Friday April 20, 2018        posting April 6 & & Lourdes (second post today)

We arrived in Lourdes around 5 PM.  After checking into the hotel we set off to find the Shrine.  The first photo shows it all, there are many, many stores selling religious articles and souvenirs.  It is easy to make fun of some of this, and then you see someone obviously ill in a wheel chair being escorted by the family. There are also many young people groups, most all wearing the same color t-shirt.  Sue talked to a lady from an HCPT group.  This stands for Handicapped Children’s Trust.  They bring handicapped kids to Lourdes for a week.  I know that most are not expecting a miracle, but it is a special trip for them.

I did actually forgot to take photos of all the people filling bottles with Holy Water.  Along the side of the church on the way to the Shrine there is a pipe with taps spaced a few feet apart.  Selling containers is a big item at the souvenir stores.  There are all sizes up to a couple of liters.  Some people bring their own.  Not to be sacrilegious, but I’m assuming that there isn’t a priest blessing the flowing water, but that it is Holy since it comes from the Grotto.  Lucky for us we weren’t there at Easter, I bet that would have been a scene.  Sue now wants to go to Fatima, and you think I’m nuts with my lists.  Sue is rattling off lists of other Holy/Pilgrimage sites.  We may need an intervention.

Lourdes