To begin to reflect on the times I’ve been part of the Lourdes Pilgrimage immediately becomes an occasion for expressing gratitude for the countless graces that my fellow pilgrims and I received on this spot where the Holy Mother of God appeared to St. Bernadette Soubirous. And right away thanksgiving blossoms into testimony. Mine follows below.

Among the most powerful of my Pilgrimage-graces have been the communal celebrations of the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick that I’ve been blessed to be part of at Lourdes. Celebrating this Sacrament just yards away from the Grotto of Massabielle has confirmed my recognition that the Lord gave us this Sacrament in order to be unfailingly near us in our sufferings and to offer us healing in whatever way is for His Father’s glory and our good. This is the same good news that Jesus sent His Holy Mother to share with St. Bernadette, and through her to proclaim anew to the whole world. The meaning of the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick and the message of Lourdes are both aspects of the one truth about the boundless compassion of our Heavenly Father for us, His wounded children.

And I can testify that this grace that I received is not mine alone, but has been shared by my fellow pilgrims: clergy and lay alike, and especially by the Malades and their Caregivers. The time of the communal Anointing of the Sick is a moment in which the Malades not only see but feel the healing touch of the Divine Son of the Immaculate Virgin Mary – sacramentally feel His personal closeness, the closeness they came hoping to find at Lourdes.  For this I give God thanks – thanks for His doing it, thanks for letting me and the other members of Our Order be part of His doing.

The celebration of the Anointing of the Sick at Lourdes has been a privileged time for me to experience the truth of what a veteran Dame explained to me on my first Pilgrimage: “At Lourdes there are cures for some, but healing for all.”

Archbishop Allen Vigneron, GCChC, Emeritus Archbishop of Detroit