Talk:Our Lady of Lourdes

message: Was the Rosary Our Lady had in hand 15 decades?
Also how long did it take St. Bernadette to pray the Rosary with Our Lady?--Maria Bernada (talk) 00:25, 1 May 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I can look this up but believe Bernadette said it was five. Owing to the fact that the lady would leave after the rosary was finished, Bernadette probably stretched a five-decade rosary out as long as possible. We do know about her long, slow way of crossing herself, which she said she picked up from the Lady -- that's on record. I've noticed that in apparitions, Mary is said to encourage her visionaries to say their prayers slowly and think about what they are saying (ever heard a tape of Jacinta Gonzalez at Garabandal?), so one could guess that was probably true here also. --Bluejay Young (talk) 02:49, 9 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: 15 decade?

message: A long list of Churches called OLL was recently added. It does not seem to have a relevance here to the apparition and should probably go into a separate disambig page (from which it was probably copied). I will remove them in a few days unless someone gives good reasons not to. Thanks History2007 (talk) 03:17, 20 June 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for removing that list. A more extensive list can be found at the Lourdes (disambiguation) page anyway, which is the right place for such references. Preacherdoc (talk) 13:12, 23 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: List of Churches

message: The article does not mention the Anglican approval and veneration of Our Lady of Lourdes.. should this be added? --Willthacheerleader18 (talk) 21:49, 9 December 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Anglicanism 

message: True, some of it is there. the story of Bernadette. But not everything. Still it is interesting how the little girl describes the whole thing. I am sure that many people would like to know about it more. Like myself. Hafspajen (talk) 21:40, 19 August 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: If people want to know more there is an entire world from which they can learn. They can consult internet or printed sources, many accessible from the list of references in the article. There is even a link to the official website for the shrine. Wikipedia is a good place to provide information, but we can't always compile every single last shred into a Wikipedia article. Gigantic block quotes in particular make terrible article content; they bloat and disrupt the article with content the reader can find elsewhere. The CatholicPilgrims website is also not a reputable source and can't be used as a reference in the article. Some guy (talk) 02:19, 20 August 2013 (UTC)

text: * Oh, well, they can of course do that. But most people do use Wikipedia. Maybe you feel that this story of Bernadette disrupt the article. I still think that some of the things are very interesting indeed in this testimony. The feeling of it. But it is true, the  story is described in the history part. And there are some minor faults, the chain is gold, but the beads are white, as Bernadette said, "same color as the chain of her rosary; the beads of the rosary were white." Also this: "The Lady made a sign for me to approach; but I was seized with fear, and I did not dare, thinking that I was faced with an illusion. I rubbed my eyes, but in vain. I looked again, and I could still see the same Lady. Then I put my hand into my pocket, and took my rosary. I wanted to make the sign of the cross, but in vain; I could not raise my hand to my forehead, it kept on dropping".The interesting thing about this is what the Lady did.  "The Lady took the rosary that she held in her hands and she made the sign of the cross". Like a mirror. Or she could feel the girls wish. Than the Lady makes a sign for Bernadette to approach, and when this is not happening , than she she disappears. Next time she throw holy water in her direction, saying that if she came from God she was to stay, but if not, she must go.  The vision  started to smile, and bowed; and the more Bernadette sprinkled her with holy water, the more she smiled and bowed her head and the more  she saw her make signs. All this is not there in the story.  
Hafspajen (talk) 11:47, 20 August 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  History 

