Our Lady of Lourdes, France

Our Lady of Lourdes, France

Sakal Times blog

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We checked into the hotel rooms at Lourdes pilgrim town in France and soon left for the site where Mother Mary is believed to said to appeared to teenager Bernadette Soubirous  in 1858.  My wife Jacqueline, daughter Aditi and I joined the hundreds of pilgrims who were heading towards the basilica built near the site of the apparition. Lourdes is one of the most visited Catholic pilgrim centres in the world. What we experienced during the next three days of our stay in this small town was just unforgettable. The ongoing novena prayers in honour of Mother Mary and her feast on September 8 have refreshed my memories of the days we spent in Lourdes.

We reached at the large ground in front of the impressive Rosary basilica. There were hundreds of wheelchair-bound patients queued up to participate in the evening candle-lit procession during which the devotees said rosary and litany prayers in French, English and other languages. Sick people from various places In Europe and elsewhere are especially brought here to seek their healing. Incidentally the wheel-chairs were moved not by the relatives of the sick but by local volunteers and professional health nurses clad in white and blue uniforms. Lourdes city has indeed seen prosperity due the flourishing pilgrim tourism there. The city is one of the most important centres of Marian devotion, the other being Fatima in Portugal and Vailankanni in India. Some group of devotees in the procession were carrying banners of their nations from various continents and looking at them I wished I too should have prepared a banner of India!

The next morning, we visited the grotto, the site of Mother Mary's apparition. Mary is said to have appeared to peasant girl Bernadette 18 times. A small statue of Mary is placed up higher in the grotto and masses celebrated daily at the site are attended by thousands of visiting devotees. During our visit, a German bishop and an Italian cardinal concelebrated the mass there and me and my family members were privileged to meet both of them, thanks to a Catholic priest who was accompanying us on our Europe tour.

The visit to the Saint Pius X Basilica on the third day of our stay left all of us bewildered. The underground basilica accommodates as many as 25,000 people and is one of the largest churches in the world. International masses with prayers in major world languages are celebrated at the basilica on every Wednesday and 
Sunday morning. Pope John Paul II - the pilgrim pontiff who set a record of visiting a large number of nations - had visited Lourdes first in 1983 and later in 2004.

Lourdes is indeed a beautiful and very clean tourism centre. During our stay there, we walked for a long distance admiring the landscape there, the clean sky blue waters of the river flowing just opposite the grotto and shopping at the local shops. The large number of photographs taken there have helped me to keep afresh memories of this picturesque town.

Pilgrimage to Lourdes, France

On a tour for the soul
CAMIL PARKHE
Sakal Times, Pune

Tuesday, March 20, 2012 AT 03:03 PM (IST)
Tags: Spice,   here & there,   travel,   France,   Paris,   Lourdes pilgrimage,   Camil Parkhe

Camil Parkhe shares a glimpse of the famous Lourdes pilgrimage in south-western France that attracts devout Catholics from across the world
We were travelling in a high-speed TGV bullet train from Paris to Lourdes. As as we approached our destination, I realised the passengers in our compartment could be the pilgrims. There were three couples with teenaged children; a young nun travelling with her septuagenarian father; and my wife, daughter and I were heading towards the world’s most famous Marian pilgrimage centre.
Lourdes station is a couple of kilometres away from the pilgrimage site. Soon after getting refreshed at the hotel, we hurriedly left for the shrine to attend the evening prayer service there. There were thousands of people on the streets, all of them proceedings to the same destination — the Lourdes shrine. Majority of them were Europeans, but there were also some people, like us, from other continents. We reached the huge grounds in front of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception and joined the multi-lingual Rosary prayer there.
Mother Mary is believed to have appeared to teenager Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes 18 times in 1858. Bernadette has indeed transformed this otherwise insignificant town in south-western France. Due to the apparitions, Lourdes today is the third most important Catholic pilgrimage in the world, after the Vatican in Rome and the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico. After Paris, Lourdes is also the second city in France having maximum number of hotels. In fact, during our three-day visit there, I noticed there were few residential buildings but more hotels and shops, and other commercial centres, catering to the pilgrim tourists in the town.
The population of Lourdes is only about 16,000, but the town receives six millions pilgrims and visitors  every year. About 60,000 of these visitors are ill or physically challenged. I saw many such people being taken around in wheelchairs by nurses who wore blue tunic. They are not nuns, but health workers, I was told. I realised that banking on millions of devout visitors, Lourdes has turned itself into a major ‘pilgrim tourism’ centre of the world.
The major attraction in the evening was the candlelight procession in front of the Basilica. It is indeed a sight to watch, with statue of Mother Mary being carried by the faithful lot. A priest accompanying us told that the huge congregation is a wonderful example of how faith in Mother Mary gets strengthened.
Next morning, we attended a mass celebrated at the famous Grotto, the very site where Mother Mary is believed to have appeared to Bernadette. There is a statue of Mary in white robes and with folded hands, replicas of which can be seen across the world.
On the third day, we attended another mass celebrated by a cardinal in an impressive underground church, the Basilica of St Pius X, which is built under a garden. The mass at the underground church and the prayers at the Mary’s statue is a must for any visiting pilgrim.
A pilgrimage to Lourdes, like visit to the Vatican, is indeed a dream tour for any Catholic. But even for others, a visit to Lourdes, with its picturesque surroundings, can be a refreshing holiday.

