15 Nov 2018

7th – 8th december : Lourdes celebrates the Immaculate Conception united with christians across the world

by | posted in: Currently | 0

For the feast of the Immaculate Conception, present a rose to our Lady of Lourdes: we will place it in the Grotto for you on the 8th december

On Friday 7th and Saturday 8th December 2018, with great solemnity the Sanctuary of Lourdes celebrates the feast of the Immaculate Conception, united to the Family Our Lady of Lourdes and in connection with Christians around the world.
On 8th December, the feast day of the Immaculate Conception, on the Spanish Steps in Rome, the Pope will lay a bouquet of flowers at the foot of a statue of Mary to pay her homage.
On that same day, in Lourdes, at the very place where the Virgin said, “I am the Immaculate Conception”, the Sanctuary will join with the Holy Father’s actions: from 10th November, thousands of flowers, ordered online by pilgrims visiting the website, will be placed in the Grotto, at the feet of Our Lady, to pay her homage and thus prolong the joy that Bernadette experienced when she said: she had a yellow rose on each foot, the colour of her rosary chain. It is the rosary that makes the world blossom.

This floral tribute to the Virgin on 8th December is an initiative of the Family of Our Lady of Lourdes, which brings together parishes, churches, shrines, communities, people who want to continue to share, each day, in the grace of Mary’s meeting with Bernadette.
This year 2018, we will be associating especially with the Roman Basilica Sant’Andrea delle Fratte, where Mary appeared to Alphonse Ratisbonne, who immediately converted, and where Maximilian Kolbe celebrated his first mass. This basilica, called “the Roman Lourdes ” by Pope Benedict XV, is entrusted to the Minimes Fathers. It is just a few steps away from here, on the Spanish Steps, at the foot of the Immaculate Conception statue, that on 8th December every year, the people of Rome and the Pope come to lay their flowers in homage.

On this day, we will also give thanks for the institution this year of the feast of Mary Mother of the Church, which Pope Francis has set for the Monday after Pentecost. Mary brings all her children together in prayer and in love.

Chain of prayer to the Virgin

People, families, parishes, churches, shrines, communities who wish to join the World Prayer Chain to the Virgin, on 8thDecember, associated with the floral tribute (the prayer chain last year spread over five continents), should let us know by email: tributefloral-8dec2018@numericable.fr
(The prayers to the Immaculate Virgin offered by the Prayer Groups of Padre Pio of Paris can then be shared as well)

Preparatory Novena for the feast of the Immaculate Conception

From 30th November, we are invited to prepare for this great and beautiful celebration by going to confession and a by offering a novena.

Holy Virgin Mary, who in Lourdes named herself the Immaculate Conception,
you are the most beautiful, the purest being to radiate the love of the Lord.
Through you, He come into our world.
In you we welcome Him, we poor sinners,
You teach us to open our hearts to Him.
We contemplate with Bernadette
these yellow roses at your feet, the colour of your rosary chain.
We offer our roses too …
May we join our prayers with yours,
Mother of the Church, our Mother.
May the prayers of your children, the prayers of your loving heart make this world, tainted by sin, blossom once more.
May we come to taste the happiness of paradise in you, the dawn of the new world,
Mary, the chosen one, God’s accomplishment, we bless you.
Thank you, Lord, for the gift of Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes, our Mother. AMEN.

Every day; pray all or part of the rosary, offer an act of love, and say the suggested prayer, repeating the following invocation three times: O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Here are the intentions for each day:
  1. We pray especially for the Sanctuary of Lourdes, that it may respond to the desire of Mary, entrusted to Bernadette.
  2. We pray for the Church, may it be a truly Marian Church, alive in the faith of the most vulnerable and the poor, and knowing how to make them welcome.
  3. We pray for those who suffer, for victims of evil and violence, and for our persecuted brothers and sisters.
  4. With the martyrs of Algeria, beatified in Oran this 8th December, we pray for a world reconciled in fraternal life and in love.
  5. We pray that all life will be welcomed, loved and supported, from conception to natural death …
  6. May the homeless, refugees, and migrants, finally find a home, and may all our hearts be open to the gifts of God.
  7. We give thanks for the feast of Mary Mother of the Church, celebrated for the first time by the whole Church the day after Pentecost.
  8. We give thanks for the 160 years of the sanctuary of Lourdes, for all the graces from heaven that spread across our earth.
  9. We give thank for the Bernadette’s of today who respond to God’s gift.

Further intentions for each day:
For Pope Francis and his intentions
For peace
For Christian unity
For unbelievers and souls in purgatory.

For those who wish to continue to live daily in the grace of Lourdes, we offer membership to the Family of Our Lady of Lourdes: famillendl@lourdes-france.com

Programme for 7th – 8th december in Lourdes

7th december
5:30 pm Vespers in the Immaculate Conception Basilica.
9 pm Torchlight Marian procession

8th december
10 am Mass in the underground Basilica of Saint Pius X.
11:30 am Angelus followed by floral tribute at the Grotto.
3:30 pm Rosary at the Grotto (led by the Family of Our Lady of Lourdes).
4:15 pm Conference with video presentation led by Fr. André Cabes at the Saint-Bernadette hemi-cycle: “Marian Church – Church in Dialogue”.
5:30 pm Vespers in the Rosary Basilica.
9 pm Torchlight Marian procession.