Rock, water and candle

The queue: ordinate, slow and silent unwinds along the rocky face. Dozens of hands characterize its shape. Until they halt at the feet of the statue. Small sheets bearing prayers with requests of grace and healing are left, almost hidden, in the fissures of the rock, others are placed in a large container purposely placed there. Almost everyone is holding a candle which they will leave, lit, a few metres further ahead. Many hold a small water-filled container which they will use to sprinkle themselves and bring it to the sick at home. The rock of the Massabielle cave, the spring water which gushed out during the ninth apparition, of February 25, 1858 and the candle are the symbols of the pilgrims arriving in Lourdes, amounting to 6 million each year, although 8 million are expected to arrive by the year 2008 on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of the Holy Virgin in Bernadette, inaugurated December 8-9. Tens of thousands of pilgrims from all over the world gathered in the Pyrenees sanctuary (Italians, Spaniards and French the most numerous groups) to participate in the service led by Cardinal Paul Joseph Cordès, President of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum” and by Cardinal Ivan Dias, prefect of the Congregation for Evangelization. They were assisted by 213 French priests, 51 Italians, 6 Brits and two Germans.UNTIL THE FINAL VICTORY. “Those of Lourdes are among the first of a long chain of apparitions of the Virgin which announce her crucial entry in the heart of the hostilities between her and the demon, as is written in the Bible”, said Cardinal IVAN DIAS in his homily on December 8 before 20 thousand pilgrims present in the underground basilica of Saint Pius X. The stage of the conflict is “a world immerged in the gorge of a secularism which wishes to create a world without God, a relativism which undermines the unalterable values of the Gospel and an unfaltering religious indifference vis à vis the things that relate to God and the Church”. The major victims of this battle are “the families and our youth”. The Cardinal affirmed that “we are facing the final battle between the Gospel and the anti-Gospel, Church and anti-Church” and the celestial counterattack against the “AntiChrist” begins in Lourdes. The Virgin invites the faithful to be armed with the “conversion of the hearts, the devotion to the Eucharist, the daily rosary, and the daily acceptance of suffering for world redemption; things apparently strong which become powerful in the hands of God.” “One thing is sure”- the Prefect concluded – “the final victory will be won by God and this is thanks to Mary who will fight at the head of the legions of her sons and daughters against Satan”. A clash between Good and Evil which is also a clash between mankind: it was evoked the previous day by Cardinal PAUL JOSEPH CORDÈS , President of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum” for whom “the root of dissent between men is the disagreement with God. It is when men allow themselves to abandon themselves to God that peace is born in the world.” Hence the importance of the sacrament of Reconciliation: “my detachment, my adversion, my hatred must be recognized and confessed. Reconciliation with God – His Eminence pointed out – is not fictitious, it isn’t a simulation or a trivialization of evil. It allows man to grasp the importance of God’s forgiveness”. “A SIMPLE BUT RICH MESSAGE”. The message of the Cardinals finds it concrete application in the Jubilee pilgrimage which the diocese of Tarbes-Lourdes, headed by its bishop Msgr. JACQUES PERRIER , proposes to pilgrims. This is a “path”, he declared, “which follows the four significant landmarks in the life of Saint Bernadette, the Parish Church where she was baptized, the cachot – the hovel where she lived – the cave of the apparitions and the hospice where she received the First Holy Communion. This path marks the passage from Baptism to the Eucharist”. “This Jubilee in inscribed in the perspective of the new evangelisation. The sanctuaries occupy an increasingly larger space in people’s lives, especially those who are distant from faith. With its message Lourdes reproposes to all conversion and prayer as well as missions such as peace, care for the marginalized, and reception to those who are distant. After 150 years the message of Lourdes remains simple but rich: faithfulness to the Eucharist, apotheosis of apparitions”, Msgr. Perrier affirmed.THE FIGURES . Eight million pilgrims are expected to arrive for the 150° anniversary of the Holy Virgin’s apparitions to Bernadette. Estimates were made by FRANCIS DIAS , in charge of the communications service of the Marian sanctuary. According to the figures given by the persons in charge of Lourdes ” 35% of pilgrims are Italian, 35% are from France, while the remaining 30% come from 140 world Countries”. It’s a “peaceful invasion” which Lourdes will try to handle “with its 16 thousand rooms in 248 receptive structures. In France Lourdes is second only to Paris as relates to tourist reception. The renewed health structures in the sanctuaries can simultaneously host up to 1,650 sick people.” Lourdes however, “isn’t just a sanctuary for the sick and the disabled. It’s for everyone, for families and young people, for whom a youth village was purposely set up”, Dias explained.