Sep 212011
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Here are some additional photos.
At the closing ceremony of French National Pilgrimage.
At the closing ceremony of the French National Pilgrimage.
Closing procession.
At the closing ceremony of the French National Pilgrimage.
The Kim sisters push a malade to the underground basilica.
Chilean flag at the procession.
Sean, Rory, Doug, and Mike.
Olivia and Blake.
First time seeing something like this in Lourdes.
Last night we walked in the candlelight procession with our Malta Youth Pilgrimage and U.S. flags proudly leading the way. After loading malades for the procession we waited around the Accueil Notre Dame de Lourdes until the procession was over. Then we loaded them back up. After that we took our bag dinners to the Prairie to eat and have our reflection of the day. Our walk in the candlelight procession followed.
This morning we received an early (6:00) wake up call so that we could get to the train station by 7:30 to help get the malades to their trains for the return trip home. Julio took charge making sure the kids were taking the malades to the correct train. Unfortunately, one of the malades took a nasty spill backwards onto the tracks because his helper (not one from our group!) forget to engage the brake. The poor man rolled backwards and… An ambulance showed up, and they took the man away on a stretcher.
This afternoon, I think we are going to give the kids some free time. They have the option of hiking up the Pic de Jer or touring the Fort de Lourdes, shopping for those last-minute souvenirs, filling up bottles with Lourdes water, or catching up on their sleep.
Tonight we may go to the Grotto to light candles. We will also have our last reflection of the pilgrimage and reveal our prayer partners.
Tomorrow we leave the hotel at 5:00 a.m. for Pau – and the rest of the trip home.
Here are a bunch of photos.
At reflection on the Prairie yesterday afternoon.
The Canterbury group en masse.
Our seminarians - Joe, Brandon, Sean, and Daniel.
GIrls at last night's procession.
Walking in the candlelight procession.
Jeff Frano and Alice Bouchard with a malade they met at the train station.
Daniel with a malade.
Lisa Perrino, Rory Phalon, Sean Owens, Mike Balcom, and Claire Moisan.
Bernadette Abaya, our nurse, with a malade.
Mimi S. with a malade.
Joe Hochrein pushes a malade to her waiting train.
Katie Daily and Linnea.
Yesterday afternoon we did the marble Stations of the Cross rather than the upper (larger than life) Stations. A few of our students have bad backs that would not tolerate the hike that it takes to do the upper Stations. We gave the group the rest of the afternoon off so that they could catch up on their sleep, do some shopping, etc. Dinner was at 6:15 so that we would have time to get to the Accueil in time to help load/pull madales for the big candlelight procession that snakes through the town and ends in the esplanade. Oh, yeah, we also had Mass in there somewhere.
Today is the Feast of the Assumption, and it’s a big day in Lourdes. The Mass on the Prairie went off without a hitch, which is an improvement over last year’s Mass when someone called in a bomb scare and the entire Domain/Sanctuary had to be evacuated for several hours.
The group has pretty much taken over the responsibility for loading the malades into the voitures and has done a great job of it – all with kindness and a sense of humor. We all went to the Mass, which I think will count for us, even though in past years our chaplain has celebrated an additional Mass for us (in English).
The director of the “spectacle,” Robert Hossein, showed up at this morning’s Mass. Some of the Assumptionist priests attended to him like he was a rock star. I got some good pics.
We still haven’t done the big group photo. It has been rescheduled several times, and I think the woman at the photo shop is beginning to lose her patience with us. We were supposed to have it taken today, but I don’t think that’s going to happen because too many of the group are still working and it’s way past the scheduled time.
This afternoon we will help with the procession, which officially ends the French National Pilgrimage. Tonight we will walk in the procession.
Here are a bunch of photos.
Olivia Watkins, Sean Owens, and Leslie Carter.
Claire Moisan and Mike Balcom assist a malade.
Mikaela Puth at Stations of the Cross.
Mimi S. at Stations.
Candlelight procession
Sean Owens and Mike Balcom with malade.
Loading a malade.
Helping a malade into a voiture.
Malade at the Feast of the Assumption Mass
Our group
Linnea at last night's procession.
Priest at Feast Day Mass.
Fr. Joe concelebrates the Feast of the Assumption.
Seminarians Brandon and Sean.
Feast Day main celebrant and homilist.
Our group.
Robert Hossein appeared at the Feast Day Mass.
Feast of the Assumption Mass celebrated on the Prairie.
Yesterday we had an early lunch (bag lunch), which we ate in part or in whole at the hotel. At 4:45 we marched over to the Domain to get our orders for the night. Everything last night centered around the Robert Hossein “spectacle. ” I talked to a Lourdes friend of mine before the show and she referred to Mr. Hossein as the Mel Gibson of France. I think she really meant that the themes of some of their movies are very spiritual.
