Skip to main content

Lourdes, France...

Image
By
So a trip to Europe is never complete (for a Roman Catholic) without visiting Lourdes. Stories have been told of  how Jesus's mother appeared to a young girl named Bernadette on February 11th 1858. Since then people have been flocking this small village to pray and ask for favours. It makes for a beautiful sight, to witness the faith, hope and love for Mother Mary. 

One fine day in October 2013, we (me, Nam and Vinod) set out for Lourdes. We took a plane from Geneva to Toulouse and from there it's a two hour ride by train to reach the station at Lourdes. 

                              
The candlelight rosary procession is the most beautiful scene to witness here. This takes place everyday at 9pm as the faithful pray and sing hymns, being engulfed in this wave of candlelights and hymns is an overwhelming experience. On our first day here, we took part in the rosary procession in the cold.... we were shivering yet it felt warm, and magical...
The next day dawned bright and we attended an English mass before exploring this majestic church of Lourdes built over the outcrop of rock where Mother Mary appeared to Bernadette. 
This is quite a massive and awe inducing structure... 
This is the grotto, where Mother Mary appeared to Bernadette.... many years ago. And towards the left, where the flowers are placed on the ground, is the miraculous spring of water. 
This is where water gushed forth when Mother Mary told Bernadette to dig the ground and drink from the spring that formed there...
Inside the majestic church in Lourdes... otherwise known as the Rosary Basilica. 
The beautiful dome... 
 The mysteries of the rosary depicted on the walls of the church. Here we see the first and second Joyful mysteries, The Annunciation and the The Visitation. 
The Nativity of our Lord, and the Presentation... 
Finding the Lord Jesus in the temple, and the first Glorious mystery, The Resurrection...
The Ascension of our Lord and The Descent of the Holy Spirit... 
 The Assumption and Coronation of our Lady & Glory of all Saints.... 
This underground church is a bit further off from the main church and it is quite massive...
 Beautiful day...  
At the first level of the Basilica.... 
 View from the Basilica, this entire ground is filled with people during the rosary procession every night...
 The river that courses through Lourdes...
 Remember the beautiful dome from inside the Rosary basilica, this is its exterior... 
 St. Bernadette... 
 A wonderfully lit chapel on the upper level... 
Saw this angel... 
 Another sight that stopped me in my tracks... 
 Statue of a little girl praying to Jesus, set deep withing a clearing in the hilly area... 
 A different cross...
 This was the hotel we stayed at...
And our room...
Lourdes is a beautiful place, even though people come here in droves... the city is invitingly clean and well organised. More about our stay in Lourdes in the next post... 
Labels:

Comments

mahesh said…
Lovely pics of the church - thanks for sharing :)
4:01 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nice Ad....

By
Wouldn't you say so... Nam and me were in this huge clothing store and we were making fun of all the models on display (there was one of hrithik in which he looked kinda gayish) when we came across this one. Seriously, dark people are more better looking....
112 comments
Read more

I hope the world doesn't end in 2012, I have a whole lot of books to read...

By
I heard bout Flipkart.com from Anju and that site has changed my life. All the books that I have been searching for since centuries, are now sitting prettily on my book shelf. Landmark is a thing of the past now... in fact Landmark is not what it used to be anymore, they do not seem to have stock on most of the good books. So I am deliriously thankful to the creators of flipkart, I seriously love you guys... continue with your fabulous work. Talking of books, here are a few people who have enriched my life with their recommendations of the written word... My brother Manoj for buying the ' The Partner ' by John Grisham . Now I hadn't heard of Grisham before so the book was just lying there at home. One day I got bored and picked it up, that was the start of my love affair with Grisham and legal thrillers in general. This was the first John Grisham book I read and it was in a word mindblowing. I couldn't set the book down, my heart was racing away with Patrick Laniga...
19 comments
Read more

My school teachers...

By
So I got to thinking bout my school days recently and it saddened me that I was starting to forget a few teachers who had shaped my life, I have already forgotten nearly half the classmates... though its not my fault. Some people just don't want to join facebook, then how can you find them in this big world. Even if I do find them, there is not much to talk beyond the 'where are you & what are you doing' phrases. But the teachers are another matter, they deserve to be remembered for moulding us. I gotta hand it to the convent school I studied in, they really knew how to select their educators... all the teachers I had shared a genuine passion for teaching and above that they had strong moral values and faith which invariably shaped our lives. To them being a good person was what mattered the most and they made sure we grasped this knowledge, it also helped that I had staunch catholic parents who cemented this view. Anyway, I just wanted to jot down stuff bout my teacher...
24 comments
Read more