Our liturgical calendar brings us the gift of the Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, which commemorates the apparitions of the young Bernadette Soubirous. This young peasant girl would articulate the message of Our Lady with the title of the Immaculate Conception. Today, we celebrate the eighteen apparitions in the small grotto of Lourdes, France which has become dedicated to the ministry of healing and spiritual nourishment with many miraculous accounts.
I have experienced pilgrimages to Lourdes several times in the past decades and it is a beautiful place where one senses the power of God’s presence through the special intercession of Our Blessed Lady. I am blessed to have been to many of the Marian shrines: Lourdes, Guadalupe, Fatima, Holy Lands, Knock, etc. Some I have visited often, and I come away feeling at peace, though sometimes the tasks that lay ahead of me may not be so easy. Bernadette experienced the same as do we all.
Continue the journey…
Spiritual Reflection: “I am the Immaculate Conception.”
Blessings of love,
Fr. Mark