Some of us worked at St. Michael’s gate, some at St. Joseph’s gate, some on the bridge, and some at the entrance to the underground basilica. At about 6:45 it began to pour, but only for about 15 minutes. The show began at about 9:00, with a preshow history of Lourdes, which was prepared for the tv audience. (Nice plug for Lourdes, which could use the help.)
Because I had a security badge I had a very good position for taking photos. I thought the title of the show, A Woman Called Mary, was a bit of a misnomer, because the show was really about the life of Christ, according to St. John. It was nicely produced, and I’m sure it will look good on the DVD, orders for which they were hawking via a pamphlet given to each attendee as he/she entered. The audio (spoken voices) was pre-recorded, so the actors (about 80 of them, according to the pamphlet) really just pantomimed – a bit of a disappointment for me. I thought the show was going to be more about Mary and her relationship with Bernadette.
Anyway, this morning we returned to Notre Dame de Lourdes Accueil to load/push malades to the underground basilica for the international Mass. Not that many malades – maybe they were tired from the late night of watching the spectacle.
Then it was back to the hotel for our Mass. As I write this, the group is bringing malades back to the acceuil. We are supposed to have our group photo taken at noon, but the photo shop was closed earlier, so Hope wasn’t sure that was going to happen. So much to do, so little time to fit it all in.
This afternoon, we plan on doing the Stations of the Cross (life size). No plans for tonight yet.
Here are a few photos.
Pilgrims waiting to enter the Domain for the big show - 4 hours prior to the start.
Doug Bergner.
Pilgrims at their post.
During the rain Claire O'Keeffe, Claire Moisan, and Lisa Parrino dance.
Olivia Watkins distributes pamphlets for the show.
Photo from the show: Jesus cures the sick.
Photo from the show: Jesus. Mary and Bernadette in background.
Photo from the show: Jesus and St. John the Baptist.
Photo from the show.
Photo from the show: Jesus prays to His Father.
The basilica.
Blake Buna and his mom, Bernadette, assist a malade.
Sean Owens and Claire Moisan help a malade into a voiture.
The Rosary Basilica and the River Gave on a sunny Sunday in Lourdes.
The day is not over, but I thought that while I had some time I would post this blog and photos.
Last night half the group worked crowd control at the candlelight procession while the other half sang in the choir. It is very apparent in Lourdes this August that there are many more Americans than in past years and many more countries represented. It’s great to see countries from South America so well represented as well as cultures not usually here. Plenty of (American) English heard and plenty of American flags waving. After the procession we headed back to the hotel to eat Viv Simonelli birthday cake and have our evening reflection. (We didn’t have time to eat the cake after dinner, because we were pressed for time.)
This morning we returned to the Accueil Notre Dame de Lourdes to load and pull malades. The destination was the St. Pius X Basilica for Mass. Our kids are doing a great job, and the French seem pleased to have our help. I spoke to a young French girl (Camille, a scout from the north) this morning, and she told me that she thought it was great that our group has been coming back to Lourdes for 18 years. She also told be that she was impressed by the energy and hard work of our volunteers.
This afternoon may be devoted to a bit of rest and relaxation, because everyone has been putting in very long hours and we have to be fresh for our duties tonight – crowd control at the “spectacle.” The big show is called “A Woman Named Mary,” and is directed by Robert Hossein, who is well respected in the world of French entertainment. (Google him and the name of the show for more information.) The show, which boasts a cast of some 80 actors, begins at 8:50 and runs for about 90 minutes. We have to report to our post by 5:00!!!
Here are a few photos.
Viv's birthday hat.
Clare O'Keeffe pulls a voiture to the underground basilica.
Students relax before the start of the candlelight procession.
Joe S., Jeff Frano, Daniel, Julio Omaña make their way to the Grotto.
Candlelight procession singers.
Doo Young Kim greets a malade.
The Stars and Stripes wave at the end of the candlelight procession.
Julio talks to a fellow volunteer.
At the candlelight procession.
Young girl at the candlelight procession.
Pilgrim in prayer.
Today is Viv Simonelli’s birthday, and although she is not with us on this pilgrimage, we will celebrate her special day at dinner tonight. Happy birthday, Viv, from all us here in Lourdes.
We met our French National Pilgrimage contact Yves R. this morning at the Notre Dame de Lourdes Accueil. He greeted us and provided some information about our service work. As usual, the French are a bit vague about the specifics of our work. Despite this we helped load malades into voitures this morning and pulled/pushed them to the underground basilica for their opening Mass. Our volunteers waited with the malades and will push them back to the Accueil later in the morning. We are expected to return to the Accueil early this afternoon for a repeat performance.
