For this particular trip, one of my foremost intentions was to go to Lourdes. If ever I do a life time pilgrimage, it was to be Lourdes. I wanted to visit the holy shrine of our blessed mother. I have so much empathy with it.
And so after a 4 day tour of Paris, We began our pilgrimage to Lourdes. Despite a slight delay due to bad weather; the plane landed us safely in Lourdes. I was nervous. I missed several pilgrimage trips before, because my teaching schedules came in conflict with the journeys. This trip however was planned a year ahead prior to our departure. Few months before we left, I was having a long running throat ailment. Lucas also got a bad tendonitis few weeks before our leaving Cotabato City. I was so afraid that something will prevent us from going, so I prayed nightly to Our Lady, that everything will go smoothy, that we will be able to reach our destinations and safely arrive home without a hitch. I am truly grateful for this wonderment.
We arrived Lourdes at noon. We had a most ideal hotel location that was very near the sanctuary, entering the shrine from the Saint Joseph gate. Infact, all our rooms had a very nice window view of the street. First, we took our lunch nearby and then proceeded to the grotto.
First duty on hand, was to light two big candles: One was for myself and my family members. The second candle - was for my sister Helen. Before I left Manila, she gave me some money to light a big candle for her in thanksgiving and also in petition to ask help from our mother to solve her business labor problem in Manila.
After the candles were lighted, the second action was to go near the grotto. There was a short line and I was so excited. People I heard always talked about long queues. I didn't realize it was going to be easy to come near the grotto. I was in a faze. I was coming close to the holy shrine. I was also becoming teary eyed. I didn't even look carefully that I put my donation in the petition box. I was mostly looking upward than down that I really missed seeing the in-cased glass where St. Bernadette dug the spring. Coming close to the place of apparition, everybody was touching the cave walls. I used both hands to caress it. I saw streaks of water running down the wall. My hands passed through and touched the streaks of water flowing down. It was just after the rain, hence the flow of water but I felt so blessed to be there, so timely. The flow of water that day meant something miraculous it seemed to me. But right after passing the cave and the statue above, I felt so disappointed that it was all I could do. Kind of, I was hoping to be able to kneel or touch or do something significant. Anyway I had to behave myself. I guessed my children thought that I was frantically in a frenzy.
The third thing to do, was go to the water site where several faucets where installed for accessibility of the pilgrims. Anybody can drink or take away the well waters. Surprisingly there were again few people. I had all but a small plastic container to fill, yet I did wash my parched mouth and dry hands right from the tap. I told my children to wash their hands too or whatever they wished to do.
We went to the bath area but there was a long long queue of people, most specially disabled persons in wheel chairs with attendants pulling the carts. My children and I decided that Lucas and I should come back in the morning instead. I was however worried that the water in the morning would be too cold for us, but "Where is my faith? It was supposed to be a miraculous bathe". I told myself.
That same afternoon, we went up to the Immaculate Conception Basilica, got in, prayed, walked about, took pictures etc. After going around the vicinity, the next thing we did was go back to the grotto for the 5 o'clock rosary. I found only one vacant seat where I took it for Lucas to sit. The recitation was in Spanish but I tried to follow it through and reply silently in English. My kids and I stood all the while for the afternoon rosary. Surprisingly, I was not even tired at all.
We went back to the hotel to rest before supper. After being rested, we took a hearty meal inside the hotel restaurant at passed seven PM. It was a happy meal for us. We were kind of well rested and ready to do more activities. The children got maps and information regarding the grotto's schedules, so that night we planned well ahead for the next day activities. That night, we ate like the French. It took us long enough to talk and finish our meal, that it was well passed nine o'clock in the evening when we finished our supper.
After supper, we walked towards the grotto again and the nightly procession had already started. We bought candles to follow. The rosary was recited in several languages. One Hail Mary was even recited in the Visayan language. The Marian procession finished around 10PM, yet the night atmosphere was still happy and gay in Lourdes. We went to the well again and took some more water. We stayed up well up to 11 PM where stores began to close for the day. As there was nothing else to do, we went back to the hotel for the night............... My very first day in Lourdes. ( to be continued )
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