Our Lady of Lourdes, I beg your prayer and intercession

Mother Mary you have appeared in Lourdes, I may not have the chance to go there but I truly know by this petition I make to you I will be healed like many who have experience your healing prayer and water from the pool. Please pray that my right knee/leg pain be healed and also my urgent and desperate need for a financial breakthrough to overcome my debt backlog loan repayments, people I owe, bills unpaid and for my own basic use like car repairs, food, toll, petrol and to help my mother instead of she help me. I am confident in your prayer and intercession on behalf of me, will pleasing to God's will and will be answered. Amen.

HELP-MY-WORK/CONTRIBUTION

Our Lady of Lourdes (Optional Memorial) ~ 11 February ~ World Day of the Sick

A optional memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, who first appeared on 11 February 1858 to Marie-Bernarde Soubirous, 14 (Saint Bernadette) at a grotto near the Soubirous home in southern France. While she was out gathering firewood with her sister and a friend at the grotto of Massabielle outside Lourdes, Bernadette claimed to see the first of 18 visions of what she termed "a small young lady" standing in a niche in the rock.There were 18 apparitions of Our Lady to Bernadette between February and July 1858. On 25 March 1858 (Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord), the 16th apparition, our lady revealed herself to Bernadette as the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Immaculate Conception and known to us as Our Lady of Lourdes. 

On 18 January 1862, Bishop Laurence, the Bishop of Tarbes, gave the solemn declaration: “We are inspired by the Commission comprising wise, holy, learned and experienced priests who questioned the child, studied the facts, examined everything and weighed all the evidence. We have also called on science, and we remain convinced that the Apparitions are supernatural and divine, and that by consequence, what Bernadette saw was the Most Blessed Virgin. Our convictions are based on the testimony of Bernadette, but above all on the things that have happened, things which can be nothing other than divine intervention”.

Pope John Paul II visited Lourdes three times and Pope Benedict XVI made a visit to Lourdes on 15 September 2008, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of 1858.

11 February was proclaimed World Day of the Sick by Pope John Paul II. Therefore, it would be appropriate to celebrate the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick on this day during a Mass or Liturgy of the Word. (The Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick is only to be given to "those of the faithful whose health is seriously impaired by sickness or old age", Roman Ritual. This Sacrament must not be given indiscriminately to all who take part in Masses for the sick.)

The first to witness Our Lady's presence at Lourdes was little Bernardette Soubirous, who became her intrepid messenger. Although she is buried far away in Nevers in the north of France, her body totally incorrupt, as if she were asleep.

Grant us, O merciful God, protection in our weakness, that we, who keep the Memorial of the Immaculate Mother of God, may with the help of her intercession, rise up from our iniquities. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. AMEN.

Tuesday, 11 February, 2014
Our Lady of Lourdes (Optional Memorial)

Reading

1 Kings 8: 22 - 23, 27 - 30
22	Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven;
23	and said, "O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to thy servants who walk before thee with all their heart;
27	"But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built!
28	Yet have regard to the prayer of thy servant and to his supplication, O LORD my God, hearkening to the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prays before thee this day;
29	that thy eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which thou hast said, `My name shall be there,' that thou mayest hearken to the prayer which thy servant offers toward this place.
30	And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant and of thy people Israel, when they pray toward this place; yea, hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place; and when thou hearest, forgive.

Psalm

Psalms 84: 3 - 5, 10 - 11
3	Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at thy altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.
4	Blessed are those who dwell in thy house, ever singing thy praise! [Selah]
5	Blessed are the men whose strength is in thee, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
10	For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
11	For the LORD God is a sun and shield; he bestows favor and honor. No good thing does the LORD withhold from those who walk uprightly.

Gospel

Mark 7: 1 - 13
1	Now when the Pharisees gathered together to him, with some of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem,
2	they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands defiled, that is, unwashed.
3	(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands, observing the tradition of the elders;
4	and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they purify themselves; and there are many other traditions which they observe, the washing of cups and pots and vessels of bronze.)
5	And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with hands defiled?"
6	And he said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, `This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
7	in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.'
8	You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men."
9	And he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition!
10	For Moses said, `Honor your father and your mother'; and, `He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die';
11	but you say, `If a man tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is Corban' (that is, given to God) --
12	then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother,
13	thus making void the word of God through your tradition which you hand on. And many such things you do."

Act of Consecration to Our Lady of Lourdes ~ Prayer

Holy Mary, Mother of God, Virgin Immaculate, you appeared 18 times to Bernadette at the Grotto in Lourdes to remind Christians of what the truths in the Gospel require of them. You call them to prayer, penance, the Eucharist and the life of the church. To answer your call more fully, I dedicate myself, through you, to your Son Jesus. Make me willing to accept what he said. By the fervour of my faith, by the conduct of my life in all its aspects, by my devotion to the sick, let me work with you in the comforting of those who suffer and in the reconciliation of people that the church may be one and there be peace in the world. All this I ask, confident that you, Our Lady, will fully answer my prayer. Blessed be the Holy and Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us. St. Bernadette, pray for us.

