What Does The Prayer Really Say?
W D T P R S

There are times when it is of gereat advantage to have a very lofty place to perch.  Here is a shot of some fireworks being set off from the gardens on the Janiculum Hill at the Propaganda for the observance of the 77th Anniversary of the Lateran Pacts.

The Lateran Pacts were treaties signed on 11 February 1929 by the Holy See and Italy to provide for the mutual recognition of the Kingdom of Italy (as it was then) and the Vatican City State. The pact was negotiated by Pietro Card. Gasparri and Benito Mussolini.  There are actually three treaties or pacts: first, for the sovereignty of the State of the Vatican City, also for the buildings and Basilicas of St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, St. Paul-outside-the-Walls, the Holy Apostles, St Andrea dellaValle, and San Carlo ai Catinari, the Palazzo San Callisto and the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo. 
   

The Lateran Concordat defined the civil and religious relations between the state and the Church (summarised by the motto: "Free Church in free State").  There was also a payment to the Holy See for the confiscation of its properties in 1870.

The 1985 revision removed the establishment of the Catholic Church in Italy.

In February 1858, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared 18 times to a girl of 14 named Bernadette Soubirous (Saint Bernadette – canonized in 1933) in a natural grotto at Massabielle. While Bernadette could see her, others could not. The Lady named herself during the 17th apparition.

During the 9th apparition, the Lady told Bernadette to drink from a spring of water under a rock, though there was no spring there previously. So, Bernadette began to dig and a small pool developed. The spring began to flow after another day. The water of the spring seems to be the "catalyst" for miraculous cures of maladies. Since the apparitions occurred several dozen inexplicable cures have been effected at Lourdes, which after serious investigation have been considered miraculous by the Church.

The content of the Blessed Virgin’s message in the apparition focused on the need for prayer and penance. During the 13th apparition of 2 March the Lady said "Please go to the priests and tell them that a chapel is to be built here. Let processions come hither." The parish priest would do nothing until the Lady identified herself. During the 16th long apparition of 25 March 1858 Bernadette was holding a lighted candle. When the candle burned all the way down to her hand, Bernadette was not burned or hurt even though the flame was in contact with her skin for over 15 minutes. During that same apparition Bernadette again asked the Lady her name but she just smiled back. Atter repeating the question three times, the Lady said in the local dialect, "I am the Immaculate Conception". Four years earlier, Bl. Pope Pius IX had promulgated the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, something which Bernadette and most people of the area would have had no way of knowing.

COLLECT:
Concede, misericors Deus,
fragilitatis nostrae praesidium,
ut, qui immaculatae Dei Genetricis memoriam agimus,
intercessionis eius auxilio,
a nostris iniquitatibus resurgamus.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Grant, O merciful God,
O assistance of our weakness,
that we who are keeping the memory of the Immaculate Mother of God,
may rise up again from our sins
by the help of her intercession.