Our Lady of Lourdes is the title of the Blessed Virgin Mary based on the apparitions to St. Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes, France, in 1858. Between February 11 and July 16 of that year, the fourteen-year-old peasant girl saw a 'beautiful Lady' eighteen times at the Massabielle grotto on the outskirts of the town. On March 25 — the Feast of the Annunciation — the Lady identified herself: 'I am the Immaculate Conception' (in the local Occitan dialect: 'Que soy era immaculada councepciou'). The phrase was theologically precise — Pope Pius IX had defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception only four years earlier, in 1854 — and was beyond Bernadette's catechetical formation, which authenticated the apparitions for the Church's investigators. Mary asked Bernadette to scratch the ground at the grotto, where a spring appeared; the water from that spring is associated with thousands of reported physical healings, of which 70 have been formally recognized by the Catholic Church through the Lourdes Medical Bureau as miraculous (i.e., medically unexplainable). St. Bernadette entered religious life with the Sisters of Charity at Nevers in 1866, suffered for the rest of her life with tuberculosis of the bone, and died at age 35 in 1879. She was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1933. Lourdes today receives some six million pilgrims annually, making it one of the most-visited Christian shrines in the world. The novena to Our Lady of Lourdes is appropriate for: physical healing of any kind (the Lourdes spring's primary association), faith-strengthening, family conversion, and the pastoral accompaniment of the chronically ill.
10 min
Tagal
9 araw
Pangako
Para sa mga nagsisimula
Antas
Our Lady of Lourdes
Patron na santo
Pray once daily for nine consecutive days. The novena is traditionally prayed in the nine days leading up to the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes (February 11, the anniversary of the first apparition). The structure: (1) Sign of the Cross; (2) The novena prayer (above); (3) Three Hail Marys followed by the aspiration 'O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee' (the Miraculous Medal inscription — the same Marian title Mary used at Lourdes); (4) Name the intention. The novena pairs particularly well with the World Day of the Sick (February 11, established by St. John Paul II in 1992 specifically because of the Lourdes connection). Many Catholics also drink or apply Lourdes water during the novena — the water itself is not magic, but the Catholic devotional tradition is that physical contact with the spring's water expresses confidence in Mary's intercession for the body's needs. Lourdes water is freely available from the shrine and is widely distributed by Catholic pilgrim groups. The novena is especially appropriate at the bedside of someone gravely ill, before a difficult diagnosis or surgery, and in any season of family or personal suffering that calls for Mary's maternal healing touch.
O ever Immaculate Virgin, Mother of Mercy, Health of the Sick, Refuge of Sinners, Comfort of the Afflicted, you know my wants, my troubles, my sufferings; deign to cast upon me a look of mercy. By appearing in the Grotto of Lourdes, you were pleased to make it a privileged sanctuary where you dispense your favors, and where many sufferers have obtained the cure of their infirmities, both spiritual and corporal. I come, therefore, with the most unbounded confidence to implore your maternal intercession. Obtain, O loving Mother, the grant of my request (mention your intention). I will endeavor to imitate your virtues, that I may one day share your glory, and bless you in eternity. Amen.
I-coordinate ang patuloy na panalangin para sa isang mahal sa buhay. Pinupunan ng mga boluntaryo ang 30-minutong slot sa loob ng mga araw o linggo; tumatanggap ang pamilya ng spiritual bouquet sa katapusan.
Mag-imbita ng maliit na grupo upang sama-samang manalangin araw-araw. Lahat ay tatanggap ng parehong teksto, parehong ritmo, parehong intensyon.