This weekend is the Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes, our heavenly
mother who is the patron saint of all those suffering from illness of any
kind. I believe that through her powerful intercession, we can confidently place into her
hands all of our intentions and all of our illnesses of body, mind, or soul,
trusting that she will bring them to her Son, the Divine Physician, for
miraculous healing. The love that radiated from Our Lady’s face when she
appeared to St. Bernadette caused the French maiden to cry tears of joy. May
Our Lady wrap all of us in that same radiant love, so
that we, too, may experience tears of joy and be open to all of the healing
graces God wants to pour into our hearts today—and every day.
Awhile back, I was asked to write an article about the story of Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Bernadette. So, on this special feast day, I will share the story with you, for I believe it can still can speak to our hearts in the 21st century if we take time
to ponder its message.
Bernadette
Soubirous was a 14-year-old girl of poor health, poor status, and poor
education when her ordinary life was touched by the extraordinary.
Bernadette lived in Lourdes, France and had a difficult childhood.
Her family was so poor that they were forced to live in the town's damp
and abandoned prison, which the townsfolk fittingly nicknamed "The
Dungeon." Her father, Francois, lost his job as the town miller and
spent most of his life doing odd jobs that did not pay well. This meant
that Louise, Bernadette's mother, had to work extra hard to support her 4
children, and Bernadette, as the oldest child, did much of the work raising her
younger siblings while her parents tried to make ends meet. During these
difficult times, it is said that Bernadette served joyfully and obediently,
rather than focusing on her own woes.
On
February 11, 1858, while she was gathering firewood with her sister and a
friend, "the beautiful lady," as Bernadette called Our Lady for many
months, first appeared to her in the rocky grotto called Massabielle. She was dressed in a shining white gown with
a blue sash around her waist and two yellow roses resting upon her bare
feet. It is interesting to note that
this grotto was once a pagan worship site, and later, it was the town’s
landfill! Why would God choose such a spot for His heavenly mother to
appear? Perhaps the appearance of the sinless Blessed Virgin at that spot would
remind people that “God can make all things new,” that His merciful love,
and that of His mother's, can remove the idols in our life and transform the
garbage in our souls into something beautiful and holy.
Surprisingly,
it was not until the 16th apparition that “the beautiful
lady” finally told Bernadette who she was, saying: “I am the Immaculate Conception.”
Bernadette was not well educated, nor well catechized; she had never heard the
phrase before and knew not what it meant, which helped convince the local
priest that she was telling the truth.
In fact, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception had only been declared 4
years prior, and it was not a title known by most Catholics at the time, but it
certainly became well-known after these heavenly visitations in Lourdes.
On
the 9th apparition, Our Lady requested that Bernadette eat some of the grass
growing in the grotto and to wash in the spring. Bernadette obeyed
without question. However, there was no spring nearby, so she began to
dig where the Blessed Mother indicated the spring should be. A puddle of
muddy water appeared, and Bernadette rubbed the mud all over her face, causing
the hundreds of spectators to laugh and conclude that she was crazy.
Their opinion quickly changed, however, when the muddy puddle turned into
a flowing spring, which continues to flow today and has caused many miraculous
cures.
After
Bernadette's 18th—and final—apparition, Bernadette chose the hidden
life of the convent. During one apparition Our Lady had told
Bernadette: “I do not promise to make you
happy in this world, but in the next.”
These words came true for Bernadette. Her young life, both before
and after the apparitions, was filled with hardship. Many of the nuns in
her convent treated her harshly for a variety of reasons: some did not believe that Bernadette saw the
Blessed Virgin, some were simply jealous of her for receiving such a special
grace, and some felt they needed to protect her from vainglory.
Bernadette carried the heavy cross of their cruelty with sublime patience
and humility. She was also given the cross of a cancerous tumor on her
knee. She suffered so serenely that her
fellow nuns did not think she was very ill.
