samedi 11 février 2012

NOTRE-DAME DE LOURDES

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.

SOURCE : http://www.paroisse-saint-aygulf.fr/index.php/prieres-et-liturgie/saints-par-mois/icalrepeat.detail/2015/02/11/4905/-/notre-dame-de-lourdes


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'Église 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.


"Du 11 février au 16 juillet 1858, par dix huit fois, la Vierge Marie est apparue à Bernadette Soubirous à la grotte de Massabielle. L'évêque de Tarbes et Lourdes permit le culte de Notre-Dame en ces lieux et une chapelle y fut construite. Depuis lors, des foules innombrables y viennent du monde entier. La mémoire de ces apparitions a été inscrite au calendrier romain en 1907." (diocèse de Tarbes et Lourdes)

"Il est normal que Marie, mère et modèle de l'Église, soit invoquée et vénérée comme Salus Infirmorum. Première et parfaite disciple de son fils, elle a toujours fait preuve en accompagnant le cheminement de l'Église d'une sollicitude particulière pour qui souffre... En célébrant les apparitions de Lourdes, lieu choisi par Marie pour manifester sa sollicitude maternelle envers les malades, la liturgie re-propose justement le Magnificat...qui n'est pas le cantique de ceux à qui sourit la fortune. Il est le merci de ceux qui connaissent les drames de la vie et mettent leur confiance dans l’œuvre rédemptrice de Dieu... Comme Marie, l'Église porte en elle les drames humains et la consolation divine au long de l'histoire... Acceptée et offerte, partagée sincèrement et gratuitement, la souffrance devient un miracle de l'amour..." Benoît XVI, le 11 février 2010 (source: VIS 100212 520)

Mémoire de Notre-Dame de Lourdes. En 1858, trois ans après la proclamation du dogme de l'Immaculée Conception, une toute jeune fille, sainte Bernadette Soubirous, contempla à plusieurs reprises la Vierge Marie dans la grotte de Massabielle au bord du Gave, près de Lourdes, devenue dès lors un lieu vénéré par des foules innombrables de fidèles.

Martyrologe romain

Dieu notre Père,
parmi toutes tes créatures, tu as fait éclore Marie,
la créature parfaite, «l'Immaculée Conception».
Ici, à Lourdes, elle a prononcé ce nom et Bernadette l'a répété.
L'Immaculée Conception, c'est un cri d'espérance :
le mal, le péché et la mort ne sont plus les vainqueurs.

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 ”.

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).



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.



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 appellait 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.


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


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.

A MATINES. avant 1960

Invitatoire. Célébrons l’Immaculée Conception de la Vierge, * Adorons son Fils, le Christ, le Seigneur.

Apparition de la Sainte Vierge Marie à Sainte Bernadette, Lourdes, vitrail, Eglise Notre-Dame, Bonneval



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.

AUX DEUXIÈMES VÊPRES.

Notre-Dame de Lourdes, Saint-Briac, Saint-Briac-sur-mer, Ille-et-Vilaine, 



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).


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.


Vitrail de la basilique de l'Immaculée-Conception - Deuxième apparition de la Vierge à Bernadette


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. »

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


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

Les signes positifs de Lourdes sont inversement innombrables : le récit, sa cohérence, sa parfaite stabilité dans le temps, le nom de la Vierge, la vie de Bernadette, la source trouvée qui n’a jamais tari, les innombrables miracles et les guérisons inexplicables authentifiées par le bureau médical, etc. Il faut lire l’excellent Mandement par lequel Mgr Laurence, évêque de Tarbes, reconnaît les apparitions, au terme d’une enquête minutieuse et documentée. Tout est clair là aussi et toute la suite de l’histoire de Lourdes témoigne à 100% en faveur des apparitions : un lieu de grâce, de charité, de paix, de miracles comme rarement et même comme nulle part ailleurs dans l’histoire du monde. 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. Lourdes est un cas vraiment spécial : celui qui voudrait le nier devrait aller contre un immense nombre de documents et de faits.

