Novena For Terri-Ninth Day

Our Lady Of Lourdes Novena

-- Ninth Day

It is Strange that with all the beautiful buildings in the world one of the most famous and glorious structures should be a rough grotto carved by wind and weather and sanctified by the brief presence of a lovely Lady.

Ugly in outline, rough in texture, the grotto of Lourdes has become one of the dearest spots on Earth.

Because we cannot always travel to it, we have reproduced it in every city in the world.  It is the focal part of convent gardens. It is the dearest meeting place of a great Catholic university. It gathers around it in the children in school yards.

The grotto of Lourdes has found its way into our churches. It stands as the chief ornament in many a great basilica.

In miniature it is the lovely little shrine in private rooms, in study halls, in auditoriums, in small chapels, on ships, in camps.

For in that little grotto, that hallowed bit of ugly rock, God again manifested His love for mankind and Mary came to smile upon her children. The roughness of the stone contrasts with the gentleness of the miracles. The very ugliness of the outline serves to bring into stronger relief the charm of her who is in apparition.

Before the shrine, seen clearly or remembered happily, we kneel to pray:

O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin didst prepare a worthy dwelling place for thy Son, we humbly beseech thee that we, who celebrate the apparition of the same Blessed Virgin, may obtain health of soul and body through the same Lord Jesus Christ, thy Son, who livest and reignest with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.

Amen.

From: 
"Selected Novenas and Prayers"