Praying at the Grotto

The Lourdes Grotto is a place of prayer. When visiting the Grotto many pray the Rosary or during Holy Week do the Stations of the Cross. Pope John Paul II added five mysteries to the Rosary, called the Luminous Mysteries or the Mystery of Light, for a total of 20 mysteries. The mysteries are: 

• The Joyful Mystery (Recited on Monday and Saturday): The Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38), the Visitation (Luke 1: 39-56), the Birth of Our Lord (Luke 2: 1-21), the Presentation (Luke 2:22-38), the Finding of Our Lord in the Temple (Luke 2:41-52)
  
• The Sorrowful Mystery (Tuesday and Friday): The Agony in the Garden (Matthew 26: 36-56), the Scourging at the Pillar (Matthew 27:26), the Crowning with Thorns (27:27-31), the Carrying of the Cross (Matthew 27:32), and the Crucifixion (Matthew 27:33-56)
• The Glorious Mysteries (Wednesday and Sunday): The Resurrection (John 20:1-9), the Ascension (Luke 24: 36-53), the Descent of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-41), the Assumption of Mary, the Coronation of Mary (Revelation 12:1)
• The Luminous Mysteries (Thursday): The Baptism of our Lord (Matthew 3: 13-16), the Wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11), The Proclamation of the Kingdom (Mark 1:14-15), the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-18), the Last Supper (Matthew 26)

References to the Bible have been added. You might want to read these Bible passages as a part of your praying the Rosary.

Holy Week at the Lourdes Grotto, 16-23 March 2008

Photos: Pilgrims at the Lourdes Grotto, Holy Week 2007

Holy Week began with Palm Sunday, 16 March. During this week we remember the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. The Lourdes Grotto becomes a center of pilgrimage, especially on Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. The road up the hill will be closed to vehicular traffic for the safety of the thousands who visit the Grotto and for the preservation of the quiet and prayerful atmosphere, which is proper to this week of prayer and meditation.

Prayer services will also be held at the Grotto. Inquire at the Mirador Jesuit Villa for the schedule.

Litany of Our Lady of Lourdes

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the appearance of the Virgin Mary to St. Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes, France, we are invited to be one with the celebrations at Lourdes. Even if we cannot go to Lourdes, we can be one in spirit through our prayer. Here is the Litany of Our Lady of Lourdes in English and Pilipino. May the recitation of this prayer bring us closer to Mary who will then lead us to her Son Jesus.

LITANY OF OUR LADY OF LOURDES
Lord have mercy; Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy; Christ have mercy.
Lord have mercy; Lord have mercy.
Christ hear us; Christ graciously hear us.
God the Father of Heaven; Have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world; Have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit; Have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God; Have mercy on us.

Holy Mary; Pray for us.
Holy Mother of God; Pray for us.
Mother of Christ; Pray for us.
Mother of our Savior; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, help of Christians; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, source of love; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, mother of the poor; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, mother of the handicapped; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, mother of orphans; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, mother of all children; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, mother of all nations; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, mother of the Church; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, friend of the lonely; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, comforter of those who mourn; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, shelter of the homeless; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, guide of travelers; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, strength of the weak; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, refuge of sinners; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, comforter of the suffering; Pray for us.
Our Lady of Lourdes, help of the dying; Pray for us.
Queen of heaven; Pray for us.
Queen of peace; Pray for us.

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world; Spare us O Lord.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world; Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world; Have mercy on us..
Christ hear us; Christ graciously hear us.

Let us pray:
Grant us, your servants,
we pray you, Lord God,
to enjoy perpetual health of mind and body.
By the glorious intercession of Blessed Mary ever Virgin,
may we be delivered from present sorrows,
and enjoy everlasting happiness.
through Christ our Lord. Amen.