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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 !

Personnellement, j’ai découvert la foi, venant de l’agnosticisme, lorsque j’étais à l’Université à Turin, en sciences politiques, et j’ai toujours recherché les raisons de croire. Lourdes est pour moi un cas exemplaire, un don qui a été fait par Dieu, une poignée à saisir lorsque le doute nous menace. C’est un signe de plus pour authentifier l’ensemble de la foi catholique. Pour moi, si Lourdes est vrai, tout — dans le Credo — est vrai : Dieu, le Christ, l’Église « une, catholique, apostolique, romaine ».

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SOURCE : https://fr.aleteia.org/2021/02/10/peut-on-douter-de-lourdes/




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 XIIIauthorized 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.


Igreja de Nossa Senhora de Lourdes em Porto Alegre, Brasil


Our Lady of Lourdes


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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.

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Additional Information

MLA Citation

  • “Our Lady of Lourdes“. CatholicSaints.Info. 18 July 2020. Web. 10 February 2021. <https://catholicsaints.info/our-lady-of-lourdes/>

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/our-lady-of-lourdes/


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

Saint Bernadette

“. . . 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

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/catholic-truth-society-saint-bernadette-miracles-at-lourdes-the-facts-behind-the-story/




Le Pelerinage de Lourdes

Encyclical Warning Against Materialism 


His Holiness Pope Pius XII 


Promulgated on July 2, 1957

To the Cardinals, Archbishops, and Bishops of France in Peace and Communion with the Apostolic See.

Beloved Sons and Venerable Brethren, Greetings and Apostolic Benediction.

DEEP IN OUR SOUL are profound and pleasant memories of the pilgrimage to Lourdes which We had the privilege of making when We went to preside, in the name of Our Predecessor, Pius XI, over the Eucharistic and Marian celebrations marking the close of the Jubilee of the Redemption.

2. We are particularly pleased, therefore, to learn that, on the initiative of the Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, this Marian city is preparing an appropriate celebration for the centenary of the apparitions of the Immaculate Virgin at the grotto of Massabielle, and that an international committee has been set up for this purpose under the presidency of His Eminence Eugene Cardinal Tisserant, Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals.

3. We wish to join with you, Beloved Sons and Venerable Brothers, in thanking God for the great favor granted your country, and for the many graces He has bestowed on multitudes of pilgrims during the past century.

4. We wish to invite all Our children to renew in this jubilee year their confident and generous devotion to her who, in the words of Saint Pius X, deigned to establish at Lourdes "the seat of her immense kindness."[1]

5. Every Christian land is a Marian land; there is not a nation redeemed in the blood of Christ which does not glory in proclaiming Mary its Mother and Patroness. This truth is brought into sharp relief by reflection on the history of France. Devotion to the Mother of God dates back to the early days of France's evangelization, and Chartres, one of the most ancient Marian shrines, still attracts a great number of pilgrims, including thousands of young people.

6. The Middle Ages, which, especially through Saint Bernard, sang Mary's glory and celebrated her mysteries, witnessed a marvelous flowering of French cathedrals dedicated to our Lady: Le Puy, Rheims, Amiens, Paris, and so many others. . . With their spires upthrust they announce from afar the glory of the Immaculate; they heighten its splendor in the pure light of their stained-glass windows and in the harmonious beauty of their statues. They bear witness above all to the faith of a people which outdid itself in a magnificent display of energy, erecting against the sky of France the permanent homage of its devotion to Mary.

7. In the cities and the countryside, on the hilltops and overlooking the sea, shrines consecrated to Mary--whether humble chapels or splendid basilicas--little by little enfolded the country in their protective shadow. Princes and shepherds of souls and the faithful without number have come to these shrines through the centuries, to the holy Virgin whom they have greeted with titles expressive of their hope or gratitude.

