Stations in Lourdes

Bobbins and I both agreed that the Stations of the Cross on the hill next to the Sanctuary, almost abutting the Basilicas and formerly continuous down to the Grotto, were some of the best we have ever experienced.  We did them the middle of our last day in Lourdes.  It's a nice hike up.  The sculptures are life-size, maybe even a tad larger, and are either bronze or some other type of metal.  The 12th Station (Jesus dies on the Cross) was particularly powerful.  We spent extra time there.  It has an altar for saying Mass.  The 14th (Jesus laid in the tomb) was also powerful, as a natural crevice in the rock forms the tomb, probably similar to how it would have actually been.

View of the snow-capped Pyrenees Mountains from the hill.

The Procession in Lourdes

The Blessed Mother gave St. Bernadette two instructions for her to tell the priests:  one was for them to build a chapel at the grotto (which they obviously did, twice over, with two beautiful basilicas) and the other was to hold a procession every night, which the faithful do, carrying a statue of Mary at the front and lit by candles.  It has been modernized and organized since then, with a sound system projecting music and singing and volunteers herding the procession toward the Rosary Basilica like a giant snake.  As with everything, the elderly and infirm are put first.  Or as with the last night we were there, a giant group of (rather loud and unruly) French teenagers.

The Procession was probably the most powerful part of Lourdes for me.  The Queen of Heaven and Earth said do it, so we do!  In a very reverent, peaceful, joyous, universal form.  The music is beautiful and soothing.  It takes long enough that a whole Rosary is said, in multiple languages.  Most of the singing is in Latin but the decades of Hail Mary's rotate between French, Italian, English, German, and one other language.  Our first procession it was Chinese, which was odd but interesting.

We didn't make the procession our first night, not having had much time to acclimate to the schedule and also a hungry belly in Bobbins.  We dined at a very nice Italian restaurant just outside the Sanctuary, across the river.  Our waiter was from Madrid and I managed to get our order (a huge calzone for me, a chicken dish for Bobbins) across in Spanish.  He ended up giving us free lemon apertifs after the meal, one of the best on our trip.

On Tuesday in Lourdes we walked in the procession, behind the pilgrims from Nimes, France. On Wednesday, we stood on one of the ramps of the Rosary Basilica and watched, Bobbins trying to hone her camera skills.

 

The French teens starting the procession on the 10th.  They didn't seem to appreciate the experience, which would probably be true of teens anywhere, throughout history.

This video of the procession, from our two nights, probably best encapsulates the experience, as much as that is possible.
http://youtu.be/40QUkmMPOPM

In Lourdes

It's a little hard to describe being in the Sanctuary - in front of the Grotto, in one of the Basilicas, walking in the Procession, taking the Bath in the piscines, going to Confession in the set-aside confession chapel, and the two options for Stations of the Cross (both which are outside the Sanctuary).  The Grotto is both recognizable and unfortunately modernized, i.e. you can imagine as it was during Bernadette's time but it's been thoroughly transformed since then.  They've paved the ground all around it and put some ropes in place to form a line by the original spring and under the spot where the Blessed Virgin appeared.  At the same time, I bet it brings order to crowds, and the fountains from which you can take as much cool, clean spring water as you want are very well done.

Video of the River, east of the grotto

We got a number of Rosaries done at the Grotto and brought all of the intentions we received.  They have several Masses per day at the Grotto, in different languages; the same for organized Rosaries.  It was always very peaceful and prayerful.  There's some electric lights but the huge bank of candles that burn constantly shed plenty of light.  We enjoyed sitting at the Grotto very much.

I liked the Rosary Basilica more than the Immaculate Conception (IC) Basilica, which was built first and which is directly on top of the Grotto.  The two are feats of engineering, especially the ramps on each side of the Rosary Basilica that lead up to the IC Basilica.  The modern, underground St. Pius X Basilica is another feat and is huge.  We couldn't believe its size when we walked down there.  It must easily hold several thousand people.  Of our 3 days and 3 Masses, we did two in the Rosary Cathedral and one in the IC, all in French.  The chapels for each of the 15 mysteries in the Rosary Basilica (this was before the Luminous mysteries) were wonderful.  It's a lot easier for me to remember each mystery now having had time to reflect before each chapel.

