Whether we believe or not is indeed for us to decide. This reflects the freedom that God gave us and deeply respects. God imposes nothing. Perhaps our real problem is not so much in believing as in hearing the divine message in the first place.

“Would you be so kind as to come here?” These were the words of Our Lady to Bernadette at the third apparition. These strikingly courteous and homely words are not a command but an invitation to leave everything else aside and come spend time with Mary. Bernadette could accept or reject the request.

Of course, who could ever refuse such an invitation from Our Lady? Given such a request, would we ever dream of refusing it? Of course not. And yet we do, and often.

The appeal made to Bernadette is one made to us daily. Repeatedly the Lord calls to each of us, “Would you be so kind as to come here?” “Would you leave everything else aside and just be with me?” It is the constant invitation to pray, to enter the world of God’s heart.

In many ways, both subtle and blunt, we ignore or refuse to hear this request. We are too busy with ourselves to think of the “Father’s affairs” (Luke 2:49). We are too busy being the Lord ourselves to allow someone else to be the center of attention—too busy dreaming of life elsewhere to live it differently now.

Lourdes appeals once more. In the image of Mary and Bernadette at the grotto, we see what prayer is made of. It is not the babbling of pagans “who think that they will be heard because of their many words” (Matthew 6:7) but rather an encounter between two hearts. Real prayer goes beyond reciting words to become a union of two people in an embrace of love.

Seeing With the 'Eyes of Faith'

This is the prayer we are called to live— not prayer for the saints alone, but for everyone. This is not blind submission to a remote, omnipotent power or a vain search for an unknown God. What is offered is the humble quest of a God who, in the person of Jesus, comes to reveal the love of the Trinity and beg our love in return.

Prayer is being plunged into this community of love that is the Trinity. Surrounded by love, we feel at home there. Prayer is not so much what we give to God but is more a living with God, a “meeting of one friend with another.” In this personal relationship God gives himself for us poor sinners.

“How happy I was, O good mother, to have the grace to gaze upon you,” Bernadette said in reflecting upon her time spent with the Blessed Virgin. True prayer is this constant gazing, this looking upon, this being with, this faithful contemplation of God’s beauty and goodness. That is what Bernadette experienced.

We are often told in the Gospels that Jesus left the crowds and went off to a lonely place to pray, or that he spent the night in prayer. What about all the people waiting to be healed, consoled, encouraged and guided? Why does he leave them to go and pray, to be with his Father? Because everything flows from the powerful relationship of love Jesus has with the Father and the Spirit.

Prayer is the source of all—of his healing, compassion, gentleness, peace and understanding. Prayer brings us within that same powerful current of love.

We live in a world that has become very competitive, hard, violent, ruthless, cold and impersonal. It has little room for softness, tenderness and compassion. The workplace, the home, even the Church can be so at times. That is why prayer is so important. We cannot come before the heart of a God of warmth and tenderness while remaining an iceberg.

In prayer, God’s love melts away the hardness. We cannot bring people to God in prayer and relate to them the same way. Prayer must make us more thoughtful, more sensitive, more caring.

We find ourselves with God in a heart-to-heart encounter; loving and allowing ourselves to be loved. This is the secret of every Christian open to the Good News of Jesus Christ, the secret of all who say yes to the gentle appeal, “Would you be so kind as to come here?”

When we answer that request, we experience, as Bernadette did, that we are embraced within that sacred community of love that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Only the “eyes of faith” can help us see the precious gift of life, the precious gift of love. Only the “eyes of the heart,” enlightened by the Spirit, can open us to welcome and embrace each other as People of God, as one family of the same Father.

Conquering Fear

Before the unknown, we are afraid. Before an unfamiliar “young Lady,” Bernadette was afraid. Fear made her reach for her rosary beads. As she made the Sign of the Cross, she began to feel at ease. The Sign of the Cross invokes the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Trinity, a community of love without fear.

Prayer involves being plunged into this community of love where, surrounded by love, we feel at home. It brings us not the false illusions of happiness offered by this world, but the true happiness of the “other world” promised to Bernadette. Not compensation in the hereafter for a painful earthly life, this joy of love transforms everything here and now, making happiness possible whatever the circumstances. A sick person in Lourdes once said, “Hell is not to suffer; it is to suffer without love.”

In prayer we find ourselves with God in a heart-to-heart encounter, loving and allowing ourselves to be loved. This is the secret of every Christian open to the Good News of Jesus Christ, the secret of all who say yes to the gentle appeal, “Would you do me the favor of coming here?”

This reprint is excerpted from The Miracle of Lourdes: A Message of Healing and Hope, by John Lochran (St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2008).