The Blessed Virgin Mary is well-known for her apparitions in different places of the world. Some of her apparitions were accompanied by the praying of the Holy Rosary. One of her popular apparitions is in Lourdes France, where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Bernadette of Soubirous.
On February 11, 1985 Saint Bernadette together with her sister and a friend went to the Grotto of Massabielle to gather firewood. Her companion went first to the woods while St. Bernadette remove her socks and shoes. Then she started to hear two gusts of wind. But the trees didn’t move except for the wild rose in the niche of the Grotto. At the grotto, a beautiful lady appeared to her with a blue girdle, a golden rosary on her hands and colored gold roses on each foot. The lady also covered by white light but she can clearly see the beautiful lady. The lady smiled at her and prompted her to approach her. St. Bernadette took the rosary from her pocket and kneeled before the Lady. When she was starting to make a sign of a cross, her body cannot move. After the sign of the cross of the beautiful lady, she was now able to move her body and also do the sign. Then, they started to praying the Holy Rosary. While praying, the lady is silent but her fingers are moving on every bead of her rosary. When starting to pray the “Glory be”, this is where the Lady accompanied her. St. Bernadette always pray the Rosary on every day she met the Beautiful Lady.
On March 25, 1858, the Beautiful Lady told her that she is “The Immaculate Conception”. This is where the church recognizer her as the Blessed Virgin Mary because at that time, that title is still on debate. Only the clergy knows this title and not the people outside the church, including the young Saint Bernadette. Until it became an official dogma on 1854.
WHY DOES ST. BERNADETTE KNEEL BEFORE THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY? SHE IS NOT A GOD.
Yes, she is not God, but we kneel before her because she is our Queen. Kneeling before her also gives adoration to our Lord Jesus Christ because she is His Mother. The Ark of the New Covenant.
The reason why she didn’t pray the other prayers because these prayers are meant to pray for those who still on earth, who are still suffering and capable to sin again. Our Blessed Mother, is already a saint in heaven. For Example, in Our Father, the prayer indicates “give us this our daily bread”, the Holy people in Heaven like the Blessed Virgin will never be hungry or thirsty. Then, on “forgive us our sins”, the Holy People or Saints in heaven are not capable to sin again because they are already Holy. The Hail Mary will never be prayed by the Blessed Mother because she is the person that we prayed to. The Glory Be is a prayer praising the Holy Trinity, the Three Persona of God. This prayer is both prayed or sung by the people on earth and the angels and saints on heaven. As for the Fatima Prayer, the prayer does not exist yet at the time when the Blessed Mother appeared in Lourdes because it was created by the Blessed Mother on 1917.
