On February 11, 1858, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to fourteen-year-old Bernadette Soubirous at the grotto of Massabielle near Lourdes, France, the first of eighteen apparitions in which she identified herself as 'the Immaculate Conception.' A spring uncovered at the grotto became associated with healing, and Lourdes grew into one of the world's great places of pilgrimage, especially for the sick. In 1992 Pope John Paul II made this feast the annual World Day of the Sick.
At Lourdes, Mary came not to the powerful but to a poor, sick child, and asked simply for prayer and penance. Her apparitions remind us that heaven bends close to those who suffer, and that the sick are not forgotten but held at the very heart of the Church. Countless pilgrims have found there, if not a cure, then peace and the strength to carry what they bear.
Our Lady of Lourdes, health of the sick and comfort of the afflicted, pray for all who suffer in body or heart, and lead us gently to your Son. Amen.Enter today’s Mass → All saints →