Bernadette's Letters

[George]

The next section of the book is a collection of Bernadette's letters she wrote to people after the apparitions if you would would be interested in reading them I will post them, I would also have to post portions of letters from folks she was responding to in order to give context to her replies. This would proceed slower than her notes but they are interesting, they show Bernadette as the humble girl she truly was. I f you want to read them let me know.
 

[Brigid]

I'd be interested, as long as it's not too much work.

[George]

In reply to Don Antonio Morales a devotee of Lourdes, correspondent of the Bishop of Tarbes who was taking up a collection to build sanctuaries in the province of Malaga. Bernadette responded politely to his inappropriate curiosity.

December 3 1862
Monsieur,
I have indeed received your most worthy letter, but I was unable to respond before now. I needed someone's help to answer you, for I am a poor, ignorant girl.
Monsieur, I bless the Lord for your great love and tender devotion for our good Mother, the Most Holy Virgin Mary Immaculate.
Please pray for her intercession for me. May her divine Son grant me the grace to fulfill all God's plans for me. Monsieur, I am weak. I truly need the help of good souls to pray that I will not misuse the great favor I have received from heaven, and this in spite of my unworthiness.
Monsieur, I beseech you, your family and your friends to pray for me. In appreciation of your kindness, I promise never to forget you before God and the Immaculate Virgin.
The Rosary is my favorite prayer. I am too ignorant to compose one of my own. Of the various objects you asked of me, I regret that I can only send you a medal of the blessed grotto. This is all I have right now, but perhaps another time I will be more fortunate. In this hope, Monsieur, accept the homage of my profound respect in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Immaculate Mary.
Your very humble servant
Bernadette Soubirous 

[Shin]

Reading a letter like this, so full of grace is truly splendid isn't it?

Thank you George! I am grateful to see it! 

[George]

Reading a letter like this, so full of grace is truly splendid isn't it?

Thank you George! I am grateful to see it! 

Yes it is, the heart of a saint.

[George]

"My poor heart would have so many things to tell you."

(To Mother Ursula Fardes, May 2, 1864)

In this letter Bernadette hinted at a spiritual suffering that "her poor heart" longed to share with Mother Ursula Fardes. Mother Fardes was the superior of the sisters of Lourdes at the time of the apparitions. The source of her spiritual suffering remains a mystery but may be tied to the messages she received from the Holy Virgin: "Penance! Pray for poor sinners." Bernadette suffered from this same cross until her death in 1879.
While living at the hospice in Lourdes, Bernadette was entrusted to the care of Sister Victorine Poux, and the two shared a deep friendship, Bernadette also helped Sister Aurelie Gouteyron in the infirmary and became very attached to Sister Aurelie. The ladies Bernadette refers to are the Lacour Sisters. The statue is the one that now stands in the niche at the Grotto where the Virgin appeared to Bernadette.

My Dear Mother,
I am taking advantage of this opportunity to talk to you, and I assure you, dear Mother, it does me so much good. It would be an even greater pleasure if God granted me the grace to see you even for a moment. My poor heart would have so many things to tell you. I do not dare say more in writing than to ask you to please pray for me, for I truly need it. I am still ill. but I have been feeling a little better for the last few days. They think I have pneumonia. In any case, may God's will be done. I am resigned to the likelihood of dying, so pray for a good death for me. I think of you often. Everyday I pray that God and the Holy Virgin will grant you everything you ask of them, and I pray for your intentions in a special way when I am blessed with the joy of going to the Grotto.
Sister Victorine sends her regards. She loves you so much. We often talk about you and Sister Aurelie, whom the Mother General took from us last week. They did not request her specifically; they only asked us to send a Sister to Oloron. Our dear Mother chose her especially as a kind of retreat for her. I hope the Holy Virgin will send her back to us. Mother wrote to Nevers about it.
Father Peyramale took a trip with the ladies who offered the statue of the Holy Virgin. I think he is going to Rome. The whole family sends their regards, especially my sister. By the way, I have a new little brother.
I shall stop my scribbling now, but I am sending you a thousand kisses, along with all my heart. I am also sending you a picture so you will pray for me, but I suspect that you already do.
Dear Mother, please know how grateful and devoted I am to you.

Your obedient servant
Bernadette Soubirous
Lourdes may 2, 1864 

[George]

A letter to Bernadette's cousins 1875, by this time Bernadette was truly an invalid, she was confined to her bed, or what she called "Her little white chapel".

