It is absolutely true. Our Blessed Mother Mary intercedes for you and your loved ones! When you call upon her in prayer, even just by reverently and confidently uttering her name, she hears you and takes your needs directly to her Son Jesus. This is Mary’s miraculous, maternal mission, especially under her titles of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal and Our Lady of Lourdes.
Our Blessed Mother has obtained countless miracles for her children throughout history. She appeared to Catherine Labouré in the year 1830 with a message of grace, and since then, has touched millions of lives through devotion to the Miraculous Medal. In the year 1858, Mary appeared to another French girl named Bernadette Soubirous, this time with a message of healing, and in the 162 years since then, she has touched thousands of lives through devotion to the holy rosary and the healing waters of Lourdes. The miracles of Lourdes have been so remarkable that a special investigative body exists just to review all the submitted claims of miraculous healing.
To date, seventy cases of healing have been officially approved as medically inexplicable by this special bureau. Every year I find it spiritually enriching to study one of these seventy approved miracles, and this year, one in particular caught my attention because I know many people who can relate to suffering from a workplace injury. Yvonne Fournier was just 17 years old in the year 1940 when her arm was entangled in a drive belt and rendered useless, even after nine separate surgeries to bring back movement and reduce pain, all of which were ineffective.
Three years after the accident, a tribunal granted Yvonne a 70% pension, the same typically awarded for an amputated limb. In 1945, Yvonne participated in the first national pilgrimage to Lourdes since the start of World War II, and after a single bath in the waters of Lourdes, she experienced instant and complete restoration of her arm and freedom from years of extreme and chronic pain. The medical examiners called her cure instantaneous, definitive, and medically inexplicable.
Such miracles explain why we honor Our Lady of Lourdes here at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. It is especially significant to us that our Lady said to Saint Bernadette, “I am the Immaculate Conception,” because in 1830 our Lady gave Sister Catherine Labouré the design of the Miraculous Medal which was at first called, “the medal of the Immaculate Conception.”
Each year, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes is celebrated on February 11.
I invite you to join us as we honor Our Lady of Lourdes, with an octave of Masses from February 11-18, asking for her healing intercession for those we love.
Please send us your octave petitions, as well as any requests for Votive Lights, especially if you or someone dear to you is in need of healing of any kind – spiritual, physical, emotional, or mental.
Mary, honored under her titles of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal and Our Lady of Lourdes, is always ready to help her children. We need your assistance – your prayers and your financial support. Any offering you make to the Association will help us in our mission of bringing the world to Jesus through Mary.
Your intentions will be remembered here at the Shrine during the Lourdes Octave of Masses, February 11-18. May our Lord Jesus bless you for your generosity, and may Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal and Our Lady of Lourdes keep you in her tender, maternal care.
Sincerely yours in Jesus and Mary,
Fr. Kevin McCracken, C.M.
Spiritual Director