Today is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. On Feb 11, 1858, a teenage girl named Bernadette was out gathering firewood in the woods outside of the town of Lourdes, France. Her parents were poor and she was out collecting the wood to later sell. While near a cave, or grotto, about a mile from town, she heard the sound of a rushing wind, but only a single plant moved in the wind; it was a rosebush growing just inside the grotto in a cleft in the rock, thus fulfilling the Scripture, "Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come. My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hollow place of the wall…" Bernadette describes what happened next:

"I heard the same sound again. As I raised my head to look at the grotto, I saw a lady dressed in white, wearing a white dress, a blue girdle and a yellow rose on each foot, the same color as the chain of her rosary; the beads of the rosary were white....From the niche, or rather the dark alcove behind it, came a dazzling light."

At first, she didn’t tell any adults about what happened, but her little sister blurted out the truth. Her parents, thinking they were making up a tale (and living in a different era of parental behavior) punished the girls. 3 Days later, the girls were in the woods near the grotto again. Bernadette says she saw the Lady again,

"The second time was the following Sunday. ... Then I started to throw holy water in her direction, and at the same time I said that if she came from God she was to stay, but if not, she must go. She started to smile, and bowed ...”

Another 3 days pass and she sees the Lady a third time. Still her parents did not believe her, although rumors were now starting up in the town about the apparition. Her parents told her not to return but she did anyway, and Our Lady told her to start digging in the ground. It seemed crazy at first, but soon a miraculous spring of water came up through the dirt and began to run clear. Soon enough, people flocked to the spring and were healed there. At first it was difficult to know if it was a hoax or a misguided little girl or what, so the Church came and fenced off the area.

Bernadette nonetheless continued to visit and see Our Lady there. On March 25, 1858, a truly startling piece of information was given; Our Lady revealed to Bernadette that her name was “Immaculate Conception”. This was revealed just 4 years after the Church had defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception and seems to be a miraculous confirmation that the Church had done well. How in the world a young girl with no education had learned of this relatively new title for Our Lady, well, the simplest explanation is that she knew it because Our Lady told her. This revelation so startled the local bishop that he insisted on a prompt investigation and later in that year proclaimed that the apparition was indeed genuine. He declared that the apparitions were supernatural and of divine origin.

We should make a few observations, here, before we go on. The first is that this is a private revelation, it came only to Bernadette. Because of this, even though the Church has declared them genuine, there is no obligation on your part to believe. If you have trouble with this one, think about it and pray about it but don’t fret. Second, people still go to Lourdes to pray for healing. It is a major pilgrimage site, but the water itself is not magic. Bernadette herself later said that it was a miraculous prompting to faith. It is God and his faithfulness and our willingness to ask that leads to healings. The spring at Lourdes is a powerful aid to faith.

So, what are we to make of this miracle and the massive devotional following it has created? Pope Pius XII offers some thoughts. He first affirms that our culture is shaped by Mary, saying, “Every Christian land is a Marian land; there is not a nation redeemed in the blood of Christ which does not glory in proclaiming Mary its Mother and Patroness.” Pius then makes the point that Mary graciously affirmed the teachings of the Bishops, “But with what emotion and gratitude did the Christian people and their pastors receive from the lips of Bernadette this answer which came from heaven: "I am the Immaculate Conception!" The pure virgin calls us to imitate her in two ways: first in her purity, that we examine ourselves and come to penance regularly, and second we imitate her in her love for her Son. She does not reveal herself to Bernadette so as to gain personal glory, she reveals herself to teach a little girl how to love Jesus better. Perhaps this Wednesday, take a moment to pray to Our Lady of Lourdes that we too may adore God the way that she does.