On February 11 is the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. It honors the 1858 apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, France. Along with the apparition at Fatima, Portugal, it is one of the best known of Marian apparitions. Even non-Catholics have heard of it due to miraculous healings of people immersed in the waters of its springs. This article from New Advent contains the basic information Lourdes.

At daily Mass this morning I got the idea of starting a novena (a prayer of petition or supplication said daily for nine days.) in honor of this feast day. I might have thought of it last year, but never got to it for whatever reason.

It will start tomorrow, February 3rd, and end on the feast, February 11th. Some novenas start 10 days before the feast and end the day just before, others start 9 days before and end on the day of the feast. Honestly, I never got a straight answer from anyone as to why this is so, so I just start them so that they end on the day of he feast. Other Catholic bloggers that you read might have started their own novenas to Our Lady of Lourdes today. That’s OK, I just wanted to explain why we’re a day off.

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