Our Lady Of Lourdes Quotes

Protestants sometimes laugh at us because we address ourselves, now to our Lady of Perpetual Succor, now to our Lady of Good Counsel, now to our Lady of Lourdes, and so on, as if they were so many different people. But the case is much worse than that, if they only knew; every individual Catholic has a separate our Lady to pray to, his Mother, the one who seems to care for him individually, has won him so many favours, has stood by him in so many difficulties, as if she had no other thought or business in heaven but to watch over him.

I paid the taxi driver, got out with my suitcase, surveyed my surroundings, and just as I was turning to ask the driver something or get back into the taxi and return forthwith to Chillán and then to Santiago, it sped off without warning, as if the somewhat ominous solitude of the place had unleashed atavistic fears in the driver's mind. For a moment I too was afraid. I must have been a sorry sight standing there helplessly with my suitcase from the seminary, holding a copy of Farewell's Anthology in one hand. Some birds flew out from behind a clump of trees. They seemed to be screaming the name of that forsaken village, Querquén, but they also seemed to be enquiring who: quién, quién, quién. I said a hasty prayer and headed for a wooden bench, there to recover a composure more in keeping with what I was, or what at the time I considered myself to be. Our Lady, do not abandon your servant, I murmured, while the black birds, about twenty-five centimetres in length, cried quién, quién, quién. Our Lady of Lourdes, do not abandon your poor priest, I murmured, while other birds, about ten centimetres long, brown in colour, or brownish, rather, with white breasts, called out, but not as loudly, quién, quién, quién, Our Lady of Suffering, Our Lady of Insight, Our Lady of Poetry, do not leave your devoted subject at the mercy of the elements, I murmured, while several tiny birds, magenta, black, fuchsia, yellow and blue in colour, wailed quién, quién, quién, at which point a cold wind sprang up suddenly, chilling me to the bone.

The shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe is the most visited religious site in the Christian world, surpassing Lourdes, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and St. Peter’s itself. People still go there by the millions every year in order to commune with La Virgen Morena, many journeying to her over many miles on their knees.

The Virgin Mary has been appearing in our city, bringing her message of peace to a crumbling world. As in Lourdes and Fatima, Our Lady has granted her presence to people just like you. For information call 555-MARY

During dessert, he took out a little box and gave it to Bernadette. Inside was a silver locket with a yellow photograph inside, of a severe and disturbed-looking girl. “It’s Saint Bernadette,” Elgie said. “Our Lady of Lourdes. She had visions, eighteen in all. You had your first vision with Beeber Bifocal. You had your second vision with the Twenty Mile House. Here’s to sixteen more.” Bernadette started crying. I started crying. He started crying. The three of us were in a puddle when the waiter came with the check.

I spent most of my childhood straddling and navigating two cultures: my Black world of home and the neighborhood, Resurrection Baptist, and Daddio’s shop; and the white world of school, Catholic church, and the prevailing culture of America. I went to an all-Black church, lived on an all-Black street, and grew up playing with mostly other Black kids. But at the same time, I was one of only three Black children attending Our Lady of Lourdes, the local Catholic K–8.

Why not go to Our Lady of Lourdes if it was closer? Because, as Alex once put it, “The acoustics are terrible. No matter where you stand in the church, you can hear the pastor.

In one of Mary’s apparitions to Bernadette, Our Lady asked her to dig in the dirt. As she dug, a spring trickled through the dirt. The water from the spring proved itself to be miraculous, healing those who bathed in it. Even today, six million visitors come to Lourdes annually. The humble Bernadette and the healing waters of Lourdes confounded both the medical community and the enlightened philosophes, such as Émile Zola, who had poisoned the minds of millions with atheism and an uncritical worship of science. Zola even made a visit to Lourdes in the hopes of discrediting it, only to witness the miraculous healing of a woman suffering from three incurable diseases. Upon seeing her restored to wellness, he puffed, “To me she is still ugly,” and dismissed the miraculous event. He dug his heels in even deeper, saying, “Were I to see all the sick at Lourdes cured, I would not believe in a miracle.”7

So, do you plan to go to Aokpe?” Father Amadi asked. “I was not really planning to. But I suppose we will have to go now, I will find out the next apparition date.” “People are making this whole apparition thing up. Didn’t they say Our Lady was appearing at Bishop Shanahan Hospital the other time? And then that she was appearing in Transekulu?” Obiora asked. “Aokpe is different. It has all the signs of Lourdes,” Amaka said. “Besides, it’s about time Our Lady came to Africa. Don’t you wonder how come she always appears in Europe? She was from the Middle East, after all.” “What is she now, the Political Virgin?” Obiora asked, and I looked at him again. He was a bold, male version of what I could never have been at fourteen, what I still was not. Father Amadi laughed. “But she’s appeared in Egypt, Amaka. At least people flocked there, like they are flocking to Aokpe now. O bugodi, like migrating locusts.” “You don’t sound like you believe, Father.” Amaka was watching him. “I don’t believe we have to go to Aokpe or anywhere else to find her. She is here, she is within us, leading us to her Son.” He spoke so effortlessly, as if his mouth were a musical instrument that just let sound out when touched, when opened.

She looked at everyone, and with so much love and affection! Sometimes she seemed to be looking one by one at people there, and now and again her look would rest on someone for a moment as thought she had recognized a friend.

Meeting one of her “daughters” in passing, she would ask: “Are you working outwardly?” And if the child replied, “I am doing my best to work inwardly, Mother,” she would go on her way satisfied.