Today marks the first apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1858 to the young French girl Marie Bernade Soubirous – Saint Bernadette. Our Lady will appear at Lourdes a total of 18 times the last of which happens on July 16.
Our Lady speaks clearly in the grotto, emphasizing the urgent need for personal conversion and penance. Sickness, poverty, pain, failure, scandal, unemployment – each of these problems can lead usto God. With the help of grace, we can discover true humility by means of pressing challenges as they strip us of pretentions and make us more dependent on God. As our sufferings are elevated to Heaven through the Cross of Christ, they lose their harshness and bitterness.
On this beautiful feast, let us place our pains and sufferings into the hands of God.
From a worldly perspective suffering is the greatest evil and to be eliminated at all costs. In contrast, intentional disciples experience suffering as a pathway to Christ and means of santification.
Our Lady, the Immaculate Conception, pray for us!
Saint Bernadette, pray for us!
