feb 8

February 8

Our Lady of Casimir (Poland, 1411)

Pope John Paul II at Lourdes

Prayer to Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes

Before thee, O Mother of Christ, before your Immaculate Heart, I lift my heart today to join our Redeemer who wholly devoted himself to mankind, in order to regenerate us with his forgiveness and feed us with his Life. You united yourself, more than anyone else, to his offering for the salvation of the world. And you ask us, through the voice of Saint Bernadette, to accept this invitation to repentance, conversion, and prayer. May we not follow our own inclinations and forget your call.

Mother of mankind and nations, you who know all our sufferings and hopes, you who maternally knows our struggles between good and evil, between light and darkness, hear our prayer, come to the aid of your children in need. Now I will renew in Lourdes for the Church the prayer that I love to address to you in the great Marian shrines throughout the world.

You yourself allowed Bernadette Soubirous to experience your gentle presence by giving her a message that echoes the words God has entrusted to the Church. The offering we make of ourselves before you, O Our Lady, should be the personal initiative of each individual, every family, every ecclesial community, and it is good to renew it in every generation, in the way that best expresses this offering of ourselves.

O Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes, obtain for our brothers and sisters the gifts of the Holy Spirit, in order to renew the faith of these Christians and their communities, which I entrust to your Immaculate Heart, to your motherly love. Amen.

Excerpt of the Prayer of John Paul II, Lourdes, August 14, 1983

 

Ave Maria!