The Sanctuary of Lourdes has suggested as a pastoral theme the words that Mary, the Mother of God, entrusted to Bernadette Soubirous on 2nd March 1858: “Go tell the priests to build a chapel here and that people should come in procession.”
The theme for 2024 is – “…and that people should come in procession.”
I want you to come in procession
Bernadette was the only one to hear this instruction coming from the Lady. She was alone to transmit it. And now, the Church, as it obeys Bernadette, has been organising pilgrimages to Massabielle for a century.
If Bernadette had not been Bernadette, Lourdes would not have become the meeting point of the Christian world.
Bernadette is the only one to have revealed Lourdes to us… God engages with a soul of choice but He opens himself only to her. For Him, she is sufficient.
Because of this young, despised girl, an enormous flow of people started moving and hasn’t stopped coming from all around the world ever since. This little woman alone has become a trigger for an immense adventure.
Bishop Pierre-Marie Théas,
Bishop of Tarbes end Lourdes (from 1947 to1970)
International Marian Congress of Lourdes,
Speech of 15th September 1958
For more information, please visit: https://www.lourdes-france.org/