Getting a faith-lift in Lourdes

When all you hear around you is silence, you hear clearly. And you hear the voice of God amidst the beating of your heart. After all, faith is about knowing and believing that God is with you even if stillness is the order of the moment.

There was benevolent silence when we arrived in Lourdes. It was the onset of winter and the sudden, slight yet sustained rain at the foothills of Pyrenees mountains helped in making the place feel colder than the actual temperature of 7 degrees Celsius.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes was drenched but it radiated a kind of warmth that only the heart could feel. Its gates were open, as open as the sky, welcoming the faithful — even disarming the skeptical, the non-believers or the uninitiated — to knock on heaven’s door and have an audience with the invisible force of faith.

Lourdes, a small town in the Hautes-Pyrénées side of southwest France, is famous as a major place for Roman Catholic pilgrimage and for miraculous healings. It was there, at the Grotto of Massabielle, where it is believed that the Blessed Mother appeared 18 times to a sickly 14-year-old girl named Bernadette Soubirious in 1858. After the 18th apparition, she entered the nunnery. In 1933, she was declared St. Bernadette.

“Lourdes is the largest Catholic pilgrimage destination in France and one of the most popular Catholic shrines in the world,” said our Trafalgar tour director Javier Galvez, a native of Madrid. (The trip to Lourdes was actually part of the glorious seven-day/six-night pilgrimage tour arranged by Trafalgar that also covered Barcelona, Zaragoza and Pamplona in Spain.)

We were told that the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes incorporates 52 hectares of property and 22 places of worship including the sacred Grotto, a variety of structures for the pilgrims and the sick and the three basilicas — the Immaculate Conception Basilica, Rosary Basilica and St. Pius X Basilica.

Outside the sanctuary, said Helen Hao, the genial VP of Pan Pacific Travel Corp., the general sales agent of Trafalgar in the Philippines, many devotees also troop to the home of St. Bernadette in Nevers. “It’s another beautiful and holy experience to see the uncorrupted body of St. Bernadette,” Helen said.

Lourdes, inhabited by 17,000 residents — including the members of one of the best Rugby teams in France, the FC Lourdes, an eight-time champion of the French League —  receives more than five million pilgrims every year. According to Javier, the village has had more than 200 million visitors since the sanctuary opened in 1860. “It has the most number of hotels (a total of 270) per square kilometer, second to Paris.”

But on the day we arrived, we had Lourdes all to ourselves. It helped that our hotel, Saint Sauveur Hotel Lourdes, was just a few steps away from the shrine. Hotel owner Patrick Vinuales gave us a personal tour of the shrine. He said, “A number of people have been healed by the holy water of Lourdes. But only 69 miracles are officially recognized.” Patrick also said that because it was low season, the famed baths in the shrine were closed. Also, there would be no candle procession, which, according to those who have experienced the procession, is magical and mesmerizing.

With no baths and no candle procession, our spirits still blazed on the holy ground. At the 12,000-sq.-m. underground Basilica of St. Pius X, Javier and I started to sing Ave Maria. The experience of touring the relatively new underground and unfilled basilica moved me to tears as I imagined the 25,000 people (full capacity) celebrating and waiting for their own miracle at the shrine.

Patrick explained the holiness of the shrine. After, we walked back to the hotel for our sumptuous dinner. It was while we were having dinner at the hotel that Helen suggested to the group to do our own candle procession.

Helen, a second timer to Lourdes, told us that in the absence of the mammoth procession crowd, it would also be best to simply form our small group of seven and walk with candles in our hands to the Grotto.

And so after dinner, we went back to the Grotto. Seven souls, holding two candles each while walking in the rain, entering the holy shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes for the second time that day. We sang Ave Maria again as we made our way to the Grotto. The shrine was still, except for some gentle fall of rain that did not even douse the light in our candles. The experience was sublime, divine and cathartic at the same time. Some of us were crying silently, moved by the experience. We continued to walk to the Grotto. In the few pews before the Grotto, we found ourselves praying the rosary led by my best friend Christine Dayrit and People’s Television Network’s Veronica Baluyut-Jimenez.

I pray the rosary but it was only there in Lourdes, in front of the Grotto, the exact place where The Virgin showed herself to St. Bernadette, that I felt more the meaning and significance of reciting the Hail Mary. And every time, we prayed “Pray for us, sinners, now and in the hour of our death,” the words became luminous in my heart. It was as if the Blessed Mother gave me a refresher course on praying the rosary. 

Because of Lourdes, my faith was all the more intensified. Lourdes proved to me that the Father needed a woman like Mary to carry without sin the Son of God. Lourdes also all the more proved to me that no faith could disregard the importance of the Blessed Mother in Jesus’ life and in his role in saving the world. After all, it was Virgin Mary who conceived Jesus. To a Marian believer like me, Mary is the mother of Jesus Christ. And her giving birth to Jesus is the reason of the season that we celebrate now.

We proceeded to light more candles at the candle area of the shrine. I opened my phone and read all the names of my friends in my contact directory and prayed for them. I prayed for my family, my bosses, my officemates, my friends. I thanked the Lord for the opportunity to travel, to see the world He created. I prayed for the Philippines, for the President and the public servants to be guided by the Holy Spirit in their everyday dealing. I prayed for the people who are marginalized, the forgotten, the people who do not have anything to eat.

And the more I prayed, the lighter my feeling became. At one point, as I prayed for others inside the Rosary Basilica, I felt I was floating in mid-air, like a light feather being tossed by the wind. My spiritual meandering brought me a sense of fortitude, a feeling of bliss, a reward of increased faith. Lourdes has made me more grateful to God. It has made me more grateful about life. 

I also prayed for the new friends I made in the Trafalgar trip. That we became instant friends is one of the many miracles we reaped from our visit at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes.

We compensated our no-bath experience at the shrine by dousing ourselves with the holy spring water coming from a number of faucets at the side of the basilica. One’s faith was tested there right away as one cupped with one’s hands the holy water straight from the tap. Because there were just a few of us in the shrine, I hogged one faucet all to myself. At the onset of winter, I peeled myself of the thermal clothing and began splashing myself with the water. I knew the water was cold but I felt warm every time I sprinkled my body with it. I washed my face with the water, drank straight from the tap. It was a different experience. It was the closest physical experience I could be with God.

The following day, the drizzle became a shower. I wore the hood of my coat. And off to the shrine I went again. On my own, I sang Ave Maria. I was alone. I even sang You’ll Never Walk Alone as I made my way to the Grotto. I looked at the statue of the Virgin. In the rain, the Lady was all aglow. I felt comforted —  he way my faith comforts me every time I weather some challenges.

They say faith is the brush that sweeps away all the cobwebs. When you have faith, you begin to believe in the impossible. I thought it would be impossible for me to visit Lourdes. But God made everything possible for me to renew my faith in Him, in the Blessed Mother.

Even when silence is all around me, I believe God and the Blessed Mother are with me. That’s my faith.

I believe.

(For your new beginnings, please e-mail me at bumbaki@yahoo.com. I’m also on Twitter @bum_tenorio and Instagram @bumtenorio. Have a blessed Sunday!)

(Pan Pacific Travel Corp. and BDO Credit Cards tie up for an affordable promo for a European holiday. Packages are available on 0% installment for three months. Book on or before Dec. 31 to avail yourself of the promo. For more information, call 536-1265 or 810-8551 or visit www.trafalgar.com and www.panpacifictravel.com.ph.)