Come to the Grotto

As I walked down the main street of the town of Lourdes, I felt that I was dreaming. It did not seem possible. I had just gotten off the train at the top of the hill on which the town was built.  Shops, cafés and pensions (family-owned boarding houses) lined the thoroughfare. It was Easter Monday of 1989. I had just spent the Triduum and Easter Sunday at a parish in Paris. One of the greatest desires of my life was coming true. I had arrived in the place where Our Lady appeared to little Bernadette Soubirous from February 11 until July 16 in 1858. As a seminarian studying in Rome with little money, I had a heart filled with gratitude. From my earliest days I had heard of the miraculous events that occurred at Lourdes. At home we had a large, old painting of Our Lady in the Grotto of Lourdes with St. Bernadette kneeling before her with rosary in hand.  I grew up praying the rosary before that venerable image.
           
Soon I arrived at the gates of the sanctuary. I walked down the road toward the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary and then turned right, toward the River Gave. On my left I saw a crowd of people gathered, most of them on their knees facing the grotto where the apparitions had taken place. Many candles were burning before the hollow in the rock where the Mother of God had appeared.
           
I fell to my knees and had an overwhelming sensation of belonging. Even though it was my first time at the grotto, I felt that I had returned to a place that was already so familiar to me. I knew that I was just where I was supposed to be. As I glanced down, I saw a stone marker on which was inscribed, “Place ou priait Bernadette le 11 février 1858” (“The place where Bernadette prayed on February 11, 1858”). It seemed to me that every rosary, every Hail Mary I had prayed in my life drew me to that spot. Alone, chilled to the bone, kneeling on a hard stone pavement, my heart welled up with love, praise and gratitude. I had come home at last.
           
The story of Our Lady of Lourdes is well known throughout the world. Countless pilgrims have come to this town in the foothills of the Pyrénée Mountains in Southern France since 1858. Some 6 million come each year. Despite the many shops, hotels and restaurants that provide for the needs of the pilgrims, the great attraction of pilgrims to the Grotto is its utter simplicity. It is literally a hole in a cliff along a fast moving, small river. But it is a hallowed place where God’s grace is poured out.
           
Pilgrims often come to Lourdes seeking bodily cures. Hundreds of cures have been examined by the Medical Board of the Sanctuary and declared to be of supernatural intervention with no natural or medical cause. Many, many more people have experienced spiritual healings there. Broken hearts were mended. Hope restored. Light shone in the darkness of lives.
           
The beauty of the story of Lourdes is found in the pure and simple faith of Bernadette and the myriads of pilgrims who come to this day. Little Bernadette grew up in a family that knew great poverty but that was rich in faith. We, too, can know poverty in our lives. Sometimes material poverty, often more spiritual poverty. The difficulties of life can shake our faith and weaken our hope. Our Lady’s coming to Bernadette is a story of abiding faith on that poor and humble child’s part. It did not matter to her that others would not believe her. She never doubted that she saw and spoke with the Beautiful Lady.
           
Bernadette was called by the Lady not to a great palace or cathedral. She was called to a grotto carved by the wind and rain out of sheer rock. It is a reminder of the Lord who is our Rock. His strength and presence are always with us.  It tells us that He speaks to us in utter simplicity.
           
Our Lady told Bernadette to drink of the spring. Not seeing a spring, she first thought it was the cave, but then, at Mary’s direction, dug in the ground and the spring appeared. It is an image of the Rock in the desert the provided water for the wandering Israelites. As we wander through the desert of our life, we drink deeply of the sacramental life of the Church that springs from the pierced side of Christ on the Cross. Lourdes proclaims that loud and clear.
           
The Lady told Bernadette to pray for sinners and to do penance. From the first encounter, Bernadette prayed the rosary. Her heavenly visitor had a large rosary over her arm and smiled as Bernadette prayed. The importance of prayer in our life, especially the rosary, is a significant aspect of the message of Lourdes.
           
Bernadette left Lourdes and became a Sister of Charity and Christian Education in Nevers. She found that meaning and purpose in her life came from hearing God’s call and following it. She understood that her pilgrimage in this life was not seeking her own will, self-fulfillment or importance but, rather, in seeking the way God pointed out to her.
           
We celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes on February 11. It is a good time to ponder the beauty of the message of the Mother of God to Bernadette. In the midst of the darkness and brokenness that the world is experiencing, the bright light of hope shines through. Prayer and acts of penance attune our hearts to hear the voice of God in our lives. To do God’s Will is the surest way to finding peace and purpose. What is needed above all is faith, the faith that brings us to realize that the only reality worth living and dying for is love. That makes perfect sense. After all, God is love.
           
For me, to kneel at that spot where Bernadette knelt before the grotto where heaven touched earth was a moment of pure grace. I go back there every day. Every one of us can. You and I can find ourselves before that grotto in spirit and prayer anytime we so desire. All we need do is pick up our rosary and pray.

Why wouldn’t we want to be at the Grotto?  For, God of course chooses His own times and places and occasions for the outpouring of His grace, but His power shines forth most frequently where His Holy Mother is honored and venerated.

Our Lady of Lourdes, Health of the Sick, pray for us!
St. Bernadette, pray for us!

Most Reverend William J. Waltersheid
Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh