The Hermeneutic of Continuity

It was sad to hear that there was a bomb scare at Lourdes on Sunday, the feast of the Assumption. Everyone had to be evacuated from the Domaine for three hours while the army searched the place. Not pleasant for the people there, but I suppose it is good for Lourdes to have a dry-run evacuation. With the amount of anti-Catholic hatred being whipped up in Europe it is not impossible that places like Lourdes will become real targets. Given that danger, I was irritated by the silly bits at the end of the Telegraph report Bomb scare at Lourdes . Here they are: Around 200 million people have visited the shrine since 1860, and the Roman Catholic Church has recognised 67 miracle healings, the last in November 2005. Despite this, the Lourdes ( sic ) has built up enemies over the years among those who criticise its commercialism. It makes millions from tourism and souvenir selling every year. Others, including members of the Catholic Church, are deeply sceptical of its alleged healing p...

Mac at Mulier Fortis has some posts on the recent Pilgrimage to Lourdes undertaken by the parishes of Our Lady of the Rosary and St Mary's, Chislehurst. She also has a large collection of photos at her Flickr photostream . (All the photos in this post are from there.) Above you can see a young pilgrim from my parish carrying the flag which I had made for our Lourdes Pilgrimages. We are at the start of the torchlight procession, waiting for it to begin and others to find us. Below is a photo from later in the procession. Fr Briggs has sent me something written by one of his young parishioners: Lourdes is a place I'll never forget. It gave me a new love of the Rosary and I had never learnt so much about Bernadette. I found it better than I had expected: all the churches were beautiful, and each was unique. Some had the Rosary and some had the saints. The Stations of the Cross I admired the most. I loved how they were bigger than life-size, and they looked amazing. In thos...

Every afternoon at Lourdes, there is a procession of the Blessed Sacrament. At the closing Benediction, the Bishop who leads it takes the Blessed Sacrament around to bless the sick. I understand that this is in fact when many of the accredited miracles of Lourdes have happened, as well as when people go to bathe in the waters. As with all the major events at Lourdes, everything is impeccably organised with the sick, elderly and disabled firmly being given priority and recognition being given to the different groups in an imaginative and appropriate way. For example, the young people working hard on the various diocesan pilgrimages get to carry banners and flags, and to help in marshalling the crowds. The arrangements also make for reverence for the Blessed Sacrament. There is a quite moving period of silence before Benediction: silence is moving when it is 10,000 people or more being silent. The Tantum Ergo is sung and the Bishop says/sings the Corpus Christi collect. Unfortuna...

This afternoon, we took the local bus to Bartres, where St Bernadette spent two periods of her childhood. Above you can see the sheepfold used by St Bernadette which is a few minutes' walk from the village. (I posted some information last year under the title St Bernadette and Bartres ). In the village itself, you visit the house where St Bernadette stayed, and the parish Church where she was cared for pastorally by Fr Ader. Fr Ader's departure to try his vocation with the Benedictines was the occasion for St Bernadette to return to Lourdes in early 1858 to continue her preparation for Holy Communion. It was during this time that the seventeen apparitions of Our Lady occurred. She received her first Communion on 3 June 1858 which was the feast of Corpus Christi. Tomorrow is the 3rd of June and is again the feast of Corpus Christi. We will be privileged to celebrated High Mass in the Crypt of the parish Church on the date and feast day on which St Bernadette received her...

As it is the summer half-term break, I am in Lourdes as customary, with some pilgrims from the parish. This year, we are joined by Fr Charles Briggs and some parishioners from St Mary's Chislehurst, and Fr Bernard McNally. This means that we can have High Mass - as we did this morning in the Crypt Chapel of the Parish Church; the people there are always very helpful and hospitable. We will have High Mass again tomorrow for the Feast of Corpus Christi. Yesterday, Fr Briggs celebrated a Low Mass at which I gave some catechesis along the lines of the practice of Pope St Pius X when he was a parish priest. This need not be too intrusive (I hope) but is a way of helping people to participate spiritually at the Mass. Yesterday's Mass was the votive Mass of St Bernadette and today we celebrated a votive Mass of Our Lady of Lourdes. As usual, our pilgrimage coincides with the large diocesan pilgrimages from Birmingham, Middlesbrough, and Plymouth. On Monday, Fr Briggs and I met Ar...

