Dear Parishioners of Mary Immaculate and St. Rose,
February 11 was the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. Lourdes is perhaps the most famous of the Marian apparition sites. In 1858 the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared 18 times to a poor peasant girl named Bernadette Soubirous. During the course of these visits a miraculous spring began to flow and the first of miraculous cures happened, that occur down to the present day.
Lourdes always seems to be crowded with pilgrims and yet it is a very prayerful place. The village is quite built up with dozens of shops that sell everything from beautiful religious articles to very tacky souvenirs.
But when one enters the actual grounds of the shrine a very prayerful aura enfolds you. It is truly a place of prayer.
There are three basilicas in the sanctuary of the shrine. The original one dominates the whole area. It is a beautiful Gothic church. Below that is the Rosary Basilica. And then there is a massive underground Basilica to accommodate the large crowds. It really reminds me of a parking garage!
In the evening there is a candlelight procession during which the Rosary is prayed in different languages. It is really quite impressive to see thousands of candles lighting the darkness and hearing all those voices saying the Hail Mary. Between each decade, the pilgrims raise their candles and sing, “Ave, Ave, Ave Maria.”
Last year when I was in Lourdes, I concelebrated a Mass in the grotto of the apparition. It was very moving to be there praying the Mass in the very spot where the Blessed Mother declared to Saint Bernadette, “I am the Immaculate Conception.”
Someone once asked me if Catholics had to believe in the apparitions of Mary? I said, “No, but why would you not want to believe it?” I find it so comforting that Mary would come to us and remind us of the love of Jesus, to go to Confession, to pray for the conversion of sinners, and to pray the holy Rosary.