser way God
had done great things to her, too. She was lowly and poor and unlearned, but
she was chosen to be a messenger from heaven.
On February 11, 1858, Bernadette Soubirous, child of
poor parents in the town of Lourdes, in Southern France, went with two other
children to gather firewood by the banks of the River Gave. She was fourteen
years of age, an innocent and gentle girl, rather dull at her lessons. The day
was bitterly cold, so when the other two girls took off their shoes and crossed
a small stream, she waited behind, because she suffered from asthma.
However, when the others had gone further on to
collect sticks, Bernadette decided to follow them. She had taken off one of her
stockings when she heard the sound of a strong wind, but could see nothing.
Just across the stream in the side of the hill, there was a large cave, or
grotto, with a kind of niche or opening high up at the back. Let Bernadette
herself tell the story of what now happened.
What Happened to Bernadette
“I turned towards the meadow, and I saw that the trees
were not moving at all. I had half noticed, but without attending to it, that
some branches were waving somewhere near the grotto. I went on taking my shoes
off, and I was putting one foot into the water, when I heard the same sound in
front of me. I lifted my eyes, and I saw a mass of branches and brambles tossed
and waving this way and that; under the higher opening in the grotto; though
nothing stirred all round. Behind these branches, in the opening, I saw
immediately afterwards, a white girl, not bigger than I, who made me a little
bow with her head. At the same time she put her hands out a little from beside
her body — her arms were hanging down like the (pictures of our) Lady. A rosary
was hanging on her right arm.
“I was frightened. I stepped back. I wanted to call
the two little ones, but I dared not. I rubbed my eyes again and again; I
thought I must be mistaken. Looking up, I saw the girl smiling at me very
sweetly. She seemed to be inviting me to approach, but I still was frightened.
All the same, it was not a fear like what I have felt at other times, because I
would always have stayed to look at that, but when one is frightened one goes
away quick. Then I thought of saying my prayers. I put my hand in my pocket and
took out the rosary that I always carry in it; I knelt down and meant to make
the sign of the Cross, but I could not put my hand to my forehead — it fell
back. Meanwhile, the girl put herself sideways and turned towards me; this time
she was holding the big rosary in her hand. She crossed herself, as though to
pray. My hand was trembling; I tried again to make the sign of the Cross, and
this time I could. After this, I was no more frightened. I said my rosary. The
girl made the beads of hers slip (through her fingers), but she did not move
her lips.
“While saying my Rosary, I was looking as hard as I
could. It was wearing a white dress, hanging down to the feet, of which only
the tips appeared. The dress was fastened quite high up, round the neck, by a
fold from which a white cord was hanging. A white veil, covering the head, went
down over the shoulders almost to the hem of the dress. On each foot, I saw a
yellow rose.
“The sash of the dress was blue, with its ends hanging
down to her feet. The chain of the rosary was yellow; the beads, white, large
and widely separated. The girl was alive, very young and surrounded with light.
When I had finished my Rosary, she bowed to me, smiling, retired into the niche
and disappeared all of a sudden.”
Ecstasy
Bernadette was examined and re-examined upon the
details of what she saw, but never did she alter or add anything to the
description. What, then, is the explanation of this strange story? Imagination?
That’s what her parents said. That’s what the civil authorities and the clergy
said. But events proved otherwise.
In spite of all kinds of hindrances, she returned to
the grotto about eighteen times during the following days, and each time her
“beautiful girl” appeared again. When the vision appeared, Bernadette’s face
became transfigured with ecstasy. It shone with a heavenly radiance so that her
mother hardly recognised her. “Tears were running from her eyes,” said a man
who saw her on the second occasion; “she was smiling, and her face was
beautiful — more beautiful than anything I have ever seen.” At times, she was
completely lost to everything else in the world, even when surrounded by
thousands of people.
Was this hallucination? Not one of the symptoms of
hallucination was present. A doctor observed her pulse and breathing during the
ecstasy and found them both to be normal. She was perfectly calm and, after the
visions, she acted in a quite normal way. She was not seeking publicity, for
she took no notice of the crowds, and she tried to avoid the questioners who
pestered her. She never spoke of the vision unless compelled to by inquirers.
People were struck by the charming grace of her gestures, and the transparent
faith and devotion she displayed when she made the sign of the Cross so
beautifully in imitation of her lady.
The Miraculous Spring
On February 25, there was an entirely new development.
Bernadette was seen to move about the grotto, and then to scratch in the ground
with her hands. She said afterwards that the lady told her to drink of the
spring, and wash in it. She could see no spring, but the lady pointed to this
place, and when she began to dig, she found a little muddy water. She drank
some, and rubbed it on her face. The people thought she was mad, and the
scoffers began to laugh — the whole thing had become a joke.
But the joke became very serious when it was
discovered in the afternoon that a stream of clear water was flowing from the
muddy hole. Very soon, the spring was pouring forth 27,000 gallons per day, and
it has continued to do so till the present time.
Soon after this, Bernadette went to Monsignor
Peyramale, the Dean of Lourdes, with a message from her lady. She had been told
to go to the priests and to tell them that a chapel should be built at the
grotto. Also, the lady had said: “Let processions come hither.” The priest
replied: “Have you any money to build a chapel?” “No”, she said. “Neither have
I. Ask the lady for some.” The priests gave her no encouragement. None of them
had been to the grotto. It is the policy of the Church not to recognise alleged
visions or miracles until there is overwhelming proof that they are genuine.
It was not long before such proof was forthcoming, but
it was only after several years that a commission of enquiry set up by the
bishop finally pronounced that the happenings at Massabielle could be accepted
as supernatural.
