Lourdes' 150th anniversary featured in PBS' Religion and Ethics Weekly

Folks, PBS' Religion and Ethics Weekly showed on its July 11thepisode fairly good piece on the 150th Anniversary of the Apparitions of the BVM in Lourdes, France. The PBS piece includes both the video and a transcript. It's worth watching and or reading here.

For those of you who want to join themselves to the Lourdes' Jubilee Year, you may pray the following officially sanctioned prayer:

God our Father
among all creatures You have formed Mary,
the perfect creature, the “Immaculate Conception”.
Here in Lourdes she proclaimed this name and Bernadette repeated it.
The Immaculate Conception; this is a cry of hope:
evil, sin, and death are no longer victors.
Mary, precursory sign, dawn of salvation!

Mary,
You, the innocence and refuge of sinners
We pray to you.

Hail Mary……….. !

Lord Jesus,
You gave us Mary as our Mother.
She shared Your Passion and Resurrection.
Here in Lourdes she showed herself to Bernadette,
saddened by our sins but radiant with Your light.
Through her, we entrust to You our joys and our sorrows,
our own, those of the sick, and those of all people.

Mary,
Our sister and our mother,
our confidant, and our help
We pray to you

Hail Mary……….. !

Holy Spirit, you are the Spirit of love and unity.
Here in Lourdes, through Bernadette, Mary asked
for a Chapel, and for people to come in procession.
Inspire the Church which Christ is building on Peter’s faith:
that it may be one.
Guide the pilgrimage of the Church:
that it may be faithful and daring!

Mary, you are filled with the Holy Spirit,
you are the spouse and the servant.
You are the model for Christians, and the maternal face of the Church.v We pray to you.

Hail Mary……….. !

For the many graces received here,
for all the conversions,
all the forgiveness,
all the healings,
for the vocations and promises
which you have witnessed or engendered,
for the love of serving others, which you have let us experience,
Our Lady of Lourdes
we thank you!

With all our brothers and sisters of the human race,
with all people in need of peace and justice,
with young people in search of a way,
you who appeared so young to little Bernadette,
with all those who are in mourning, who are ill,
handicapped, or facing a setback,
with those who may have a reason for despair:
Our Lady of Lourdes
We pray to you!

Because you are the smile of God,
the reflection of the light of Christ,
the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit,
because you chose Bernadette in her misery,
because you are the star of the morning, the gate of Heaven,
and the first resurrected creature
we praise you,
we acclaim you
and with you we sing the wonders of God

Magnificat !

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This prayer is comprised of six verses. The first three or second three may be used separately at different times.

A Hail Mary may be said after each verse.