Franciscan Mission Associates (FMA), now in its 51st year of service to the missions of the world, is a spiritually based organization with worldwide mission-helping undertakings. It promotes information about and interest in the missionaries and their people - particularly in the Franciscan Missions of Central America, but also in the inner cities of the United States and Canada as well as every continent in the world.
 Our Lady of Lourdes
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 PrayerO Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Mother, inspired by the knowledge that no one who ever sought your help was left unanswered, I come to you now fully confident that you will hear my plea. So humbly ask you to grant my petition. (Here please mention your intentions.) Grant me, too, the grace to imitate your virtues and persevere in a good Christian life. Amen. Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
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On February 11, 1858, the Blessed Virgin appeared for the first time to Bernadette Soubirous in the recess of the Massabielle cliff near Lourdes, at the foot of the pyrenees. Bernadette, then just fourteen, reported seeing a most beautiful woman, young and not taller than herself, dressed in white. A long rosary hung from her arm. She greeted Bernadette with a slight bow and seemed to invite her to pray. She passed the beads through her fingers as Bernadette recited the rosary.
