Bernadette Soubirous

thumb|One who loves does not notice her trials; or perhaps more accurately, she is able to love them. Bernadette Soubirous (7 January 1844 – 16 April 1879) was a Catholic mystic, known for experiencing Marian apparitions at Lourdes in 1858. Quotes I shall spend every moment loving. One who loves does not notice her trials; or perhaps more accurately, she is able to love them.Why must we suffer? Because here below pure Love cannot exist without suffering. O Jesus, Jesus, I no longer feel my cross when I think of yours. 1873. Quoted in A Holy Life: St. Bernadette of Lourdes (2005) by Patricia McEachern, ch. 2. Le parole di Bernadette AA.VV., Le parole di Bernadette, Città Nuova, 2007 (in Italian) Love the good Lord my daughters so much. It's all in this. You always have to see God in your superiors, I still accept. Cost what it costs, it is necessary that you speak of my mother of Heaven. Tell my parents I'm sad here. I wish to return to Lourdes, to go to school and prepare for my first communion. The Lady told me again that she wants a chapel built on that site and also said to me: "I want people to come here in procession." The Holy Virgin and Saint Joseph are in perfect agreement, and jealousy does not exist in heaven. No, Mr. Parish Priest. He said just like that: "I am the Immaculate Conception." I don't have to believe you, but I can only answer you by saying what I saw and heard. Oh, Father, I will only go to heaven behaving properly. Oh! This is beautiful, do you want me to speak to you in French the Madonna? Do you think I know? Pray for me, poor sinner, especially at the hour of my death. When you obey you are never wrong, always obey with joy. If we had faith we would see the good God in everything. Mr. parish priest, the Lady did not tell me that the procession should be held now. It seems to me that she was talking, not about the present, but about the future. Quaderno delle note intime Bernadette Soubirous, Quaderno delle note intime, Ndl Edizioni, 2006 (in Italian) He who loves, does everything without effort, or loves his effort. He who exposes himself to temptation, says the Holy Scripture, will fall into it. Mary sacrificed everything and God alone replaces her everything. For God's greater glory, the important thing is not to do so much, but to do it well. Why do we have to suffer? For here below pure Love does not exist without suffering. What refers to me no longer concerns me, I must be, from now on, entirely of God, and of God alone. Never of myself. Quotes about Bernadette's prayer is contagious. René Laurentin, Lourdes. Cronaca di un mistero, translation by Rino Camilleri, Mondadori, 1996. Social status, culture, wealth, even health: the very opposite of all this in Marie-Bernarde Soubirous, known as Bernadette, fourteen years old (but with the development of a ten-year-old, according to the doctors who examined her, and not yet a woman, due to insufficient nutrition); asthmatic; suffering from a stomach; locked in her silence as shy and introverted; illiterate and considered by some of her relatives themselves incapable of learning anything; Uneducated even in religious matters, so much so that she even ignored the mystery of the Trinity; daughter of the most miserable family in the city; resident in the cell of the municipal prison, evicted by the authorities because it was considered unhealthy for the inmates themselves; with her father not only a failure and with a reputation –albeit abusive– as a slacker and a drunkard, but also with a prison stay behind her on suspicion of theft: released after nine days, he dropped the accusation so insubstantial, but without proceeding to any judgment, so as to leave a defamatory suspect on him. Let us realize this: in all this, only the eyes of faith can discern a mysterious conformity to the Gospel and, therefore, the stigmata of truth. Only adhering to a perspective overturned with respect to the «eyes of the flesh» can make heard the echoes of the Magnificat sung by She of whom Bernadette Soubirous witnessed: «...she looked at the humility of her servant [...]; she scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; she overthrew the powerful from thrones, she exalted the humble; she filled the hungry with goods; he sent the rich away empty-handed...» (Lk 1, 48 and 51 ff.) Vittorio Messori, Ipotesi su Maria: fatti, indizi, enigmi, Edizioni Ares, Milano, 2005. ISBN 88-8155-338-4, p. 92. External links Category:1844 births Category:1879 deaths Category:Catholics from France Category:Christian nuns Category:Mystics Category:Saints