8. Here they invoke Notre Dame de Misericorde [Our Lady of Mercy], de Toute Aide [of All Help], de Bon Secours [of Prompt Succor]. There the pilgrim seeks refuge near Notre Dame de la Garde [Our Lady of Watchfulness], de Pitie, or de Consolation. Elsewhere the pilgrim's prayer rises to Notre Dame de Lumiere [Our Lady of Light], de Paix, de Joie, or d'Esperance [of Hope]. Or he implores the intercession of Notre Dame des Vertus, des Miracles, or des Victoires. It is a wonderful litany of invocations whose unceasing recital tells, from province to province, the blessings which the Mother of God has bestowed on the land of France through the ages.

9. In many ways the nineteenth century was to become, after the turmoil of the Revolution, a century of Marian favors. To mention but a single instance, everyone is familiar today with the "miraculous medal." This medal, with its image of "Mary conceived without sin," was revealed to a humble daughter of Saint Vincent de Paul whom We had the joy of inscribing in the catalogue of Saints, and it has spread its spiritual and material wonders everywhere.

10. A few years later, from February 11 to July 16, 1858, the Blessed Virgin Mary was pleased, as a new favor, to manifest herself in the territory of the Pyrenees to a pious and pure child of a poor, hardworking, Christian family. "She came to Bernadette," We once said. "She made her her confidante, her collaboratrix, the instrument of her maternal tenderness and of the merciful power of her Son, to restore the world in Christ through a new and incomparable outpouring of the Redemption."[2]

11. You are quite familiar with the events which took place at Lourdes at that time, the spiritual proportions of which are better measured today. You know, Beloved Sons and Venerable Brethren, the astonishing circumstances under which the voice of that child, the messenger of the Immaculate, compelled the world's recognition despite ridicule, doubt, and opposition. You know the steadfastness and purity of her testimony, wisely put to the test by episcopal authority and approved as early as 1862.

12. Crowds flocked even then and they still surge into the grotto of the apparitions, to the miraculous spring, and into the shrine erected at Mary's request.

13. There is the moving procession of the lowly, the sick, and the afflicted. There is the impressive pilgrimage of thousands of the faithful from a particular diocese or country. There is the quiet visit of a troubled soul seeking truth. "No one," We once said, "has ever seen such a procession of suffering in one spot on earth, never such radiance of peace, serenity, and joy!"[3]

14. Nor will anyone ever know, We might add, the full sum of the benefits which the world owes to the aid of the Virgin! "O specus felix, decorate divae Matris aspectu! Veneranda rupes, unde vitales scatuere pleno gurgite Iymhae!"[4]

15. This century of Marian devotion has also in a certain way woven close bonds between the See of Peter and the shrine in the Pyrenees, bonds which We are pleased to acknowledge.

16. The Virgin Mary herself desired this tie. "What the Sovereign Pontiff defined in Rome through his infallible Magisterium, the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God, blessed among all women, wanted to confirm by her own words, it seems, when shortly afterward she manifested herself by a famous apparition at the grotto of Massabielle. . ."[5] Certainly the infallible word of the Roman Pontiff, the authoritative interpreter of revealed truth, needed no heavenly confirmation that it might be accepted by the faithful. But with what emotion and gratitude did the Christian people and their pastors receive from the lips of Bernadette this answer which came from heaven: "I am the Immaculate Conception!"

17. It is therefore not surprising that it should have pleased Our Predecessors to multiply their favors toward this sanctuary.

18. As early as 1869 Pius IX of holy memory rejoiced that the obstacles created against Lourdes by the malice of men "rendered stronger and more evident the clarity of the fact."[6] And strengthened by this assurance, he heaped spiritual benefits upon the newly erected church and crowned the statue of our Lady of Lourdes.

