15 Days of Prayer with Saint Bernadette of Lourdes
François Vayne
ISBN 9781565483149
eISBN 9781565483439
ASIN B001V7RL4O
Last year I stumbled upon a different volume in this series, 15 Days of Prayer with Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati by Père Charles Desjobert, OP, and really enjoyed it. I did some research on the series and this was the volume I decided to work through next.
I believe as of the writing of this review there have been 40 volumes in the series, the earliest I found was from 1999 through to a volume which was published in 2025. Only about a dozen seem to be in print currently and of those only a handful appears to have eBooks. With my dual form of dyslexia this is disappointing. I greatly prefer eBooks so I can change the font, and the colour of font and page to make reading easier. I have added all the eBook editions I could find to my wish list. About the Series we are informed:
“15 Days of Prayer Series
On a journey, it’s good to have a guide. Even great saints took spiritual directors or confessors with them on their itineraries toward sanctity. Now you can be guided by the most influential spiritual figures of all time. The 15 Days of Prayer series introduces their deepest and most personal thoughts.
This popular series is perfect if you are looking for a gift, or if you want to be introduced to a particular guide and his or her spirituality. Each volume contains:
• A brief biography of the saint or spiritual leader
• A guide to creating a format for prayer or retreat
• Fifteen meditation sessions with reflection guides”
This book was originally published in French as Prier 15 Jours avec Bernadette in 1998, the English Translation from New City Press has been through a few editions the first I believe in 2008, and is available as an eBook and physical volume. The description of this specific volume states:
“Born into a humble family which fell into extreme poverty, Saint Bernadette of Lourdes was only fourteen when the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to her for the first of eighteen visits near Lourdes, in southern France. A woman of faith, purity, and innocence, Saint Bernadette maintained a state of childlike innocence throughout her short life and believed that God is Love and that he never stops calling us from our sin. Although Bernadette endured the painful disease of tuberculosis of the bone, she served a faithful life as a Sister of Notre Dame until her death in 1879.
Enjoy your time with Saint Bernadette of Lourdes and be prepared to be surprised as you journey with one of the most engaging spiritual figures of our time.
François Vayne, a prominent French journalist, is a director of the monthly Lourdes Magazine and has lived at Lourdes since 1987.”
The description of the physical edition states:
“Born into a humble family which fell into extreme poverty, Saint Bernadette of Lourdes was only fourteen when the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to her for the first of eighteen visits near Lourdes, in southern France. A woman of faith, purity, and innocence, Saint Bernadette maintained a state of childlike innocence throughout her short life and believed that God is Love and that he never stops calling us from our sin. Although Bernadette endured the painful disease of tuberculosis of the bone, she served a faithful life as a Sister of Notre Dame until her death in 1879. Enjoy your time with Saint Bernadette of Lourdes and be prepared to be surprised as you journey with one of the most engaging spiritual figures of our time.”
There is no ‘about the author’ section in the book or on the back. We also not informed specifically who the translator is. The chapters in this volume are:
How to Use This Book
A Few Biographical Notes About Bernadette
Introduction
1. A New Sign of the Cross
2. Happiness Promised, Today
3. When God Hides, He Does It to Better Give of Himself
4. A Change of Heart
5. To the Springs of Baptism
6. Loving the Church, the Body of Which I Am a Member
7. An Answer to an Age-Old Question
8. Living the Eucharist
9. From the Garden of Olives to Tabor
10. The Rock That Is My Salvation
11. Free to Say Yes
12. The Choice to Love
13. With the Holy Family
14. The Time of the Passion
15. A Happy Death: The Death of One’s Self
Evaluation Questions
Further Reading About the Message of Lourdes
I highlighted a number of passages while reading this volume some of them are:
“On a journey, it’s good to have a guide. Even great saints took spiritual directors or confessors with them on their itineraries toward sanctity. Now you can be guided by the most influential spiritual figures of all time. The 15 Days of Prayer series introduces their deepest and most personal thoughts. This popular series is perfect if you are looking for a gift, or if you want to be introduced to a particular guide and his or her spirituality. Each volume contains: · A brief biography of the saint or spiritual leader · A guide to creating a format for prayer or retreat · Fifteen meditation sessions with focus points and reflection guides.”