The baths:  this is another hard-to-describe experience.  I don't want to speak too much for Bobbins, but it was a very emotional experience for her.  Both of us wished there were some instructions beforehand, because no one really tells you what to do, you just follow hand instructions, unless you speak French, as most of the volunteers do.  I was lucky enough to have an older Irish fellow named Tom.  Even still, it was hard to understand him speaking English.  We breakfasted early Tuesday morning to be the first in line but were beat by a large tour group of Chinese (hopefully not Commies from the CPCA).  The men were chanting what I think was the Rosary.  While it was nice to hear them in unison, Mandarin is NOT a pretty language.  The women were singing which was a little more pleasant.  I could hear them.  They distracted Bobbins.

The baths are segregated for men, women, and children (with their moms).  Invalids and the elderly are put first.  After the Chinese, I ended up sitting with a couple old guys and one young (rather homely) young dude from somewhere in Italy.  I could make out the Italian easily enough and decided to try to converse.  It failed.  I did manage to get across how much I liked the game of bocce.  One of the old guys had been to California and told me about his amore, who was in line for the women's bath.  I think he said they had six children.

There are some instructions in the main Western languages once you actually get inside.  There are curtains, and they take two to four guys to each bath.  Once inside, you take off all your clothes down to your boxers, then go past another curtain to the actual bath.  You take off your boxers and they wrap a white towel around you.  Mine was freezing cold.  You step in, say whatever prayer(s) you want, end with "St. Bernadette and Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us!" and then four volunteers help lower you in.  The water was freezing cold.  I clutched the Rosary my sister made for me years ago.  As soon as the back of my head went in, I started up, helped by the volunteers.  Just like that, I was putting my clothes back on, then was out in a couple minutes.  It seemed to go by too fast, yet I can remember each step very clearly.  The quiet peacefulness was most pleasing. 

Bobbins sobbed all through her bath, not remembering much.  So Wednesday we ate another early, quick breakfast at the hotel (lots of bread again, but very affordable) and headed back to the piscenes.  This time she got all her prayers in and was able to absorb the moment.  Her first bath was warm and pleasing but the second chillier, although it didn't affect her.  We later read that in all the years they've been doing the baths there's never once been an accident (like a slip) or a contamination of the water.

For me, the bath was like baptism, in how I imagined it was when I was a kid and in being a new birth in some sense.  When you're a kid, you don't know what's going, you're confused, there's strangers around, and it's cold.  That was the bath.  I did feel like a different person coming out of it.  Not anything miraculous, necessarily, or transformative.  Just touched, in a positive, forward type of way.  Like I said, hard to explain, but that's what it was.

To Lourdes

Monday morning we awoke somewhat early and went out for breakfast.  We enjoyed watching all the kids go to school behind Notre Dame des Champs.  The best restaurant option we found was called Indiana, which was not for the US state but for all things Native American.  Bobbins' dad would have loved it.  There were pictures of famous Indians all along the wall by our table.  Bobbins got by on her runny eggs while I ate up all the bread.  With her avoiding yeast, this was a common thing in France (me eating lots of bread, her share and mine.)

We boarded the mid-morning TGV train to Lourdes and ended up sitting across the aisle from a somewhat challenged blind young man named Daniel who loved Coca Cola (all I could make out in his French).  He was accompanied by a nun (I think) or some type of religious and two young black guys.  We thought they might have been Canadian.  We felt it very appropriate, since he was obviously going to Lourdes too.  That's him in the right background of this photo Bobbins took with the ipad that many people liked on FB.

Why did we go to Lourdes?  It is the Year of Faith, and one of the recommendations given for it was a pilgrimage to increase your faith.  We also sought healing after all our pregnancy problems last year.  The water of the miraculous spring and the baths () that accompany it were are goal in this regard.

We glimpsed the Basilicas from the train just rolling into the station and they were magnificent.  It was quite exciting.  We managed to get directions in the station and made our way into town by foot, me lugging our two big packs and Bobbins our backpack. It started pouring rain but luckily we had two umbrellas.  Of course I got us a little lost so it took longer than it should have, but we eventually crossed the Gave Pau to the hotel, which was just north of the Sanctuary, about a five minute walk.