19. In 1892 Leo XIII granted the proper Office and Mass of the feast "In apparitione Beatae Mariae Virginis Immaculatae," which his successor was to extend to the Universal Church a short time later. Henceforth the ancient appeal of the Scriptures was to have a new application: "Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come. My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hollow place of the wall. . ."[7]

20. Near the end of his life, this great Pontiff decided to install and bless a reproduction of the grotto of Massabielle in the Vatican gardens, and in those days his voice rose to the Virgin of Lourdes in an ardent and trusting prayer: "In her power may the Virgin Mother, who once cooperated through her love with the birth of the faithful into the Church, now be the means and guardian of our salvation; may she return the tranquillity of peace to troubled souls; may she hasten the return of Jesus Christ in private and public life."[8]

21. The fiftieth anniversary of the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin gave Saint Pius X occasion to bear witness in a solemn document to the historic connection between this act of the Magisterium and the apparitions at Lourdes. "Pius IX," he wrote, "had hardly defined it to be of Catholic faith that Mary was from her very origin exempt from sin, when the Virgin herself began performing miracles at Lourdes."[9]

22. Soon afterward he created the episcopal title of Lourdes, attached it to that of Tarbes, and signed the introduction of the cause for the beatification of Bernadette. It was especially reserved to this great Pope of the Eucharist to emphasize and promote the wonderful harmony existing at Lourdes between Eucharistic worship and Marian prayer. "Devotion to the Mother of God," he noted, "has led to a flowering at Lourdes of remarkable and ardent devotion to Christ our Lord."[10]

23. It could not have been otherwise. Everything about Mary directs us to her Son, our only Savior, in anticipation of whose merits she was immaculate and full of grace. Everything about Mary raises us to the praise of the adorable Trinity; and so it was that Bernadette, praying her rosary before the grotto, learned from the words and bearing of the Blessed Virgin how she should give glory to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

24. We are pleased in this centenary year to adopt as Our home the homage rendered by Saint Pius X: "The unique glory of the shrine of Lourdes lies in the fact that people are drawn there from everywhere by Mary to adore Jesus Christ in the august Sacrament, so that this shrine--at once a center of Marian devotion and a throne of the Eucharistic mystery--surpasses in glory, it seems, all others in the Catholic world.[11]

25. Benedict XV wanted to enrich this shrine, already loaded down with favors, with new and valuable indulgences, and though the tragic circumstances of his Pontificate did not allow him to multiply public expressions of his devotion, he nevertheless willed to honor the Marian city by granting to its bishop the privilege of the pallium at the place of the apparitions.

26. Pius XI, who had been to Lourdes himself as a pilgrim, continued the work of Benedict XV. He had the joy of raising to the honors of the altar the girl who had been favored by the Virgin and who, in the habit of the Congregation of Charity and Christian Instruction, had become Sister Marie Bernard. Did he not, so to say, authenticate on his part the promise made by the Immaculate to young Bernadette that she would "be happy not in this world, but in the next"?

27. From that time on, Nevers, which takes pride in keeping Bernadette's precious relics, has attracted a great number of Lourdes pilgrims who have wanted to learn from her how the message of Lourdes applies to our day.

28. Soon the illustrious Pontiff who, like his predecessors, had honored the anniversary celebrations of the apparitions by sending a legate, decided to conclude the Jubilee of the Redemption at the Grotto of Massabielle where, in his own words, "the Immaculate Virgin Mary appeared several times to Blessed Bernadette Soubirous, and, in her kindness, exhorted all men to do penance at the scene of these wondrous apparitions, a place she has showered with graces and miracles."[12] Truly, Pius XI concluded, is this sanctuary "now justly considered one of the principal Marian shrines in the world."[13]

29. We could not refrain from adding Our voice to this unanimous chorus of praise. We did so particularly in Our Encyclical Fulgens corona, by recalling, in the spirit of Our Predecessors, that "the Blessed Virgin Mary herself wanted to confirm by some special sign the definition which the Vicar on earth of her Divine Son had pronounced amidst the vigorous approbation of the whole Church."[14]

30. On that occasion We recalled how the Roman Pontiffs, conscious of the importance of this pilgrimage, had never ceased to "enrich it with spiritual favors and generous benefits."[15]

31. The history of the past century, which We have recalled in its broad outlines, is a constant illustration of this Pontifical generosity, the most recent manifestation of which has been the closing at Lourdes of the centenary year of the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

