Fr. Don’s Weekly Letter ~ 27 October 2024

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

It was my intention this week to prepare a bulletin article on Tuesday night about our first experience at the shrine of our lady of Lourdes and Saint Bernadette. As often is the case lately, travel arrangements go haywire, and we found ourselves before departure, knowing that we would not make our connecting flight in Paris to go to Lourdes, and we were already rescheduled for a flight to on Wednesday morning, essentially losing a full day of our pilgrimage.

Our travel agent was very proactive, and after speaking with him, we were able to reassign all of our Pilgrims to two evening flights on Tuesday, tonight. So on the 23rd 28 our pilgrims were able to go on a 4:40pm flight to Lourdes, and 10 of us were left to take a 9pm flight to Lourdes arriving after midnight to the hotel. I was one of the 10 in the second group, and so I was unable to go to the candle procession and rosary, to be with people, to take pictures, and to give you an impression of what our experience might be. Ultimately, my group of 10 arrived at the hotel after midnight, and we have nothing to report to you. For this I am sorry. As I write this it is after 2pm.

Of course, this is the kind of thing that always happens on pilgrimage, and I always tell our participants on pilgrimage that this is not a vacation, that this is a pilgrimage, and we are constantly asked to offer things up to God when things aren’t perfect.

Unfortunately, I don’t have anything to report you tonight about Lourdes, but will do so in future bulletins.

We will go to the shrine tomorrow morning, and will celebrate a Mass with the entire English community who are present . It won’t be a Mass just for ourselves, but we will find ourselves celebrating Mass with whoever is here speaking English. Then we will tour the town and learn all about Saint Bernadette.

But this experience has left me with a common reflection as I travel lately. Traveling is rarely a pleasure these days, and I think of how we know we have somewhere we must be, regardless of the personal cost. I think of migrants and refugees, the millions of people who are desperate to find what they need for a good life for themselves and their families. This is truly pro-life. Travel conditions are abysmal, but we must power on. And we have an obligation as ourselves an immigrant people, ourselves, not to demonize them but to treat them as human persons like our own families who were - and are - looking for something — better.

Pilgrimage is such a powerful opportunity to put ourselves into the shoes of the poor and forgotten who are just searching for a place where they have dignity. Is this not a powerful gospel message, as poignant as we know from the time of the exiles of the Hebrew people up to today?

When my ancestors were exiled from Northern Ireland because the were Catholic, they became know as “the travelers,” or “tinkers,” because they were made homeless by those who took their homes. Look at Palestine today and see the same reality. Should we not listen to the desperate pleas of those who have given up home and livelihood and often, for a time, even family to provide for them?

The Lord be with you,