message: This would need to be linked to the article somehow, like a Wikicitaton :
;The 1st appearance (11 February)
Bernadette Soubirous was out gathering firewood in the countryside. "The first time I went to the Grotto was Thursday, 11 February 1858. I went to gather firewood with two other little girls."  before a grotto. As they could go no further, had to cross the water lying before their path. Bernadette's soes and  stocking were wet, so she started taking them off.
"I came back towards the grotto and started taking off my stockings. I had hardly taken off the first stocking when I heard a sound like a gust of wind. Then I turned my head towards the meadow. I saw the trees quite still: I went on taking off my stockings. I heard the same sound again. As I raised my head to look at the grotto, I saw a lady dressed in white, wearing a white dress, a blue girdle and a yellow rose on each foot, the same color as the chain of her rosary; the beads of the rosary were white."
"The Lady made a sign for me to approach; but I was seized with fear, and I did not dare, thinking that I was faced with an illusion. I rubbed my eyes, but in vain. I looked again, and I could still see the same Lady. Then I put my hand into my pocket, and took my rosary. I wanted to make the sign of the cross, but in vain; I could not raise my hand to my forehead, it kept on dropping. Then a violent impression took hold of me more strongly, but I did not go."
"The Lady took the rosary that she held in her hands and she made the sign of the cross. Then I commenced not to be afraid. I took my rosary again; I was able to make the sign of the cross; from that moment I felt perfectly undisturbed in mind. I knelt down and said my rosary, seeing this Lady always before my eyes. The Vision slipped the beads of her rosary between her fingers, but she did not move her lips. When I had said my rosary the Lady made a sign for me to approach, but I did not dare. I stayed in the same place. Then, all of a sudden, she disappeared. I started to remove the other stocking to cross the shallow water near the grotto so as to join my companions. And we went away. As we returned, I asked my companions if they had seen anything. 'No,' they replied. 'And what about you? Did you see anything?' 'Oh, no, if you have seen nothing, neither have I.'"
"I thought I had been mistaken. But as we went, all the way, they kept asking me what I had seen. I did not want to tell them. Seeing that they kept on asking I decided to tell them, on condition that they would tell nobody. They promised not to tell. They said that I must never go there again, nor would they, thinking that it was someone who would harm us. I said no. As soon as they arrived home they hastened to say that I had seen a Lady dressed in white. That was the first time."  Catholic Pilgrims: Apparitions at Lourdes
On realising that she alone had seen the apparition, and not her companions, she asked her sister Toinette not to tell anyone what had happened. Toinette, however, was unable to keep silent, and told their mother, Louise Soubirous. Both girls received a beating, and Bernadette was forbidden by her mother from returning to the Grotto again. A few days passed and Bernadette asked for permission to go again with her siblings and the permission was granted. Lasserre, Henri. Our Lady of Lourdes (1906) pg. 47 "Nothing remained now but to obtain permission. The children demanded this in a body after the mid-day repast. The mother was at first unwilling to grant their request, alleging that as the Gave flowed by and washed the Rocks of Massabielle, their going there might be attended with danger; that the hour of Vespers which they must on no account miss was near at hand, and that all this story was childish. But we know how difficult it is to resist the prayers and entreaties of a troop of children. All promised prudence, expedition and good behavior and the Mother ended by giving way."
Ruth Harris, Lourdes: Body and Spirit in the Secular Age, Penguin Books, 1999, p. 4.
'''
;The 2nd appearance (14 February)
"The second time was the following Sunday. I went back because I felt myself interiorly impelled.  ..."I went to the Parish Church to get a little bottle of holy water, to throw over the Vision, if I were to see her at the grotto. When we arrived, we all took our rosaries and we knelt down to say them. I had hardly finished the first decade when I saw the same Lady. Then I started to throw holy water in her direction, and at the same time I said that if she came from God she was to stay, but if not, she must go. She started to smile, and bowed; and the more I sprinkled her with holy water, the more she smiled and bowed her head and the more I saw her make signs. Then I was seized with fright and I hurried to sprinkle her with holy water until the bottle was empty. Then I went on saying my rosary. When I had finished it she disappeared and we came back to Vespers. This was the second time." 
Troubled by the notion that the apparition might represent an evil spirit, Bernadette used the holy water as a test. A further reassuring sign was the apparition's beautiful bare feet: demonic apparitions (even while in human form) were believed to have cloven hooves or animal paws.Ruth Harris, Lourdes: Body and Spirit in the Secular Age, Penguin Books, 1999, p. 57.
;The 3rd appearance (18 February)
The Apparition did not speak until the third appearance, and therefore its identity was a matter of considerable speculation. Pious villagers Jeanne-Marie Milhet and Antionette Peyret, on hearing Bernadette's description of the apparition, considered it may have been a revenant, a soul returning from purgatory. Although not part of Catholic doctrine, the concept of the revenant was deeply rooted in Pyrenean superstition; further, revenants frequently manifested to young children. The previous October, the head of the local chapter of the Children of Mary, a woman named Elisa Latapie, had died. According to tradition, revenants rarely spoke, but communicated their messages in writing, and so Milhet and Peyrey furnished Bernadette with paper, a pen and an inkpot to take with her, in case the apparition should make use of them.Ruth Harris, Lourdes: Body and Spirit in the Secular Age, Penguin Books, 1999, p. 59.
"The third time was the following Thursday. The Lady only spoke to me the third time. I went to the grotto with a few matured people, who advised me to take paper and ink, and to ask her, if she had anything to say to me, to have the goodness to put it on paper. I said these words to the Lady. She smiled and said that it was not necessary for her to write what she had to say to me, but asked if I would do her the favour of coming for a fortnight. I told her that I would. She told me also that she did not promise to make me happy in this world, but in the next."
Although she spoke in Occitan, the regional language which Bernadette (whose French was poor) used, the apparition used remarkably formal language in her request: "Would you have the goodness to come here for fifteen days?" (in Occitan: "Boulet aoue ra gracia de bié aci penden quinze dias?"; in French:"Voulez-vous me faire la grâce de venir ici pendant quinze jours?") This significance of this politeness was not lost on the observers. It would be very unusual for anyone to adopt this formal form of address when speaking to a penniless, working-class peasant girl such as Bernadette.Ruth Harris, Lourdes: Body and Spirit in the Secular Age, Penguin Books, 1999, pp. 5, 59.
Hafspajen (talk) 17:03, 15 July 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: Apparitions 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to  on Our Lady of Lourdes. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add  after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add  to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20050412211713/http://www.catholic.org:80/clife/mary/app.php?id=1 to http://www.catholic.org/clife/mary/app.php?id=1
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Cheers.—cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 11:27, 15 February 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: The secular views section contains almost no details of secular views, but rather seems to be a confused collection of the RCC opinion of 'analogies' (whatever they are) and what she thought the apparition looked like. Is this section the result of an edit war? Either way, it needs to be fixed. 
Ashmoo (talk) 11:03, 5 October 2018 (UTC)
thread_title: Secular views section