We had a light schedule today, but what mattered to me the most was water.
We got up early to head to Mass in the St. Ann Chapel, a tiny corner of the main basilica barely big enough to hold our group of 38 pilgrims.
Deacon George Torres assisted and preached. Christine Meece was the lector.
I have to say: being in that sacred spot, we couldn’t help but feel Mary’s closeness, and feel as if every whispered word truly was being heard. “Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death…”
Following Mass, we explored the basilica. The atmosphere inside is as memorable as the view outside. This is a beautiful part of God’s creation.
We had a few hours free in the middle of the day, so my wife and I browsed the shops a little and had lunch at one of the local restaurants nearby — hamburger and French fries, which I thought was hilarious, because I was having French fries in France.
Downtown Lourdes, at least near the shrine, is something to see. Statues of Mary are available in all sizes and all materials — including transparent plastic ones that you could fill with water from the springs, with a crown serving as the bottle cap. There are rosaries, tee shirts, berets, key chains, medals, candles (some of them, enormous) … it never seemed to end, and virtually every shop sold the same stuff, most of it made in China. At night, they shop owners turn on the klieg lights and speakers grind out “Ave, Ave, Ave Maria” and you feel like you’re strolling the boardwalk of an Atlantic beach town on a breezy night in June.
We also stopped to pray at the grotto. My wife Siobhain found the spot, marked by mosaics, where Bernadette was praying when Mary first appeared to her.
We also took a moment to light a candle in one of several open-air sheds set up for that purpose.
But the most important part of the day, for me, would be a visit to the baths.
The faithful have been coming here for generations to be washed with the water from the spring discovered by St. Bernadette. The miraculous healing power of this water is legendary. (Although Bernadette herself reportedly said that the water is just that — water — and that what matters is the heart of the believer.)
That hasn’t stopped people from flocking to the baths by the millions. This Sunday, I was one of them.
The baths open at 2 pm, and the line to use them starts around 1:30. But actually bathing in the water isn’t guaranteed. It depends, I was told, on how many volunteers they have to handle the crowds.
If they have enough, this is what happens: you walk into a small room, remove your clothes, wrap yourself in some modest covering while a volunteer helps you step into a large sunken pool (more of a bathtub, really) to be dunked in the water. You get up, dry off, and leave, and that’s that.
But this day, a Sunday, they didn’t have enough people helping out. So, instead, I had to take part in “The Gesture of Water.” Joined by two women from my group, we walked into the small bathing room and removed our coats. A kindly volunteer joined us: a middle-aged French woman, who spoke very little English and tried to explain what would be happening but just ended up giving us a card describing the process:
- Have a moment of quiet prayer
- Wash hands and face
- Drink the water
- Ask St. Bernadette and the Blessed Mother for prayers
- Pray aloud, “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.”
Okay. We said we understood what to do. A moment later the volunteer stepped out and returned with a porcelain pitcher filled with water from the springs. We did as we were told. It was a lot more emotional than I expected. We were replicating the very gestures that Bernadette performed, as instructed by the Lady in the grotto. It felt like a humble, low-key liturgy of hope, a testament of faith and trust.
This short video shows what happens.
In my case, it was over before we knew it — but I was moved by one surprising detail that I didn’t anticipate: the water dried almost instantly. Several seconds after washing my face and then sipping the water from my cupped hand, I was ready to reach for a towel — but I found I didn’t need to.
I was clean, and I was dry.
I couldn’t explain it. I didn’t even try.
We put on our coats and headed back into the breezy French air. I felt renewed, refreshed and mysteriously different. It wasn’t The Full Lourdes Experience!! that I had wanted. But it was something unique. It left me feeling both grateful and profoundly blessed.
At 3:30, we reconnected with our group. The rest of the afternoon, our guide Teresa led us all on a walking tour of Lourdes, visiting the modest house where Bernadette was born, and the former prison cell that was her family’s home when they had no place else to live.
A few relics from Bernadette’s life are on display, including her rosary.
Our next stop took us to a convent that is home to a number of nuns: the Poor Clares. They’ve been in Lourdes for decades, on a choice piece of property that every investor in France is trying to snap up so they can turn it into a hotel.
One of the nuns, Sister Fatima, is an old friend of our guide Teresa. Sister Fatima graciously agreed to open up their tiny gift shop and we swooped in to buy the nuns’ handmade rosaries.
We eventually made our way back to the basilica area and our hotel, to get ready for dinner and another candlelight rosary.
That brought our visit to Lourdes to a close.
It was a memorable end to a memorable day — and again and again when I asked people, “What’s been your favorite part of the trip so far?,” the answer was inevitably, “Lourdes! This! Right here. I’ll never forget it.”
Neither will I.
Interested in more? Check this out:
My friends at CBS News produced this excellent piece on Lourdes for “60 Minutes” a few years ago, and it remains a fascinating report on faith in our age of disbelief, and our fumbling human efforts to explain the inexplicable. Some things just defy logic and make the impossible possible — because, of course, nothing will be impossible for God.