LETANIA NG BIRHEN NG LOURDES
Panginoon, kaawaan mo kami; Panginoon, kaawaan mo kami.
Cristo, kaawaan mo kami; Cristo, kaawaan mo kami.
Panginoon, kaawaan mo kami; Panginoon, kaawaan mo kami.
Cristo, pakinggan mo kami; Cristo, pakipakinggan mo kami.
Dios Ama ng Kalangitan; Kaawaan mo kami.
Dios Anak, Tagapagligtas ng Santinakpan; Kaawaan mo kami.
Dios Espiritu Santo; Kaawaan mo kami
Kabanal-banalang Tatlo’t isa, Iisang Dios; Kaawaan mo kami.

Santa Maria; Ipanalangin mo kami.
Santang Ina ng Dios; Ipanalangin mo kami.
Ina ni Jesucristo; Ipanalangin mo kami.
Ina ng aming Tagapagligtas; Ipanalangin mo kami.
Aming Ina ng Lourdes, katulong ng mga Cristiano; Ipanalangin mo kami.
Aming Ina ng Lourdes, bukal ng pag-ibig; Ipanalangin mo kami.
Aming Ina ng Lourdes, ina ng mga dukha; Ipanalangin mo kami.
Aming Ina ng Lourdes, ina ng may kapansanan; Ipanalangin mo kami.
Aming Ina ng Lourdes, ina ng mga ulila; Ipanalangin mo kami.
Aming Ina ng Lourdes, ina ng lahat ng kabataan; Ipanalangin mo kami.
Aming Ina ng Lourdes, ina ng lahat ng mga bayan Ipanalangin mo kami.
Aming Ina ng Lourdes, ina ng Sambayang Cristiano; Ipanalangin mo kami.
Aming Ina ng Lourdes, kaibigan ng mga nalulungkot at nag-iisa; Ipanalangin mo kami.
Aming Ina ng Lourdes, tagapag-aliw ng mga lumuluha; Ipanalangin mo kami.
Aming Ina ng Lourdes, pasilungan ng mga walang tahanan; Ipanalangin mo kami.
Aming Ina ng Lourdes, gabay ng mga maglalakbay; Ipanalangin mo kami.
Aming Ina ng Lourdes, lakas ng mga mahihina; Ipanalangin mo kami.
Aming Ina ng Lourdes, tagapagtanggol ng mga makasalanan; Ipanalangin mo kami.
Aming Ina ng Lourdes, tagapag-aliw ng mga nagdurusa; Ipanalangin mo kami.
Aming Ina ng Lourdes, kaagapay ng mga namamatay; Ipanalangin mo kami.
Reyna ng langit; Ipanalangin mo kami.
Reyna ng kapayapaan; Ipanalangin mo kami.

Kordero ng Dios, na nagaalis ng mga kasalanan ng sanlibutan; Iligtas mo kami, Panginoon.
Kordero ng Dios, na nagaalis ng mga kasalanan ng sanlibutan; Pakinggan mo ang aming panalangin, Panginoon.
Kordero ng Dios, na nagaalis ng mga kasalanan ng sanlibutan; Kaawaan mo kami.

Manalangin tayo:
Panginoong Diyos.
isinasamo naman ipagkaloob mo
sa iyong mga alipin na magtamasa
ng walang hanggang kalusugan ng kalooban at katawan.
Sa pamamagitan ng maluwalhating pagsamo
ng Banal at laging Birhen na si Maria,
iligtas kami mula sa kasalukuyang sakuna
upang matamasa namin
ang walang hanggang kaligayahan sa kabila.
Sa pamamagitan ni Cristo aming Panginoon; Amen.

Poster of 2013 Centennial

In 2013, the Lourdes Grotto at Mirador Hill will be celebrating its centennial. The poster has the date 1913, when the image of Our Lady of Lourdes was placed in the Grotto.

New Gate at Mirador Grotto

New gate at the foot of the Lourdes Grotto. A perimeter fence and gates have been built surrounding the Lourdes Grotto to preserve the quiet and sanctity of the place. The grotto gates will be closed following a schedule to allow for the cleaning and maintenance of the grotto. Over the years, the very open perimeter of the grotto has resulted in the difficulty of keeping the area clean and well-maintained, considering the number of visitors to the Grotto.

