When Lourdes Visited Me

When in need of special graces, I visit Lourdes. I go to the blessed grotto where Our Lady appeared to St. Bernadette Soubirous in 1858. Millions of pilgrims like me gather there every year to seek out grace, favors, and peace. I have never returned unsatisfied or been “left unaided.”  

Thus, I have always thought of Lourdes as a place where I go for grace and solace. It was always a pilgrimage, in which I made the effort to put together a trip to faraway France. Never did I imagine that Lourdes could one day visit me.

But it unexpectedly happened.

I found out about a special “Journey of Grace,” a tour of a reliquary that would be visiting parishes and sites around the country. To my great delight, the relics of St. Bernadette, the Lourdes seer, would soon be coming to a parish 15 minutes away. I couldn’t not go.

The Power of Relics

Once the word spread at the parish, it was no surprise to me that a steady stream of pilgrims would come to observe this great wonder. I have seen that same attraction at Lourdes. I had no doubt that St. Bernadette’s relics would draw people in the same manner.

That’s what I like about relics. They break all the rules. We are not supposed to like them. However, they attract crowds. They do not fit into the progressive, social justice, and solidarity narratives that never attract the faithful but leave churches (and souls) empty.  

Relics are too simple and resist the effort to make them complicated. They let us relate to saints who were Catholics like us and then advanced to heroic virtue.

Relics link us to the past by making a deceased saint physically present, and they connect us to the future because those mortal remains will be part of the resurrection of the body when the saints assume their places in Heaven. Relics join Heaven and earth, allowing us to think of eternity.

Everything Is Possible

Those who pray before famous relics never know what to expect. Suddenly, huge graces can console and fortify souls. These are the occasions of lightning conversions or physical cures for which Lourdes is famous. At other times, some might experience relief from small afflictions. Others simply obtain peace. No one leaves empty-handed.

Thus, I had no specific expectations when I arrived at the church at 10:00 to do my part in the scheduled all-night vigil. Bishop Emeritus Ronald Gainer had celebrated a 6:00 Mass with a Rosary procession which filled the church with pilgrims.   

The 130 lb. reliquary is an ornate octagonal structure about a yard high, built in the Gothic style with small flying buttresses. The front of the reliquary has an evocative representation of the apparition in the grotto with St. Bernadette. The tour’s brochure says that the relics include bone fragments from two ribs, muscle material, and hair taken from her incorrupt body at the convent of Nevers, France.

Watching St. Bernadette Work on Souls

Her relics are an invitation to set aside our materialistic, godless world and enter another. Inspired by a childlike confidence, we can be assured that she will understand our plight and hear our prayers.

Thus, watching the faithful file by the relics of St. Bernadette was an exercise in faith. Rich and poor, healthy and sick, young and old, they all brought to the Saint their afflictions, petitions, and affections. Broken lives felt less broken in her presence. Poor modern souls, unaccustomed to addressing the saints, managed to make their messages known as they filled the nearby baskets with written petitions.

Those who came, came with hope. They sat and knelt in the pews, imbibing the atmosphere, praying, thinking, or just pondering this scene from another world. Many pilgrims approached the reliquary with a smile, seeing in it something that gladdened their hearts.

Venerating relics is a tremendously physical experience. People wanted to touch the stones on display that came from the grotto. They asked custodians to touch their rosaries, prayer cards, and other items to the reliquary. They took pictures of the scene to register the fact that they had been there.

What I Saw

The reliquary was placed in the middle of the church, just inside the sanctuary, where it dominated the atmosphere. St. Bernadette draws people to her since she is so accessible. You feel encouraged to ask for things, anything—everything. The innocent seer is an ardent intercessor.

I did not sense any huge graces that sometimes occur on these tours. What I sensed was something that I always feel in Lourdes, albeit for a short while. The relics had the same cleansing effect upon me. Likewise, I felt unencumbered by the rush of the day and the thousand little things that tend to take over.

A familiar calm pervaded. I sensed the same promise of help. Indeed, Lourdes, through the relics of St. Bernadette, visited me.

Encouraging Others

The relics will continue their course over the next year in other parts of the country. You can see the schedule here. I can only encourage people to experience for themselves the wonders that are so often worked. Participants can receive a plenary indulgence.

Will events like these instantly resolve all the problems inside the Church? Probably not. What is needed is a change of heart and a path toward virtue for a billion-plus souls. That requires considerable effort and runs counter to our decadent times.

However, these journeys of grace do provide incredible opportunities for a change of heart. They are the gentle means that prepare the ground for grace to work. They attract people and put them on the right path toward things eternal.  

Enough of progressive ministries and social justice babble! Give the faithful relics, adoration chapels, and Rosary processions. Leave things to God’s grace. People will come. They are already coming.

Touching rosaries to the reliquary