Your Special Place - Bernadette Soubirous

1844–79

Bernadette Soubirous grew up in Lourdes, France. Her childhood was not remarkable. Her family was poor, and Bernadette was frequently ill. At the age of fourteen, the Catholic girl had yet to make her first Holy Communion.

But God doesn’t need to use someone who has a lot of money or good health or has made their first Holy Communion. He can use anyone, and when Bernadette was fourteen, God used her to inspire the community of Lourdes. From February to July of 1858, Bernadette had several visions of who she believed to be Mary, the mother of Jesus.

In her visions, the young woman who came to her was sixteen or seventeen years old, wearing a white robe with a blue sash. The visions always occurred when she was at the same place, a grotto where she gathered firewood. Each time she returned, a “small young lady” would appear to her. No one else could hear or see this lady, but as the visions continued, people became interested. Some believed Bernadette; some did not. At one point, the authorities interrogated her to see if she was perpetrating a fraud. They found no evidence of deceit.

The Catholic church officials were skeptical at first too. Cynics were amazed when the vision told Bernadette to “drink of the water of the spring,” and Bernadette swallowed mud because there was no spring there. The next day, clear water miraculously flowed from the grotto, and the spring still exists today. After the last appearance in July of 1858, Bernadette never saw the vision again. She entered a nunnery to live out the rest of her years.

Lourdes has become a place where Christians travel for pilgrimages, and millions of people have visited the grotto and its spring. Some people claim to have been healed from illness after experiencing the waters from the Lourdes spring.

Heading to France to make a pilgrimage to Lourdes may or may not be on your bucket list, but perhaps you have a special place where you’ve experienced God particularly deeply. Have you ever thought of making a pilgrimage to your special place to pray, be still, and listen to what God has to say?

What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!

Genesis 28:17