Prayer by St Bernadette

I first learned about Saint Bernadette when I was about 7 years old, thanks to the 1943 movie, The Song of Bernadette. Every year after that I would wait in great anticipation for the movie to play on television!
My Mom (then Protestant) also loved the movie.

Benadette was the messenger of the Immaculate Conception and she told us the very words of the Virgin Mary, spoken in the native Basque tongue of Southern France and Northern Spain.

She spoke words teaching of the merits of prayer, penance, poverty and church. In the first and most widely recognized Marian apparition of modern times, a personal message was delivered also to Bernadette—She would not find happiness in this world, but only in the next.

Our Lady appeared in a silent apparition on February 11, 1858 as Bernadette gathered firewood at the 'pigs grotto'. She told of feeling a wind blow over her and turned to see a lady in white with a blue sash, a yellow rose between each foot in a niche in the rock. The picture to the right is the only known photograph of Bernadette at the grotto in Lourdes—1862, three years after the apparitions.

She knelt and tried to make the sign of the cross but she could not until the vision she would later call Aquiro made the sign. No one, how ever hard they tried would be able to imitate the sign of the cross the way Bernadette made it for the rest of her life because of what she saw and was taught that day at the grotto. Our Lady would appear another seventeen times to the little girl who knelt before her that day.

Bernadette would pray the rosary with her many more times but the lady (or Aquiro) would only join in when Bernadette prayed the Our Father and Glory Be. The rest of the time she would follow silently on her beads.

She was to die twenty–one years later in 1879 after a prolonged and painful illness. She remained hidden in a convent about 300 miles from home, a refuge from the interrogations and the pilgrims that never ceased seeking her. At thirty–five, her strong–willed manner gave way to her frail body, and she finally entered into her eternal happiness.

While she took with her the knowledge of certain secrets the Virgin gave her, one secret remained hidden in our presence. The most spectacular of all the incorruptibles, Bernadette's miraculously preserved body remained buried in a damp grave for thirty years until the cause for beatification was taken up. To this day, the body of Bernadette is a profound source of inspiration and of mystery surrounding the ways of the Lord. The face of Bernadette is one of surreal beauty, and will remain for us always the face that gazed into the eyes of the Mother of God.

Prayer by St Bernadette

How happy my soul was, good mother, when I had the good fortune to gaze upon you!

How I love to recall the pleasant moments spent under your gaze, so full of kindness and mercy for us.

Yes, tender Mother, you stooped down to earth to appear to a mere child.

You, the Queen of Heaven and Earth chose to use what is weakest in the eyes of men.

O Mary, give the precious virtue of humility to she who dares to call herself your child.

O loving Mother, help your child to resemble you in everything and every way.

In a word, grant that I may be a child according to your heart and
the heart of your dear son.

Amen

H/T and quoted heavily from The Dreamer's Day

Hold mouse over image to see Bernadette at the time of her death, April 16, 1879 @ Animation It may take a minute to download.

Timeline
The 11th of February is the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. (The date of first apparition of Our Lady to Bernadette Soubirous)
The 18th of February is the Feast Day of St. Bernadette.
Bernadette saw Our Lady 18 times in 1858.