This year our secular substitute holyday happens to fall on Whit Monday. As it is also the school half-term, it is the occasion for the annual parish Pilgrimage to Lourdes. We will have Mass at the Lady Altar first thing followed by the Itinerarium (prayers befoer a journey) and then fly to Toulouse followed by a viewing of Jean Luc Delannoy's excellent film Bernadette on the coach transfer to the Hotel D'Angleterre. I love Lourdes more and more each year and I am really looking forward to tomorrow night's torchlight procession.Once I have got my Catholic Herald article finshed and emailed to the editor, I will pack: it doesn't take me long - I'm a cleric, I travel light and I don't have to worry what colour shirts to bring. Then I will go to bed happy, knowing that in less than 24 hours I will be praying before the spot where Our Blessed Lady appeared to St Bernadette.
Last year, I blogged from Lourdes via one of the internet cafés. This year I hope to check out the free wifi hotspot that I discovered on the internet. Failing that, I'm happy to pay - there seem to be plenty of hotels with wifi. The challenge will be getting my computer to play along. If not, a café will do.
(By the way: to avoid being flamed, please do not comment on the "terrible commercialism" of Lourdes without first reading my post from last year on... The "terrible commercialism" of Lourdes)
9 comments:
Aaaaarghhhh. I want to say very rude things about the BA website...
...but I shall wait until I get safely home again...
;-)
I have fallen in love with Loudres and hope to visit there someday. I'm so envious (but not overly so!) that you're able to go there every year!
I wish I could join you. Say a little prayer for me. :-)
God bless you all on your journey.
Have a great time.
Oh, Fr Tim, so you hav'nt taken your wheelies or your scooter or .....your coloured wig........or is that for packing in the episcopate travel bag....you'll need a really funny t-shirt.........you only speak to the crowds when you look like one of them..........enough said....Thank God for a good priest....God bless you
Bah; I wouldn't bother to take the computer. Mind you, I wouldn't blog...
Have a wonderful trip. And pray for us!
European Catholics are so lucky. Here in Australia we have so very few pilgrimage sites in easy access, and none with such dignity as having been the site of canonically-recognised revelations.
My kids absolutely love the so-called 'commercialism' of Lourdes. What's wrong with Our Lady bottles for Holy Water, 'glow in the dark' plastic grotto, or plastic rosaries?
Apart from the fact that the Lourdes locals need to make a living, these wonderful memorabilia help focus our youngsters on Jesus and Mary. Is that such a bad thing when the 'world' offers so many other truely worthless trinkets for them to spend their money on.
Also please remember that once through the gates there are no more shops or street vendors. Inside Lourdes there is great respect, reverence and deep spirituality.
Pray for us all Fr Tim. God Bless.
Anonymous a dit (instructions in French here!) about the wig, wheelies and funny t-shirt. Young people seem to talk to me quite happily without any of those. Funny that :-)
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