Why do people go lourdes

Robert Lively, vice president of a pharmaceutical company in Washington, DC, and a member of the Order of Malta, a Roman Catholic service organization, volunteers every year at Lourdes. He has made the trek eight times and says he intends to continue. Joe Michaud, an investment counselor in Colorado, has visited Lourdes every year since he first encountered it 19 years ago with his classmates from the Portsmouth Abbey School, a Benedictine secondary school in Rhode Island that offers student pilgrimages to Lourdes every summer.

Michaud went from volunteering to running one of two annual Lourdes programs for his alma mater. First constructed in the s, pilgrims immerse themselves in the water at the baths in response to an invitation Mary is believed to have made to Bernadette to drink of the spring she dug and wash herself.

Lourdes is a wonderfully contained place where they can see the universal church in action. Michaud says he wants to ensure that future students can have a Lourdes experience similar to his own. Overshadowing Lourdes, this jagged outcrop rises to 1,m and offers exquisite views of the town and beyond.

Failing that, the year-old funicular offers a scenic trip that takes just minutes. The Pic du Jer is also a magnificent sight from below at night, crowned with its giant illuminated cross. Much of the history of Lourdes revolves around the story of Bernadette Soubirous, her family and her visionary encounters with the Virgin Mary.

Le Cachot is a fundamental part of the tale. Originally a dingy prison, it was reworked as lodgings for the Soubirous family and today visitors can see the tiny room that the family inhabited when Bernadette saw the apparitions. The Moulin de Boly — the birthplace of Bernadette Soubirous, in the heart of Lourdes — was originally a water mill where the girl spent her first 10 years.

Renovated in , the site is now a museum featuring a bedroom, kitchen and watermill. For a break from sites of religious interest, this farm offers a fun and intriguing alternative surrounded by lush greenery.

Meet and pet locally reared animals including ponies, guinea pigs and more. It is important to point out that Lourdes water is not classed as holy water, as it has not been blessed by a priest. Nevertheless, there have been countless anecdotes of pilgrims finding themselves cured of various diseases and afflictions after drinking it. Pilgrims often negotiate the 28 steps on their knees in penance to Christ, who climbed the Scala Sancta to appear before Pontius Pilate for sentencing to death by crucifixion.

As part of a tradition that began in , from April to the end of October, every night at 9pm, the Marian Torchlight Procession travels from the prairie to The Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary. Pilgrims join the march, bearing candles and torches as well as statues of the Virgin Mary.

The walk takes about 90 minutes before blessings are dispensed by a priest. For the more physically challenged, there is a separate and more easily accessible route. At the tranquil summit you can lie back on the grass, catch your breath and contemplate the horizon, as Pyrenean peaks fade to infinity. The baths created around this spring have been a pilgrimage site for Catholic worshippers since the s. Supposedly, the spring was revealed by an apparition of the Virgin Mary, who described its location to Bernadette Soubirous.

Scenes from my time there stand out sharp and clear in my memory. I remember a young woman, her face open and vulnerable, kneeling on the cement before the grotto in the falling rain, and a friar wearing a brown cape who looked like he had stepped out of a tapestry from the Middle Ages.

When I recall my trip to Lourdes I remember the grand drama of my experiences there, the processions and masses and the exultant feeling of being surrounded by so many pilgrims. But I recall with special fondness something that may seem small and trivial in comparison—all those shops selling Virgin Mary souvenirs.

I imagine the places where those trinkets are likely to end up, how they will find their way into nursing homes, hospital rooms and bedside tables, into the pockets of chemotherapy patients and the hands of soldiers going off to war.

I recall with special fondness something that may seem small and trivial in comparison—all those shops selling Virgin Mary souvenirs. Though small and inexpensive, those tokens carry a powerful message: they are a reminder that the broken and wounded will be the first to enter the Kingdom of God, that miracles are possible even when the darkness seems overwhelming, and that the most unlikely among us can receive a life-changing vision of light.

One of the chapters focuses on Lourdes and its influence on my own spiritual life. Located in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains near the Spanish border, Lourdes has a population of just 15, but more hotels than any other French city except Paris.

The main pilgrimage season in Lourdes runs from Easter through the end of October. The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is open 24 hours every day, and admission is free. The airport is 10 minutes from the downtown.

Lodging : A wide variety of lodgings are available in Lourdes, including accommodations for the sick. The Best Western Lourdes Hotel offers accommodations near the train depot and within walking distance of the shrine. Hiking trails wind amid , acres of jagged peaks, alpine meadows, and waterfalls. Rare fauna in the park include the isard—a species of antelope—and Pyrenean bear, as well as soaring Egyptian and griffon vultures.

In the ski resort town of Cauterets 20 miles from Lourdes, hot springs offer rejuvenation for footsore mountain explorers.

Her website Spiritual Travels features holy sites around the world.