Have you ever been to Lourdes?

[Gilly_flower]

I have been to Lourdes several times and found it a most moving experience…the only place on Earth where it is the able-bodied who are second class citizens, and the torch light procession sees people from nations all across the world unite in prayer.

The first time I visited Lourdes time did not permit me to visit all the sites and I came away disappointed not to have seen Bernadette’s home. But several days later, while trying to visit Pau, about 15 kms from Lourdes, we got thoroughly lost in the mountains in a most frightening storm…and somehow ended up back in the Lourdes street where we had parked previously so we stayed and I was able to finish my visit.

Lourdes itself is a very pretty little town, and the surrounding countryside with its mountain background is just beautiful…I have also been to the Nevers convent where Bernadette’s body lies in a crystal coffin…a sight which reduced me to tears, she was so very tiny…well under five feet tall.

 

[JamalChristophr]

Well, that is certainly one perspective that I wasn’t really expecting.

 

[Timidspirit]

I’ve been to Lourdes once in 2015. My Grandfather met my Grandmother in Lourdes and they went there every year on pilgrimage. My Grandfather continued to go after his wife died in 1978, all the way up until ill health prevented him in 2012. He died in November 2014 so we went in the August of 2015 on what would have been his 90th birthday and lit a candle at the Grotto. It was very moviing.