Saint Bernadette of Lourdes the Visionary of Lourdes

Saint Bernadette of Lourdes

There are Saints among us whose greatest virtues have been their lifelong battles against their human nature.  Those of us who are privileged to study their lives, have a tendency to ignore what we believe to be their shortcomings, in an effort to go directly to their source of sanctification.  When we do this, we miss the teaching the Lord has to give us by the example of His suffering servant.  We go for the dream, and miss the journey.  The sanctification is in the journey.

Saint Bernadette of Lourdes used to complain about the accounts she read on the Lives of the Saints, in that they all seemed too sugar coated.  She said of the Saints, “They were human beings with faults and weaknesses, like all of us.”  Mother Angelica once said, referring to the authors of lives of the Saints, “They should all be given forty years each in purgatory, for making these Saints seem so perfect.”  Bernadette probably felt the same way.

To the little Saint Bernadette of Lourdes, the many gifts she was given during her lifetime: one, that of beholding the presence of Mary, the Mother of God, eighteen times in the year 1858; another, her ecstasies during those Apparitions, were just that, gifts.  She believed that these were aids from the good God to help her get through a sacrificial life amidst a barrage of attacks, and to suppress her own fiery inclination to fight those attacks.  She prayed the gifts would offset her imperfections, which included a strong will, a fierce temper, and a stinging tongue.  What she may never have reallized is how Our Lord Jesus and His Mother Mary were able to use these traits for their glory.

We once wrote that Bernadette was a simple girl, an illiterate at the time that Our Lady appeared to her, but never did we consider her a stupid girl.  Her behavior throughout the period of the Apparitions, her inner strength to hold up against great powers in the government and the Church, are a strong indicator of this.  Her life after the Apparitions, and in the Convent of Saint Gildard in Nevers, is proof of her strength.

We never knew much about Bernadette.  As a young man, I became enraptured by the Apparitions of Our Lady to Bernadette, after reading The Song of Bernadette.  I fell in love with Mary, but never thought much about Bernadette.  Even the first time Penny and I visited Lourdes, we didn’t see or hear much of the little visionary.  This is as Bernadette wanted it.  With the exception of the Cachot, where she lived during the time of the Apparitions, the Boly Mill, where she was born, and the Maison Paternelle, where the family lived after the Apparitions, Bernadette is not considered a major part of the Shrine.  But Bernadette is very important, both as the intermediary for Mary during that period of time in 1858, and as a role mode for today.

Once I got to know her, I came to love her.  There is much in Bernadette which can be used in our everyday struggle to reach the kingdom, to be part of the Communion of Saints.  We can learn from her.  We can use her lifelong struggle for sanctity as a teaching in our own lives. Continued

 

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The Visionary of Lourdes
"I cannot promise you happiness in this world, but in the next."

Pope Benedict XVI "Take courage! Fix your gaze on our saints."

Taped in Lourdes and Nevers

The life of Saint Bernadette of Lourdes -
We start at the birthplace of Bernadette, the Boly Mill in Lourdes.
Visit the Cachot where she lived during the apparitions, and La Maison Paternelle where she lived after the apparitions.

Enter the Grotto of Massabiele where our Lady appeared to her.  Scenes from Nevers, and see her beautiful incorrupt body.

ISBN 1-58002-032-1  - $19.95  Our Prices explained

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Other Powerful Women Saints Saint Agatha Saint Angela Merici Saint Bernadette Saint Catherine de Ricci Saint Catherine of Bologna Saint Catherine of Genoa Saint Catherine of Siena Saint Clare of Assisi Saint Calre of Montefalco Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Saint Faustina Kowalska Saint Frances Cabrini Saint Gemma Galgani Saint Joan of Arc Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque Saint Margaret of Cortona Saint Maria Goretti Saint Philomena Saint Rita of Cascia Saint Rose of Lima Saint Rose of Viterbo Saint Teresa of Avila Saint Therese of Lisieux Saint Veronica Giuliani Blessed Angela of Foligno Blessed Anna Maria Taigi Blessed Dina Belanger Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha

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Bob and Penny Lord trace the life of one of the most powerful Saints of the 20th Century, scenes taken from her birthplace in Alencon to
Buissonnets - her home in Lisieux,
to the Carmel where she lived as a Carmelite Nun,
to the great Basilica built in her honor.
Declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope John Paul II.
 

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Mystic - Stigmatic
Travel with us to Siena, and Saint Dominic's Church where she went into ecstasy. Walk through her home where she was mystically married to Jesus; see the cross where she received the Stigmata.
Go to Siena, and Saint Dominic's Church where she went into ecstasy. Walk through her home where she was mystically married to Jesus; see the cross where she received the Stigmata.
Go to Avignon, France where she convinced the Pope to return to Rome.

ISBN 1-58002-017-8 $19.95 

Daughter, Wife, Mother, Widow, Nun, Saint,
Woman of Faithfulness and Forgiveness
Saint of the Impossible

Visit her birthplace in Roccaporena, and Cascia where she lived.
Venerate her incorrupt body.
See the miraculous bees that were part of her life.
Go to the convent in Cascia where she lived and witness her life in the Cloister.
See her miraculous entry into the community and the Cross from which she received the Stigmata, a thorn in her head.
 

V131 - Saint Clare of Montefalco

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there you will find the Suffering Lord."

Scenes from the Augustinian convent in Montefalco.
Venerate her incorrupt body.
See the Crucified Christ, and the Crown of Thorns inside the muscle of her heart. This was revealed during her autospy.
Visit the garden and see the miraculous tree which still bears fruit today.
Discover the story of the Montefalco Rosaries made form these nuts.
Go inside the cloister where she died.
Meet her community of Nuns, who joyfully still live the rule.

ISBN 1-58002-024-0 $19.95

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Scenes from her Convent of San Damiano in Assisi.
Visit her Church in Assisi and her incorrupt body.
See where she bi-located to Bethlehem; pray before the original Cross of San Damiano which spoke to Saint Francis and told him to "Rebuild My Church."

 

ISBN 1-58002-026-7 $19.95

We start at the birthplace of Bernadette, the Boly Mill in Lourdes.
Visit the Cachot where she lived during the apparitions, and La Maison Paternelle where she lived after the apparitions.
Enter the Grotto of Massabiele where our Lady appeared to her.
Scenes from Nevers, and see her beautiful incorrupt body.

ISBN 1-58002-032-1 $19.95

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Now available in mini book
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Scenes from  Avila, and  the Convent of the Incarnation where she had mystical experiences, including Transverberation of the Heart.

Visit San José in Avila, Valladolid, and Alba de Tormes where she died.

See her incorrupt arm and heart.