The Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes is celebrated on Feb. 11. Beginning in 1858, in the grotto of Massabielle, near Lourdes in southern France, Mary appeared to a young peasant girl named Bernadette Soubirous 18 times. Mary asked that a chapel be built on the site of the vision and told Bernadette to drink from a fountain in the grotto. Since Bernadette didn’t see a fountain, Mary indicated a spot where she should dig. When she did, a spring began to flow that remains flowing to this day. Countless pilgrims have flocked to the spring over the centuries in hopes of benefiting from its healing powers. If a pilgrimage to Lourdes isn’t in your immediate plans, you can commemorate the feast by praying the Litany of Our Lady of Lourdes and perhaps watching “The Song of Bernadette,” a 1943 movie about the miraculous apparitions.
The Bible – already the best-selling book of all time with more than 5 billion copies estimated sold – is seeing a huge increase in interest. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Bible sales rose 22% in the U.S. through October 2024 compared with the same period last year, according to book tracker Circana BookScan. Among Catholics, some of that increase can be attributed to the popularity of Minnesota priest Father Mike Schmitz’s “Bible in a Year” podcast, the release of beautiful new editions from Ignatius Press and the prevalence of study editions that help readers better connect the dots between the Old and New Testaments. If reading more of the Bible was on your New Year’s resolution list, here is some advice on where to start and some ideas to make it easier.