Speaking of performances, tomorrow night there is a big spectacle planned to be performed in the Domain. We have tickets for the show and may be working the show (crowd control). The production is about the life of Mary and Bernadette. It will be recorded for an international broadcast later. It apparently stars a well known French actress who has been described as the Shirley Temple of France (e.g. former child star).
Today’s weather is a bit cooler than it has been, and rain is in the forecast for Saturday and Sunday.
Not sure of our plans for tonight, but I am having dinner with my friend Marco. Maybe we will work the candlelight procession.
A few photos follow.
Michael Woods
Katie Daley
Meagan Kendrick
Clare O'Keeffe
Robert P. is back!
Malade shops for postcards.
This post written on Friday summarizes our Thursday activities.
We began the day with everyone working at the baths. Lunch followed. Our afternoon plan was to make rosaries at the hotel, but we were needed back at the baths and that’s what we did. The French National Pilgrimage began to arrive on Thursday and so we went to the train station to unload people. We worked two trains – a 5:50 train and a 6:30 train. The next trains were not due to arrive until around 10:00, so we decided that it would be a great time to go through the grotto and then have our evening reflection on the Prairie. We had Mass at the station (feast of St. Clare) and ate bag lunches provided by the hotel.
The terrible world economy has hit Lourdes. Our hotel reports that their business is off some 40% this year. As a matter of fact, from Tuesday until Thursday night we were the only group in the hotel. That’s very unusual. However, the hotel should be full for the weekend. Ludwig, the son of the owners of the hotel, runs a luggage shop in town. I saw him yesterday, and it took him about two seconds to bemoan the fact that business has been horrible. “No one is buying,” he said. “No one stops in. There are many less people in Lourdes these days.” I think that if it weren’t for World Youth Day in Madrid later in August, visitors to Lourdes would have been WAY down. But many people are visiting here for a day or two on their way to Madrid.
The kids have been great. Yesterday was a very busy day, but the kids were real troopers and never complained. They did their work cheerfully.
Here are a few photos.
Rachel, Daniel, and Sarah.
Claire, Megan, Clare, Lisa.
Training at the train station.
Julio at the train station.
Aug 102011
After a good night’s sleep, we started the day at 6:45 with morning prayer in the living room of the hotel. Breakfast at 7:00 followed.
An hour later half the group went to work in the baths; the other half took the Footsteps of Bernadette tour led by our friend Joe Metz.
Many Americans have come to Lourdes this week on their way to World Youth Day in Madrid. I talked to pilgrims from Wisconsin, Nebraska, Idaho, Virginia, and Alaska. Having so many Americans in Lourdes is very unusual, but great. I also met my friend Marco, who I have been meeting in Lourdes for many years.
After working in the baths, we headed back to the hotel for lunch (spaghetti). After a 30-minute break, we all walked to the Hospitalité headquarters in the Domain to listen to Dr. Alessandro de Franciscis, the president of the Medical Bureau that reviews claims of Lourdes miracles. His mother was born in Hartford, CT, and then moved to Italy many years ago. “Sandro” spoke for 90 minutes about the history of the Medical Bureau and how he became involved in the organization. He also spoke about plans to build new baths across the river from where the current baths exist. While we were waiting for our appointment with Sandro we met his mother, who happened to pass us by on her stylish red scooter. A former nurse, she’s going to be 90 years old on her next birthday. At the end of his talk he invited us to process in the Blessed Sacrament procession with the doctors and nurses group. We, of course, took him up on his offer. The procession concluded in the underground basilica, and by then it was 6:00 p.m.
Oh, yes, and by the way we had Mass at the Poor Clare’s chapel at 1:30. Father Joe gave a terrific homily about St. Lawrence. (“Turn me over, I’m done on this side.”)
After dinner, the group watched a movie about the life of Bernadette. It’s a French (I think) production that has been dubbed (horrors!) into English.
Here are a few photos of the day.
A stylin' nun.
Doo Young Kim, DooA Kim, Chidimma Onwuegbule.
Sean Owens flashes a big smile during the procession.
Julio Omaña chats with the mother of the president of the Lourdes Medical Bureau.
President of the Lourdes Medical Bureau.
Young people at the Blessed Sacrament procession.
Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in the Pius X basilica.
Jack McCabe
Nuns at the Blessed Sacrament procession.
Aug 092011
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
This is just a quick post to let everybody know that we all arrived safely. I’m squeezing this posting in the few minutes that remain before we have Mass in the hotel. The flights were uneventful, and everyone showed up along the way. Arrived at the hotel at about 11:40 a.m. local time. Had a few minutes to bring our luggage to the room, and then it was time for lunch at noon.
