Welcome back to the Mother’s Day Novena from FaithND, an outreach of the Notre Dame Alumni Association.

Let us pray:

Mary, Our Mother, by accepting the invitation to bear God’s Son to the world, you brought forth new life for all of us. Your faithful acceptance of God’s word is our model and inspiration as we strive to make room in our hearts for your Son and bear him to others. Help us to follow him more closely, even to the foot of the cross, as you did.

During this month dedicated to you, we ask in a special way for you to care for each of our own mothers: (state your personal intention).

Reflection:

Our Lady of Lourdes is a devotion to Mary based on the unparalleled spiritual and physical healing that people have experienced at the site of her apparition. As we prepare our hearts to celebrate Mother’s Day, let us lift up to our Lady all those mothers who need healing in their lives.

Our Lady of Lourdes spoke to St. Bernadette about the need for conversion throughout the world. Urging her to: “Pray to God for sinners. Kiss the earth as a sign of penitence for sinners!” As we continue along this prayerful journey towards Mother’s Day, we reflect on Frederick Goodall’s painting Mater Purissima, which depicts the Blessed Virgin at the Temple with an offering of turtle doves. The Virgin Mary, who lived sinlessly, perfectly followed each of God’s commands. She is the perfect example of obedience.

On February 11, 1858, a poor 14-year-old shepherd girl named Bernadette Soubirous was collecting firewood near Lourdes, France. She saw a bright light, and Mary appeared before her in a natural hollow of rock in a cave on the shore of a river.

Mary appeared with a youthful face, and she wore a white garment with a blue belt and carried a rosary. Throughout 18 appearances, she identified herself as the Immaculate Conception. Mary told Bernadette to drink from a spring within the cave and to tell Church authorities to build a shrine on the site. Since those appearances, more than 200 million pilgrims have visited Lourdes, many reporting cures from the miraculous spring.

Father Sorin visited Lourdes, France, on one of his many trips back to France in the late 1800s to confer with the Holy Cross community. He was moved by the display of faith he saw there and began conversations at Notre Dame to construct a replica shrine on campus.

Notre Dame’s Grotto was constructed in 1896 (after Sorin’s death) and replicates the shrine at Lourdes on a one-seventh scale. A stone from Lourdes is implanted in the Grotto wall. The other boulders were unearthed from nearby farm fields, some weighing two or three tons. Workers, in digging the foundation, opened a spring of water in the same relative position as the miraculous spring that emerged at Lourdes–that spring now flows through the fountain on the left side of the Grotto.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us!

Let us pray:

Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes, we pray today for our mothers and for all families who are in the midst of trials: medical difficulties, brokenness, discord or pain. Bring into their lives the healing that has been offered to so many through your apparition at Lourdes. Bless all of us with your peace and your trust in God, even in the midst of infirmity and pain.

(Pause for a moment of silence. Then conclude:)

We pray, as in all things, through the name of your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Closing Hymn – Alma Mater:

Notre Dame, Our Mother, tender, strong, and true,
Proudly in the heavens gleams thy gold and blue.
Glory’s mantle cloaks thee, golden is thy fame
And our hearts forever praise thee, Notre Dame.
And our hearts forever love thee, Notre Dame.

Image Credit: Frederick Goodall (British, 1822 – 1904), Mater Purissima, 1868, Oil on canvas. Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame. Gift of Mrs. Kevin Bratton, 1979.034.