Monday 11 February 2008 

By Michael Pieris

150 years ago, on 11 February 1858, Our Blessed Mother Mary appeared to Bernadette Soubirous, a poor little peasant girl at a remote grotto in the French foothills of the Pyrenees in Massabielle. She appeared 18 times during a period of six months from February to July 1858 and at the 16th apparition on 25 March 1858 (Feast of the Annunciation)little Bernadette implored this beautiful Lady to reveal Her identity.

The Lady replied "I am the Immaculate Conception".

The Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception had been proclaimed by Pope Pius IX four years prior to the apparition of Our Lady in Lourdes in 1858.

After the pronouncement made by the Blessed Virgin herself in the local dialect, the Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception did become a matter of general discussion that Our Lady in the first instant of her conception was, by a singular grace and privilege of Almighty God in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, preserved exempt from all stain of original sin.

Since 1858, Lourdes has become a leading shrine for miraculous healings of the crippled, the lame and the blind from all parts of the world. Its efficacy in certain cases cannot be doubted, even by the most sceptical.

Mary Our Mother chose Lourdes as her special sanctuary and as the place from where she can distribute her graces in abundance to those who are in need of. She is powerful and God does not refuse her whatever she asks her Divine Son for her erring children.

The 150th anniversary of Mary's first apparition at Lourdes was this year commemorated with Pope Benedict XVI authorising a special indulgence for those who can make it to the Massabielle grotto in Lourdes from 8 December 2007 to 8 December 2008, or for pilgrims who visit any public sanctuary, shrine or other worthy place dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes from 2-11 February.

We may ask the question why Our Blessed Mother selects the lowly and the meek to convey a heavenly message to the world? God chooses his own time and places and occasions for miracles and, that these are most frequently performed through some meek and lowly medium. One such medium is Bernadette and one such place is Lourdes.

While commemorating this Holy Event and giving homage to Our Lady, we can do no less than to call Mary our Heavenly Mother, while She looks down and calls each of us "my child."

Let us then give ourselves to Mary, fully and entirely, not merely by words, but by deeds in becoming truly Her devoted children.