Visit to floating city Venice Amid waterways and architecture

Amid waterways and architecture

CAMIL PARKHE

Sakal Times

Monday, October 17, 2011 AT 03:15 PM (IST)

Tags: Spice,   here & there,   travel,   Venice,   Rome,   Europe tour,   architecture,   Camil Parkhe

Camil Parkhe shares the thrill of gondola ride on the canals of ‘floating city’ Venice

 

We had just arrived from Rome to our next destination during our Europe tour. After alighting from the bullet train, all of us — my wife, daughter and I — were heading towards our hotel when we heard the siren. We looked in that direction and were shocked to see an ambulance moving speedily on waters. It was a speed boat with the familiar Red Cross symbol! Another siren followed and now it was a police team in another speed boat heading towards the site of their call. It took a few minutes to realise that we had arrived in Venice, the floating city where everything is surrounded by water and also moves on waters.

 

We had arrived on a fortnight-long Europe tour. Although Paris, Lourdes, Rome and Vatican were on our itinerary, Venice was included in it at the last moment as we failed to get the UK visa during our travel schedule. Some fellow travellers had strongly recommended us to visit Venice — a marvel city in the world. And here we were witnessing it within a few minutes of our arrival.

 

We checked into the hotel, refreshed ourselves and hurriedly came out again on the streets. Our stay in Venice was only for two days and so we were very eager to see how the city looked at night. A journalist colleague, who had been to Venice the previous year, had said that she was yet to come out of the chasm of this wonderful city. I could believe in her words now.

 

In Venice (spelled Venezia in Italian), one sees flowing water everywhere just like the land we see elsewhere. Venice is  a famous tourist centre and so we were surrounded by tourists everywhere — moving in pairs or groups, enjoying the boat rides, snapping photographs of the ancient castles and in the churches. The buildings, houses, churches, with typical Venetian Gothic architecture, are located right on the banks of the canals. Naturally, bridges here are in plenty, especially at the Santa Lucia Venezia railway station which is the heart of this famous city. In fact, almost all buildings and structures were not less than minimum 50 years old, our three-storeyed hotel was not an exception either. We did not see any structure with modern architecture, or perhaps they had taken good care to have build new structures in a such way that it would not be an eyesore amid the historic setting.

 

Ride in gondola (boats) in Venice is a must for every tourist, as it offers glimpses into the inner parts of the city. Pope Benedict XVI, who had been here just a couple of weeks before us, too was treated to a royal boat ride in the city. We had a ride  in gondola when the sun was setting; the view of the floating city, lit up with so many lamps everywhere, was just breathtaking. My daughter  went on clicking photographs to capture the beautiful setting.

 

The next morning, I watched a boatman throwing up a parcel of newspapers on the pavement near our hotel. There were also other boats carrying vegetables, stationary and other goods. I also snapped two photographs of a newly-married couple getting into a small hired boat.

 

The only downside of Venice is the high prices of the goods. Unlike the other tourist destinations in Europe, Venice is a costly affair.

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