Girls’ France Trip: Lourdes

After our weekend in Paris, Ellie and I headed to Lourdes!

This whole France trip was planned around our visit to Lourdes, which was on my bucket list.  I knew I would go sometime while living in Europe, but wasn't sure when.  Unlike Brian, I had never been to Lourdes before.

The basic story of Lourdes (a town in southwestern France, in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains) is that - in 1858, the Virgin Mary appeared to fourteen-year-old Bernadette numerous times.  The Virgin Mary revealed to Bernadette that she is the "Immaculate Conception."  During one apparition, Our Lady asked Bernadette to dig in the muddy ground and drink the dirty water that appeared there "for sinners."  Soon after, where there had been only mud, a spring of pure water appeared.  Many miracles came from this water.  Now every year, millions of pilgrims visit the grotto where the Mother of God appeared to Bernadette - and drink or bathe in the water that continues to reveal to us God's miracles.

For more on the Story of St. Bernadette, The Apparitions, and The Message of Lourdes - check out the Our Lady of Lourdes Hospitality: North American Volunteers webpage.  This organization is the one who assists the FUS students in volunteering at Lourdes each semester.  Ellie and I were thrilled to be there during our students' visit and to see and hear about the work they do there.

I grew up knowing that my mom loved St. Bernadette (her confirmation saint), and we had dear friends who brought their daughter to Lourdes, and I had heard stories of a few other friends and many of the FUS students going - so I definitely wanted to go.  Brian and I looked at the calendar and saw that a few days in mid-April would work out perfectly for me to go (his idea!).  It was the day after we booked our flights for Lourdes -  to be there from April 15 to April 17 - that I happen to see a prayer card for St. Bernadette on our floor (#messyCatholickids).  I picked up the card and saw that St. Bernadette's Feast Day is April 16.  The one full day we'd be in Lourdes!  I couldn't believe it!  It was such a gift and perfect confirmation for our plans to go and felt like an extra invitation from St. Bernadette (and Our Lady) inviting us there!

We arrived on Monday morning, met the FUS students who were volunteering there for lunch, and then headed straight to the baths with them!  I really wanted to bathe in the miraculous waters while we were there - but I had no idea it'd be happening right after we arrived!

I came with to Lourdes with so many intentions for others.  Going in the bath the first time was for me.  It was a very moving experience.  The water is icy cold.  Women, who weren't speaking any English, were assisting me.  Each bath is behind curtains.  You go in with no clothes on but are wrapped in a sheet before and after.  Ellie and the women assisting me were the only ones around the bath.  (And, of course, the baby I carried within my womb -- so special to bring that child into the bath with me as well).  The women helped me pray to Our Lady and Jesus.  As my friend described it, going in the bath is like a Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary.  That it truly was.  As I came out of the bath there was an image of Mary holding baby Jesus that I could kiss.  It all seemed to happen quickly.  But there was time to pray.  I was moved to tears.

Ellie actually went in first.  I didn't know yet how cold the water was, or what exactly would happen.  For this first time (yes, there was a second) she remained wrapped in the sheet and chose not to sit down (later feeling how cold it was, I saw why!).  After she walked through the bath water, they held her up so she could kiss the image of Our Lady and Jesus.  She really liked that part.

That night, Ellie expressed interest in going in the baths again.  I was actually sick while in Lourdes and didn't really have a strong desire to go again.  But one of the volunteers told us that we could go again (peak season, when the lines are very long and not everyone can go in, wouldn't start until the next week) and she told me that you can go subsequent times as a proxy for someone else.  I knew then that I definitely wanted to go for a friend and her intention.  So the next afternoon, on the Feast of St. Bernadette, we got to go into the baths for a second time.  Ellie went in like a girl on a mission - she said her prayers (perfectly reciting the Our Father in English) and then walked into the bath and sat down in the water.  The women assisting us had huge smiles and were expressing their astonishment at her act of going in so bravely!  Then I got to go in for my friend - again such a powerful experience as I felt the presence of Mary and Jesus and another special saint - and my eyes were again flooded with tears.  I was so grateful that Ellie's desire to go in again had brought us here.

Here are some of our pictures, followed by more of what we did in Lourdes:

Post-bath picture

The grotto where Our Lady appeared to St. Bernadette

Our Lady asked Bernadette to tell the priests that a chapel should be built at the apparition site,
the chapel is literally on top of the grotto

Ellie in front of the chapel - which is two basilicas:
Rosary Basilica (lower basilica) & Basilica of the Immaculate Concept (upper basilica)

View from Accueil Notre-Dame (where our students serve in the Fall)

Entry way to the baths (at a time when the baths were closed -
if they were opened you would see all the people waiting to go in )

Ellie waiting to go in for her first bath

Ellie after her first bath

Ellie and me (and baby) after our second bath

Collecting the holy water

Lighting candles and praying for our family & friends' intentions

Outside of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception

Entry to the Underground Basilica of St. Pius X

Inside the Underground Basilica of St. Pius X

Eucharistic Procession inside Basilica of St. Pius X

On the Feast of St. Bernadette, April 16, we woke up early and joined the FUS students for a private Mass in the Grotto.

Walking to Mass

Several times we visited the "Little House of Bernadette," which is designed for children to play, make crafts and learn more about St. Bernadette and Lourdes.  Ellie made a Rosary for herself, and later begged to go back so she could make two more for her brothers.

On the Feast of St. Bernadette, we walked along the "Footsteps of Bernadette," which led us through town stopping at many of the places where Bernadette had been.

The baptismal font used for Bernadette, inside the Parish Church of the Sacred Heart

The Boly Mill - birth place of Bernadette -
she was born here on January 7, 1844 and her family lived here for the first 10 years of her life

Outside door to the Cachot - where Bernadette was living with her family at the time of the apparitions -
it was the former prison of Lourdes

Inside the Cachot - this one room housed Bernadette's family (6 people) for over two years

Bernadette's veil and wooden clogs

Me, Ellie & baby :)

Door of the Old Presbytery - where Bernadette met Fr. Peyramale after the 13th Apparition to report that
Our Lady had told her: "I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION"

On the evening of St. Bernadette's Feast Day, we joined the torchlight Marian procession.  It was a beautiful procession around the grounds of Lourdes, praying the Rosary in many different languages and singing the Ave Maria in between decades.  The perfect way to conclude our pilgrimage!

Our trip to Lourdes was so special!  We were happy to leave France the next day and be reunited with Brian and the boys that evening so that we could spend Holy Thursday the Triduum together in Gaming!

Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Bernadette, pray for us!