AMEN.

Our Lady of Lourdes

In 1858, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette Soubirous, a humble 14-year-old French girl in a grotto near the town of Lourdes in France asking for, among other things, prayer and penance for sinners. The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette 18 times that year.

On the ninth appearance, Our Lady Lourdes as was made known, she had Bernadette dig up a spring of water where none had been found before. The water flowing from this spring, although pure, did not have any extraordinary scientific or medical properties. It has nonetheless been the source of countless miraculous cures  till this day.

The Church investigated the apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes thoroughly and Bishop Laurence of the diocese of Tarbes-et-Lourdes declared them to be authentic in 1862. About four to six million pilgrims visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in Lourdes annually.

Bernadette herself entered the convent of the Sisters of Notre Dame in Nevers in 1866, serving our Lord with dignity, grace, and love in what was left of her short life. She passed away from tuberculosis in 1879 and was canonized as Saint Bernadette in 1933. To this day her body remains incorruptible (

no signs of decomposition or decay), which is a sign of the miracle associated with her. 

 “one must have faith and pray; 

the water will have no virtue without faith.”

Saint Bernadette

Prayer to Our Lady of Lourdes

O' ever immaculate Virgin,

Mother of Mercy,

Health of the Sick,

Refuge of Sinners,

Comfortess of the Afflicted,

you know my wants,

my troubles,

my sufferings.

Look upon me with mercy.

When you appeared

in the grotto of Lourdes,

you made it a privileged sanctuary

where you dispense your favors,

and where many sufferers

have obtained the cure

of their infirmities,

both spiritual and corporal.

I come, therefore,

with unbounded confidence

to implore your maternal intercession.

My loving Mother,

obtain my request.

(mention your request) 

I will try to imitate your virtues

so that I may one day

share your company

and bless you in eternity.

Amen.

"O my mother, in your heart 

I placed all my anguish 

of my heart and it is there 

that I gain strength and courage."

Sainte Berrnadette Personal Notebook p.28

Monday, February 11, 2013
Our Lady of Lourdes (Optional Memorial)

First Reading

Genesis 1: 1 - 19

1	In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2	The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.
3	And God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.
4	And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
5	God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
6	And God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters."
7	And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so.
8	And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
9	And God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so.
10	God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
11	And God said, "Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, upon the earth." And it was so.
12	The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
13	And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.
14	And God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years,
15	and let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth." And it was so.
16	And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also.
17	And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth,
18	to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
19	And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

Psalm

Psalms 104: 1 - 2, 5 - 6, 10, 12, 24, 35

1 Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, thou art very great! Thou art clothed with honor and majesty, 2 who coverest thyself with light as with a garment, who hast stretched out the heavens like a tent, 5 Thou didst set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be shaken. 6 Thou didst cover it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. 10 Thou makest springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills, 12 By them the birds of the air have their habitation; they sing among the branches. 24 O LORD, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all; the earth is full of thy creatures. 35 Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more! Bless the LORD, O my soul! Praise the LORD!

Gospel

Mark 6: 53 - 56

53	And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennes'aret, and moored to the shore.
54	And when they got out of the boat, immediately the people recognized him,
55	and ran about the whole neighborhood and began to bring sick people on their pallets to any place where they heard he was.
56	And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or country, they laid the sick in the market places, and besought him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment; and as many as touched it were made well.

Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes

Prayer

Be blessed, O most pure Virgin, for having vouchsafed to manifest your shining with life, sweetness and beauty, in the Grotto of Lourdes, saying to the child, St. Bernadette: "I am the Immaculate Conception." A thousand times we congratulate you upon your Immaculate Conception. And now, O ever Immaculate Virgin, Mother of mercy, Health of the sick, Refuge of sinners, Comforter of the afflicted, you know our wants, our troubles, our sufferings deign to cast upon us a look of mercy.

By appearing in the Grotto of Lourdes, you were pleased to make it a privileged sanctuary, whence you dispense your favors, and already many have obtained the cure of their infirmities, both spiritual and physical. We come, therefore, with the most unbounded confidence to implore your maternal intercession. Obtain for us, O loving Mother, the granting of our request. 

(state your request)

Through gratitude for your favors, we will endeavor to imitate your virtues, that we may one day share your glory.

Our Lady of Lourdes, Mother of Christ, you had influence with your divine son while upon earth. You have the same influence now in Heaven. Pray for us; obtain for us from your Divine Son our special requests if it be the Divine Will. 

Amen.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.

Saint Bernadette, pray for us.

NINE DAY NOVENA TO OUR LADY OF LOURDES

DAY ONE 

O Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, virgin and mother, queen of heaven, chosen from all eternity to be the Mother of the Eternal Word and in virtue of this title preserved from original sin, we kneel before you as did little Bernadette at Lourdes and pray with childlike trust in you that as we contemplate your glorious appearance at Lourdes, you will look with mercy on our present petition and secure for us a favorable answer to the request for which we are making this novena.

(make your request)

O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.

Saint Bernadette, pray for us.

DAY TWO

Be blessed, O most pure Virgin, for having vouchsafed to manifest yourself shining with light, sweetness and beauty, in the Grotto of Lourdes, saying to the child Saint Bernadette: "I am the Immaculate Conception!" O Mary Immaculate, inflame our hearts with one ray of the burning love of your pure heart Let them be consumed with love for Jesus and for you, in order that we may merit one day to enjoy your glorious eternity. O dispenser of His graces here below, take into your keeping and present to your Divine Son the petition for which we are making this novena.

(make your request)

O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.

Saint Bernadette, pray for us.

DAY THREE 

"You are all fair, O Mary, and there is in you no stain of original sin." O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. O brilliant star of sanctity, as on that lovely day, upon a rough rock in Lourdes you spoke to the child Bernadette and a fountain broke from the plain earth and miracles happened and the great shrine of Lourdes began, so now I beseech you to hear our fervent prayer and do, we beseech you, grant us the petition we now so earnestly seek.

(make your request)

O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.

Saint Bernadette, pray for us.

DAY FOUR 

O Immaculate Queen of Heaven, we your wayward, erring children, join our unworthy prayers of praise and thanksgiving to those of the angels and saints and your own-the One, Holy, and Undivided Trinity may be glorified in heaven and on earth. Our Lady of Lourdes, as you looked down with love and mercy upon Bernadette as she prayed her rosary in the grotto, look down now, we beseech you, with love and mercy upon us. From the abundance of graces granted you by your Divine Son, sweet Mother of God, give to each of us all that your motherly heart sees we need and at this moment look with special favor on the grace we seek in this novena.

(make your request)

O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.

Saint Bernadette, pray for us.

DAY FIVE 

O Mary Immaculate, Mother of God and our mother, from the heights of your dignity look down mercifully upon us while we, full of confidence in your unbounded goodness and confident that your Divine Son will look favorably upon any request you make of Him in our behalf, we beseech you to come to our aid and secure for us the favor we seek in this novena.

(make your request)

O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.

Saint Bernadette, pray for us.

DAY SIX 

O glorious Mother of God, so powerful under your special title of Our Lady of Lourdes, to you we raise our hearts and hands to implore your powerful intercession in obtaining from the gracious Heart of Jesus all the helps and graces necessary for our spiritual and temporal welfare and for the special favor we so earnestly seek in this novena.

(make your request)

O Lady of Bernadette, with the stars of heaven in your hair and the roses of earth at your feet, look with compassion upon us today as you did so long ago on Bernadette in the Grotto of Lourdes.

O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.

Saint Bernadette, pray for us.

DAY SEVEN

O Almighty God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary did prepare a worthy dwelling place for your Son, we humbly beseech you that as we contemplate the apparition of Our Lady in the Grotto of Lourdes, we may be blessed with health of mind and body. O most gracious Mother Mary, beloved Mother of Our Lord and Redeemer, look with favor upon us as you did that day on Bernadette and intercede with him for us that the favor we now so earnestly seek may be granted to us.

(make your request)

O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.

Saint Bernadette, pray for us.

DAY EIGHT 

O Immaculate Mother of God, from heaven itself you came to appear to the little Bernadette in the rough Grotto of Lourdes! And as Bernadette knelt at your feet and the miraculous spring burst forth and as multitudes have knelt ever since before your shrine, O Mother of God, we kneel before you today to ask that in your mercy you plead with your Divine Son to grant the special favor we seek in this novena.

(make your request)

O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.

Saint Bernadette, pray for us.

DAY NINE 

O glorious Mother of God, to you we raise our hearts and hands to implore your powerful intercession in obtaining from the benign Heart of Jesus all the graces necessary for our spiritual and temporal welfare, particularly for the grace of a happy death. O Mother of our Divine Lord, as we conclude this novena for the special favor we seek at this time.

(make your request)

We feel animated with confidence that your prayers in our behalf will be graciously heard. O Mother of My Lord, through the love you bear to Jesus Christ and for the glory of His Name, hear our prayers and obtain our petitions.

O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.

Saint Bernadette, pray for us.