Things began to happen, however, that made it more and
more difficult to be an unbeliever. A child that had been paralysed from birth
lay dying. The doctor said there was no hope, but the mother, in desperation,
carried her baby to the grotto and bathed him in the ice-cold water of the
spring. Immediately the child became well; he was completely cured. Fifty years
afterwards, he was to be seen at Lourdes, as a man helping to carry the sick.
Such are the facts, briefly outlined, upon which the
noted author, Franz Werfel, based his story, “The Song of Bernadette.” In 1940,
France was overrun by the armies of Hitler. Fleeing from the Nazi persecution,
Franz Werfel (not a Catholic, but a Jew) found himself in Lourdes, with little
chance of escape. He expected any day to find himself a prisoner, and condemned
to death. But the days dragged on, and the Nazis did not come. Franz Werfel was
not idle during this time. He took the opportunity to make a study of the
famous shrine of the Blessed Virgin and its history; and he made a vow that if
he should escape to America, he would write a book to tell the story of the
little girl whose name was already famous throughout the world.
Hollywood and Lourdes
And so “The Song of Bernadette” was written, and the
world acclaimed it as a best-seller. Then Hollywood was not slow to see in this
beautiful story the material for an outstanding film. We are not accustomed to
associate spirituality with Hollywood, but there can be no doubt that this film
is a rare achievement. As someone said to me after seeing the picture: “You are
impressed not so much by what you see as by what you do not see.” For there is
a depth in it of truth and beauty that must appeal to all except the most
material-minded.
Some there are, I know, who think the story is too
good to be true — such things just don’t happen in these days, they say. But
history and science are against them, for there is overwhelming evidence that
the story is true.
In the film, certain historical details have been
altered somewhat for the sake of dramatic effect, but not the main facts of the
story. It might be well to point out here one or two items in the film that are
not historically accurate. It is not true, for instance, that Bernadette was
persuaded to enter the convent. It was her own desire entirely. She was sent to
board with the Sisters in order to finish her schooling, and also to escape
from the endless crowd of inquirers who wanted to cross-examine her. Some years
later, she asked to be admitted as a Sister into the convent and was sent to
Nevers, where she afterwards spent most of her time looking after the sick.
Another point worth mentioning is this: It is true
that Bernadette suffered from the severity of her Novice Mistress, Sister Marie
Vazous, who seems to have failed to understand the precious soul committed to
her charge. Possibly for dramatic effect, the severe side of Sister Vazous’
character is considerably exaggerated in the film. Allowance should be made for
this. Otherwise, the character may give a false impression to those not
otherwise acquainted with convent life.
The End of the Song?
But, despite such minor defects, “The Song of
Bernadette” (movie) tells a truthful story very beautifully. The lady had said
to Bernadette: “I do not promise to make you happy in this world, but only in
the next.” And so, quite rightly, the story ends on a note of triumph: “Your
life begins, Bernadette . . . .”
That was the last note to be heard on earth, then, of
the sweet song of the little peasant girl of Lourdes. Or was it? If it were,
then did the whole world take up the chorus. For her story was told in many
lands, and the grotto of Massabielle became a focal point of devotion, first
for hundreds, then for thousands, and finally for millions. Streams of pilgrims
came from near and far. A large church was built near the grotto, and then a
second and third, one above the other. Far from being forgotten, Lourdes has
become more and more famous. The number of pilgrims before the war had reached
over a million per year. And many of those who go are sick, and some are dying
— all hoping to benefit, bodily or spiritually, from the divine gifts that are
dispensed there.
But why should this be so? Why all this enthusiasm?
What proof is there that an extraordinary power is at work there? Indeed, what
proof have we that the whole story of Bernadette and her lovely lady is
anything more than a pious legend — very beautiful and poetic, no doubt, but
the product of a child’s imagination? This is the twentieth century. Science
should have something to say about such alleged wonders.
The Verdict of Science
Yes, and it is twentieth century science that gives
the answer.
On one side of the large square before the basilica at
Lourdes, there is an office called the “Bureau des Constatations.” Within that
office there meets a committee of doctors. Any qualified medical practitioner
from any part of the world, be he atheist, Jew, Protestant or Catholic, may sit
on that committee. In actual fact, large numbers of doctors come there to take
part in its deliberations — and many of them are unbelievers.
There is a reason for the existence of this bureau,
for wonderful things take place at Lourdes, well worthy of scientific
investigation. Yes, the sick are cured — not all the sick who go there, by any
means; but over 4000 cures have been recorded, besides many that have not been
investigated.
This, then, is faith-healing, perhaps? Religious
excitement, auto-suggestion, the power of the mind over the body? Yes,
faith-healing can work wonders — of a sort. In the right circumstances, it can
cure, at least temporarily, many ailments due to nervous disorder. So-called
“faith-healers” and psychologists both make use of this mover of mind over
body.
Medical Evidence
But the cases investigated by the bureau at Lourdes
are not cures of nervous disorders. They are cures of organic disease.
“Faith-healing” has never cured a man in the last stages of cancer — much less,
cured him in one day. Auto-suggestion never caused a tuberculosis patient,
spitting blood and dying, to jump from his bed, never again to suffer from any
traces of the disease. Broken limbs are not set overnight by the power of the
mind over the body — especially when a large section of the bone has been
removed. But all these things, and many more equally wonderful, have happened
at Lourdes. The bureau rejects immediately any cure that might possibly be
explained by suggestion, or any other natural cause. It examines only alleged
cures of organic disease. And then, it demands the most complete medical
evidence, with doctors’ diagnosis, X-ray photographs and a full history of the
case. If then, after a thorough examination of the patient’s present condition,
it is found that a cure has taken place, and if after a considerable period of
time, it is found to be permanent, the bureau will pronounce that medical
science can give no explanation of the cure.
