St. Bernadette

Today St. Bernadette's Feast Day is celebrated! It is also celebrated on February 18th. She's pretty much a big deal to have two feast days! 

I chose St. Bernadette as my Confirmation saint name. 

I was confirmed right before we went to Lourdes, France in 2010. 

A beautiful lady appeared to St. Bernadette as she was gathering firewood.

The woman was praying the rosary.

St. Bernadette shared this apparition and was forbidden to go back to the place that is now known as the grotto.  

She was ridiculed and punished for telling the truth. 

"My job is to inform, not to convince." St. Bernadette 

I love this quote! Great reminder! 

Bernadette was a few days later allowed to return to visit the lady. 

Our Lady (who had not yet revealed who she was) asked for a chapel to be built where she appeared. She also asked for Bernadette to pray for the conversion of sinners and for Bernadette to drink the spring water she would reveal.  

Word of the apparitions traveled quickly and Bernadette was treated like a lunatic, liar and a criminal on trial. 

Everyone wanted to know who this lady was but not even Bernadette knew. 

So St. Bernadette asked the lady, "Who are you?" The Lady's response was, "I am the Immaculate Conception." 

Those words "I am the Immaculate Conception" were the last words Our Lady spoke to St. Bernadette. 

However, St. Bernadette did not know what that meant. 

It meant that Mary, Mother of God, who was conceived without sin, was appearing to this poor, humble girl in the slums of Lourdes! 

The Spring that Our Lady of Lourdes asked St. Bernadette to drink from has proven miracles of healing! 

A church was built just as Our Lady had asked. 

Pilgrimages are made to Lourdes and healing is found just as The Immaculate Conception promised. 

 Healing comes in different ways for everyone. 

All of this, all of these miracles, happened and are happening, because a poor, humble girl remained faithful! 

Our Lady could have chosen anyone else but She chose St. Bernadette!

We are each chosen to be who God wants us to be! 

Though St. Bernadette suffered from chronic illness, she did not seek a miracle for herself at Lourdes.

"It is loving the Cross that one finds one heart, for Divine Love cannot live without suffering." St. Bernadette 

 She died at an early age. Her body is incorrupt in Nevers, France. 

 "I shall do everything for Heaven, my true home." St. Bernadette 

St. Bernadette, pray for us! 

"O My Mother, offer me to Jesus. Take my heart and unite it with the heart of my Jesus." 

St. Bernadette  

St. Bernadette's tiny home, which was a prison cell used for housing their family and few animals.