Shrine to Jesus

Another photograph of the new Shrine to Jesus at Mirador Hill. This statue will be the culminating stop of the Stations of the Cross.

Celebration of the Fiesta of Our Lady of Lourdes 11 Feb 2008

On the 150th anniversary of the appearance of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes, a novena of Masses and a fiesta Mass were celebrated at the Lourdes Grotto. Fr. Miguel Lambino, who celebrated the novena and fiesta Masses writes on the celebration at the Lourdes Grotto:

“The February 11 Mass went well. We had thick fog, and a drizzling rain. To keep people from thinking about the bad weather … I narrated the true story that on February 11, 1858, it was a cold and gray and damp winter day — it was drizzling.

Anyway, after the Mass, I led the people in praying Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and then we processed to the Risen Lord statue and blessed it. I led the people in A Litany to the Eucharist, Act of Personal Consecration to the Sacred Heart, and Consecration of Families to the Sacred Heart. We sang songs after each prayer. MJV staff and volunteers distributed blessed rose petals [red and white].”

Image of Our Lady of Lourdes

The image of Our Lady of Lourdes at Lourdes Grotto, Mirador Hill, Baguio City is the work of Isabelo Tampingco. He was one of the best sculptors at the turn of the 19th century and the early 20th. He was commissioned to make the altar of the Santo Rosario in the neogothic church of the Dominicans and the carvings, altars, retablos and pulpit of the San Ignacio, the church attached to the Ateneo Municipal de Manila. Tampingco with his brother Vidal and uncle Crispulo Hocson and a dozen master carvers worked out of a taller (studio) at Quiapo, near R. Hidalgo St. While the Tampingcos' studio was best-known for religious images, the studio also did works for patrons other than churches. The studio made wooden frames in the Art Noveau style but used Philippine fruits and plants rather than western plants. The Tampingcos were commissioned to do the ceiling of the Metropolitan Theater, where they integrated mangos and banana leaves in their design. They also did the statues that decorate the pediment of the Philippine Congress and the statues of great lawgivers lining the upper register of the main hall of the Senate in the old Philippine Congress. The old congress building is now the National Museum of the Philippines.

The statue of Our Lady of Lourdes was completed in 1913 and for almost 100 years, the image has been in place at the grotto in Baguio. While the statue has weathered the harsh and damp weather of Baguio, an examination of the image shows that the image has sustained some damage. The base and feet of the statue are cracked. Plans to restore the statue, while respecting the genius of Isabelo Tampingco, are underway. The Lourdes statue follows closely the description of St. Bernadette describing how the Virgin looked like. This includes the roses on Mary's feet, which unfortunately cannot be seen by pilgrims because of the way the grotto has been designed.

In the redesign of the grotto, the statue will be raised by a meter and half, so that the full beauty of the image carved by Tampingco can be seen.

Shrine to Jesus

Update: The image of Jesus welcoming all at Mirador Hill has already been completed in time for 11 February 2008, the fiesta of Our Lady of Lourdes and World Day of the Sick. The landscaping and planting of flowering plants are still under way but thanks to the generosity of donors we are proceeding slowly but surely transforming the Grotto into a prayer center.

The next stage of this project is construction of an outdoor Stations of the Cross, which will follow a quiet and steep penitential path from the base of the hill to the Shrine to Jesus. Generous donors are needed for the Stations of the Cross. It is estimated that each station will cost about 7,000 pesos.

"One cannot contemplate Mary without being attracted by Christ and one cannot look at Christ without immediately perceiving the presence of Mary." Pope Benedict XVI, Address for the 16th World Day of the Sick, Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lourdes.