Anyone is free to go to Lourdes and study the medical
files of the various cases. Men of science go there in large numbers, many of
them having no belief in the supernatural. These go out of curiosity, or they
go to scoff. But they come away either converted or baffled. Not a single one
of them has ever found a natural explanation for what goes on there.
In the beginning, it was thought that the water of the
spring might have some curative properties, but chemical analysis showed it to
be nothing but ordinary drinking water. Anyhow, nowadays many cures take place
apart from the use of the spring water.
The Case of John Traynor
By way of an example, it may be of interest to give
here some details of one of the cases recorded at the Medical Bureau. I choose
the case of John Traynor.
John Traynor was a Liverpool man. In 1914, when the
First World War broke out, he was mobilised with the Royal Naval Reserve, to
which he belonged. On April 25, 1915, he took part in the landing at Gallipoli.
He was in charge of the first boat to leave ship, and was one of the few from
that boat to reach the shore that day. He seems to have been literally sprayed
with bullets. Medical Corps men brought him back dazed and suffering to the
beach. A well-known English surgeon operated on him in Alexandria, in an
attempt to sew together the severed nerves in the upper arm, which a bullet
wound had left paralysed and useless. The attempt failed, and so did another.
He suffered now frequently from epilepsy, and in April,
1920, a doctor realised that this was probably the result of the head wounds,
and operated on the skull. But his condition was no better after this
operation. He had fits as often as three times a day. Both legs were partly
paralysed, and nearly every organ in his body was impaired.
Somebody arranged to have him admitted to Mossley Hill
Hospital for Incurables on July 24, 1923. He never went there. By that date, he
was in Lourdes instead.
“You’ll Die on the Way”
A pilgrimage to Lourdes was being organised from
Liverpool. John Traynor decided he was going, and managed to scrape together
the few pounds necessary. But his doctor would not give him a medical
certificate to travel. He tried several others. They all refused. “You cannot
make the trip,” said one of the priests. “You will die on the way, and bring
trouble and grief to everybody.”
But John Traynor was a determined man, and he went to
Lourdes all the same. Three times, they tried to take him off the train in
France to bring him to a hospital, as he seemed to be dying. Each time there
was no hospital where they stopped, and the only thing to do was to go on again
with the patient on board. So he arrived at Lourdes.
On the morning of the second day there, he was being
wheeled to the baths when he had a bad epileptic fit. Blood flowed from his
mouth, and the doctors were much alarmed. As he came to, he heard them saying:
“Better take him back at once to the ‘Aisle’ (the place where the sick are
cared for)”.
“No, you won’t,” he protested. “I’ve come to be
bathed, and I’m not going back.”
“You’ll die in the bath,” they said.
“If I do, I’ll die in a good place.”
Certified Incurable
And so John Traynor was lifted into the bath — a
physical wreck, covered with sores, a dying cripple. The signed statement of Doctors
Azurdia, Finn and Harley testifies that he was suffering from:
epilepsy
paralysis of the radial, median and ulnar nerves of
the right arm
atrophy of the shoulder and pectoral muscles
a trephine opening in the right parietal region of the
skull — in this opening, about one inch, there is a metal plate for protection
absence of voluntary movement in the legs, and loss of
feeling
lack of bodily control
A second time he was placed in the bath, and then he
was taken to be blessed during the procession of the Blessed Sacrament in the
great square in front of the church. Just as the Sacred Host had passed by, his
right arm, which had been dead since 1915, was violently agitated. He burst the
bandages and blessed himself — for the first time in years. A strange feeling
came into his legs. The stretcher-bearers thought he was having another bad
turn. He was given an injection to keep him quiet, and taken back to bed.
From Cripple to Coal-Man
That was in the afternoon. Early next morning he heard
the bells ringing out the Lourdes hymn, and jumped out of bed. He fell on his
knees to finish the Rosary he had been saying, and then ran out of the ward,
pushed two assistants out of the way, and, in his pyjamas, ran barefoot a
distance of some two or three hundred yards, over the rough gravel, to the
Grotto.
John Traynor was cured.
“All I know, he said afterwards, “was that I should
thank the Blessed Virgin, and the Grotto was the place to do it. My mother had
taught me that when you ask a favour from Our Lady, or wish to show her some
special veneration, you should make a sacrifice. I had no money to offer, as I
had spent my last few shillings on rosaries and medals for my wife and
children, but, kneeling there before the Blessed Mother, I made the only
sacrifice I could think of. I resolved to give up cigarettes.”
Soon after that and any time afterwards for twenty
years, you could have seen in Liverpool a hefty 16-stone man, in the coal and
haulage business, lifting 200 lb. sacks of coal, who was officially classified as
100 per cent disabled and permanently incapacitated. That man was John Traynor.
He died in 1943 from hernia, a complaint in no way related to the illness and
wounds of which he was cured in Lourdes.
Another group of experts testified, though unconsciously,
to the miracle. The British War Pensions Ministry, after extensive
investigations, awarded him full disability pension for life. They never
revoked that decision.
If the enemies of religion could find a natural
explanation for such a case as this, they would certainly do so. But they have
failed. Lourdes is an unanswerable challenge to modern belief. You cannot argue
against Lourdes. You cannot use the weapon of science. You can only close your
eyes to the facts, or else — believe.
Zola Writes Fiction
There are some, of course, who say that miracles can’t
happen, therefore they don’t happen. No amount of evidence would convince
people with such an unscientific approach to the question. There are none so
blind as those that will not see. Such a man was Emile Zola, the French
novelist, who went to Lourdes and afterwards wrote a novel on what he saw
there. He actually witnessed two unmistakable cures. Marie Lebranchu (called
“La Grivotte” by Zola in his novel) had tuberculosis in a very advanced stage,
and Zola saw her coughing up blood on the train going to Lourdes. Next day, (20
th August, 1892) she was completely cured. In his novel, Zola tells the story,
but attributes her improvement to nervous excitement, and makes her collapse
and die on the way home. But she did not collapse, and never had a recurrence
of the disease.
