Message of Our Lady of La Salette

The Blessed Virgin appeared to two young shepherds, Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud, on the Mountain of La Salette on September 19, 1846. First, She conferred a public message to both of them; then a secret to Maximin alone; and then to Mélanie, a secret message that she could publish in 1858.

What the beautiful Lady said on the mountain

The Beautiful Lady spoke to the two shepherds:- "She wept all the while she spoke to us", said Maximin and Mélanie later. Together, or separately, the two children repeated the same words with slight variations that never affected the sense. Whether her questioners were pilgrims, public officials or ecclesiastics, investigators or journalists, friendly, neutral or hostile, they all heard the same message:

Come near; my children, do not be afraid. I am here to tell you great news.

"We listened. All our attention was on her." Like Maximin and Mélanie we are invited to let her message come into our lives.

With them we listen and gaze at the crucifix, dazzling with glory.

If my people do not obey, I shall be compelled to loose the arm of my Son. It is so heavy that I can no longer restrain it.

How long have I suffered for you! If my Son is not to abandon you. I am obliged to entreat Him without ceasing. But you take no heed of that. No matter how well you pray in the future, no matter how well you act, you will never be able to make up to me what I have endured on your behalf.

I have given you six days to work. The seventh I have reserved for myself, yet no one will give it to me. This is what causes the weight of my Son's arm to be so crushing.

The cart drivers cannot swear without bringing in my Son's name. These are the two things which make my Son's arm so heavy.

If the harvest is spoiled, it is your own fault. I warned you last year by means of the potatoes. You paid no heed. Quite the contrary, when you discovered that the potatoes had rotted, you swore, you abused my Son's name. They will continue to be spoiled, and by Christmas time this year there will be none left.

The local dialect word for potatoes (pommes de terre) puzzled Mélanie. In dialect one says "là ruff". The word "pommes" reminded her only of apples. She turned to Maximin for help. But the Lady said:"

Ah! You do not understand French, my children. Well then, listen. I shall say it differently.

Repeating these last sentences in dialect she continued in the "patois" spoken by Maximin and Mélanie:

If you have wheat, it will do no good to sow it, for what you sow the beasts will eat, and whatever part of it springs up will crumble into dust when you thresh it.

A great famine is coming. But before that happens, children under seven years of age will be seized with trembling and die in the arms of those holding them. The others will pay for their sins by hunger. The grapes will rot and the nuts will be worm-eaten.

Suddenly, Mélanie no longer heard the Lady's voice although her lips were still moving. She noticed that Maximin was listening very attentively. Then she, in turn, was able to hear words that Maximin could not hear. Maximin's native restlessness won out over his effort to behave. He toyed with his hat, taking it off, putting it on again, and with the tip of his walking stick he poked at pebbles. "Not a single stone touched the beautiful Lady's feet," protested Maximin a few days later. "She said something to me and told me, "You will not repeat this and this. After that I could not hear her, and I began diverting myself." Finally, they both heard the Lady's voice again:
If my people are converted, the stones will become mounds of wheat and it will be found that the potatoes have been self-sown.

Do you say yours prayers well, my children?

The children answered with one voice: "Not too well, Madame, hardly at all".

Ah! my children, it is very important to do so, at night and in the morning. When you don't have time, at least say an "Our Father" and a "Hail Mary"; and when you can, say more..

Only a few rather elderly women go to Mass in the summer. Everyone else works every Sunday all summer long. And in winter, when they don't know what else to do, they go to Mass only to scoff at religion. During Lent, they go to the butcher shop like dogs.

My children, haven't you ever seen spoiled wheat?

"No Madame", declared Maximin, quick to speak for Mélanie as well as for himself.

Turning toward Maximin, the Lady replied:

But you, my children, must have seen it once near Coin with your Papa. The owner of the field said to your Papa, "Come and see my spoiled wheat." The two of you went. You took two or three ears of wheat in your hands. You rubbed them together, and they crumbled to dust. Then you came back from Coin. When your were only a half-hour away from Corps, your Papa gave you a bit of bread and said: "Here, my son, eat some bread, this year anyhow. I don't know who will be eating any next year if the wheat continues this way".

"It's very true, Madame. Now I remember. Until now I didn't", admitted Maximin.

The beautiful Lady concluded, no longer in dialect but in French:

Well, children, you will make it known to all my people.

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September 19, 1997