A Pilgrimage to Lourdes

By Joan Wong

Thousands of pilgrims have flocked like geese to Lourdes each year, ever since the clergy declared in 1862 that apparitions reported at the shrine were genuine. The shrine is said to have therapeutic powers, and more than 200 million pilgrims have visited it thus far. Many of the pilgrims who seek healing at Lourdes bathe in cold water piped from Bernadette’s spring, and countless miracles have been reported. Lourdes is indeed one of the wondrous blessings our God has bestowed on us.

Lourdes’ fame sprang from the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin to a 14-year-old girl named Bernadette Soubiroux. There were a total of 18 apparitions to Bernadette, the first occurring on 11 Feburary 1858 and the last on 16 July of that year. Bernadette saw a mysterious vision of a beautiful young lady, garbed in a white dress and a blue girdle, in a small grotto called Massabielle. In one of the apparitions, the lady instructed Bernadette to drink from an unknown spring in Gave. At first glance, the site that the apparition indicated was nothing like a spring, with only drippings of water surrounded by mud. After Bernadette dug up the ground, the amount of water emerging was sufficient for any number of drinks. Today, the healing spring still runs with water and countless people collect the water for healing purposes.

After the incident with the spring, Bernadette prayed. Another apparition occurred, instructing her to ask the priests to build a chapel on a chosen spot and for processions to be made to the grotto. A basilica was eventually built upon the rock of Massabielle in later years after the apparition. In later apparitions, the young lady revealed her identity as the Immaculate Conception, which was later confirmed to refer to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Since the advent of the apparitions, many pilgrims followed Bernadette to Massabielle, hoping to witness the apparitions themselves. In one apparition, the Blessed Virgin urged penance and prayer for the conversion of sinners. After that, many prayed at Massabielle and it became the Blessed Grotto, a place destined to make Lourdes the capital of prayer in which the "Message of Prayer" would take root and flourish.

In 1863, the Lyons sisters commissioned a statue to be erected at the shrine, and this statue was to be made as precisely as possible in the likeness of the lady in the apparition. Lyons sculptor Joseph Fabisch interviewed Bernadette to enquire about the pose of the apparition. After improving on the sculpture, Fabisch brought the finished work to Lourdes several days before its scheduled dedication. Bernadette, first gazing at it with admiration, finally concluded that the statue was far different from the apparition, citing the fact that it did not portray the pure kindness and simplicity of the little Lady. She said that it was impossible to replicate the Lady as she really was.

In those days, the statue was lit from below in the evening, changing its appearance from that intended by Fabisch. Its eyes are looking up toward heaven, although this is typically not apparent from the angle of those passing below. The statue still remains at the shrine where millions of pilgrims have prayed before it.

Prayer to Our Lady of Lourdes

Mary, you showed yourself to Bernadette
in the crevice of the rock.
In the cold and grey of winter,
you brought the warmth, light and beauty
of your presence.

In the often obscure depths of our lives,
in the depth of the world where evil is so powerful,
bring hope,
return our confidence!

You are the Immaculate Conception,
come to our aid, sinners that we are.
Give us the humility to have a change of heart,
the courage to do penance.
Teach us to pray for all people.

Guide us to the source of true life.
Make us pilgrims going forward with your Church,
whet our appetite for the Eucharist,
the bread for the journey, the bread of life.

The Spirit brought about wonders in you, O Mary :
by his power, he has placed you near the Father,
in the glory of your eternal Son.
Look with kindness
on our miserable bodies and hearts.
Shine forth for us, like a gentle light,
at the hour of our death.

Together with Bernadette, we pray to you, O Mary,
as your poor children.
May we enter, like her, into the spirit of the Beatitudes.
Then, we will be able, here below,
begin to know the joy of the Kingdom of Heaven
and sing together with you :
Magnificent !

Glory to you, Virgin Mary,
blessed servant of the Lord,
Mother of God,
dwelling place of the Holy Spirit!

AMEN