One day, a nun who came to visit her asked her unkindly, "What are you doing in bed, you lazy
little thing?” Bernadette's reply was, "I am doing my job. I must be a
victim." She accepted suffering as God’s will for her—her
“job”—and she trusted that He would use it for the good of her soul or the
souls of others. As she lay dying in her
bed, Bernadette pressed a crucifix to her chest and cried, "All this is good for
Heaven!" Love is what
gave her the strength to do her “job” so joyfully, as she beautifully
explained: “I will
spend every moment loving. For one who
loves does not notice her trials, or perhaps more accurately, she learns to
love them.” Bernadette’s last
words were, "Blessed Mary, Mother of God, pray for me, a poor sinner, a poor
sinner!" How happy she must have been to see “the beautiful
lady" again, this time welcoming her to heaven, fulfilling the promise
that she would finally find true happiness.
She died at age 35, and when her body was exhumed many years later, it
was found to be perfectly incorrupt.
St.
Bernadette’s story still has so much to teach us Catholic women today. Even though she had the honor of Our Lady
appearing to her, her “job” was to suffer for the salvation of souls. Her story reminds us to ask ourselves, what
is our “job,” what is God calling us to do for His Kingdom? Perhaps your “job” is to offer up the mundane
duty of changing dirty diapers… Perhaps
it is to serenely suffer a physical illness to save souls like St.
Bernadette… Perhaps it is to show
forgiveness and unconditional love to your spouse to show the world what true
Christ-like love looks like. Perhaps it
is to plant seeds of God’s love at your workplace and get ridiculed for
it. Yes, perhaps the “jobs” that God
gives us might cause us some suffering, but by uniting our pain with Jesus’
Passion, we will grow closer to Him and perhaps save a soul or two like our
little saint from Lourdes. So, whatever
your “job” is, ask St. Bernadette to intercede for you to help you live it out
with courage and love like she did, all for the greater glory of God!
Here is a fun recipe to make for the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes to remind you of the beautiful roses that rested upon Our Lady's feet when she appeared to St. Bernadette. I try to make these on most of the Marian Feast days, as well as on St. Elizabeth's Feast Day and St. Therese. Our family loves them, and I hope yours does too!
Sweet Roll Dough
1 pkg. dry yeast
½ c. warm water
1/2 c. lukewarm milk (scalded then cooled)
1/3 c. butter, margarine or shortening
1/3 c. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
3 ½ to 4 c. flour
Dissolve yeast in warm water in large bowl. Stir in milk sugar, butter, salt, egg, and 2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Mix in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle. Turn onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Place in greased bowl, turn greased side up. Cover and let rise in warm place until double, about 1 ½ hours.
Cinnamon Filling
2 T. butter, melted
1/2 c. sugar
2 T. cinnamon
Mix until all sugar and cinnamon is moistened.
Make 4 small balls (golf ball size) of dough and roll them out into 3 1/2 inch diameter circles. Overlap dough circles as shown. Sprinkle some of the cinnamon sugar mixture across middle, leaving curved edges clear.
½ c. warm water
1/2 c. lukewarm milk (scalded then cooled)
1/3 c. butter, margarine or shortening
1/3 c. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
3 ½ to 4 c. flour
Dissolve yeast in warm water in large bowl. Stir in milk sugar, butter, salt, egg, and 2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Mix in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle. Turn onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Place in greased bowl, turn greased side up. Cover and let rise in warm place until double, about 1 ½ hours.
Cinnamon Filling
2 T. butter, melted
1/2 c. sugar
2 T. cinnamon
Mix until all sugar and cinnamon is moistened.
Make 4 small balls (golf ball size) of dough and roll them out into 3 1/2 inch diameter circles. Overlap dough circles as shown. Sprinkle some of the cinnamon sugar mixture across middle, leaving curved edges clear.
Roll circles up into rolls as shown. You should end up with rolled
dough with both ends fluted. Cut roll in half.
Place dough in greased
muffin tins. Cut/flat end should be down and the pretty, fluted/curved end
up.
Let rise
until double (30-40 minutes). Bake in 350 degree oven 12-15 minutes.
I found this recipe at the Catholic Cuisine website: http://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/2015/07/st-elizabeth-rose-bread.html
