Arundel and Brighton Diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes 2011

Jim in the Grotto

 Jim Warren writes:


Pauline and I are back from Lourdes, just a month ago now, and on Sunday 4th September the pilgrimage reunion was held at St Wilfrid’s school, an opportunity to share memories and photographs with new friends and old.

There is something about the A & B pilgrimage to Lourdes. People ask if we go expecting to witness a miracle - the 66th miracle of Lourdes was officially recognised in 1999 and this was for a cure which occurred in 1987. 1858 was the year Our Lady revealed herself to Bernadette - so in something over 150 years and with visitors and pilgrims amounting to 6 million a year, no, we don’t go on pilgrimage anticipating a “miracle”. It could be said the biggest cause for wonder and amazement is that the pilgrimage occurs at all. The organization is incredible and all credit must go to the small dedicated team of volunteers who bring it all together. Everything is thought through, right down to the provision of colour-coded labels for our luggage.

Some 750 pilgrims make the journey each year. Of those upwards of 200 or so will be requiring quite a lot of support, and so there is the need for 450 or so helpers including doctors and nurses. Now in today’s secular and egocentric world, a helper is an odd one. He or she gives up a week's holiday, hands over £600 to the A&B Pilgrimage Trust and spends the week helping strangers.

The pilgrimage has the same slot year on year. We  begin our journey on the morning of the first Thursday of the school summer holidays, arriving in Lourdes on the Friday morning, and we leave Lourdes on the following Thursday afternoon, arriving back in England about mid-day on the Friday - so nine days then, during which the helpers have to pretty much stop thinking about themselves and concentrate on making sure fellow pilgrims, sick and disabled, are happy, fed, watered, etc. It is quite a challenge and the wonderful thing is about a third of those helpers have just finished school, 18 year olds, girls and boys, often spending their first time away abroad without their parents. These young people of the “must have it now” generation rise to this challenge and give of themselves in a manner which would amaze those who watched the recent riots on TV.

We all witness small miracles everyday at Lourdes in the caring and love which everyone shows for each other, and there are many who say “why can’t the other 51 weeks be like this?”

Catenians of the diocese share in this love by the support which they give to the pilgrimage, in many cases assisting these young people with the cost and supporting the  Sick Fund, which aims to ensure that all sick people who want to go on pilgrimage with the diocese can do so whatever their financial circumstances.

In Lourdes we said a prayer for all Catenians and their families worldwide, and in that we were joined by many brothers. It is perhaps not surprising a good contingent make the pilgrimage each year.

It will take a time before we come down from the “high” that the pilgrimage gives us, and when we do we start to look forward to next year.