Our Lady of Lourdes

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Today marks the anniversary of the Marian apparitions in the Pyrenees Mountains that divides Spain and France. Lourdes is a small town that lies in the foothills of these mountains and it's most famous for Our Lady of Lourdes who visited St. Bernadette a number of times in 1858.  Our Lady announced to the 14 year old Bernadette "I am the Immaculate Conception."  Our Lady's' message of personal conversion, prayer and charity has led many people to Christ.  It's also a place where many miracles have been reported from the spring water.  Every year, countless pilgrims come to pray for grace, conversion and healing.

St. Bernadette had to have been confused and possibly scared when Our Lady first appeared to her but, she must of understood at some deep level, that she needed to obey.  She called her "the lady clothed in the sun."  How glorious and beautiful she must have looked to the young Bernadette.  Thanks to her obedience, the world was and continues to be blessed by the spring waters at the grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes.  I checked out from my local library this book that gives St. Bernadette's famous story.

Happy Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes!

Here is a craft I am planning on doing with my first graders tomorrow.  The idea came from one of my favorite Catholic Bloggers Jennifer at Crafolic.  I downloaded the black and white picture of Our Lady of Lourdes HERE courtesy of the ever artistic Charlotte at  Waltzing Matilda.  The black and white free flower templates came from HERE.  The original size was too big so I downloaded a copy and then using my printer/copier, I reduced the size to 72%.  It worked much better that way.  Then it was time to color and paste.  An fun yet easy craft for 6-7 year olds!

Thank you to Jennifer and Charlotte who probably have no idea how much of a blessing their ideas and drawings are to children and adults around the world.  They so generously share their God given gifts with the rest of us!

Resources:
Mary Pages
Catholic Culture


I linked up with RAnn at Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival.  Come and join us!

Blessings,
Noreen

Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes

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 On February 11th, we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes in the Catholic Church.  This is the anniversary of the Marian apparition to St. Bernadette in 1858 in France.   One way to prepare to celebrate this feast is to pray the Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes.

This is a nine day novena that can be started today, Friday, February 3 up until Saturday, February 11th.  

You can find it HERE or a different one HERE.  You can even get a daily reminder with the prayers sent to your email box HERE.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
St. Bernadette, pray for us.


Blessings,
Noreen