Devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes: ask Mary for a grace
Our Lady of Lourdes (or Our Lady of the Rosary or, more simply, Our Lady of Lourdes) is the name with which the Catholic Church venerates Mary, mother of Jesus in relation to one of the most revered Marian apparitions. The place name refers to the French municipality of Lourdes in whose territory - between 11 February and 16 July 1858 - the young Bernadette Soubirous, a fourteen-year-old peasant girl from the area, reported having witnessed eighteen apparitions of a "beautiful lady" in a cave not far from the small suburb of Massabielle. About the first, the young woman said: “I saw a lady dressed in white. He wore a white suit, a white veil, a blue belt and a yellow rose on his feet. " This image of the Virgin, dressed in white and with a blue belt that surrounded her waist, then entered the classic iconography. In the place indicated by Bernadette as the theater of the apparitions, a statue of the Madonna was placed in 1864. Over time, an imposing sanctuary developed around the cave of the apparitions.
Prayer to Our Lady of Lourdes
O Immaculate Virgin, Mother of Mercy, health of the sick, refuge of sinners, consoler of the afflicted, You know my needs, my sufferings; deign to turn a favorable gaze upon me to my relief and comfort. By appearing in the grotto of Lourdes, you wanted it to become a privileged place, from which to spread your graces, and many unhappy people have already found the remedy for their spiritual and corporal infirmities. I too am full of confidence to implore your maternal favors; hear my humble prayer, tender Mother, and filled with your benefits, I will endeavor to imitate your virtues, to participate one day in your glory in Paradise. Amen.
3 Ave Maria
Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
Blessed be the Holy and Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God.
Prayers to the Madonna of Lourdes
Docile to the invitation of your motherly voice, O Immaculate Virgin of Lourdes, we run to your feet at the cave, where you deigned to appear to indicate to sinners the path of prayer and penance and to dispense the graces and wonders of yours to the suffering sovereign goodness. O candid Vision of Paradise, remove the darkness of error from the minds with the light of faith, lift up heartbroken souls with the heavenly scent of hope, revive the dry hearts with the divine wave of charity. Make us love and serve your sweet Jesus, so as to deserve eternal happiness. Amen.
Maria, you appeared to Bernadette in the crevice of this rock. In the cold and dark of winter, you made you feel the warmth of a presence, the light and beauty.
In the wounds and darkness of our lives, in the divisions of the world where evil is powerful, it brings hope and restores confidence! You who are the Immaculate Conception, come to the aid of us sinners. Give us the humility of conversion, the courage of penance. Teach us to pray for all men. Guide us to the sources of true Life. Make us pilgrims on the journey within your Church. Satisfy in us the hunger of the Eucharist, the bread of the journey, the bread of Life. In you, O Mary, the Holy Spirit has done great things: in his power, he has brought you to the Father, in the glory of your Son, living forever. Look with love as a mother at the miseries of our body and heart. Shine like a bright star for everyone at the moment of death.
With Bernadette, we pray to you, O Mary, with the simplicity of the children. Put in your mind the spirit of the Beatitudes. Then we can, from down here, know the joy of the Kingdom and sing with you: Magnificat!
Glory to you, O Virgin Mary, blessed servant of the Lord, Mother of God, Temple of the Holy Spirit!
Novena to the Madonna of Lourdes (from 3 to 11 February)
1st day. Our Lady of Lourdes, Immaculate Virgin, pray for us. Our Lady of Lourdes, here I am at your feet to solicit this grace: my trust in your power of intercession is unshakable. You can get everything from your divine Son. Purpose: To make an act of reconciliation towards a hostile person or from whom one has distanced oneself out of natural dislike.
2nd day. Our Lady of Lourdes, who you have chosen to play a weak and poor girl, pray for us. Our Lady of Lourdes, help me to adopt every means to become more humble and more abandoned to God. I know this is how I will be able to please you and obtain your assistance. Purpose: To choose a near date to confess, to stick.
3rd day. Our Lady of Lourdes, eighteen times blessed in your apparitions, pray for us. Our Lady of Lourdes, listen to my pleading vows today. Listen to them if, by realizing themselves, they will be able to procure the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Purpose: To visit the Blessed Sacrament in a church. Entrust nominated relatives, friends or relationships to Christ. Don't forget the dead.
4th day. Our Lady of Lourdes, you, to whom Jesus can refuse nothing, pray for us. Our Lady of Lourdes, intercede for me with your divine Son. Draw heavily on the treasures of his Heart and spread them on those who pray at your feet. Purpose: To pray a meditated rosary today.
5th day. Our Lady of Lourdes who has never been invoked in vain, pray for us. Our Lady of Lourdes, if you wish, none of those who invoke you today will leave without having experienced the effect of your powerful intercession. Purpose: To make a partial fast at noon or in the evening of today to repair their sins, and also according to the intentions of those who pray or will pray to Our Lady with this novena.
6th day. Our Lady of Lourdes, health of the sick, pray for us. Our Lady of Lourdes, Intercede for the healing of the sick that we recommend to you. Get them an increase in strength if not health. Purpose: To wholeheartedly recite an act of consecration to Our Lady.
7th day. Our Lady of Lourdes who pray incessantly for sinners, pray for us. Our Lady of Lourdes who led Bernardette to holiness, give me that Christian enthusiasm that does not retreat before any effort to make peace and love among men more reigning. Purpose: To visit a sick person or a single person.
8th day. Our Lady of Lourdes, maternal support of the whole Church, pray for us. Our Lady of Lourdes, protect our Pope and our bishop. Bless all the clergy and especially the priests who make you known and loved. Remember all the deceased priests who have transmitted the life of the soul to us. Purpose: To celebrate a mass for the souls of purgatory and to communicate with this intention.
9th day. Our Lady of Lourdes, hope and consolation of pilgrims, pray for us. Our Lady of Lourdes, having reached the end of this novena, I already want to thank you for all the graces you have obtained for me during these days, and for those that you will still obtain for me. To better receive and thank you, I promise to come and pray to you as often as possible in one of your sanctuaries. Purpose: make a pilgrimage to a Marian shrine once a year, even very close to your residence, or participate in a spiritual retreat.