11 February World Day of the Sick

Pope John Paul II declared 11 February, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, as World Day of the Sick. Pope Benedict XVI has reiterated John Paul II's declaration. On 11 February, let us all pray to the Virgin of Lourdes to heal the sick. Not just those who are ill in body but those who are mentally and spiritually ill. Not just individuals but also communities and nations. Our world is wracked by war and division, it needs healing.

When praying for healing we
• First, ask God to forgive us for all the wrong we have done.
• Second, we forgive all those who have offended us just as we ask to be forgiven by those whom we have offended.
• Third, we pray for inner healing,
• Fourth we accept the healing
• and then we pray for more visible and physical healing.
• Finally, we thank God for the grace of healing. We can ask others to pray with and for us. These others include our relative and friends and also our heavenly intercessors, the saints, and most especially the Virgin Mary. On the feast of our Lady of Lourdes, let us ask her intercession for total healing of ourselves and the world.

Proposed Stations of the Cross

An outdoor Stations of the Cross, following the new sequence of 14 stations, approved and promulgated by the late Pope John Paul II and by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) is being planned for the Lourdes Grotto at Mirador Hill. The stations' path will be up the hill starting at the vehicular entrance to Mirador Hill and ending at the recently completed Shrine to Jesus. The individual stations are being designed like traditional wayside shrines. To the right is an artist's sketch of a station.

Pope Benedict XVI's Address for the 150th Anniversary of the Appearance of the Virgin at Lourdes

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

1. On 11 February, the memorial of the Blessed Mary Virgin of Lourdes, the World Day of the Sick will be celebrated, a propitious occasion to reflect on the meaning of pain and the Christian duty to take responsibility for it in whatever situation it arises. This year this significant day is connected to two important events for the life of the Church, as one already understands from the theme chosen ‘The Eucharist, Lourdes and Pastoral Care for the Sick’: the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the apparitions of the Immaculate Mary at Lourdes, and the celebration of the International Eucharistic Congress at Quebec in Canada. In this way, a remarkable opportunity to consider the close connection that exists between the Mystery of the Eucharist, the role of Mary in the project of salvation, and the reality of human pain and suffering, is offered to us.
The hundred and fifty years since the apparitions of Lourdes invite us to turn our gaze towards the Holy Virgin, whose Immaculate Conception constitutes the sublime and freely-given gift of God to a woman so that she could fully adhere to divine designs with a steady and unshakable faith, despite the tribulations and the sufferings that she would have to face. For this reason, Mary is a model of total self-abandonment to the will of God: she received in her heart the eternal Word and she conceived it in her virginal womb; she trusted to God and, with her soul pierced by a sword (cf. Lk 2:35), she did not hesitate to share the passion of her Son, renewing on Calvary at the foot of the Cross her ‘Yes’ of the Annunciation. To reflect upon the Immaculate Conception of Mary is thus to allow oneself to be attracted by the ‘Yes’ which joined her wonderfully to the mission of Christ, the redeemer of humanity; it is to allow oneself to be taken and led by her hand to pronounce in one’s turn ‘fiat’ to the will of God, with all one’s existence interwoven with joys and sadness, hopes and disappointments, in the awareness that tribulations, pain and suffering make rich the meaning of our pilgrimage on the earth.