An observant clerical correspondent informs me that this year the dates of Lent and Easter correspond exactly with those of 1858, the year Our Lady appeared to St Bernadette in Lourdes. The first apparition on 11 Feb 1858 was a Thursday - the same this year; and Easter Sunday was April 4th - the same in 2010. The photo above is the group from my parish in 2008, the 150th anniversary of the apparitions. This year, we are combining with St Mary's Chislehurst.

Br Lawrence Lew OP has put up some more photos of the Dominican Pilgrimage to Lourdes. See: Dominican Pilgrimage to Lourdes 2009

St Bernadette first spent time at the village of Bartres, about three miles from Lourdes, when she was a baby. An accident had prevented her mother from breast-feeding her, and a lady in Bartres, Marie Lagues, who had just lost a baby, agreed to wet-nurse St Bernadette. Her second stay was when she was 13, from the summer of 1857. St Bernadette returned to the Lagues farm to help with the housework, looking after two young children, and the sheep and goats that were kept in a field about five minutes' walk outside the village. Above is the sheepfold where St Bernadette used to shelter the sheep. Below, in a photo taken on the walk back from the sheepfold, you can see how the Church of St John the Baptist, dominates the scene. The view from outside the Church across the fields is impressive: Inside, the Church is quite beautiful: Here are close-ups of the three panels above the High Altar: on the left, the Visitation: In the centre, the Baptism of Our Lord: and on the right, the hea...

One of the highlights of a visit to Lourdes is to take part in the evening Torchlight Procession. Beginning at 9pm, it is still light during most of the summer but during the hour of the procession it gradually becomes dark so that at the end, there is a sea of candlelight at all the choruses of "Ave Maria." This week sees the pilgrimage of the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle, led by their recently ordained Bishop, Seamus Cunningham. This evening, Bishop Cunningham gave the Pontifical Blessing at the end of the procession. The picture is rather blurred, I'm afraid but I did take a video clip and will put that onto YouTube when I get home.

It has just dawned on me what a wonderful thing it is to be in a place where there is a Blessed Sacrament Procession every day. Historically, many of the miracles, both attested and informal, have happened during the Benediction of the sick at the end of this procession.

Before the torchlight procession this evening, I went up the ramps towards the Immaculate Conception Basilica to get a better view of everyone gathering. Part of the preparation is to get the statue ready. Today it was carried by the Dominicans as you can see in the above photo. I also recognised the Dominican who was taking the photos - Brother Lawrence Lew: I expect he will have some great photos up soon either at Godzdogz or at his phenomenal Flickr collection . The Lourdes 2009 set has started but you can expect quite a few more photos to arrive there soon.

Time for my summer holiday. I'm off this afternoon on the 1415 BA flight to Toulouse and then via SNCF to Lourdes until Friday. I'm hoping to make a visit to Bartres this week to see the Church where St Bernadette went to Mass during her time there. I'll remember all my readers (friends and enemies) at the Grotto and at Mass. A great thing about Lourdes for a priest on holiday is that you can say Mass any time of day at one of the altars by the sacristy of the Crypt Chapel. The Blessed Sacrament is exposed all day so there is always somewhere quiet to go and say the breviary, and, since it is a holiday, there are some reasonably priced restaurants which do a good confit de canard . I'm just about to pack and pondering which books to bring. I suppose I'll have to read "The Shack".

Fr George Byers (photo: right ), the priest responsible for the usus antiquior Masses at Lourdes, will sadly be leaving shortly. He is to be replaced by Fr Benoît Paul-Joseph FSSP (photo: left ) who lives at Tarbes and will travel in to celebrate the Sunday morning Mass in the Immaculate Conception Basilica. Fr George has commented on the confusion over the time of the Mass . His advice is sound - get there for 9.15am and if the Mass does not start until 9.30am, you have some time to prepare spiritually for Mass. Fr also gives news that the Centre International pour la Vie now has its own website. Currently it is only in French but perhaps someone might contact them to offer to translate it into good English for them. I am personally saddened that Fr George has to leave Lourdes. He has been of great help to me and my parish on our visits to the sanctuaries. Please remember him in your prayers as he discerns one or two options for his future apostolate.

