Our Lady of Lourdes and Peace  

Never will I stop to share the peace and love God allowed me to experience with our Lady in Lourdes, France.

Days before and on my October birthday in 1981, I entered the site of our Lady’s apparition to Bernadette Soubirous.

Although alone, there was never a moment that I felt I was just on my own because there were thousands of people praying the rosary, attending Mass, assisting others in need the whole day.

What a memorable experience!

A taste of heaven on earth!

I reflected then and still do now that Lourdes shows us what heaven must be like --full of prayers/music, full of friendly/helpful people, full of love and hope, full of promises fulfilled especially for countless who have been healed.

Full of the Lord, his love and presence and that of Mama Mary too!

Can you imagine how the sickly Bernadette Soubirous must have felt as she experienced personally seeing and talking to our Lady, 18 times, the first time on February 11, 1858 and the last apparition, on March 25, 1858!

Bernadette saw in a “grotto a kind of natural cave carved into a rocky cliff” (the same grotto that continues to be visited by thousands), a beautiful lady who “wore a white dress and a light blue sash. A white veil covered her head and fell over her shoulders to the ground. On her feet were two lovely golden roses. Her hands were joined and a rosary hung from her right arm. Its chain and cross shone like gold.”

To Bernadette’s question about who she was, the Lady replied - “I am the Immaculate Conception.”

Our Lady asked Bernadette to “tell the people to pray, to do penance and to recite the rosary, especially for sinners.”

Our Mama Mary continues to be our intercessor, lifting our prayers to God for us all.

“Do as He tells you.”

Remember this unforgettable advice during the wedding of Cana that she left us all?

Her deep love and obedience to God and his will always serve constant reminder/inspiration for us.

In the midst of uncertain present global political and military developments, once again, we turn to Mama Mary who, through the three children in Fatima she appeared to, reminded us “to pray the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and an end to the war."

This is a timely prayer/song to recite daily so that Mama Mary can join us pray and most especially, she can continue to intercede for us that God will grace us with continuing peace in our hearts, in our country, throughout the world, that God will never again allow any global conflict or war through all generations.

Would you like to share this Fatima song with others so where two or more of us are gathered together, there, with Mama Mary, God will be with us?

Here goes”

“Dear Lady of Fatima, we come on bended knees, to beg your intercession, for peace and unity.

“Dear Mary, won't you show us, the right and shining way?

“We pledge our love and offer you, a rosary each day.

“You promised at Fatima, each time that you appeared, to help us if we pray to you, to banish war and fear.

“Dear Lady, on First Saturdays, we ask your guiding hand, for grace and guidance here on earth, and protection for our land.”

On September 12, 1942, our Mama Mary of the Immaculate Conception was declared as the Patroness of the Philippines by Pope Pius XII.

Whether in Lourdes, in Fatima or elsewhere in the world, or even here in the Philippines our Lady, our Mama Mary remains with us, as our intercessor, linking us to God always.