My Dearest little Cousins,

I was so happy to learn that you will soon experience the precious blessing of making your first communion. My dear little friends, you can be sure that I am joining my prayers with yours, however weak they may be. I do so with all my heart and so do all our dear Sisters in the community. Everything about this day should show you how important it is, from the great care they are taking to prepare you for it, to the solemnity with which this beautiful day is always surrounded. Indeed is there a more sacred or more important act? Inexhaustible treasure of grace are opened to you through the Eucharist and it's influence in your lives should increase over the years to come. So pray often. Pray to Our Lord and his Most Holy Mother to help you understand the importance of this great act. My dear little friends, this sweet day, the object of your desires, so rich in the happiness and holy joy you have heard spoken of so often, will soon arrive. This day will be beautiful, great and solemn. It will fill your young hearts with holy consolations. It will be a precious memory, since, for the first time, you will be given a place at the heavenly banquet, where you will be nourished with the Body of God. You will be washed and your thirst quenched in His Blood, intimately united with his divinity and blessed with the grace of his love.
Ask Jesus, our Savior, to come prepare a place for himself in your young hearts so there will be nothing to grieve him when he arrives. Think only of Jesus, since he is choosing to rest in your souls. Make his dwelling place like a sanctuary of innocence and peace.
O my dear children, we would have to have hearts of Angels to receive Our Lord as he deserves, so try and receive him with as much faith, humility and love as you can. And when Our Lord is in your heart, trust Him completely and dwell in the delights of his presence. Love, worship, listen, praise. Oh, the happy moment! Eternity alone holds the greater joys for us.
Take advantage of Our Lord's presence to ask him for all kinds of graces, for yourselves, for your parents, for all those who prepared you for this important act, for the Church, for our Holy Father the Pope, for the dear souls in purgatory, for poor sinners.
Finally, go to Mary's altar. Confide your resolutions to her and put the treasure of your innocence and devotion under her protection. You know that we never turn to her in vain. Ask her for the grace to love Our Lord as she herself loves him and to remain faithful to him both in life and in death.
Adieu, my dear little cousins. I close by asking you to remember me a little in your prayers.

[Shin]

My dear little friends, you can be sure that I am joining my prayers with yours, however weak they may be.

It's really touching to read.

[George]

Bernadette's letter to Pope Pius IX 1876

Most Holy Father,

Had it not been for the encouragement of our worthy Bishop de Ladoue, I would never have dared to take up my pen to write to Your Holiness. He said that the most certain means of receiving a blessing from the Holy Father was to write to you and that he would be kind enough to send my letter. I struggled between fear and confidence; how could I, a poor, ignorant, little sister who is so ill, dare to write the Most Holy Father? Never. But why such fear? He is my father since he represents God on earth, God three times holy whom I dare to receive so often in my poor heart. It is because I am weak that I dare to receive God, who is strong. The same thinking encouraged me, Most Holy Father, to come and throw myself to my knees at your feet to ask for your apostolic blessing. It would surely be a source of renewed strength for my soul. Most Holy Father, how can I express my great appreciation to you? I have long been your Holiness' Zouave, however unworthy I may be. My weapons are prayer and sacrifice, and I shall pray and sacrifice until my last breath. In heaven, sacrifice will no longer be possible, but my prayers will be more powerful than they are in this land of exile. Everyday I pray that the Sacred Heart of Jesus  and the Immaculate Heart of Mary will keep you with us for many years to come since you have made them known and loved. Every time I pray for your intentions, it seems to me that the Most Holy Virgin surely looks down on you from Heaven, Most Holy Father, since you proclaimed her Immaculate. Four years later, this Good Mother came to earth to say: I am the Immaculate. I did not know what that meant; I had never heard that word. When thinking about it since then, I say to myself that the Holy Virgin is so good; it seems she came to confirm the words of our Holy Father.

[Shin]

Immaculate Virgin, pray for us. .

Immaculate. . . What an inexpressible word. . .

[odhiambo]

Immaculate Virgin, pray for us. .

Immaculate. . . What an inexpressible word. . .

A beautiful name for a girl as well

[Shin]

I had not thought of that! I wonder if they name nuns that?

The wonderful Bl. Pope Pius IX in his time had to leave, and then we had St. Pius X, and what another gift of God! Gift after gift!

[George]

Pope Pius IX did answer Bernadette's letter and send his apostolic blessing. In addition he sent her a small silver statue of Christ, which still exists and is kept at the Saint Bernadette museum in Nevers.

January 3, 1877

May God bless you and keep you in his care.
Pius PP. IX

[Shin]