ASK ME ONLY FOR MY SPIRIT

Our Lady of Buglose... 

July 19, 1838 is an important day in the life of servants of Mary because it is at the feet of Our Lady of Buglose that our good founder, Louis-Edouard Cestac, received the first, inaugural grace, the special illumination of Mary "Ask me only for my spirit".

In 1837, two young prostitutes came to him for protection. He was therefore looking for a house in the countryside. He visited several houses, in Ustaritz, Saint-Pé and Hasparren. None of them was suitable, for one reason or another, and the money was always lacking; "I walked blindly and in a vacuum" said Father Cestac.

To see things more clearly, he went on pilgrimage for the first time in his life to Notre-Dame de Buglose, the main sanctuary of the Landes region, where the Virgin Mary has been venerated since the 15th century. Saint Vincent de Paul was born not far from there, in Pouy (today's commune of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul). The Marian pilgrimage was therefore also a Vincentian pilgrimage.

Father Cestac went there on July 19, 1838, for the feast of Saint Vincent de Paul. He went from Bayonne to Dax by car, then continued on foot to the sanctuary, in the middle of the pine trees. He intended to ask the Virgin Mary for the money necessary for his project (50,000 francs). But, he wrote, "you closed my mouth and made me hear this word, so worthy of you and of your greatness, O my divine Mother: "Ask only for my spirit".

It was a new interior word. This word, received in the heart, enlightened, indicated a disposition of mind to be kept, but did not give the solution. He did not have to worry: the work was not his own; he was only at the service of God's work, of Mary's work.