Zola knew this, and when a doctor afterwards asked him
why he had made the story conclude in a way that was opposed to actual facts,
he replied in a tone of annoyance: “I suppose I am master of the persons in my
own books, and can let them live or die as I choose? And besides,” he added, “I
don’t believe in miracles. Even if all the sick in Lourdes were cured in one
moment, I would not believe in them!” That reminds you of the Gospel words:
“Neither will they believe if one should rise from the dead.”
Anyhow, Zola’s answer is the best that modern
materialism can give. It shows what prejudice will do to a person’s judgment in
face of incontrovertible facts. And there are no secrets about Lourdes — no
skeleton in the cupboard. Anyone is free to go there and study the evidence and
see for himself.
Miracles of Grace
But let us not get things out of proportion. The
miraculous cures at the Blessed Virgin’s shrine are only a small part of the
story of Lourdes. For something far more important goes on there all the time.
Anyone who goes there, as I have done, will realise that. Yes, the Grotto of
Massabielle is a focal point of intense prayer. If you want to see living
faith, not smothered by convention or human respect — transparent faith,
unmistakably sincere, then go with a pilgrimage to Lourdes.
Listen to the murmuring torrent of the Rosary, many
languages together in a mighty unison, as thousands of pilgrims march in
procession carrying lighted candles; and remember the message that Bernadette
brought to the priest: “And the lady said, ‘Let processions come hither’.”
Or kneel in the great square before the church as
Christ in the Sacred Host is carried round for the blessing of the sick. There
they lie, helpless on their stretchers or sitting in wheel chairs, in long
rows; and behind them kneel their relations and friends and the thousands of
pilgrims. How like those days in Galilee, when they brought out their sick and
blind and crippled that the Saviour might touch them!
This Is Near Heaven
Then a voice rings out, the voice of a priest leading
the prayers: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us!” And then: “Lord, we adore
You!” And round the square, the echo rolls from all those voices: “Lord, we adore
You!”
“Lord, we hope in You!’ And the answer comes: “Lord,
we hope in You!”
“Lord, we love You!” He who does not pray at Lourdes
is indeed hard of heart. Then, as the Blessed Sacrament approaches, you hear
the invocations:
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!”
“You are my Lord and my God!”
“You are the Resurrection and the Life!”
Again and again, the voices rise in response: “You are
the Resurrection and the Life!” Yes, and Lourdes is indeed a place of
resurrection and life. For the sick and the suffering go away from there with
new hope, new courage, new resignation and new peace. And there are conversions
there — the conversion of sinners, the conversion of unbelievers. Bernadette
once during her visions, after prostrating herself on the ground, stood and,
turning to the people, cried out three times the word “Repentance!” How many
countless souls have been brought to repentance here at the feet of the Blessed
Virgin!
So does the Mother of God lead us to her Divine Son
and to His Church. That Church has never in her long history lacked the
testimony of miracles in her difficult task of convincing mankind of her divine
mission to teach and sanctify all men. The Divine seal of miracles is the
simplest and surest guide for the seeker after the true religion. The facts are
obvious and beyond dispute. The only explanation is the direct intervention of
God, Who cannot deceive His children. Thus, the testimony of Lourdes to the
truth of the Catholic Church is its real significance for modern man.
And it all began with that gentle little girl, so
“stupid,” so favoured, who went gathering firewood by the Gave at Massabielle.
These are the facts behind the story that has captivated the world.
Deathbed of a Saint
The life of Bernadette is a perfect example of how God
makes use of the humblest of instruments to do His work. “For the weak things
of the world has God chosen that He may confound the strong.” Bernadette’s life
was one of humility, charity, suffering and the love of God. And, as she lived,
so did she die. Here is an account of her death:
“At that hour, as increasingly throughout her illness,
it was noticed how alive her eyes were. Their limpid depth had often been
spoken of; they must have been wonderful, and specially in her face, that was
so “peasant” in its purity. She answered all the prayers for the dying, and
then, an hour before her departure, raising her eyes, cried three times, “Oh!”
in a voice, they said, of surprise rather than of pain. Her body trembled
throughout; she put her hand on her heart, and said, with clear accentuation:
“My God, I love You with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my
strength.” She then took the crucifix into her own hands and kissed it, and
begged pardon once more for all the trouble she had given. Then she said she
was thirsty; she made, for the last time, her “marvellous sign of the Cross,”
and drank a few drops. Then she said gently: ‘Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray
for me, a poor sinner, a poor sinner,’ and died very quietly during this last
prayer.”
“Your life begins, Bernadette . . .”
In 1933, Bernadette was declared a Saint by the
highest authority in the Church.
– from the booklet Saint
Bernadette – Miracles at Lourdes, The Facts Behind The Story, by
Father A. E. Bennett, B.A.; published by the Australian Catholic Truth Society,
1945
2. Discourse delivered at Lourdes on April 28, 1935: Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, Discorsi e panegirici (2nd ed., Vatican, 1956) p. 435.
3. Ibid., p. 437.
4. "O blessed grotto, favored by Mary's presence! O hallowed rock whence spring the living waters of a flowing stream!"--Office of feast of the Apparitions, Hymn for II Vespers.