2. One cannot contemplate Mary without being attracted by Christ and one cannot look at Christ without immediately perceiving the presence of Mary. There is an indissoluble link between the Mother and the Son, generated in her womb by work of the Holy Spirit, and this link we perceive, in a mysterious way, in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, as the Fathers of the Church and theologians pointed out from the early centuries onwards. ‘The flesh born of Mary, coming from the Holy Spirit, is bread descended from heaven’, observed St. Hilary of Poitiers. In the Bergomensium Sacramentary of the ninth century we read: ‘Her womb made flower a fruit, a bread that has filled us with an angelic gift. Mary restored to salvation what Eve had destroyed by her sin’. And St. Pier Damiani observed: ‘That body that the most blessed Virgin generated, nourished in her womb with maternal care, that body I say, without doubt and no other, we now receive from the sacred altar, and we drink its blood as a sacrament of our redemption. This is what the Catholic faith believes, this the holy Church faithfully teaches’. The link of the Holy Virgin with the Son, the sacrificed Lamb who takes away the sins of the world, is extended to the Church, the mystic Body of Christ. Mary, observes the Servant of God John Paul II, is a ‘woman of the Eucharist’ in her whole life, as a result of which the Church, seeing Mary as her model, ‘is also called to imitate her in her relationship with this most holy mystery’ (Encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, n. 53). In this perspective one understands even further why in Lourdes the cult of the Blessed Virgin Mary is joined to a strong and constant reference to the Eucharist with daily Celebrations of the Eucharist, with adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament, and with the blessing of the sick, which constitutes one of the strongest moments of the visit of pilgrims to the grotto of Massabielles.

The presence of many sick pilgrims in Lourdes, and of the volunteers who accompany them, helps us to reflect on the maternal and tender care that the Virgin expresses towards human pain and suffering. Associated with the Sacrifice of Christ, Mary, Mater Dolorosa, who at the foot of the Cross suffers with her divine Son, is felt to be especially near by the Christian community, which gathers around its suffering members, who bear the signs of the passion of the Lord. Mary suffers with those who are in affliction, with them she hopes, and she is their comfort, supporting them with her maternal help. And is it not perhaps true that the spiritual experience of very many sick people leads us to understand increasingly that ‘the Divine Redeemer wishes to penetrate the soul of every sufferer through the heart of his holy Mother, the first and the most exalted of all the redeemed’? (John Paul II, Apostolic Letter, Salvifici doloris, n. 26).

3. If Lourdes leads us to reflect upon the maternal love of the Immaculate Virgin for her sick and suffering children, the next International Eucharistic Congress will be an opportunity to worship Jesus Christ present in the Sacrament of the altar, to entrust ourselves to him as Hope that does not disappoint, to receive him as that medicine of immortality which heals the body and the spirit. Jesus Christ redeemed the world through his suffering, his death and his resurrection, and he wanted to remain with us as the ‘bread of life’ on our earthly pilgrimage. ‘The Eucharist, Gift of God for the Life of the World’: this is the theme of the Eucharistic Congress and it emphasises how the Eucharist is the gift that the Father makes to the world of His only Son, incarnated and crucified. It is he who gathers us around the Eucharistic table, provoking in his disciples loving care for the suffering and the sick, in whom the Christian community recognises the face of its Lord. As I pointed out in the Post-Synodal Exhortation Sacramentum caritatis, ‘Our communities, when they celebrate the Eucharist, must become ever more conscious that the sacrifice of Christ is for all, and that the Eucharist thus compels all who believe in him to become "bread that is broken" for others’ (n. 88). We are thus encouraged to commit ourselves in the first person to helping our brethren, especially those in difficulty, because the vocation of every Christian is truly that of being, together with Jesus, bread that is broken for the life of the world.

4. It thus appears clear that it is specifically from the Eucharist that pastoral care in health must draw the necessary spiritual strength to come effectively to man’s aid and to help him to understand the salvific value of his own suffering. As the Servant of God John Paul II was to write in the already quoted Apostolic Letter Salvifici doloris, the Church sees in her suffering brothers and sisters as it were a multiple subject of the supernatural power of Christ (cf. n. 27). Mysteriously united to Christ, the man who suffers with love and meek self-abandonment to the will of God becomes a living offering for the salvation of the world. My beloved Predecessor also stated that ‘The more a person is threatened by sin, the heavier the structures of sin which today’s world brings with it, the greater is the eloquence which human suffering possesses in itself. And the more the Church feels the need to have recourse to the value of human sufferings for the salvation of the world’ (ibidem). If, therefore, at Quebec the mystery of the Eucharist, the gift of God for the life of the world, is contemplated during the World Day of the Sick in an ideal spiritual parallelism, not only will the actual participation of human suffering in the salvific work of God be celebrated, but the valuable fruits promised to those who believe can in a certain sense be enjoyed. Thus pain, received with faith, becomes the door by which to enter the mystery of the redemptive suffering of Jesus and to reach with him the peace and the happiness of his Resurrection.

