"Drink from the spring and wash yourself there"

On February 18th, the Lady said to Bernadette (1): “Could you do me a favor by coming here for fifteen days?” Radiant with joy, the young girl said “yes.” The Lady continued: “I don’t promise you to make you happy in this world, but in the next.”

On the 21st, Bernadette had to push her way through a crowd to reach the grotto. The Lady looked in the distance with a sad expression, then said to Bernadette: "Pray to God for sinners." On the 24th, Bernadette, in tears, only managed to repeat the Lady’s instructions to the crowd, which she summed up in one word: "Penance!" Penance! Penance!" On the 25th, Bernadette crawled on her knees to the center of the grotto, where the Lady preceded her. This time the Virgin’s instructions were: "Drink from the spring and wash yourself there."

Bernadette scraped at the sandy dirt with her fingers. From deep in the rock, a spring began to flow. The child drank the first sip of the muddy water, and wet her face. The spring would soon become an inexhaustible fountain, a divine instrument of many extraordinary cures.

(1) Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879) was a shepherdess living in Lourdes (France), to whom the Blessed Virgin appeared 18 times.

Dom Antoine Marie, osb.

Abbot of Clairval