5. Decree de Tuto for the Canonization of Saint Bernadette, July 2, 1933: AAS 25: 1933, p. 377.
6. Letter of September 4, 1869, to Henri Lasserre: Vatican Secret Archives, Ep. lat. anno 1869, n. 388, f. 695.
7. Cant. 2. 13-14. Gradual of the Mass of the feast of the Apparitions.
8. Brief of September 8, 1901: 21 Acta Leonis XIII, 159-160.
9. Encyclical letter Ad diem illum, February 2, 1904: I Acta Pii X 149.
10. Letter of July 12, 1914: AAS 6: 1914, p. 377.
11. Brief of April 25, 1911: Arch. brev. ap., Pius X, an. 1911, Div. Lib. IX, pars 1, f. 337.
12. Brief of January 11, 1933: Arch. brev. ap. Pius XI, Ind. Perpet. f. 128.
13. Ibid.
14. Encyclical letter Fulgens corona, September 8, 1953: AAS 45: 1953, p. 578. [English tr. in The Pope Speaks, Vol.l, No. 1,p.43-Ed.
15. Ibid.
16. Apostolic constitution Omnium Ecclesiarum, August 15, 1954: AAS 46: 1954, p. 567.
17. Matt. 3.2; 4.17.
18. Office of the feast of the Apparitions, first Response of Third Nocturne.
19. John 9. 11 .
20. Cf. Mark 2.10.
21. I John 3.18.
22. Acts 4.32.
23. Letter of January 10, 1935: AAS 27, p. 7.
24. Luke 12.19-20.
25. Cf. Mark 8.36.
26. Cf. Matt. 7.14.
27. Cf. Luke 9.55.
28. I John 4.20.
29. Matt. 11.28.
30. "Amid dangers, difficulties, and doubts, think of Mary, invoke Mary's aid.... If you follow her, you will not stray; if you entreat her, you will not lose hope; if you reflect upon her, you will not err; if she supports you, you will not fall; if she protects you, you will not fear; if she leads you, you will not grow weary; if she is propitious, you will reach your goal...." Second Homily on the Missus est: PL CLXXXIII, 70-71.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_pi12lp.htm
Interiér
Kostela Sv. Ignáce z Loyoly, Karlovo náměstí, Praha
Interior
of Church of St. Ignace from Loyola, Charles Square, Prague, Czech Republic
Beata Vergine Maria di
Lourdes
- Memoria
Facoltativa
apparizioni 1858
Questa memoria si collega
alla vita e all’esperienza mistica di Maria Bernarda Soubirous (santa
Bernadetta), conversa delle suore di Nevers, favorita dalle apparizioni della
Vergine Maria (11 febbraio – 16 luglio 1858) alla grotta di Massabielle. Da
allora Lourdes è diventata mèta di intenso pellegrinaggio. Il messaggio di
Lourdes consiste nel richiamo alla conversione, alla preghiera, alla carità. (Mess.
Rom.)
Etimologia: Maria =
amata da Dio, dall'egiziano; signora, dall'ebraico
Martirologio
Romano: Beata Maria Vergine di Lourdes, che, a quattro anni dalla
proclamazione dell’Immacolata Concezione della beata Vergine, l’umile fanciulla
santa Maria Bernardetta Soubirous più volte aveva visto nella grotta di
Massabielle tra i monti Pirenei sulla riva del Gave presso la cittadina di
Lourdes, dove innumerevoli folle di fedeli accorrono con devozione.
Lourdes ricorda le apparizioni mariane più famose della storia. Esse avvennero nel 1858 ed ebbero come protagonista una ragazza di quattordici anni di nome Bernadette Soubirous. La Vergine le apparve per ben diciotto volte in una grotta, lungo il fiume Gave. Le parlò nel dialetto locale, le indicò il punto in cui scavare con le mani per trovare quella che si rivelerà una sorgente d’acqua, al contatto con la quale sarebbero scaturiti molti miracoli.
Un momento importante fu quando, in un’apparizione avvenuta il 25 marzo, festa dell’Annunciazione, alla ripetuta richiesta di Bernadette, la Vergine disse di essere l’Immacolata Concezione, venendo così a confermare il dogma del concepimento immacolato di Maria promulgato da papa Pio IX l’8 dicembre 1854 (quattro anni prima).
Ma chi era Bernadette Soubirous? Una ragazza gentile, delicata, cagionevole di salute, cresciuta in una famiglia poverissima, la quale, al tempo delle apparizioni, abitava in un luogo molto umido e malsano. Talmente malsano che, essendo stato già una prigione, si era pensato di abbandonarlo perché troppo inospitale perfino per i detenuti.
Ciò che avvenne a Lourdes lo conosciamo dalle dettagliate deposizioni che Bernadette dovette fare dinanzi alla Commissione Diocesana incaricata di esaminare i fatti.
Tutto ebbe inizio giovedì 11 febbraio 1858, quando Bernadette si recò a raccogliere legna secca nel greto del fiume Gave, insieme ad una sorella e ad una loro amica. Il gruppetto, costeggiando la riva del fiume, giunse dinanzi ad una grotta, ma li separava da essa un piccolo canale. Le compagne di Bernadette lo attraversarono senza esitazione; ella invece non poté mettere i piedi nell’acqua gelata a causa della sua gracilissima salute. Ad un tratto la sua attenzione fu richiamata da un rumore simile a un colpo di vento. Istintivamente si giro versò gli alberi pensando che il rumore fosse venuto da quella parte e invece notò che gli alberi erano completamente immobili. Seguì un secondo rumore, capì che proveniva dal cespuglio che si trovava nella grotta. Fu allora che la ragazza vide una figura bianchissima che aveva l’aspetto di una signora. Questa le fece cenno di avvicinarsi, ma la fanciulla non ebbe il coraggio di farlo. Sorpresa e turbata, non sapeva cosa fare. Bernadette si stropicciò ripetutamente gli occhi pensando che si trattasse di un’allucinazione, ma la Signora era sempre lì, dinanzi alla sua vista. Un’ispirazione le fece tirare dal tascone la sua corona di Rosario e iniziò a recitarlo…e la Signora si unì alla preghiera. Al termine del Rosario l’apparizione scomparve.
