Saturday, February 10, 2007

Our Lady of Lourdes

On February 11, 1858 a young girl felt a gentle breeze come from a grotto on the side of a precipice. Unlike Elias (3 Kings 19:12), she was not praying on Mount Horeb, but sitting in a garbage dump in a remote village in the mountains of the south of France. Like Moses, she was removing her shoes, but not because she thought she was on holy ground, but to cross a river to gather firewood. She turned, and instead of beholding a burning bush (Exodus 3:5), or a cloud (3 Kings 18:44), she saw a Lady. From that moment, her life was transformed, as if the universe had been altered in it very essence. Little did she know that millions of people would come and kneel on that very spot, the sick, the despairing, those who are of little use to the proud, efficient, utilitarian world. Many would find healing and peace in that Grotto where the Lady said: "I am the Immaculate Conception."

Here is the chronology of events. Share

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