Today's feast of Our Lady of Lourdes brought me back to the pilgrimage I was able to make in 2003. It was my 25th anniversary year, and the beatification of the Founder meant that there was just an inkling of a possibility of going to Italy. So the sisters in my novitiate group (the seven of us here in the States) asked special permission to "tag on" a trip to Lourdes, as a way of acknowledging Mary's presence in our vocation and her accompanying of us for those past 25 years. Permission granted! (You have no idea how amazing that is.)
We weren't able to go all at the same time, but that year we all made it to Lourdes. I had accompanied our lay cooperators for the beatification, and after the planned tour, as they prepared to return to the US, my sister and I left by plane for Toulouse and then took the train to Lourdes. I took scads of pictures with a digital camera, only to have the memory card corrupt on me, losing not just the Lourdes scenes, but precious photos of the beatification itself. (God's sense of humor.)
Today I still have my own internal snapshots, though, and a lot more to thank Mary for.
1 comment:
Thanks for letting us know about the site! I just popped on the webcam of the Grotto. It's nighttime in Lourdes, and you can see people gathering before the statue, with candles glowing brightly.
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