Le compagne non avevano visto nulla, né tantomeno sospettarono di qualcosa. Bernadette chiese loro se avessero visto; ovviamente la risposta fu negativa. Sulla strada del ritorno, Bernadette accennò qualcosa alla sorella. Lo stesso fece alla sera con la madre, la quale, però, cercò di convincere la fanciulla ch’era stata solo vittima di un’allucinazione e le ordinò di non tornare più alla grotta. Intanto la sorella non tenne il segreto e riferì alle sue compagne: in breve tempo molte persone vennero a conoscenza di quello che Bernadette aveva visto. Infatti, domenica 14 febbraio, diverse ragazze della sua stessa età chiesero a Bernadette di tornare alla grotta insieme a lei. Ella si rifiutò per non disobbedire alla mamma; ma le ragazze parlarono con la donna e ne ottennero il permesso. Intanto in Bernadette cresceva la paura: e se si trattava di spiriti malefici? Corse subito in chiesa per procurarsi dell’acqua benedetta. Giunse poi alla grotta e avvenne una nuova apparizione. Per tre volte asperse la grotta con l’acqua benedetta: la Signora non si mosse e sorrise. La ragazza allora estrasse la corona e iniziò a recitare il Rosario.
Il 18 febbraio l’apparizione chiese a Bernadette di tornare alla grotta per quindici giorni consecutivi, le raccomandò di andare a dire ai sacerdoti di costruire una chiesa sul luogo delle apparizioni. La ragazza fu fedele all’appuntamento.
Il 24 e 25 febbraio la Signora invitò Bernadette a mangiare dell’erba, a fare dei gesti di penitenza e le ordinò di scavare con le mani sul lato sinistro della grotta. La fanciulla trovò dell’acqua, la Signora le disse di bere ed ella obbedì: portò l’acqua torbida alla bocca, si lavò e poi la bevve.
Il 25 marzo la Signora disse finalmente il suo nome. L’apparizione restò immobile, mostrandosi nell’atteggiamento della Vergine raffigurata nella famosa medaglia miracolosa rivelata a santa Caterina Labourè. La Signora sollevò le mani, le congiunse all’altezza del petto, levò gli occhi al cielo e disse: «Io sono l’Immacolata Concezione».
La Madonna promise a Bernadette la felicità, ma non in questo mondo. A Nevers la veggente visse da religiosa il messaggio di penitenza e di preghiera che aveva ricevuto alla grotta. Morì santamente il 16 aprile 1878, all’età di trentatré anni; età significativa visto le enormi sofferenze che contrassegnarono la sua vita. Fu beatificata nel 1925 e canonizzata nel 1933.
Le apparizioni di Lourdes vennero ufficialmente riconosciute dal vescovo di Tarbes il 18 febbraio del 1862. Ben presto fu eretta una grande chiesa così come la Vergine aveva richiesto.
Lourdes divenne subito il più celebre dei luoghi mariani. Un ufficio speciale
(le Bureau médical) fu incaricato di vagliare scientificamente le guarigioni
che iniziarono a verificarsi immediatamente. Di miracoli finora ne sono stati
riconosciuti una settantina, ma di fatto sono molti di più. Ancora più numerose
sono le conversioni.
La risposta a qualsiasi utopia
Pio IX nella Bolla Ineffabilis Deus con cui promulgò il dogma dell’Immacolata
Concezione dice chiaramente che la Vergine con i suoi privilegi è l’antidoto a
tutti gli errori e a tutte le eresie. Così scrive: «La nostra bocca è piena di gioia
e le Nostre labbra di esultanza, e rendiamo e renderemo sempre i più umili e i
più vivi ringraziamenti a nostro Signore Gesù Cristo, per averci concesso la
grazia singolare di potere, sebbene immeritevoli, offrire e decretare questo
onore, questa gloria e questa lode alla sua santissima Madre. E poi
riaffermiamo la Nostra più fiduciosa speranza nella beatissima Vergine, che,
tutta bella e immacolata, ha schiacciato il capo velenoso del crudelissimo
serpente, e ha portato la salvezza al mondo; in colei che è gloria dei profeti
e degli apostoli, onore dei martiri, letizia e corona di tutti i santi;
sicurissimo rifugio e fedelissimo aiuto di tutti coloro che sono in pericolo;
potentissima mediatrice e riconciliatrice di tutto il mondo presso il suo Figlio
unigenito; fulgidissima bellezza e ornamento della Chiesa e della sua
saldissima difesa. Riaffermiamo la Nostra speranza in colei che ha sempre
distrutto tutte le eresie, ha salvato i popoli fedeli da gravissimi mali di
ogni genere, e ha liberato Noi stessi da tanti pericoli, che ci sovrastano. Noi
confidiamo che ella voglia, con la sua validissima protezione, fare sì che la
nostra santa madre, la Chiesa cattolica, superate tutte le difficoltà e
sconfitti tutti gli errori, prosperi e fiorisca ogni giorno più presso tutti i
popoli e in tutti i luoghi, dal mare al mare, e dal fiume sino ai confini della
terra, e abbia pace, tranquillità e libertà completa (…)».
Dunque, la Vergine è colei che distrugge tutte le eresie, perché è colei che ci ha donato il Salvatore permettendo la Redenzione della più grande catastrofe di tutti i tempi: il peccato originale.
