From: trudie.Miller@cox.net   
      
   February 11th - St Bernadette   
      
   On 11 February 1858, St Bernadette, at the age of 14 first had a vision of   
   the Blessed Virgin Mary. She was out with her sister and a friend collecting   
   firewood at Massabielle, near her home town of Lourdes in the South of   
   France.   
      
       I heard the sound of wind as in a storm. I turned towards the meadow,   
   and I saw that the trees were not moving at all...   
      
       I went on taking my stockings off, and was putting one foot into the   
   water, when I heard the same sound in front of me. I looked up and saw a   
   cluster of branches and brambles underneath the topmost opening in the   
   grotto tossing and swaying to and fro, though nothing else stirred all   
   around.   
      
       Behind these branches and within the opening, I saw immediately   
   afterwards a girl in white, no bigger than myself, who greeted me with a   
   slight bow of the head; at the same time, she stretched out her arms   
   slightly away from her body, opening her hands, as in pictures of Our Lady:   
   over her right arm hung a rosary.   
      
       I was afraid, I stepped back. I wanted to call the two little girls; I   
   hadn't the courage to do so. I rubbed my eyes again and again: I thought I   
   must be mistaken.   
      
       Raising my eyes again, I saw the girl smiling at me most graciously and   
   seeming to invite me to come nearer. But I was still afraid. It was not   
   however a fear such as I have at other times, for I would have stayed there   
   forever looking at her: whereas, when you are afraid, you run away quickly.   
      
       Then I thought of saying my prayers. I put my hand in my pocket. I took   
   out the rosary I usually carry on me. I knelt down and I tried to make the   
   sign of the Cross, but I could not lift my hand to my forehead; it fell   
   back.   
      
       The girl meanwhile stepped to one side and turned towards me. This time,   
   she was holding the large beads in her hands. She crossed herself as though   
   to pray. My hand was trembling. I tried again to make the sign of the Cross,   
   and this time I could. After that I was not afraid.   
      
       I said my Rosary. The young girl slipped the beads of hers through her   
   fingers, but she was not moving her lips.   
      
       While I was saying the rosary, I was watching as hard as I could. She   
   was wearing a white dress reaching down to her feet, of which only the toes   
   appeared. The dress was gathered very high at the neck by a hem from which   
   hung a white cord. A white veil covered her head and came down over her   
   shoulders and arms almost tot he bottom of her dress. On each foot I saw a   
   yellow rose. The sash of the dress was blue, and hung down below her knees.   
   The chain of the rosary was yellow; the beads white, big and widely spaced.   
      
       The girl was alive, very young and surrounded by light.   
      
       When I had finished my rosary, she bowed to me smilingly. She retired   
   within a niche and disappeared all of a sudden.   
      
   That was the first of almost twenty visions that St Bernadette had of Our   
   Lady at Lourdes.   
      
   In that time, a spring miraculously appeared at the grotto, and people began   
   to experience miraculous cures from it.   
      
   The Lady gave two public messages: the first was an urgent call to Penance,   
   and the second was that Bernadette was to ask the priests to construct a   
   chapel on the site.   
      
       And straight away, the simple but most obedient little girl went to face   
   the lion in his den: the stern, apparently autocratic parish priest, Abbé   
   Peyramale.   
      
       The Abbé took her into her house. She immediately gave her message:   
   "Monsieur le Curé, the Lady of the grotto has ordered me to tell the priests   
   that she wishes to have a chapel at Massabielle."   
      
       In a surly tone (as the girl remembers) the Abbé said: "What is this   
   lady?"   
       "She is a very beautiful lady, all surrounded with light, who appears to   
   me at Massabielle."   
       "I don't understand," said the Abbé, "How has this lady shown herself to   
   you?"   
      
       Bernadette told the story simply and clearly, the story she had told the   
   civic authorities previously. (Peyramale later told a friend that, as he   
   listened, he had to force back the tears that rose to his eyes.) Without   
   showing any visible emotion, when the girl was finished, the Abbé said:   
       "What is this lady's name?"   
       "I don't know"   
       "You have not asked her?"   
       "Yes, but when I ask her, she smiles but does not reply."   
       "And you assert that she has instructed you to tell me that she wants a   
   chapel at Massabielle?"   
       "Yes"   
      
       At this firm assertion of the little girl, the excitable Abbé flared up.   
   "Girl," he cried, "you are out of your mind! A lady who goes and perches on   
   a rock, a lady you do not know, a lady who is perhaps as lunatic as you!   
   This lady comes and tells you to invite us to have a chapel built for her!   
   And you accept such messages? And you think we are fools enough to listen to   
   them?"   
      
       Then calming down a bit: "Since you stick to this lady, find out first   
   who she is, and if she thinks she has a right to a chapel. Ask her from me   
   to prove it by making the rose-bush at the grotto flower immediately."   
      
   Bernadette asked several more times for the Lady's name, but the Lady   
   continued to smile and tell her to ask the priests to build the chapel.   
      
   Then the visions stopped for three weeks. In that time, the Abbé could not   
   help but notice not only the miraculous cures taking place in his parish,   
   but also an incredible resurgence of the faith and a return to the   
   sacraments by the townspeople.   
      
       Then on the Feast of the Annunciation, 25 March, Bernadette again   
   experienced the 'irresistible urge' to go to the grotto. When she came with   
   relatives, there were over a thousand people gathered there. The beautiful   
   lady was already in the niche and waiting for her. The rosary and prayers   
   were said, and during her ecstasy, the little visionary plucked up her   
   courage and asked the beautiful visitor, once, twice, and then a third time:   
   "Madame, will you be so kind as to tell me who you are?"   
      
       At the third entreaty, the Lady opened her arms and lowered them,   
   letting the rosary slip down to her wrist, then she rejoined her hands,   
   raised her eyes and delivered her secret: "I am the Immaculate Conception"   
      
       As she went from the grotto, Bernadette kept repeating these words which   
   she did not understand; they were but sounds to her. And when she came   
   before the Abbé Peyramale, she burst out without any formality: "I am the   
   Immaculate Conception".   
      
       "What's that you say, you conceited little thing?"   
       "It is the Lady who has just said these words to me."   
       "Do you know what that means?"   
       "No, monsieur le Curé."   
       "I see you are still being deceived. How can you say things that you   
   don't understand?"   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)