Une Minute avec Marie
Faire connaître et aimer Marie
We are all familiar with replica Lourdes Grottos all over the country with the statue of Our Lady on a height, often on a rock or a rocky outcrop with the statue of a kneeling young Bernadette Soubirous below. Not so in Lourdes.
Yes there are a few images of Bernadette within the domain, including two across the Gave river, but none at all anywhere near the Grotto itself where the first Apparition happened on February 11, 1858.
Bernadette herself wanted it this way. She always contended that Lourdes and the Grotto were all about the Virgin Mary and her messages of prayer, penance, healing and renewal.
“The Virgin used me as a broom to remove the dust. When the work is done, the broom is put behind the door again,” was a phrase she often used.