After the torchlight procession, we were able to look at everyone's photos thanks to a card reader and laptop. Thanks to Wendy, Mac and Greg for sharing theirs. Above is a photo from yesterday afternoon's picnic which was followed by a game of rounders and then the Rosary at the Grotto. After the Rosary, I was allowed to bring the group of children closer for a blessing. Yesterday was also an opportunity to catch up with Fr George of Blogging Lourdes . Sadly, he is soon to be leaving. At his blog, there is a series of posts about the altars in the Rosary basilica. It is a pity that smaller groups (or individual priests) are not allowed to use the beautiful altars for Mass. We have our Mass this morning in the St Gabriel Chapel and then a lunchtime departure for Toulouse airport and our flight home. Say a prayer for a safe journey.

Our Missa Cantata this morning in the crypt of the parish Church of Lourdes was assisted by the superb acoustic of the chapel. I hope to get some photos from Wendy later. We managed quite well with the portable kit that we brought along, including a lightweight self-assembly set of six candlesticks. Afterwards, we spent some time at the statue of the parish priest of Lourdes at the time of St Bernadette. There was a girl of about St Bernadette's age for our reconstruction but as she is taller than I am, a younger girl played the part of St Bernadette while I played the part of Fr Peyramale. At first, he prudently rejected St Bernadette's story of the "beautiful lady": there were many such stories circulating at the time. He was converted when St Bernadette told him that the lady said "I am the Immaculate Conception." He knew that St Bernadette, who had very little formal instruction in the faith, could not have made this up. Afterwards, the boys pinched my ...

Above is a photo from of our "catechetical Mass" by Mulier Fortis (see her blog for other posts about our Lourdes trip.) Many of us went to the baths in the afternoon and others today. Several of the children told me today that this was their most important experience of Lourdes. After Mass, we did the Stations of the Cross - many thanks to Wendy for her photos. You can see above that one of our young pilgrims did the Stations barefoot - he remembered going barefoot for the Holy Mile at Walsingham and just took off his shoes and socks without any prompting; they were put on again to run down the hill at the end. Here we are at the foot of the Stations, at the Celtic Cross - the parents wanted a photo of me and all the children: One young server got a shoulder-carry from Mum for part of the torchlight procession in the evening: At the end of the procession, I joined the clergy for the blessing, led by Bishop McGough, Auxiliary in Birmingham. Here is a view of the pilgrims ove...

Today has been rather overcast in Lourdes with drizzle most of the day so I haven't tried to take a lot of photos. I said some office in the Crypt Chapel and then a private Mass while most of the group were doing the tour "In the footsteps of St Bernadette." The guides who run these walking tours are to be commended for their work which is always much appreciated by pilgrims. In the afternoon, most of the group went to the baths before an afternoon "catechetical Mass" - Low Mass with hymns and some catechesis for the children at various points in the Mass. Plenty of silence too, of course. We followed this with a somewhat penitential Way of the Cross. The Stations at Lourdes are very striking with figures about twice lifesize. They were helpful in catechesis for the children at various points. I haven't got a photo of my own so here is one from Fr Lawrence Lew's Lourdes Flickr Set . At various points in Lourdes, there are signs telling you not to do var...

And the temple of God was opened in heaven: and the ark of his testament was seen in his temple, and there were lightnings, and voices, and an earthquake, and great hail. (Rev 11.19) Well we didn't have an earthquake, thanks be to God, but on the road out of Toulouse, the coach was hit by golfball-sized hailstones. Having negotiated that, we arrived a little late for dinner at the Hotel D'Angleterre in Lourdes. Apparently the Gave has overflowed its banks in the last couple of days. I'll try to get some photos of the river in spate tomorrow. There are 12 children and 18 adults in the parish group for Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen. Fr Charles Briggs is with us so we will be able to have a "catechetical Mass" and perhaps High Mass one day. We strolled down to the grotto after dinner with children waving the parish flag and singing various songs. They particularly seem to like "God bless our Pope" which will probably be the anthem for this year. We manag...

Have a look at Fr George's Immaculata Conceptio blog. Fr Geoprge is a permanent chaplain in the Sanctuaries of Our Lady of Lourdes in France and his blog is especially devoted to an "in-your-face historical critical scientific exegesis of Genesis 2,4–3,24" and other scriptural texts relating to the Immaculate Conception. Fr George is highly competent in ancient languages and exegesis so do go over to see his contribution to this fascinating area of study.

The blog of the traditional Catholic Family Alliance has a report with photographs of the recent Latin Mass Society Pilgrimage to Lourdes , led by Fr Andrew Southwell. An interesting detail is that although it proved difficult to make arrangements at the shrine for the usus antiquior , the parish Church was more welcoming and the Missa Cantata was sung in the crypt of the Church on several days of the Pilgrimage.