32. But We would like especially to recall to your attention, Beloved Sons and Venerable Brothers, a recent document in which We encouraged the growth of a missionary apostolate in your beloved country. We intended by this message to call to mind the "singular merits which France had acquired through the centuries in the progress of the Catholic faith," and for this reason "We turned Our mind and heart to Lourdes where, four years after the definition of the dogma, the Immaculate Virgin herself gave supernatural confirmation to the declaration of the Supreme Teacher, by appearances, conversations, and miracles."[16]

33. Today once again We turn to the famous shrine as it prepares to receive the crowds of centenary pilgrims on the shores of the River Gave. In the past century ardent public and private prayers have obtained from God many graces of healing and conversion at Lourdes through Mary's intercession, and We are firmly confident that in this jubilee year our Lady intends to respond open-handedly once more to the expectation of her children. But We are particularly convinced that she urges us to master the spiritual lessons of the apparitions and set ourselves upon the path which she has so clearly traced for us.

34. These lessons, a faithful echo of the Gospel message, accentuate in a striking way the differences which set off God's judgments from the vain wisdom of this world.

35. In a society which is barely conscious of the ills which assail it, which conceals its miseries and injustices beneath a prosperous, glittering, and trouble-free exterior, the Immaculate Virgin, whom sin has never touched, manifests herself to an innocent child. With a mother's compassion she looks upon this world redeemed by her Son's blood, where sin accomplishes so much ruin daily, and three times makes her urgent appeal: "Penance, penance, penance!" She even appeals for outward expressions: "Go kiss the earth in penance for sinners." And to this gesture must be added a prayer: "Pray to God for sinners."

36. As in the days of John the Baptist, as at the start of Jesus' ministry, this command, strong and rigorous, shows men the way which leads back to God: "Repent!"[17] Who would dare to say that this appeal for the conversion of hearts is untimely today?

37. But the Mother of God could come to her children only as a messenger of forgiveness and hope. Already the water flows at her feet: "Omnes sitientes, venite ad aquas, et haurietis salutem a Domino."[18] At this spring where gentle Bernadette was the first to go to drink and wash, all miseries of soul and body will flow away. "And I went and washed and I see," the grateful pilgrim will be able to reply, in the words of the blind man of the Gospel.[19]

38. But as was true for the crowds which pressed around Jesus, the healing of bodily ills is still a gesture of mercy and a sign of that power which the Son of Man has to forgive sins.[20] The Virgin invites us to the blessed grotto in her Divine Son's name for the conversion of our hearts and in the hope of forgiveness. Will we heed her?

39. The true greatness of this jubilee year is in the humble answer of the man who admits that he is a sinner. Great blessings for the Church could be justly anticipated if every pilgrim to Lourdes--in fact, every Christian united in spirit with the centenary celebrations--would first realize within himself this work of sanctification, "not in word, neither with the tongue, but in deed and in truth."[21] Moreover, everything invites him to this work, for nowhere, perhaps, except at Lourdes does one feel so moved to prayer, to the forgetting of oneself, and to charity.

40. When they see the devotion of the stretcher-bearers and the serene peace of the invalids, when they consider the spirit of brotherhood which unites the faithful of all races in a single prayer, when they observe the spontaneous mutual assistance and the sincere fervor of the pilgrims kneeling before the grotto, then the best of men are seized by the appeal of a life more completely dedicated to the service of God and their brothers; the less fervent become conscious of their lukewarmness and return to the road of prayer; quite hardened and skeptical sinners are often touched by grace, or at least, if they are honest, are moved by the testimony of this "multitude of believers of one heart and one soul."[22]

41. But in itself this experience of a few brief days of pilgrimage is not usually sufficient to engrave in indelible letters the call of Mary to a genuine spiritual conversion. That is why We exhort the shepherds of dioceses and all priests to outdo one another in zeal that the centenary pilgrimages may benefit by preparation, and, above all, by a follow-up which will be as conducive as possible to a profound and lasting action of grace.

