RE: anyone been to Lourdes?

I was in Lourdes a few years ago with an American tour group. I had been warned that it was totally commercialised but have to say that when we took part in the candlelit procession I was just blown away. I still remember it as one of the most profoundly spiritual experiences of my life to date. I know that I also had tears pouring down my face. It was very very powerful....

Mind you we had already done most of the Camino de Santiago and had visited the Cathedral at Santiago de Compostela so I was probably on quite a spiritual 'high'.

Love
Sunanda x

RE: anyone been to Lourdes?

wow!

would love to do the St Jacques de Compostelle's pilgrimage...only not on my own ! (got lost last years in the mountains, on a winter evening, 2200 metres high, snow covered mountains, terrorized to come face to face with a wild bear...never again!)

(sunanda:)
I still remember it as one of the most profoundly spiritual experiences of my life to date. I know that I also had tears pouring down my face. It was very very powerful....

Well, these are the exact words I could use to describe my experience. I arrived as a semi-doubter and a researcher of folk religion, planning to stay just 1 hour in the morning...and I found myself crying until the evening, wandering about like a ghost.

Catholic symbolism is nothing new to me as I spent all my secondary school education ina catholic (Our Lady of Sion, Paris) school for girls, and from day onerejected the whole christian story.

However, in the Lourdes'sanctuary, god knows if it is the beauty of the place (mountains, Basilicas, crypts and of course the grotto), the human sea of people in the same quest of ultimate healing and fusion with the higher realm, the people talking to you about having been healed of epilepsy and so on...or something actually there....but I came back to London completely changed. I feel stronger, calmer...somehow, strange to say this, but almost less scared of "the end".

RE: anyone been to Lourdes?

Thank you both for your inspiring posts!

I've never been there, but was so encouraged to read a positive account for a change! I was furious with the Richard Dawkins programme a few months ago - "The root of all evil?" when he started off mocking the dear pilgrims there. As I said in my thread on the subject, it's not like they are mass murderers. I think he really turned people against him by including Lourdes in his programme on what he perceives is the evil of religion.

Love and peace,

Judy

RE: anyone been to Lourdes?

My daughter (who is mentally and physically disabled) was taken to Lourdes 4 years ago by the HCPT, they take children every year at Easter for a pilgrimage.

Although she couldnt tell me what it was like (she doesnt talk) the helpers said she beamed every day, and especially loved the candlelit parade. I think the whole atmosphere must be fantastic, we would love to go as a family.

(I might add that we are a multi faith family, and certainly she didnt go to Lourdes to be "cured" in any sense!)

K x

RE: anyone been to Lourdes?

oh, I can sooo believe you. I send you my love and deepest respect.

When I was sitting in front of the grotto/cave
(most holy place there), I had time to see many things, quite... uncanny. I am well aware, that one is tempted to see things a certain way when you are there.

But here is the story:

I was sitting with a lot of other people, among which nuns and believers, opposite the grotto and the candles. the crowd was progressing, without interruption, from left to right, hundreds queuing to touch the rock of the grotto. My attention was attracted by an incident: a boy, obviously suffering from some form of mental illness, had kicked and insulted a black woman, queuing next to him. ..I was honestly shocked to see a violent act in that sacro-saint place of love. I simply could not take my eyes of the child, I was so afraid he was going to break, damage the grotto. He came out of the queue, acted angry, walking aimlessly, came back, made gestures like he was shooting people and the candles...I was holding my breath. He was also shouting. Arriving at the end of the procession (coming out of the grotto), he was still very agitated, I recall him trying to kick someone else..(imagine all the other people silently rubbing the rock and praying as they walked), he started to climb the grotto side, which was a hill...I was holding my breath. I thought he was going to fall or reach the Statue of the Virgin Mary. Then things slowed down. As the mother emerged from the church, he started to lie down and not move anymore. His mother called him, and, under my very eyes, he stopped all noise or saying anything, closed is eyes and started to....kiss the hill: grass and rocks. I was speechless. He was rocking himself like he was trying to get to sleep. His mum waited fora while for him to come down again. He did leave, somehow calm.

this could be a totally meaningless incident which I had wanted to interpret it my way, and I do not worry if nobody believes what I saw and understood, by reading what I wrote, but all I am saying, is: that place is indeed a gem of power for those creatures whose soul are transprent enough to receive the "spirit of the place". I do not say I am one of those, because I am far too "thick" inside compared to all those ill children and adults.
And maybe that child was mirroring the atmosphere or the acts he had experienced before, but the place he did it in and the whole succession of actions did move me.