Ritorniamo a Lourdes. La Provvidenza non sceglie a caso i luoghi delle apparizioni. In quei tempi la Francia era la patria del positivismo filosofico. Tale corrente affermava che solo la conoscenza sensibile potesse permettere la conoscenza della verità, se mai la verità potesse essere davvero conosciuta. Dunque un materialismo ed un sensismo radicali, che ebbero ripercussioni anche sulla concezione dell'uomo e della sua libertà. Il positivismo, infatti, portò a ritenere che l'uomo fosse totalmente determinato dalla società: una società buona renderebbe l'uomo buono, una società cattiva renderebbe l'uomo cattivo. Invece a Lourdes la Vergine, confermando il dogma dell'Immacolata Concezione, venne a ricordare al mondo la verità del peccato originale, ovvero la verità della libertà e della responsabilità umane. Quale società può essere migliore del paradiso terrestre? Eppure l'uomo, anche nel paradiso terrestre, è stato capace di peccare. Questo perché l’uomo è libero. Certamente la società può influenzarlo ma non determinarlo. Dunque, prima di agire sulle società, bisogna agire sul cuore dell’uomo, per una continua conversione dell'uomo stesso.
Pio IX, spiegando ai cardinali il valore dell’Immacolata Concezione il giorno dopo la promulgazione del dogma, così disse: «La grandezza di questo privilegio varrà moltissimo anche a confutare coloro, i quali negano che la natura umana si sia corrotta per la prima colpa ed amplificano le forze della ragione al fine di negare o di sminuire il beneficio della rivelazione. Faccia, infine, la Vergine Beatissima, la quale sconfisse e distrusse tutte le eresie, che si svella dalle radici e si distrugga anche codesto perniciosissimo errore del razionalismo, il quale, in questi tempi infelicissimi, tanto affligge e tormenta non solo la civile società, ma anche la Chiesa» (Singulari quadam, Allocuzione al Concistoro del 9 dicembre 1854).
Il celebre pensatore spagnolo Donoso Cortes afferma che dalla negazione del peccato originale nascono tutti gli errori, perché dalla negazione del peccato originale nascono tutte le utopie. Così scrive in una sua lettera: «La negazione del peccato originale è uno dei dogmi fondamentali della Rivoluzione. Supporre che l'uomo non sia caduto nel peccato originale significa negare, e si nega, il mistero della Redenzione e della Incarnazione, il dogma della personalità esteriore del Verbo e il Verbo stesso. Supporre l'integrità naturale della volontà umana, da una parte, e non riconoscere, dall'altra, l'esistenza di altro male e di altro peccato che il male ed il peccato filosofico, significa negare, e si nega, l'azione santificante di Dio sull'uomo e con essa il dogma della personalità dello Spirito Santo. Da tutte queste negazioni deriva la negazione del dogma sovrano della Santissima Trinità, pietra angolare della nostra fede e fondamento di tutti i dogmi cattolici».
La negazione del peccato originale vuol dire la possibilità che l’uomo sia per natura buono e che ciò che lo contamini siano solo le strutture sociali, per cui sarebbe possibile, qualora si creasse una sorta di “società perfetta”, il trionfo totale del bene e della completa bontà dell’uomo stesso. Insomma: l’essenza di ogni utopia, ma anche la convinzione, tipicamente moderna, secondo cui l’uomo possa, con il suo agire (in questo caso con il suo agire politico e sociale), essere “salvatore” di se stesso.
La Vergine a Lourdes indica invece due prospettive: 1) Quella del Cielo come unico fine dell’uomo. 2) Quella dell’eliminazione del peccato come principale scopo dell’agire umano.
Quella del Cielo come unico fine dell’uomo. A Bernadette l’Immacolata disse: «Non ti prometto la felicità quaggiù, ma in Paradiso». Il che significava ricordare all’uomo che la legittima speranza di migliorare la vita terrena non poteva essere sostituita con la pretesa di eliminare totalmente il male da questa stessa vita. Sappiamo che il positivismo filosofico alimentò l’utopia di un possibile mondo senza malattia e senza morte, utopia che poi naufragò tragicamente soprattutto a causa della catastrofe della Grande Guerra.
Quella dell’eliminazione del peccato come principale compito dell’agire umano.
L’uomo può diventare buono principalmente con la conversione; le strutture
sociali e il progresso medico scientifico hanno senz’altro un valore importante
ma certamente relativo: ciò che conta è la santità. Ed ecco perché Lourdes è
diventata anche la vera oasi della sofferenza fisica, che, nella tenerezza
della Vergine Immacolata, può trovare straordinariamente la guarigione (i
miracoli), ma ordinariamente trova di certo la forza per andare avanti e la
luce per capire la relatività della vita terrena in comparazione alla pienezza
della vita del Paradiso.
Autore: Corrado Gnerre
Kapliczka Matki Boskiej z Lourdess i św. Bernadetty przy klasztorze ss. Pasterek w Poznaniu
Quella mattina era un giovedì grasso e a Lourdes faceva tanto freddo. In casa Soubirous non c’era più legna da ardere. Bernadette, che allora aveva 14 anni, era andata con la sorella Toinette e una compagna a cercar dei rami secchi nei dintorni del paese.
Verso mezzogiorno le tre bambine giunsero vicino alla rupe di Massabielle, che formava, lungo il fiume Gave, una piccola grotta. Qui c’era “la tute aux cochons”, il riparo per i maiali, un angolo sotto la roccia dove l’acqua depositava sempre legna e detriti. Per poterli andare a raccogliere, bisognava però attraversare un canale d’acqua, che veniva da un mulino e si gettava nel fiume.
Toinette e l’amica calzavano gli zoccoli, senza calze. Se li tolsero, per entrare nell'acqua fredda. Bernadette invece, essendo molto delicata e soffrendo d'asma, portava le calze. Pregò l’amica di prenderla sulle spalle, ma quella si rifiutò, scendendo con Toinette verso il fiume.
Rimasta sola, Bernadette pensò di togliersi anche lei gli zoccoli e le calze, ma mentre si accingeva a far questo udì un gran rumore: alzò gli occhi e vide che la quercia abbarbicata al masso di pietra si agitava violentemente, per quanto non ci fosse nell’aria neanche un alito di vento. Poi la grotta fu piena di una nube d’oro, e una splendida Signora apparve sulla roccia.
