“With one act of praise to God and the Virgin, I will embrace the two great Marian mysteries: the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of Mary into heaven in body and soul. These, in effect, constitute the beginning and the end of Mary’s earthly life, joined with God, who called her to participate in a singular way in the salvific event of the Redemption, through the Lord, Jesus Christ.”
The Pope underlined that there will be three public events during his pilgrimage: the prayer of the rosary Saturday afternoon, the traditional candlelight procession that evening and the mass Sunday morning. The Pope said he also looks forward to his time in silent prayer in the grotto.
“At all times, I will carry in my heart, the thanks and the petitions of the entire Church, and I will proclaim to the whole world that only in God can one find peace and salvation.
“What, in fact, is the message that the Lord wanted to reveal to humanity through the Marian apparitions of Lourdes?” the Pope asked. “This can be summarized in a well-known passage found in Holy Scripture: God does not want the death of the sinner, but that he converts and lives. (Ez. 33, 11).
“Revealing herself to the young Bernadette, Mary wanted to remind us of this fundamental evangelical message: prayer and repentance are the way through which the victory of Christ can be actualized in each individual person and in society,” the pontiff explained.
“However, to change one’s behavior, one needs to listen the voice of one’s conscience, where God has placed the sense of good and bad,” he said. “The modern man, unfortunately, demonstrates, at times, of having lost the sense of sin.
