On 1st January, a week after Christmas, the Church invites us to start the New Year by contemplating Mary, Mother of God, and praying with her in a worldwide campaign for peace.
In Lourdes, Mary shines but the light does not come from her, nor does it stop at her. It shines through her like a stained-glass window that makes the light sing and then transmits it to us vibrant and glorious.
Year of Prayer with Lourdes
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is launching a new mobile app called “Praying with Lourdes”. This app is aimed at everyone and can be used each day to pray, meditate and to keep in touch with Lourdes.
The app includes:
• The Grotto live: daily masses and rosaries; live 24/7; pilgrimages and special events
• A prayer each day with Our Lady: daily prayer accompanied by an image, readings from the day’s mass, podcast, link to read more, etc.
• The option of lighting a candle, leaving a prayer intention or having a mass said.
To download from 1 January : Prier avec Lourdes
People from all over the world come to pray to the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, at the Grotto of Massabielle or through our channels: TV Lourdes, Radio Présence, KTO, TV 2000, EWTN, and our social networks Facebook, Twitter, …
In Lourdes, we pray to Mary, Mother of God
Ever since 11th February 1858, the date of the first apparition of the Virgin Mary to Bernadette Soubirous, the people of God have been praying unceasingly to the Mother of God.
It took the Church more than three centuries to formulate these words and make them the core of her faith in Mary, Mother of God.
The second part of the Hail Mary continues the prayer to Mary, expressing the prayer of the Church. It opens with a true profession of faith: Holy Mary, Mother of God... These few words, addressed in prayer to Mary, echo the most profound content of the angel’s greeting to Mary, and that of Elizabeth, which were at the heart of the prayer and contemplation in the first part of the Hail Mary:
Hail Mary, full of grace;
The Lord is with you.
Blessed art thou among women
And blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners,
Now and at the hour of our death.
Amen
Holy Mary, Mother of God and World Day of Peace
On 1st January every year since 1968, the Catholic Church has celebrated the World Day of Peace. On this occasion, the Pope publishes a message in which he expressed his concerns and wishes for the future.
The theme of the message for the 2024 World Day of Peace is “Artificial Intelligence and Peace”. The aim is to use artificial intelligence responsibly, to serve the cause of humanity and our protection.
In a statement published on 8th August 2023, the Pope explained that artificial intelligence is having “a rapidly increasing impact on human activity, personal and social life, politics and the economy”. He stresses “the need to be vigilant and to work so that a logic of violence and discrimination does not take root in the production and use of such devices, at the expense of the most fragile and excluded.”
