First evening in Lourdes

Here are some of the children on our pilgrimage to Lourdes. There was a bit of traffic on the way out of Toulouse but we had time to watch Jean Luc Delannoy's film (first part) about St Bernadette and we arrived only a little late for supper. After that, a few joined the torchlight procession but it would probably have been a bit much for the children the first night so I took them on a tour of the main parts of the domaine.

This morning was the International Mass at which there were an estimated 40,000 people present. I offered Mass for you all this morning and Fr Charles is saying Mass later today so there is an opportunity for others to sleep in if necessary. (Not that it is difficult to get to Mass at Lourdes!)

This afternoon, I will be leading a walk round the principal stations of the "Way of the Jubilee." There is a special indulgence for this pilgrimage so we shall be visiting the Parish Church and the baptistery where St Bernadette was baptised, the Cachot where the family lived in poverty, the Grotto where Our Lady appeared, and the chapel of the old hospice where St Bernadette made her first Holy Communion.

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