World Day of Prayer for the Sick, the Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes - 11 February 2025

Sacred Heart Catholic Church Inverell will celebrate the Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes with the praying of the Holy Rosary at 8.30am followed by Holy Mass at 9.00am.

St Pope John Paul II designated the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes to be an annual day of prayer and consideration of the sick and of those who care for them. It is a day on which we reflect on the Christian meaning of illness, pain and suffering - whether we are healthy or not. People in the medical profession are invited through this day to recognise and value the spiritual dimension of their work.

We pray for all those who are sick and for all those who care for them.

Our Lady of Lourdes is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary recalling her apparitions in 1858 in the grotto at Lourdes, France to Saint Bernadette Soubirous, a fourteen-year-old peasant girl. Our Lady instructed Bernadette to dig in the ground nearby, from which came a spring with healing properties, active to this day. After a thorough investigation, the apparitions were approved for devotion by the Catholic Church in 1862. A shrine was built there, which remains a popular place of pilgrimage. The latest (and 69th) approved miracle involving a healing in the water of Lourdes took place in May 1989 and after extensive investigation was approved by the Church in July 2013.

The Virgin Mary in her apparition under the title of Our Lady of Lourdes, is arrayed in white robes with a blue sash and a golden rose on each foot. This is how she appeared to Saint Bernadette.

A link to more information on Our Lady of Lourdes: https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/our-lady-of-lourdes...

O ever Immaculate Virgin, Mother of Mercy, health of the sick, refuge of sinners, comforter of the afflicted, you know my wants, my troubles, my sufferings; look with mercy on me. By appearing in the Grotto of Lourdes, you were pleased to make it a privileged sanctuary, whence you dispense your favours; and already many sufferers have obtained the cure of their infirmities, both spiritual and corporal. I come, therefore, with complete confidence to implore your maternal intercession. Obtain, O loving Mother, the grant of my requests. Through gratitude for your favours, I will endeavour to imitate your virtues, that I may one day share in your glory. Amen.