“The purpose of the volume that you hold in your hand is to lead you, over a period of fifteen days or, maybe more realistically, fifteen prayer periods, to a place where prayer is possible. If you already have a regular experience and practice of prayer, perhaps this volume can help lead you to a deeper place, a more intimate relationship with the Lord.”
“A final prayer of blessing suggests itself: Lord, catch me off guard today. Surprise me with some moment of beauty or pain So that at least for the moment I may be startled into seeing that you are here in all your splendor, Always and everywhere, Barely hidden, Beneath, Beyond, Within this life I breathe.”
“Contrary to the other saints presented in this collection (15 Days of Prayer With … ), Bernadette did not leave many notes or writings for posterity. “It is not necessary to write down what I am here to tell you,” the apparition said with a smile to Bernadette—the one whom she hesitantly named, in the local patois dialect, “Aquero,” which means “that one.””
““Would you do me the honor of coming here for fifteen days?” asked the Lady of the Grotto of a fourteen-year-old pauper girl. Our fifteen chapters could have followed, almost exactly, day by day, the fifteen days of the apparitions and, therefore, confine themselves to the founding event of the greatest pilgrimage in the world.”
“The radiance of Bernadette during the apparitions attracted many people. The atmosphere of prayer and peace which emanates from Massabielle—literally the “old rock”—is extraordinary. Is it not an analogical matter that “this rock that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone” for a new spiritual temple? (Ps 118: 22 and 1 Pet 2: 7). This will all be revealed, little by little.”
“With hindsight, we are able to see, in this trial, a necessary stage in all prayer life. The Lord doesn’t always appear when we await him. Let us think of the great dry spells that Thérèse of the Child Jesus experienced in her life at Carmel, especially in the last year of her life. Christ is, nevertheless, closer to us than ever in these moments of seeming absence.”
“Like the fourth stained-glass window in the Major Basilica in Lourdes, which shows the eighth apparition, make me see the Lamb of God resting on the sacred book with the seven markers that remind us of the seven sacraments, the seven sources of my hope. Am I ready to give my life, from one moment to the next, so that the fire of the gospel sets the entire earth ablaze? We don’t light a blazing fire with a big log, but with kindling; I must love the little things….”
“We must ensure that our prayers don’t take the same form as registered letters, requesting a confirmation of receipt! God speaks to us through whatever voice he chooses, if he chooses to do so, and when he chooses. Let us make ourselves available, attentive, and receptive. But it is he who loves us first. It is he who comes to us.”
“The last apparition occurred under unfavorable conditions—barriers—when the sun was setting. However, the forces of good laugh at the walls built between our souls and their wellspring. My relationship with God is not hindered by the machinations of separation and division: the wood of the cross in all its manifestations. My relationship is even more beautiful during these difficult times if I take the means to discreetly make contact with the “next world,” sometimes, simply with a small invocation.”
“It is by nourishing ourselves with the blood of her heart that the Heart of Christ is formed. This spiritual reality continues until the end of time. It is a mystery which envelops and carries me from this world to the next, at the same slow pace as the germinations which produce our marvelous springtimes.”
“In reality, the problem is not only the life choices I make, it is in my desire to live in the presence of God, in his light, and to respond to the personal call he sends me. “God wants us to be saints because we belong to him,” volunteered Father Fernand Barraque, a witness to the faith at the Lourdes Sanctuary.”
“I must love first, because to the three key words of the Lourdes message, repeated all along the pilgrimage journey—poverty, prayer, penitence—we must add charity, the love which springs forth from the heart of God.”
“My Lord, my Father, keep my childlike heart, do not allow the external trappings of “success” force me to play a role to the point that I no longer know who I am: I am your child. Grant me the spontaneity and simplicity which characterize the saints.”