The rain cleared up (although it was still chilly) and we had a lovely time just walking around the Sanctuary, soaking up the sights.  I have to admit, I cursed Walt Disney, because his fairy tale movies with castles (many based on real European castles) ruined my first impression of the two Basilicas.  Just like out of a Disney movie, I thought.  Two of the outdoor chapels under the north ramp to the Immaculate Conception (IC) Basilica were amazing.  We were quite taken by the River Pau.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe because we live in the desert and rivers like that are rare.  It did remind me of the Colorado, but somehow more peaceful, less wild.  We decided it would have been awesome to camp in the field across the river, south of the Sanctuary.

Paris

Even though we didn't sleep on the plane and it was early in the morning, we (well, me) decided to do as much of Paris as possible.  We took the train into the City from the airport, with Bobbins marveling at how much graffiti there was and me wondering if we could visit Saint-Denis. We dropped our bags at the hotel in Montparnasse, then walked five minutes to the other Notre Dame in Paris, the Church of Notre Dame des Champs.  The Mass time worked out and it was a lovely service, not crowded but not sparse either.  We were a little surprised at how some parents let their kids have free rein, including the lector, whose two girls went up to the lectern with him during the reading and goofed off.  The pere that said the Mass was from Africa, we thought.

From Mass we Metro'd to our first destination, the Chapelle Notre Dame de la Medaille Miraculeuse (Chapel of the Miraculous Medal) on 140 Rue du Bac.  Mass was going on so we didn't stay too long.  We bought some books for the girls, postcards, and some Medals, of course, then headed out, deciding to return later.

Bobbins luckily remembered that the Vincentians' chapel was just nearby, about a block.  The nearly incorrupt body of their founder, St. Vincent de Paul, is on display in a glass case above the altar. Bobbins and I had no idea he was there and were honestly a little freaked out by it.  There was no one else in the chapel but us and him.  He clearly died a peaceful death.  It truly is a miracle of God beyond our comprehension.  We said a Rosary in a side chapel.

We walked around a bit, then made our way to the Eiffel Tower.  Both of us had been up it before so didn't bother waiting in line or paying the money again.  We enjoyed watching all of the people out relaxing and playing, especially the kids.  It was about a brisk 55 degrees out.  We stopped again at Rue du Bac but the Chapel was again crowded, this time mostly with women saying a Rosary in French and memorably a little boy sleeping in one pew chair.  We looked at what we thought was the incorrupt body of St. Catherine Laboure but was in actuality the incorrupt body of St. Louise de Marillac, co-founder (with St. V de P) of the Daughters of Charity.  Catherine is there too, just to the right of the tabernacle, under the altar where Mary appeared to her.

Though exhausted, I convinced Bobbins to Metro over to the Notre Dame Cathedral (of hunchback fame) for a sight and photo.  She reluctantly agreed.  We walked through an outdoor bird fair and thought of my mom.  After the photo op and a little bow to the statue of Charlemagne, we grabbed a nutella crepe and a sandwich and made our way back to the hotel.  By that point we had been up for about 30 hours.  Our hotel room was quite small, with a full size bed, but it didn't matter.  We zonked out for a solid 10 hours, Bobbins 11.  (The room did have a little shower, just barely big enough for me, along with toilet and sink, which was nice.)

To Europe

As probably anyone reading this knows, we went on a trip to France and Spain recently.  We did a pilgrimage to Lourdes in southern France at the base of the Pyrenees, then a more of a vacation in Barcelona for several days after.  We took a ton of photos which Bobbins has put on snapfish.  To see the whole lot, e-mail her.  Otherwise, I'll put mostly recollections in the following posts with a few photos here and there.

Our neighbor very graciously drove us to the airport Sat. morning and off we went to Charlotte on an uneventful flight. We had only 15 min's or so to wolf down a less-than-tasty meal from Bojangles.  We boarded our flight to Paris and luckily had 2 seats to ourselves.  I forgot how nice, even luxurious, international travel is.  We each had our own TV screens with full selections of movies and shows, and we had 2 fairly tasty meals.  We pretty much flew throughout the whole night and arrived in Paris early Sun. morning.

3 Flies Up

Sure they're not boys, but we still enjoy a game of 3 Flies Up.

video      (http://youtu.be/3y-I-_UvgKQ)