Newsletter Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) 8th February 2026
- Fr Doug
- Feb 6
- 3 min read
THE APPARITION OF OUR LADY OF LOURDES
I felt inspired to talk about Our Lady’s apparition at Lourdes, as her feast day is February 11. Also, this parish is named after St Bernadette.
February 11th 1858, 14-year-old Bernadette of Lourdes in France witnessed the first of 18 Apparitions of Our Lady.
White dress.
Blue sash.
Rosary in hand.
At the first Apparition Our Lady prayed the Rosary in silence.
On another Apparition she asked for prayer and penance for the conversion of sinners.
On February 25th she asked Bernadette to dig where there was no water.
From there came the spring which today has been the famous bath of millions of pilgrims.
On that same day Our Lady also asked for a chapel to be built. Our Lady always deflects attention from herself onto her Son.
On March 25th she called herself: “I am the Immaculate Conception.”
There have been thousands upon thousands of reported miracles.
The church has officially approved, about 100.
Some of the approved miracles at Lourdes:
1858, Louis Bouriette was blind in his right eye for two years, after being hit by a flying object in a mining explosion.
He was cured after he bathed his eye in the baths at Lourdes.
1866, Justin Bouhart aged only 2 years old. He was frequently ill from birth. His mind was very impaired. He had almost no control over his body; his speech, for example was completely incoherent. His mother bathed him in the baths, and he was completely healed.
1875, Pierre de Rudder, fractured two bones in his left leg after a tree fell on him. Infection set in and 5cm of his leg decayed. He said a prayer before the statue of Our Lady and the 5cm bone instantly grew back.
1901 Gabriel Gargan: On an express train to Paris, the train crashed head on with another train. He was paralysed. He was only able to be fed by liquids through a tube in his throat. After 20 months he was taken to Lourdes. In the baths, he died. His dead body was taken to the Blessed Sacrament exposed and he rose from the dead.
The last Apparition took place on July 16th feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel. The Church understood, one reason why Our Lady appeared on the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was because Our Lord wants us to be enrolled in the Brown Scapular.
After the Apparitions, St. Bernadette joined the Sisters of Notre Dame at Lourdes. She was often sick and in pain until she died at the age of 35 on April 16, 1879.
St Bernadette’s body is one of the most incorrupt bodies.
In our altar is a relic of St Bernadette. Most relics are a piece of the saints bone. However, we have a piece of one of St Bernadette’s internal organs.
St. Bernadette said: “Everything is nothing to me but Jesus— neither things nor persons, neither ideas nor emotions, neither honour nor sufferings.”
“Jesus is for me, honour, delight, heart and soul.”
“The more I am crucified, the more I rejoice.”
“A day without suffering is a day wasted.”
“I served as a broom for the Blessed Virgin and when she no longer had any use for me, she put me in my place, behind the door.
There I am and there I shall remain.”
After the apparitions all her life seemed to be based on the Rosary.
Her sister Antoinette would say: “Bernadette did nothing but pray and did not know what else to do than to finger the beads of the Rosary…”
Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
St Bernadette, pray for us.
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