Today marks the first apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Bernadette, the young peasant girl from Southern France. In 1858, Our Lady revealed herself to St. Bernadette as “the Immaculate Conception,” and her loving message was a call to conversion, prayer, and charity.

~ “Grant us, O merciful God, protection in our weakness, that we, who keep the Memorial of the Immaculate Mother of God, may, with the help of her intercession, rise up from our iniquities.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
~ from the Proper of Saints, Daily Roman Missal