42. Only on condition of a return to regular reception of the sacraments, a regard for Christian morals in everyday life, entry into the ranks of Catholic Action and other apostolates recommended by the Church, can the great crowds expected to gather at Lourdes in 1958 yield-- according to the expectations of the Immaculate Virgin herself--the fruits of salvation so necessary to mankind today.

43. But however important it may be, the conversion of the individual pilgrim is not enough. We exhort you in this jubilee year, Beloved Sons and Venerable Brothers, to inspire among the faithful entrusted to your care a common effort for the Christian renewal of society in answer to Mary's appeal.

44. "May blind spirits . . . be illumined by the light of truth and justice," Pius XI asked during the Marian feasts of the Jubilee of the Redemption, "so that those who have gone astray into error may be brought back to the straight path, that a just liberty may be granted the Church everywhere, and that an era of peace and true prosperity may come upon all the nations."[23]

45. But the world, which today affords so many justifiable reasons for pride and hope, is also undergoing a terrible temptation to materialism which has been denounced by Our Predecessors and Ourselves on many occasions.

46. This materialism is not confined to that condemned philosophy which dictates the policies and economy of a large segment of mankind. It rages also in a love of money which creates ever greater havoc as modern enterprises expand, and which, unfortunately, determines many of the decisions which weigh heavy on the life of the people. It finds expression in the cult of the body, in excessive desire for comforts, and in flight from all the austerities of life. It encourages scorn for human life, even for life which is destroyed before seeing the light of day.

47. This materialism is present in the unrestrained search for pleasure, which flaunts itself shamelessly and tries, through reading matter and entertainments, to seduce souls which are still pure. It shows itself in lack of interest in one's brother, in selfishness which crushes him, in justice which deprives him of his rights--in a word, in that concept of life which regulates everything exclusively in terms of material prosperity and earthly satisfactions.

48. "And I will say to my soul. the rich man said, Soul, thou hast many good things laid up for many years; take thy ease, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, Thou fool, this night do they demand thy soul of thee."[24]

49. To a society which in its public life often contests the supreme rights of God, to a society which would gain the whole world at the expense of its own soul[25] and thus hasten to its own destruction, the Virgin Mother has sent a cry of alarm.

50. May priests be attentive to her appeal and have the courage to preach the great truths of salvation fearlessly. The only lasting renewal, in fact, will be one based on the changeless principles of faith, and it is the duty of priests to form the consciences of Christian people.

51. Just as the Immaculate, compassionate of our miseries, but discerning our real needs, came to men to remind them of the essential and austere steps of religious conversion, so the ministers of the Word of God should, with supernatural confidence, point out to souls the narrow road which leads to life.[26] They will do this without forgetting the spirit of kindness and patience which they profess, but also without concealing anything of the Gospel's demands.[27] In the school of Mary they will learn to live not only that they may give Christ to the world, but also, if need be, to await with faith the hour of Jesus and to remain at the foot of the cross.

52. Assembled around their priests, the faithful must cooperate in this effort for renewal. Wherever Providence has placed a man, there is always more to be done for God's cause. Our thoughts turn first to the host of consecrated souls who, within the framework of the Church, devote themselves to innumerable good works. Their religious vows dedicate them more than others to fight victoriously under Mary's banner against the onslaught which inordinate lust for freedom, riches, and pleasure makes on the world. In response to the Immaculate, they will resolve to oppose the attacks of evil with the weapons of prayer and penance and by triumphs of charity.

53. Our thoughts turn also to Christian families. to ask them to remain faithful to their vital mission in society. May they consecrate themselves in this jubilee year to the Immaculate Heart of Mary! For married couples this act of piety will be a valuable aid in performing their conjugal duties of chastity and faithfulness. It will keep pure the atmosphere in which their children grow up. Even more, it will make the family, inspired by its devotion to Mary, a living center of social rebirth and apostolic influence.