This afternoon half the group worked at the baths and the other half took the In the Footsteps of Bernadette tour with Joe Metz, a Knight of Malta who is here with his wife for a week. They were with us two years ago.
Got back to the hotel around 4:00 and had a couple of hours to relax.
I have to figure out how I am going to add photos to this blog. I’m shooting RAW images so it makes it cumbersome to convert them to jpgs (because I don’t have the right software on my laptop). I’ll keep trying.
Off to Mass.
Mass is over, and I figured out how to add photos.
Joe Metz gives us a tour of Lourdes.
Half of the group poses.
Nineteen students and three faculty members will depart for Lourdes, France, on August 8.
If you would like to follow us on our pilgrimage, you can do so by visiting this blog.
Aug 252010
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Aug 182010
Thursday, August 12, 2010
This morning we worked at the the underground basilica (holds about 25,000 people) placing malades in voitures (special chairs) in rows for a Mass. It may seem quite simple, but in reality it can be quite frustrating. Working with the French, although wonderful at times, can be very chaotic. They think they know best and think we (Americans) are incompetent. In the end it all works, however.
During the Mass, some of the group went to the Rosary Basilica to help take up the collection. Others waited until the underground basilica Mass was over, and they wheeled malades back to their hospitals. Then it was back to the hotel for lunch.
After lunch we did the stations of the cross. In Lourdes, there are about four sets of stations: the larger-than-life stations, the water stations, the marble stations (newest), and the stations in the underground basilica. We did the larger-than-life stations, which were erected in the early 20th century. Monsignor Wallin provided interesting meditations on each station.
In the evening some of us worked the candlelight procession by walking on each side of the Virgin statue as it wound its way to the esplanade. Others did crowd control, others sang.
After the evening’s reflection, pilgrims took time to get a quick ice cream before going to bed.
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Aug 162010
Monday, August 16, 2010. 11:13 am
Yesterday, the Feast of the Assumption, was not just another ordinary day in Lourdes – not because the streets were more crowded than usual, and not because the morning was very chilly and overcast, but because late in the morning an anonymous caller phoned in a bomb scare.
According to news reports from such sources as AP and Reuters, the caller claimed to have placed four bombs set to go off around 3 pm in the sanctuary. Police evacuated thousands of pilgrims from the area and closed all access points to the Domain and grotto.
News of the event traveled quickly. At about noon, a couple of our students reported to us that they were unable to get into the grotto to get their Lourdes water because St. Josephs’s gate, our usual entry point, was closed – no explanation given. I went over at about 3 pm to check things out and found that the gate and St. Michael’s gate, another entrance, was also closed. I glanced into the esplanade area and I didn’t see a single person in there – a extremely rare occurrence.
I went back to the hotel and sent a text message to my friend Marco, asking him if he knew what was going on. He quickly called me to explain the news about the bomb scare. A quick check of Google news stories on Lourdes confirmed Marco’s report. Rumors on the rue de Grotto claimed that police had found a bomb (some said two) and detonated them. No one was able to confirm the rumors and no news reports mentioned that a bomb had been found.
At no time were any of us in danger. Life in Lourdes continued more or less as usual.
Nine years ago, on the same day, a car tried to drive into the Domain area (no cars allowed) and the car began to emit smoke. Nothing came of that event either.
At about 4:30 pm, I received a call from Yves, one of our French team’s leaders, asking us to help them at the afternoon procession that was set to start at about 5 pm. By then the police had reopened the sanctuary. We gathered our troops and walked to the Crown Virgin statue as instructed and waited for our assignment. We did crowd control duty – forming human chains that acted as corridors for the procession and barricades from onlookers.
The area was jammed packed with pilgrims and at a certain point our efforts to act as barricades failed because we were simply overwhelmed by people wishing to go where we didn’t want them to go.
Back at the hotel by 6:30 pm, we waited for dinner, after which we had Mass and reflections.
This morning the group got out of bed at about 4:15 to prepare to go to the station to load malades onto departing trains for such places as Paris and Marseilles as well as points in Italy. They loaded about 5 trains. We were scheduled to help with train duty late his afternoon, but I think that plan is being reconsidered.
At least once a day, someone from the French National Pilgrimage – not in it’s 137th year – tells us how much they appreciate our help and how energetic we are.
This afternoon after Mass and lunch, we all went to the grotto to place our intentions, get our water, and light candles. Then eight members of the group went to the Lourdes radio station studios to make a recording of the rosary. The recording will be used to make a CD/DVD of the procession.
