Lourdes
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Click on the link above to go directly to the home page of Lourdes. It is really a wonderful site.
(You can actually "visit" Lourdes Via Webcam there...VERY AWESOME!! :) )
Lourdes is a very spiritual and wonderful place. I really can not even express how truly special it is.
BATHS
This is the paper that is given to each person that goes to the bath. It is printed in various languages. While waiting for the bath, Ave Maria is played overhead and the atmosphere is very calm. There is one side for the men and one side for women.
Come to the Spring
Drink and Wash Yourself There
You come to the baths at Lourdes to bathe in the water of the Spring that lay under the earth on the left hand of the Rock as you face the Grotto, the Spring that Mary made known to Bernadette.
REMEMBER,
It was on the 25th of February 1858, during the 9th Apparition, that Bernadette heard the Lady say, " Would you mind going down on your knees...kissing the ground...eating the grass that is there....FOR SINNERS?--GO DRINK AND WASH YOURSELF THERE".
Bernadette carried out these actions but with difficulty. For the ground was dirty, the grass bitter, and the water repugnant. The onlookers who, up to that day, had been enthusiastic, were now shocked, scandalized and disgusted. Bernadette was slapped, insulted and led before the Public Prosecutor...
On this dramatic day, which reminds us of Good Friday, Bernadette calmly explained that she had done all of these things FOR SINNERS.
And from that day onwards, a pray full of serious concern and compassion characterized her life. She had discovered this world of "poor sinners, our brothers whom the Blessed Virgin had pointed to saying:" PENANCE, PRAY THE CONVERSION OF SINNERS."
Mary had been so sad that day that Bernadette wept.
The Gospel of the Mass on that particular day carried the story of Jesus crucified, pierced by the soldier's lance, and from whom flowed, "BLOOD and WATER".
Hence, it is here in this perspective that we are given the deeper meaning of the symbolism of the Lourdes water:
-WATER as a sign of the lover of Christ who gives his life "for sinners"
-WATER as a sign for Baptism that has given us life as the children of God.
-WATER as a sign of Sacrament of Penance, in which God offers us forgiveness, Purification, Reconciliation.
It is because of our need to be reborn, forgiven, purified, reconciled....that we come to this WATER. We come in memory of what Jesus said:
"IF ANYWAY IF THIRSTY LET HIM COME TO ME AND DRINK"
"The water that I shall give you will become a spring welling up to eternal life"
In these words Jesus pointed to the Spirit that those who believed in Him would receive (Gospel of John, chapters 4 & 7).
Let us reflect on this prayer.
In calmness, with faith, humility, charity, and trust. Then we will grasp the deeper meaning the water and will have no need to attribute other powers to it.
God gives his grace freely, out of love.
Do not think that performing a great number of religious acts gives us rights over God. He freely offers us peace of heart, and if he judges it to be good for us, the easing of our sufferings.
Let us thing of others, the seriously ill. If we find the waiting too long the let us give them the priority.
You can have a wonderful pilgrimage without going to the baths. Bernadette only washed her face (the mirror of the soul) and drank "a little water".
The deep meaning of the water of Lourdes is inscribed above the place where the taps are located.
"WASH YOUR FACE AND ASK GOD TO PURIFY YOUR HEART"
PRAYER
God our Father
It is through Mary, the most Pure Virgin,
that your Son has come to us,
The Source of Living Water.
Help us to answer His call
in coming to purify ourselves
at the Source of grace pouring from his heart,
and of which this water is a sign and reminder,
so that there may live in us the new creature,
that we became in baptism.
AMEN!
The act of drinking and washing with the water of the grotto, should be accompanied way the Way of the Cross, Confession, and Communion.
This is the spot where St. Bernadette saw the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes. Mass is held daily in Lourdes in several different languages.
( If you do not wish to hear the music..just press the stop button... :)
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