22 May 2007

Bob Ferguson, a Cursillista from Nativity Parish in Burke, Virginia, worked as a volunteer for a week in Lourdes, France, in April 2002. Bob and Pauline have been Lourdes pilgrims twice before; this was Bob’s first in which he worked as a volunteer. What follows is his witness of his experience. If you want more information, you may contact him @ 703.913.7543 or email.

Our Lady’s Call To Obey, Pray, and Serve

 “Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels.” Hebrews 13:2

 “Welcome one another, then, as Christ welcomed you, for the glory of God.” Romans 15:7

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“Would you be kind enough to come here for 15 days?” the Blessed Mother asked during her third meeting with 14-year old St. Bernadette Subirous in February 1858. So it was, in her obedience to Mary, that she met and prayed the Rosary and talked with Mary a total of 18 times through July. Bernadette responded to an invitation, a call, to serve Our Lady. In her words to Bernadette during this time, she spoke no secrets nor threats nor prophecies. She did not promise to make her happy in this world. She taught her a personal prayer. She spoke of “Penance, Penance, Penance! Pray to God for sinners. Kiss the ground as an act of penance for sinners!” Mary instructed Bernadette to drink of the Spring and to eat herbs for sinners. On March 1st, the first miracle occurred, that of a girl plunging her dislocated arm into the Spring’s water, followed by her arm and hand regaining their movement. During one visit, Mary instructed Bernadette to have “…the priests come here in procession and build a chapel here.” Responding to a test by the parish priest, Mary smiled, and on March 25th told Bernadette in French (a language that Bernadette did not understand), “…Que soy era Immaculada Councepciou." This affirmation by Mary, which had been declared Catholic dogma four years earlier by Pope Pius IX, and about which Bernadette was ignorant, confirmed the Apparitions of Mary for the Church.

    From its humblest beginnings, the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes (the Domain or Sanctuary - all the Sanctuaries, Grotto, etc.) has been a most holy place where pilgrims immediately started to journey. We come, just as St. Bernadette did, to seek a deeper meaning in our lives, to seek reconciliation and cleansing, and to take home to our families and friends some of the faith-filled joy and peace found there at Mary’s shrine. Many ill and handicapped pilgrims, some 6,772 of whom have been declared cured in the archives of the Medical Bureau of Lourdes as of 1998, come seeking physical healing. Those cured serve as a witness of God’s mercy through the mediation of Jesus, the intercession of Our Lady, and the prayers of Christians.

   The town of Lourdes is situated in the Southwest of the Haute Pyrenees in southern France. This town of 15,300 inhabitants lies in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains and straddles the River Gave. With the annual influx of some six million pilgrims, this fraternal town has become the second largest hotel center of France with some 278 hotels.

    Pilgrims come to Lourdes and experience Mary’s love and the impact of the Holy Spirit in their lives. The handicapped and ill, or malad, are not seen anywhere else in the world in such numbers. They are well cared for with assistants, and take part in all the liturgies and processions. People are constantly praying the rosary or are in silence before the Grotto of the Apparitions. Young people, always joyful and energetic, radiate enthusiasm as they serve the sick. Men wearing straps and women with white headdresses devote themselves to the sick with impressive generosity, gentleness, and compassion. People from all cultures and countries, often in their national dress, share the same faith. There are International Masses and Processions where people quietly in prayer affirm their faith. Visitors are astonished that this atmosphere of faith and prayer, different than their daily lives, continues to exist.

    The pilgrim allows questions, memories, and feelings to arise within. They do not necessarily know the experience of conversion is happening to them, as, little by little, they turn from being a spectator to being a willing participant in the events. They pass through the Grotto, kiss the rock, drink the water from the Spring, light a candle, and some 400,000 wash submerged in the waters each year. Many make the Way of the Cross and participate in the some 22 Masses each day, the Blessed Sacrament Procession, and the nightly torch-lit Rosary Procession. Our Lady’s pilgrims soon learn the secret and impact of Lourdes in their lives.[3]

Holy Mary, Mother of God,Virgin Immaculate,

You appeared eighteen times to Bernadette

At the Grotto in Lourdes

To remind Christians

of what the truths in the Gospel

require of them.

    Electricity sparked through overhead cables as the sixteen train cars, including four ambulances, came to a stop at the Lourdes station. The siding, windy, wet, and cool, bustled with activity as hosptialier in teams moved wheeled chariots and litters in place. Blankets were stacked ready to warm the malad pilgrims after their distant travel from such places as Milano, Roma, and Paris, some enduring with anticipation a twenty-hour trip on this “Lourdes Express.” Seeking peace and healing through their love and devotion of Our Lady, they come with family, medical teams and friends, as part of the some six million pilgrims to “pray, drink, and wash in the waters,” as Mary asked.

You called them to prayer, penance,

the Eucharist and life in the Church.