About that tv documentary: why would anyone make a tv documentary (and what about the channel allowing religion-bashing? what about tolerance?) that accuses pilgrims who walk for weeks and pray for a better world and less suffering?
What is the purpose? is there some sort of jaleousy in being unable to relate to other people's extasy, in the middle of their afflictions?
Was it a documentary focusing only on Lourdes...on christianity...or did it bashed all pilgrims: buddhists, muslims..?

RE: anyone been to Lourdes?

It sounds a wonderful experience Fadette. Have you come to any conclusion as to whether it was the place itself or being among so many people on a pilgrimmage that made the atmosphere so special?
Sharon.

RE: anyone been to Lourdes?

well,
I thought about it when I was there: is it the context or the place itself?

I think both; for sure, the crowds of foreigners (I hardly heard French being spoken, even the nuns started speaking italian to me!) united in the same spirit is an exceptional experience .
But also the place; I had been in catholic places before (and grew up in a catholic school), been in crowded places full of people experiencing some kind of catharsis (like in concerts), but this was so different and I doubt that if I went to the Vatican to hear the Pope speak I would experience the same. Ok, you see people crying on tv reports when there is a big gathering to hear the Pope, and you see that Polished people have put all their money into that trip and camped outside all night by 5 degrees...
But it is little strange things that have happened (I would not want to tell them for it would sound unconvincing and I don't want to kill my exprience to try to "convince" anyone), added to the people I have talked to, to the nun who recomforted me, the admiration I had for her, like she was doing one the most nobles jobs in the world...

"the strange little things" I was talking about are all to do with nature and natural phenomenons which I found uncanny.

Of course, I would expect anyone to laugh very loud at my account, and some friends did when I came back here. I am not upset, for until you feel, there is no point trying to argue about it and ask to be "convinced".

So yes, the place is special. I also believe some other places might have a very strong vibe about them, a connection with miracles and the divine. To me, Lourdes is obvious: if you are sensitive to nature, then just traveling on the train there will tell you it is a special place...the mountains, the water.

RE: anyone been to Lourdes?

I went to Lourdes with my family in the year 2000 as part of the Jubilee Pilgrimage. I'm Catholic, and the year 2000 was coined to be the Jubilee Year by the late Pope John Paul II. (Man, I miss that guy.) When I went there, I wasn't too fond of the place outside of the grotto (the marketplace), as it was so noisy and it was always a battle to get through the crowds when my family and I had to go back to the hotel room. But when I was in the grotto, I felt a profound sense of peace there.

Did anyone try the baths there? The people who work there are amazing. They ask you to take off everything but your undergarments, and when you do change, they have sheets covering you. By the time you are done, you take off your undergarments and then they wrap the sheet. Then they ask you to go into the water.. and boy! Was the water fuh-reezing!! However, when I emerged from the bath they were so quick with changing the sheets that were wrapped around you that they don't even as much as see any 'private parts' of you. (At least, assuming none of those ladies looked inside the sheets. :D) I was already dry because the water was so cold and my body temperature was so warm, so they kinda 'cancelled' each other out. Pretty amazing. They say those baths have a healing potential.

In terms of the "natural phenomenons", I have to say that I felt them, too. Inside the shrine/grotto area, there is a river nearby. When I am outside the shrine area (like in the marketplace/restaurants/cafes) you can hear the loud rush of the water in the river. But when I am inside the shrine, the river is practically silent. I was surprised because I even dipped my feet in the water and I could only hear a soft trickly flow of water. Six years down the line, I still cannot forget that.

RE: anyone been to Lourdes?

Wow what an interesting thread this is, i would love to go to Lourdes one day, i am so glad you had a wonderful time Fadette, and yes i truly believe Lourdes is a very spirtual place.