Lourdes - Day Six

Thirty people from Hotel Europe were up with the lark and began the High Stations just after 6.00 am, together with representatives from the other Arundel & Brighton Diocese hotels.

The high turnout from Hotel Europe was due to an appeal from our Sister who was organising the Stations, and included most of the deaf plus a number of helpers. Several people had prepared mediations for their assigned Stations. Alas, somewhere there were crossed wires and a priest was there and directed other folk to read their meditations. There was some angry mutterings among the Hotel Europe pilgrims – but, on reflection, that reaction was a good reminder of our natural human frailty and lack of charity…so, I’m sure we all either (eventually) practised forgiveness or offered it up!

On returning from the Stations, I put my hand in my rear trouser pocket – and discovered it was empty, except for a five Euro note. My pocket had been professionally picked yesterday afternoon as we were walking through town and several folded banknotes were missing. Forgiveness may take rather longer in this case!



Busy Helpers

Morning mass at 9.45am was in The Grotto, under a blazing sun, and was shared with the Diocese of Salford. As usual, we set of from the hotel an hour before it was due to start..and then stood waiting for ages in a holding area until the other hotels and Salford Diocese joined us. It was like the army joke “Hurry up – and wait!”

The Mass gathering was a beautiful sight, ranks of wheelchairs at the front, and behind them massed  uniformed helpers and red and blue tee-shirted youngsters with brightly coloured umbrellas. Throughout the Mass they shielded the invalids from the hot sun, passed out water or applied sun cream.

Bishop Kieran’s homily began with a joke. An American Indian Chief called his tribe together and told them to gather firewood as it was going to be a cold winter. He later checked the weather forecast and found out that the weather was going to be quite severe so he told the tribe to gather more firewood. They did and he checked the forecast again to find that the projected severity had increased and it was now forecast to be extremely cold. Again, he asked the tribe to gather yet more wood. When he checked the forecast again he was surprised to find that it had been upgraded further to exceptionally severe cold weather. Puzzled, he phoned the station’s forecaster to find out why. He was told “Well, the Indians, who know about these things, are collecting huge amounts of firewood…”

The Bishop’s point was that there were two realities in the story, the factual reality and the inflated reality. Do we think Lourdes is unreal and that we return to reality, the real world, when we go home? No, Lourdes is the reality, it is a vision of God’s intent for creation, a world of true awareness, reconciliation, healing and love that should transform us so that we in turn may return home and bring with us the reality of God’s love in order to change our surroundings as well as our own lives.

Lunch was gigot of roast lamb. After lunch the options were going to the Baths or doing the Water Walk (the stations of the Water Walk, introduced in 2002, were washed away by the recent flood, so the ‘Walk’ is now a virtual one!).

The Baths are heavily booked and involve stripping and then immersing oneself in a bath of Lourdes water for a minute or two, reciting prayers and venerating a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, aided by a couple of volunteers.  Since I had experienced the Baths last year, I opted for the Water Walk and sat under the trees in a shady spot on the other side of the river, opposite the Grotto, and participated in a series of meditations on the use and nature of water, led by Sister Patricia.

After dinner (Cote de Porc Salsifis au Jus) Sister Patricia led us in a hymn, several prayers, intercessions and a blessing from Father Laurence. The Sign of Peace was quite extraordinary, it seemed that almost every one of the 70-odd pilgrims greeted everyone else, in fact so much hugging, kissing and handshaking went on that Hotel Leader Moira had to call a halt, fearful that there would be no time to get the necessary administration done. It was a practical sign of the extensive friendships that had been formed and of the overflowing love and goodwill generated by just one short week together in the transforming environment of Lourdes. And with one voice, the pilgrims paid tribute to the Marvellous Moon Girls with a spontaneous chorus of ‘Plastic Jesus…’ It doesn’t get any better than this!    

And, finally, a last trip to the Grotto at 11.00pm to say goodbye...(hopefully, for just another year).