Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes

"Dear children! Again today I call you to consecrate your life to me with love, so I am able to guide you with love. I love you, dear children, with a special love and I desire to bring you all to Heaven unto God. I want you to realize that this life lasts briefly compared to the one in Heaven. Therefore, dear children, decide again today for God. Only that way will I be able to show how much you are dear to me and how much I desire all to be saved and to be with me in Heaven. Thank you for having responded to my call." (BVM 11-27-86)


From Exodus, the miracle of water from the rock:

But the people thirsted there for water; and they grumbled against Moses and said, "Why now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?"


So Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, "What shall I do to this people? A little more and they will stone me."


Then the LORD said to Moses, "Pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.


"Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it that the people may drink." And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. (Ex 17:3-6)

From a letter by St. Bernadette Soubirous, 1861:

The third time I went, the lady spoke to me and asked me to come every day for fifteen days. She also told me to drink from the stream…She indicated a little trickle of water close by. I went back each day for fifteen days and each time…the lady appeared and told me to look for a stream and wash in it…

Reflection: As with Moses and the Israelites in the desert, miraculous water flowed from the grotto at Lourdes as a sign of God’s healing power and love.

In response to this life-giving love, we are called, like St. Bernadette, to consecrate our lives to the Blessed Mother so that, as she says, “I can guide you with love.”

In love we can see with new eyes that, “this life lasts briefly compared to the one in heaven,” and so Our Lady urges us to prioritize our lives, putting God in first place. “Decide again for God,” she says, which will enable her to guide us to peace and eternal life.


The water in the desert and the healing waters at Lourdes both invite us to drink generously of God’s grace and love. Only a prayer and an open heart are necessary. (1)


Today on this special feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes, I have renewed my consecration  to Our Lady and have asked  her for consecration of a special child of mine. I ask you to keep this child in prayer today if you would.  I thank God for each of you and ask His blessings upon you.

(1)  Medjugorje Day by Day, by Richard J. Beyer