Today (Saturday) Fr Richard and I headed to our first pilgrimage destination – Lourdes. Lourdes is a small village about eight hours out of Paris and its claim to fame is that in 1858 the Blessed Virgin appeared to a young peasant girl Bernadette. Our Lady asked Bernadette to come there over a period of time and told the girl that she was the ‘Immaculate Conception’. This title also confirmed the dogma that had been proclaimed four years earlier of Mary being conceived without the stain of Original sin.
We made our way early in the morning via taxi to the airport to take a small plane to Lourdes. As we were only staying overnight we packed all our things into a small backpack each and planned to just take it on as hand luggage. Once we had checked in we went through customs but our bags were sent onto the ‘problem’ conveyor belt and when the staff opened them they told us (actually they don’t really say anything they just do what they want) that some of our items would be confiscated as they were too large. I had a new tube of shower face wash and also a new tube of shower body wash which I just got as a gift and Fr Richard had a new bottle of shampoo. We did not have time to go back and check in our bags so they went into a big bin that said ‘These items are destined for destruction’, just a little melodramatic I thought! So anyway, not overly pleased, we moved onto the plane.
Arriving in Lourdes just after 11am we found a taxi with a couple of others heading into the town and got on our way. David the taxi driver dropped us off at our hotel which is just a 5 minute walk from the sanctuary of Lourdes. Lourdes is an actual town and it is where Bernadette lived. The apparition occurred just a little distance from a river and it is on that site that now sits a massive basilica and to the left of that is the small cave grotto where approximately 5 million people (9 million this year for the 150th anniversary) come each year to see the spot where heaven came down to visit earth. When you enter the forecourt of the basilica it is immediately impressive, it almost looks like the castle that is used at the beginning logo of Walt Disney films. It has a massive ramp either side that leads to the top basilica and beneath that is a small crypt and beneath that again in the larger basilica with its beautiful mosaics.
Seeing such beautiful churches that clearly have been designed with such love and devotion it made me think that half the structures we call churches in Australia should be torn down. It’s not just that these churches are so much more intricate it’s that one can see that the church was made to lead people to God. We build churches in Australia that are simply functional buildings; they are halls and contain little or no wonder or awe of the design. It has been a real grace to be able to see such beautiful churches, and I have only seen a couple so far!
Anyway so back to Lourdes, it is an amazing place. It is indeed a Marian place of pilgrimage but it is more so a place of the sacraments, the Eucharist and Confession. On the Saturday we went into the crypt which is structurally the heart of the entire basilica and on the main altar was a beautiful monstrance with a small crowd of people in silent prayer before the Lord. One can really feel the prayers that have been prayed at that spot for so many years. One other beautiful thing is the thousands of small marble plaques of thanksgiving from people all around the world. They are plaques of thanksgiving and may say something like ‘In thanksgiving for assisting my family, 1904’. These plaques date back to the 1800’s when the basilica was being built and are a tangible sign of the graces that have been received from this place.
As beautiful as the basilica is it is the small grotto that drawers the crowds, it is the reason that the basilica exists. The cave would be no more than 10 square metres and when you first see it, can easily think is this it? There is the spot where Our Lady told Bernadette to dig a stream from which flowed the miraculous water (the source if the water is not so miraculous though, it runs from an underground stream from the river), and just above the grotto is the place where Mary appeared and in that place now is a life size statue of the Virgin with the words ‘I am the Immaculate Conception’ In front of the statue back on the ground is a massive votive candle stand in which people place their candles to be burned as a prayer to God.
Candles are a HUGE part of Lourdes. There are thousands of them in kiosks where people make an offering and take a particular size from 30cm to 1.5metres! Just down from the grotto there is a whole row of shelters where people can also place their candles. These shelters have the words ‘this candle continues my prayer’ in many languages. It is indeed that very beautiful catholic tradition of lighting candles as a continuation of the prayer of petition or thanksgiving. I lit my candles for the intentions of family and friends. Catholicism really is a faith that encompasses the whole person, it is not just about the spirit as so many of our protestant friends whole but we seek to make the whole person pray, we have water and candles and incense and bells and oil and bread and wine.
After spending some time there, Fr Richard and I went to have some lunch at one of the open cafes (80% of the shops are closed for the winter) and then bought some items in one of the catholic shops. These are amazing in themselves. There are hundreds of catholic trinket shops selling, rosaries and statues and bottles to fill with Lourdes water and books and holy cards. It is amazing, like some sort of Catholic Westfield! As with the cafes most of these shops are closed but there were still enough open to feed anyone’s religious shopping desires.
Saturday night we returned to the grotto (in the freezing cold) in silence with the few others before the grotto. Even though it is so quiet it is good in that usually one would even have trouble getting a vantage point. I have been able to spend time here praying for family and friends and bringing forth some of the intentions that people asked me to take with me.
Sunday at Lourdes was a little busier that it had been on the Saturday and the streets had noticeably more cars. We attended Mass in the grotto in French in the early morning with about 50 others. We had not had breakfast yet so after Mass found a small café, but as I have since discovered European cafés for some reason only serve food at certain times and on this instance we had fallen outside of these times so we ordered a coffee and a croque which is a piece of bread with cheese and béchamel sauce on top, tasty but not something that would be on the Weight Watchers menu!
One would not want to spend less than two days at Lourdes, there really is so much to soak in and it is a real blessing to not only pray at the grotto oneself but also watch the strong faith of the other pilgrims who have come from every corner of the globe.
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