THE POWERFUL NOVENA TO OUR LADY OF LOURDES: DAY 6 – (FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NO MEANS OF LIVELIHOOD AS A RESULT OF THEIR ILLNESS)

There were approximately two thousand spectators at the Grotto that morning. The Lady asked Bernadette to tell the clergy to build a chapel on the site of the Grotto.

The Twelfth Apparition – Monday, March 1, 1858 (the first miracle)

During this apparition, the Lady commented to Bernadette that she was not using her own Rosary, which was an accurate statement. Bernadette had been asked by Pauline Sans to use Pauline’s Rosary at the Grotto that day.  In the night, Catherine Latapie, a woman from Loubajac, 7 kilometres away, went to the Grotto, she plunged her dislocated arm into the water of the spring: her arm and her hand regained their movement.

The Thirteenth Apparition – Tuesday, March 2, 1858 (message to priests)

By this time, the crowd became larger and larger. Bernadette arrived at the Grotto early in the morning, prayed the Rosary in the presence of the Lady, who remained silent except for the “Glory be…” Then the Lady asked her: “Go and tell the priests that people are to come here in procession and to build a chapel here.” Bernadette spoke of this to Fr. Peyramale, the Parish Priest of Lourdes. He wanted to know only one thing: the Lady’s name. He demanded another test; to see the wild rose bush flower at the Grotto in the middle of winter.

The Fourteenth Apparition – Wednesday, March 3, 1858 (insistence to know the Lady’s name)

During this apparition, the Lady repeated that She wanted a chapel built by the clergy and, additionally, that She wanted people to come to this chapel in processional form. Bernadette was terribly afraid of the parish priest, Abbe Peyramale. It had been difficult for her to go to him the first time about building a chapel, but it took a great deal of courage for her to present herself to him a second time about processions. He dismissed her curtly, again insisting and ordering her to tell the Beautiful Lady that the Cure of Lourdes was not in the habit of dealing with mysterious strangers; that if She wanted a chapel — if She had a right to one — She must reveal Her identity.

The Fifteenth Apparition – Thursday, March 4, 1858 (the day all were waiting for)

By now, most everyone in France knew that March 4 was the last of the fifteen days that Bernadette had promised the Lady that she would be present at the Grotto. Twenty thousand people were present that day, including an entire military garrison in full-dress uniform. As Bernadette approached the apparition site, a path was cleared for her, and the soldiers who accompanied her did so with respect. The ever-greater crowd waited for a miracle at the end of the fortnight. The vision was silent. Fr. Peyramale stuck to his position. The crowd was disappointed and disillusioned because they didn`t perceive any miracle from the Lady that day. They had seen Bernadette transfigured with a strange radiance, but they had hoped to also share her vision, to hear the same voice that she did, and they expected that, at the very least, the rosebush would burst into a sudden miraculous bloom. after this, for twenty days Bernadette did not go to the Grotto, she no longer felt the irresistible invitation.