Lourdes, France

When we arrived in Lourdes, France last night I was more excited than I have ever been in my life. Lourdes is this beautiful city tucked into the rolling Pyrennes Mountains. Today was possibly the most beautiful and holy day of our lives so far. We filled every single moment of today with prayer mass prayer prayer and more mass. We woke up bright and early (7am) to catch the morning pilgrim service. We didnt know exactly what this pilgrim service entailed, but we ended up doing different things with it all day. At first we thought the English speaking group was not going to show up, but they did at the very last minute (good thing, or else Tim wouldve had to deal with French all day long).
The first thing we did was go to the English daily mass in a chapel where we met a priest who met Chris and Stephanie Lafitte while they were here! I love doing things with English groups in Europe because we get to hang out with a bunch of British, Irish, Canadian, and Austrailian travelers too!:-) After mass we went exploring, and then we participated in Stations of the cross with our group. The stations in Lourdes are all situated on a mountain, and they are huge and made with beautiful gold looking metal. They statioms were probably the thing that fed my heart the most today, it was just exactly what I needed! After the stations we went to lunch and ate some REALLY yummy sandwiches for super cheap. I love French sandwiches beause they put lots of butter on it along with the ham and cheese! After lunch we did some intense rosary shopping, and then we went back to the sanctuaries to go to the grotto and pray in the cathedrals and basicilas. The grotto was such a holy experience. We stood in the exact place where Mary appeared to St. Bernadette. We stck around and prayed and filled our containers with holy water to bring back.

We stopped in the cathedrals and the crypt where the relics of St. Bernadette are. We then met up with our English group again to go through the footsteps of St. Bernadette. We visited where she was born, where she grew up, her parish church, and the convent where St. Bernadette studied and became a sister. Being where she was, created such a feeling of closeness that I have never had before with my beloved saint. After we finished that we participated tha Eucharistic procession through Lourdes and it concluded with a wonderful hour of adoration in the huge underground basilica. Strait after that we headed to Vigil mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Rosary because we will be on the train most of tomorrow. We had a ravishing three course French dinner for super cheap. Vevelty French potato soup, chicken with amazing crisp skin, French green beans, bread ofcourse, and icecream and creme caramel for dessert. Our waitress was soo amazingly nice, and kept complimenting our French:-).

The grande finale was the breathtaking candlelight procession that all the sick and other pilgrims participate in. Everyone lights their candle and we all say a rosary in 5 differnt languages together. It was so beautiful to begin and end Lourdes with this. During the ceramony a cute little French nun came up to us and just started talking to us. She was soo cute, it made my night.

As we end our trip here in Lourdes we want everyone to know weve been praying for you very hard, especially those on Aggie Awakening, The CRHP retreat and all our family and friends back at home.
Big Hugs,
Love,
The Tres Amis