On February 11, 1858, a few years after Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in the apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus, Bernadette Soubirous began to experience a series of visions of a young woman who identified herself with the words: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” The woman wore a white robe, a white veil, a blue girdle around her waist and a yellow rose on each foot. There was a rosary in her hand and she invited Bernadette to pray with her, to “drink” and “wash” from a spring, and that a church be built in that place.

I was running on a snow-covered rail trail this morning. It’s a pretty quiet run, except for a certain stretch where a brook runs along the trail and where waterfalls, mostly frozen now, cascade down ice covered rocks. I was praying the rosary, as is my custom on these solitary morning runs.

And, a few things came to mind on today’s feast of Our Lady of Lourdes:

Divine Providence: God used a series of seemingly random circumstances to facilitate an encounter between Our Lady and young Bernadette, a twelve-year-old girl from an impoverished family who’s work routine (gathering wood for cooking fires) was taken from her and given to her younger siblings. The “spring” that exists today, with a large grotto, a series of pools where pilgrims come to bathe and numerous taps from which to draw running water, which is believed to be imbued with the power to heal, bubbled up only after Bernadette dug deep down into the mud, in an area that was little more than a garbage or dung heap. God uses every aspect of our lives, even those that seem insignificant, random, unpleasant or unplanned, in order to carry out God’s divine plan.

Humility: The humble young woman of modest background that would become the Mother of God appeared to a humble, sickly young girl who would become a Saint. Our Lady treated her with dignity. Bernadette reported that this radiant, mysterious woman with roses at her feet addressed her, not in the informal tu, but with the polite form vous.

Penance: Over the course of these apparitions, Our Lady revealed her intercessory power over the forces of evil and requested acts of penance for our sins, the sins of others and of the world. When we engage in penance or offer our pain, suffering, inconveniences, frustrations or disappointments in union with Christ’s own suffering and sacrificial death, we engage in Christ’s work of salvation for souls and bring healing into those wounded parts of our lives, our relationships and our world.

Pilgrimage: Lourdes has become a place of pilgrimage and healing for millions of people. There are over sixty miraculous cures associated with Lourdes. But more importantly, that source for spiritual, emotional and physical healing has become a source for faith. As with other pilgrimage sites throughout the world, those who have traveled to Lourdes return home with a sense of renewed faith and a readiness to serve God and neighbor.

The Power of Prayer: Our Lady requested that Bernadette pray the rosary, and that others do so as well. Every time we pray—whether contemplating the mysteries of Christ’s life through the lens of Our Blessed Mother; engaging in intercessory prayer on behalf of someone else (someone we love, someone we’re struggling with or worried about, someone we miss or someone who is sick or who has died); or entrusting our hopes, worries, fears or anxieties to God—God listens and God acts.

So let us pray:

Oh ever Immaculate Virgin, Mother of Mercy, health of the sick, refuge of sinners, comforter of the afflicted, you know my wants, my troubles, my sufferings; look upon me with mercy. When you appeared in the grotto of Lourdes, you made it a privileged sanctuary where you dispense your favors, and where many sufferers have obtained the cure of their infirmities, both spiritual and corporal. I come, therefore, with complete confidence to implore your maternal intercession. Obtain, O Loving Mother, my request…Through gratitude for your favors, I will endeavor to imitate your virtues, that I may one day share your glory, and bless you in eternity. Amen.