Mary and Conversion

This is the week of the annual Middlesborough Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes. Two years ago I travelled with them and was much blessed by the experience. My room companion is there now and telephoned before he left to say he would see that I was remembered in prayer at the grotto where our Lady appeared to Bernadette.

Each year there is a pilgrimage theme and this year it is "Be reconciled to God". Here are suggestions how a Lourdes pilgrimage can help this conversion process:

Lourdes - a Special Place for Conversion

In Lourdes, there are many starting points for the road to conversion.
The simplicity of Lourdes: The number of people who come here shows that the question of the ultimate meaning of our lives is not an outdated question. Lourdes is a place where everyone, even those who are outside the Christian faith, are able to look at their lives and find some form of answer.

The person of Bernadette also leads us to see things differently in our ordinary life. Bernadette is a very attractive person through her freedom of spirit and word. But from a human point of view, without any formal education, delicate health, living in destitution with her family, then in the hospice of Lourdes followed by the convent of Nevers, Bernadette was not extraordinary. However, for nearly one hundred and fifty years, thanks to her, the lives of millions of people have been changed.

Mary, the Immaculate Conception: even without properly understanding what is meant by the Immaculate Conception and even if the statues that represent her do not make you very enthusiastic, the Blessed Virgin Mary represents beauty, light and holiness. She is a woman. Jesus has given her to us as a mother. A mother encourages and reaffirms trust. In Lourdes, the Lady smiled frequently when she was with Bernadette. She appeared sad when she spoke of penance: She who is without sin knows better than us that sin is a blockage. With Jesus on the Cross, she also suffered for us.

The sick and those who care for them. Sickness, old-age, and disability imprison us. Very often, they are hidden. Here, in Lourdes, people are amazed to see that they have pride of place. The members of the different hospitalities who look after them appear happy to do so at their own expense by sacrificing part of their holidays. This leads us to question the real value of things and to see how often the voids in their lives are filled by appearances.

The Grotto: People come to pray at the Grotto at all hours. It was the same at the time of the Apparitions; Bernadette was surrounded by people who were praying, while there were others who came to observe as well as the sceptics. But the experience is to go through the Grotto. I am not alone: while some pray before the Grotto, others go before me and others follow me in the slow procession that allows me to enter the Grotto. I see the spring of pure water that reminds me of my baptism, the new life of a child of God. At the back of the Grotto I am in darkness – sin prevents me from seeing clearly. But I come out towards the light, passing by the candle stand – Christ and the saints. I have followed this passage under the watchful eye of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose statue is in the crevice of the rock and who, according to Bernadette, is not far from us. The passage through the Grotto is a wonderful path of conversion.

The Water Walk and the Baths. Facing the Grotto, nine taps distribute water from the spring. They are not there to fill water bottles but for us to copy the actions the Lady requested of Bernadette: “Go drink of the spring and wash yourself there.” Each tap carries the name of a well from the Bible and gives the reference to that particular place. Some of these names help those who wish to carry out a conversion process. More symbolic again are the actual Baths.

The Ways of the Cross. The title is in the plural because there are several Ways of the Cross in Lourdes: on the Espélugues Hill, on the meadow, in the Underground Basilica of St. Pius X, in St. Joseph’s Chapel, etc, … Whatever their artistic value may be, the Way of the Cross engages us better than any sermon. Who is this innocent man who is put to a humiliating death? In this drama which continues, we are beside Pilate who washes his hands of the affair, the onlookers who laugh and mock the condemned person or with Simon of Cyrene who helps him carry the Cross, Veronica who wipes his face, the centurion who admits that this man is indeed the son of God.