As a child of twelve, living in what was at the time a Protestant home; I watched an old movie titled, The Song of Bernadette, starring a very talented actress, Jennifer Jones. It left me in awe!

You see, four years earlier, my French-Canadian grandmother had taken me to my first Catholic Mass. It was there that I first learned about Mary, this beautiful woman whose image I saw for the first time as a statue in front of us at Church. At eight years of age, I couldn’t keep my eyes off her and I had plenty of questions for my grandmother after Mass.

I had wanted to become a Catholic after that experience, but, my father said “no!” Our family wasn’t really going to church and by his tone I certainly wasn’t going to be going the Catholic Church. The desire for the Catholic faith never left me and it was when I saw the movie on Bernadette’s life that I felt truly connected to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Bernadette was young, not the brightest star in the sky, but in her simplicity, she had great faith in her God. I saw myself in that…and the fact that Mary would come to a young girl took me into thoughts of fancy about being that good, that Mary would come to me. I had a true child’s heart but, of course we never received a visit.

The day came at age sixteen when my father finally allowed me to go for private instruction at the local Catholic parish, St. Rose of Lima in Miami Shores. The following Spring I was received into the Church and my Confirmation name, one that had burned in my heart for so long, was finally a reality…BERNADETTE.

To this day, I treasure that name and the saint behind it. St. Bernadette and Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes have blessed not only my life, but the life of my entire family.

I believe that any association with the powerful event at Lourdes involving St. Bernadette is a blessing in any home. So this Thursday, the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes, invite the Mother of Our Lord into your hearts and home and sit upon her knee in child like trust and ask her healing, protection and guidance upon your whole family. Say the rosary in her honor and offer your most urgent intentions. We were all given to Mary at the foot of the Cross by Jesus, as He was dying. John the Beloved, stood by her side for all of us and Jesus said, “Woman behold thy son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold your mother.”

Celebrate Our Lady of Lourdes and thank Jesus sincerely for the gift of His Loving Mother, Our Heavenly Mother.

In Lourdes, France, on February 11, 1858, Mary the Mother of Jesus appeared to a girl by the name of Bernadette Soubrious. Through the course of three weeks, Mary asked Bernadette to dig the ground with her hands and Mary would bring healing waters forth for all the world. Mary also asked Bernadette to go to the priests and ask for a Church to be built on the site. It was to Bernadette that she said, “I am the Immaculate Conception.”

All of this was accomplished.

Lourdes through the ages continues to be a place of pilgrimage for all peoples, many of whom seek the healing of the waters. Today there are over 5-million visitors a year and through the years healings of all manner, many of them verified giving to us reason to pause at the miracle God wrought at Lourdes for the sake of humankind. An excellent source of the history of Lourdes:

http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Feb2008/Feature1.asp

Saint Bernadette, having been dead 131 years this year, remains incorruptible, her mortal remains look as though she is but asleep, preserved from the physical corruption of death.

She can be viewed at this web site: http://www.catholicpilgrims.com/lourdes/ba_bernadette_intro.htm

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