“The job of prayer was given to the one whose choice had been to love because praying is a permanent state for one who loves. They pray by living. They live by praying. May this love-prayer renew my outlook, each of my actions, and my entire being in depth. May my prayer be the golden key to my destiny and my soul.”
“You sent yourself to the school of the Holy Family, with Mary as your mother, Joseph as your father, and Jesus as your brother. This is the school I want to go to—the school of the living gospel.”
“Lord Jesus, with you, I want to learn to do the simplest things with diligence, perseverance, and with joy. May my work resemble the work in the Nazareth workshop: may it have harmony, creativity, and love for those I serve….”
“Eternal life has already begun for me. These few years on earth are a starting point for the next world. Lord, make it so that I don’t miss this launching point, that I don’t waste the precious time which has been given to me so I can love. Everything goes by so quickly … I don’t want to lose a single moment.”
“When I ask Mary to pray for us “at the hour of our death,” it refers to the death of my self. May Mary teach me to let the presence live within me of this Other, from whom I have received everything—life, progress, my very self.”
“A happy death is, therefore, the death of one’s self. That is the heart of evangelical teaching. Therefore, let us live this experience as often as possible, by receiving, like a gift, simplicity, modesty, and perseverance.”
“Do I seek to abandon my selfish desires in favor of God’s will? Am I able to pray that God’s will be done in my life, despite the suffering that might occur? Am I excited about the joy of a deepened relationship with God that will result from my submission to his will?”
I hope those quotes give you a feel for this volume. I really enjoyed working my way through this book. As a second in the series I appreciate the series even more now. I can see myself easily returning to it again in the future. It has also inspired me to get going and read as many in the collection as I can lay my hands on.
This is an excellent volume in what is shaping up to be a great series. Spending this 15 days with Saint Bernadette, the written reflections and the discussion questions was a moving experience. I can easily recommend this book and look forward to reading others in the series.
Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2026 Catholic Reading Plan!
Books in the 15 Days of Prayer With Series:
Blessed Chiara Badano - Florence Gillet and Bill Hartnett
Blessed Frédéric Ozanam - Christian Verheyde
Brother Roger Of Taize - Sabine Laplane
Charles de Foucauld - Michael Lafon
Chiara Lubich - Florence Gillet and Bill Hartnett
Dietrich Bonhoeffer - Matthieu Arnold
Don Bosco - Robert Schiele
Dorothy Day - Michael Boover
Henri Nouwen - Robert Waldron
Jean-Claude Colin - Francois Drouilly
Johannes Tauler - Andre Pinet
Meister Eckhart - André Gozier
Peter Joseph Triest - Brother René Stockman
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin - André Dupleix
Saint Alphonsus Liguori - Jean-Marie Segalen
Saint Augustine - Jaime García
Saint Benedict - André Gozier
Saint Bernard - Pierre Yves Emery
Saint Catherine of Siena - Chantal van der Plancke
Saint Clare of Assisi - Marie-France Becker
Saint Dominic - Alain Quilici
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton - Betty Ann McNeil
Saint Eugene de Mazenod - Bernard Dullier
Saint Faustina Kowalska - John Cleary
Saint Francis de Sales - Claude Morel
Saint Francis of Assisi - Thaddée Matura O.F.M.
Saint Jeanne Jugan - Michel Lafon
Saint John of the Cross - Constant Tonnelier
Saint Katharine Drexel - Leo Luke Marcello
Saint Louis De Montfort - Veronique Pinardon
Saint Martín de Porres: A Saint of the Americas - Brian J. Pierce
Saint Philip Neri - Jean-François Audrain
Saint Teresa of Avila - Jean Abiven
Saint Therese of Lisieux - Victoria Hebert
Saint Thomas Aquinas - Suzanne Vrai and André Pinet
Saint Vincent de Paul - Jean-Pierre Renouard
The Curé of Ars - Pierre Blanc
Thomas Merton - Andre Gozier
…
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