    Gently, Rene and Charles lifted the paralyzed woman to her wheel chair, calming and reassuring her with words of welcome. With loving care, Michele smiled, offering “Bon Journo” or “Bonjour,” and tucked a warm blanket over the woman’s chest and shoulders. Other Hospitalier de Notre Dame de Lourdes secured the bedridden on wheeled litters. Three hospitalier, all named Fiorella, offered words of welcome and blankets. In the station, while awaiting bus transport to the hospital, Marie Luisa poured the pilgrims a cup of water to quench their thirst. After a ten-minute bus ride, the malad were wheeled to their rooms secure and safe. Upon physician assessment and rest, they and their assisting hospitalier were then ready to avail themselves of the Domain. The Domain, Our Lady of Lourdes Sanctuaries, is where these pilgrims have traveled for International Masses, Blessed Sacrament processions and Benediction, candle light Rosary processions, prayer, and washing in the baths.

To answer your call more fully,

I consecrate myself through you to your Son, Jesus.

    Meanwhile, at the Domain, other hospitalier were serving as office administrative assistants, managing the dining room and boarding rooms, ushering the processions, assisting at the baths, and other services to greet and assist worshiping pilgrims. There was Jean-Jacques leading formation classes and training for new Catholic stagier from several countries, beginning their four-year formation toward being full-fledged hospitalier. In one of the hospitals, there were Martine, Dominique, and Veronique assisting the malad, or washing dishes, or sewing priestly garments and altar linens.

Make me willing to accept what he said.

By the fervour of my faith,

by the conduct of my life in all its aspects,

by my devotion of the sick,

    Working on international teams of ten, hospitalier and stagier, more than 7400 strong and assisting the 400 paid employees, daily provide essential hospitality services. In this experience, they recognize Christ in each pilgrim, providing true brother- and sisterhood. Without these dedicated volunteers from around the world, Our Lady’s wish for pilgrims to visit this holy site, these Sanctuaries, would not be possible. Teams made up of senior hospitalier and stagier or auxiliary-in-training are formed and within two days of training and working together, form lasting bonds. French, the dominant language of the hospitalier, proves no impediment for the non-French speaking in this bonding process, as the service of Our Lady of Lourdes and Our Lord brings eager, compassionate cooperation to assist “Our Lords, the sick.” However, from my experience knowing French makes formation come easier.

Let me work with you in the comforting

of those who suffer and in the reconciliation of people,

that the Church may be One,

and there may be peace in the world.

    For me, my Lourdes volunteer experience was wonderful! During this, my third pilgrimage to Lourdes, Our Lord gave me the opportunity to serve in the Hospitalier de Notre Dame de Lourdes. I served with French, Italian, and British volunteers, many of whom journey to Lourdes a few times each year to serve Mary. I worked assisting malad in embarking and disembarking their trains, ushered an International Mass and a Benediction Procession. The first candle-lit Rosary Procession I was ever in, I carried the Blessed Mother and later led by carrying the cross. I worked for a day-and-a-half in the baths where I faced my own trials in sensitivity to others. I witnessed ordinary people such as you and me do extraordinary things in a kind of strategy of love supporting and assisting the ill and handicapped in an intimacy of suffering. A compassionate welcoming and comforting attitude is present everywhere among the hosptitalier. They were living the Gospel in demonstrating their compassionate love of the malad in a way I have not ever witnessed in my life. As one has said, “We are taking care of people’s hearts.” These people were honored the Lord had called them to serve. I saw it in their faces. I saw it in their eyes. I saw it in their words and tone of their voices. I saw it in their sensitivity when in the baths the hospitalier with whom I worked gently assisted and responded to the pilgrim seeking cleansing and peace from physical or psychological injury. Praying with the pilgrim while holding his hand, assuring his privacy, taking the time that the pilgrim needed, providing instructions to ensure safety, and being sure that a father supported his son when they bathed in the waters, were among some of the compassionate responses I witnessed. The baths are where many experience faith conversion and peace during their pilgrimage, for as St. Bernadette said, “This water has no special virtues without faith.” The baths can be quite emotionally charged, and requires the greatest of private sensitivity. Through it all, I wanted to emulate my fellow hospitalier…to be like them….to express the same sensitivity and compassion they did for the pilgrims. After all, I was a pilgrim, too, just as were the other hospitalier, and we were all seeking Our Lady’s love and assistance in our lives.

All this I ask, confident that you,

Our Lady, will fully answer my prayer.

Blessed be the holy and Immaculate Conception

of the Blessed Virgin Mary,

Mother of God.

    The hospitalier experience requires commitment. Just as Bernadette responded to Mary’s call, “Would you be kind enough to come here for 15 days?”, we come from all corners of the world, volunteering for service and formation. We may, if we wish, by serving one week a year for four years, ask to make our “Commitment to Hospitality.” In a ceremony during the weekly Wednesday evening Mass a member of Hospitality says the hospitalier prayer, which I have prayed during this witness, and receives the insignia of Hospitalier de Notre Dame de Lourdes. Later, it is possible to confirm this service commitment as a “Commitment in the Church.”

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.

St. Bernadette, pray for us.

Our Lady, conceived without sin, pray for us.

[Note: Portions of this article have been extracted from Lourdes Magazine, English Edition, April/May 2001]

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