54. Beyond the family circle, professional and civic affairs offer a vast field of action for Christians who desire to work for the renewal of society. Gathered about the Virgin's feet, docile to her exhortations, they will first take a searching look at themselves and will try to uproot from their consciences any false judgments and selfish impulses, fearing the falsehood of a love for God which does not translate itself into effective love for their brothers.[28]

55. Christians of every class and every nation will try to be of one mind in truth and charity, and to banish misunderstanding and suspicion. Without doubt, social structures and economic pressures of enormous weight burden the good will of men and often paralyze it. But if it is true, as Our predecessors and We Ourselves have insistently stressed, that the quest for social and political peace among men is, above all, a moral problem, then no reform can bear fruit, no agreement can be lasting without a conversion and cleansing of heart. In this jubilee year the Virgin of Lourdes reminds all men of this truth!

56. And if in her solicitude Mary looks upon some of her children with a special predilection, is it not, Beloved Sons and Venerable Brothers, upon the lowly, the poor, and the afflicted whom Jesus loved so much? "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest," she seems to say along with her divine Son.[29]

57. Go to her, you who are crushed by material misery, defenseless against the hardships of life and the indifference of men. Go to her, you who are assailed by sorrows and moral trials. Go to her, beloved invalids and infirm, you who are sincerely welcomed and honored at Lourdes as the suffering members of our Lord. Go to her and receive peace of heart, strength for your daily duties, joy for the sacrifice you offer.

58. The Immaculate Virgin, who knows the secret ways by which grace operates in souls and the silent work of this supernatural leaven in this world, knows also the great price which God attaches to your sufferings united to those of the Savior. They can greatly contribute, We have no doubt, to this Christian renewal of society which We implore of God through the powerful intercession of His Mother.

59. In response to the prayers of the sick, of the humble, of all the pilgrims to Lourdes, may Mary turn her maternal gaze upon those still outside the limits of the only fold, the Church, that they may come together in unity. May she look upon those who are in search, who are thirsty for truth, and lead them to the source of living waters.

60. May she cast her glance upon the vast continents and their limitless human areas where Christ is unfortunately so little known, so little loved; and may she obtain for the Church freedom and the joy of being able to respond everywhere, always youthful, holy, and apostolic, to the longing of men.

61. "Kindly come . . . ," said the Virgin to Bernadette. This discreet invitation, which does not compel but is addressed to the heart and requests with delicacy a free and generous response, the Mother of God addresses again to her children in France and the whole world. Christians will not remain deaf to this appeal; they will go to Mary. It is to each of them that We wish to say at the conclusion of this letter with St. Bernard: "In periculis, in angustiis, in rebus dubiis, Mariam cogita, Mariam invoces. . . Ipsam sequens, non devias; ipsam rogans, non desperas; ipsam cogitans, non erras; ipsa tenente, non corruis; ipsa protegente, non metuis; ipsa duce, non fatigaris, ipsa propitia, pervenis. . . "[30]

62. We are confident, Dear Sons and Venerable Brothers, that Mary will hear your prayer and Ours. We ask her this on the feast of the Visitation, which fittingly honors her who a century ago visited the land of France.

63. And in inviting you to sing to God together with the Immaculate Virgin the Magnificat of your gratitude, We invoke upon you and your faithful, on the shrine of Lourdes and its pilgrims, on all those who bear the responsibilities of the centenary celebration, the most bounteous outpouring of grace. In token of which We impart with all Our heart, and with Our constant and paternal best wishes, the Apostolic Benediction. 64. Given at Rome, from Saint Peter's, on the feast of the Visitation of the Most Holy Virgin, July 2, 1957, the nineteenth year of Our Pontificate.

REFERENCES

1. Letter of July 12, 1914: Acta Apostolicae Sedis 6: 1914, p. 376. 

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 SquarePragueCzech 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


Ai piedi dei Pirenei, Lourdes accoglie ogni anno 5 milioni di visitatori provenienti da ogni parte del mondo. Qui un giorno Maria è apparsa all’umile veggente Bernadette Soubirous, incaricandola di un grande messaggio di speranza per l’umanità, sofferente nel corpo e nello spirito, che è l’eco della parola di Dio affidata alla Chiesa. 

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.