La Signora aveva l’aspetto di una giovane di sedici o diciassette anni. Vestita di bianco, con una fascia azzurra che scendeva lungo l’abito, portava sulla testa un velo bianco che lasciava intravedere appena i capelli ricadendo all’indietro fino all’altezza della fascia. Dal braccio le pendeva un grande rosario dai grani bianchi, legati da una catenella d’oro, mentre sui piedi nudi brillavano due rose, anch’esse di un oro lucente.
Istintivamente, Bernadette s'inginocchiò, tirando fuori la coroncina del Rosario. La Signora la lasciò fare, unendosi alla sua preghiera con lo scorrere silenzioso fra le sue dita dei grani del Rosario. Alla fine di ogni posta, recitava ad alta voce insieme a Bernadette il Gloria Patri. Quando la piccola veggente ebbe terminato il Rosario, la bella Signora scomparve all’improvviso, ritirandosi nella nicchia, così come era venuta.
Tre giorni dopo, il 14 Febbraio, Bernadette - che ha subito raccontato alla sorella e all’amica quanto le è accaduto, riferendo della cosa anche in casa – si sente chiamata interiormente verso la grotta di Massabielle, munita questa volta di una bottiglietta di acqua benedetta che getta prontamente sulla S. Vergine durante la nuova apparizione, perché, così le è stato detto, su queste cose non si sa mai e potrebbe anche essere il diavolo a farle un tiro mancino…
La Vergine sorride al gesto di Bernadette e non dice nulla. Il 18 febbraio, finalmente, la Signora parla. “Non vi prometto di farvi felice in questo mondo – le dice - , ma nell’altro. Volete farmi la cortesia di venire qui per quindici giorni?”. La Signora, quindi, confida a Bernadette tre segreti che la giovane deve tenere per sé e non rivelare mai a nessuno.
Intanto la notizia delle apparizioni si diffonde in un baleno in tutta Lourdes e molti curiosi si recano con Bernadette in quella grotta dove lei dice di vedere “Aquéro” (quella là, nel dialetto di Lourdes). Bernadette, infatti, non conosce il francese, ma sa parlare solo il patois, il dialetto locale. E nel patois la bella Signora che le appare a Massabielle è “Aquéro”.
E intanto l’afflusso della gente alla grotta aumenta. Nell’apparizione del 24 febbraio la Madonna ripete per tre volte la parola “Penitenza”. Ed esorta: “Pregate per i peccatori”.
Il giorno seguente, la Signora dice a Bernadette di andare alla fonte a lavarsi e a bere. Ma non c’erano fonti in quel luogo, né sorgenti. La Signora allora indica un punto esatto. Bernadette vi si reca e poiché non vede l’acqua comincia a scavare con le sue mani, impiastricciandosi la faccia e mangiando fili d’erba... Tutti i presenti si burlano di lei. Ma, poco dopo, da quella piccola buca scavata nella terra dalle mani di Bernadette, cominciava a scorrere acqua in abbondanza. Un cieco si bagnò gli occhi con quell’acqua e riacquistò la vista all’istante.
Da allora la sorgente non ha mai cessato di sgorgare. E’ l’acqua di Lourdes, che prodigiosamente guarisce ancora oggi ogni sorta di mali, spirituali e fisici, e senza minimamente diffondere il contagio delle migliaia di malati immersi nelle piscine. È anche il ricordo più caro che ogni pellegrino ama portare con sé, facendo ritorno a casa dalla cittadella di Maria.
Ma un fatto ancora più eclatante doveva verificarsi, dopo il miracolo della sorgente, per avvalorare come soprannaturali le apparizioni di Massabielle. La Signora aveva chiesto a Bernadette che i sacerdoti si portassero lì in processione e che si costruisse una cappella. L’abate Peyramale, però, parroco di Lourdes, non ne voleva sapere e chiese perciò a Bernadette un segno irrefutabile: qual era il nome della bella Signora che le appariva alla grotta?
Nell’apparizione del 25 marzo 1858, “Aquéro” rivelò finalmente il suo nome. Alla domanda di Bernadette, nel dialetto locale rispose: “Que soy era Immaculada Councepciou…” (Io sono l’Immacolata Concezione). Quattro anni prima, Papa Pio IX aveva dichiarato l'Immacolata Concezione di Maria un dogma, cioè una verità della fede cattolica, ma questo Bernadette non poteva saperlo. Così, nel timore di dimenticare tale espressione per lei incomprensibile, la ragazza partì velocemente verso la casa dell’abate Peyramale, ripetendogli tutto d’un fiato la frase appena ascoltata.
L’abate, sconvolto, non ha più dubbi. Da questo momento il cammino verso il riconoscimento ufficiale delle apparizioni può procedere speditamente, fino alla lettera pastorale firmata nel 1862 dal vescovo di Tarbes, che, dopo un’accurata inchiesta, consacrava per sempre Lourdes alla sua vocazione di santuario mariano internazionale.
Autore: Maria Di Lorenzo
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/26100
Maria (Lourdes « 露德圣 » Our Lady of Lourdes, version) statue at the Pingyao Catholic church, Shanxi province, People Republic of China. Red prayers flags have Shuangxi (double hapiness) in papercut.
Bernadette
Soubirous, Our Lady of Lourdes, Lourdes, Its Grotto, Apparitions and Cures, by
Monsignor John Walsh : https://catholicsaints.info/bernadette-soubirous-our-lady-of-lourdes-lourdes-its-grotto-apparitions-and-cures-by-monsignor-john-walsh/
Lourdes, by Father Robert Hugh Benson : https://catholicsaints.info/lourdes-by-father-robert-hugh-benson/
