Whilst at Lourdes her piety did not seem at all out of the common, so it was said. If we understand by piety exalted reflections on the mysteries of the life of Our Lord or the great truths of the Faith, doubtless it was not. The child herself often said: "I never can make a meditation"; but, on the other hand, she loved prayer and it had a strong attraction for her. She was often to be found in the chapel saying her rosary, and who shall say what ardent love her angelic soul put into every one of the Aves with which she delighted to crown her Heavenly Mother!

She was often known at night, when suffering from one of her attacks of asthma, to refuse a cordial which would have given her relief, but would have deprived her of the privilege of union with Our Lord in Holy Communion on the following day. Love of the Blessed Eucharist was alive in her heart, and if the child was unconscious of her intimate union with Jesus, her simplicity never dreaming of it, we can hardly doubt that the luminous aureole around her head, of which the Cure Peyramale had a fleeting glimpse when she approached the Holy Table, was an outward sign of its existence. The words of the Holy Gospel are as true as ever: "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God."

Bernadette of Lourdes
J. H. Gregory