5. While I extend my cordial greetings to all sick people and to all those who take care of them in various ways, I invite the diocesan and parish communities to celebrate the next World Day of the Sick by appreciating to the full the happy coinciding of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady at Lourdes with the International Eucharistic Congress. May it be an occasion to emphasise the importance of the Holy Mass, of the Adoration of the Eucharist and of the cult of the Eucharist, so that chapels in our health-care centres become a beating heart in which Jesus offers himself unceasingly to the Father for the life of humanity! The distribution of the Eucharist to the sick as well, done with decorum and in a spirit of prayer, is true comfort for those who suffer, afflicted by all forms of infirmity.

May the next World Day of the Sick be, in addition, a propitious circumstance to invoke in a special way the maternal protection of Mary over those who are weighed down by illness; health-care workers; and workers in pastoral care in health! I think in particular of priests involved in this field, women and men religious, volunteers and all those who with active dedication are concerned to serve, in body and soul, the sick and those in need. I entrust all to Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother, the Immaculate Conception. May she help everyone in testifying that the only valid response to human pain and suffering is Christ, who in resurrecting defeated death and gave us the life that knows no end. With these feelings, from my heart I impart to everyone my special Apostolic Blessing.

From the Vatican, 11 January 2008
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

Shrine to Jesus

A new shrine to honor Jesus as Savior and Risen Lord is rising on Mirador Hill. It replaces an unfinished statue of the seated Virgin Mary. The shrine is being built in keeping with Our Lady's desire that people are lead to her Son. Devotion to Mary does not end with her but brings us to the person of Jesus. The shrine complements the Lourdes Grotto rather than adding to the confusion of two images of the Virgin on Mirador Hill.

The statue of Jesus is being made on the spot by skilled sculptors from the sculpture atelier of Bernie Caber (Black Nazarene Enterprises). The statue is expected to be finished in time for the end of the Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes. The shrine marks the Lourdes Grotto's special participation in the 150th anniversary celebration of the first appearance of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes to St. Bernadette.

The statue will be the culmination of a planned outdoor Stations of the Cross that will begin near the parking area at the vehicular entrance of Mirador Hill. The Stations will follow a penitential path through the rock formations of Mirador Hill. Bas reliefs of the stations are also being designed by Bernie Caber.

Donors for the Stations of the Cross and the Shrine to Jesus are welcome.

150th anniversary of the appearance of Virgin Mary at Lourdes

This year 2008 marks a special year of celebration for the Lourdes Grotto at Mirador Hill. This year is the 150th anniversary of the first apparition of the Virgin Mary to St. Bernadette at Lourdes, France. The first apparition happened on 11 February 1858. Pope Benedict XVI has declared the year from 8 December 2007 to 8 December 2008 as a special year of celebration.

For the past five years, a novena of Masses has been celebrated at the Lourdes Grotto at Mirador. The novena begins on 2 February and goes for nine days. The tenth day, 11 February is the fiesta of our Lady of Lourdes. In 2008, 2 February is a Saturday and 11 February is a Monday.

The novena and fiesta Masses are organized and sponsored by the Parish of St. Vincent on Naguilian Road, under whose jurisdiction the Grotto falls. The youth group of the parish is the lead organization responsible for the celebration. They work in cooperation with the Mirador Jesuit Villa and with the Lourdes Vendors' Association.

The Mass is in the afternoon and is preceded by the recitation of the Holy Rosary at 4:00 P.M.

You are invited to join the celebrations, honoring Mary our Mother and the Mother of Jesus. May she pray for us and our loved ones. Holy Mary, our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.