2010 Lourdes Pilgrimage Theme
Lourdes Pilgrimage Theme 2010
Praying with Bernadette: Making the Sign of the Cross
After celebrating the Jubilee in 2008 and marking 2009 as the Year of Bernadette, the next three years will be dedicated to praying with Bernadette. The prayer most closely associated with Bernadette is the Rosary which she recited during the apparitions of Our Lady. All our prayers are preceded by the Sign of the Cross and the theme in Lourdes in 2010 is ‘Making the Sign of the Cross with Bernadette’. In 2011 the theme will be the ‘Our Father’ and in 2012 it will be the ‘Hail Mary’.
So for 2010 we will concentrate on the Sign of the Cross.
Throughout our Christian lives, from Baptism onwards, our life takes place under the Sign of the Cross. The Sign of the Cross was particularly important in the life of Bernadette Soubirous. At the first apparition, the Blessed Virgin taught Bernadette to make the Sign of the Cross. From then on her great love of Jesus was enlightened, nourished and directed by it. From her first encounter with Our Lady, the life of Bernadette became joined to Jesus in the mystery of the Cross.
1. Making the Sign of the Cross
At the Grotto, even before speaking with Bernadette and telling Bernadette her name, Mary taught Bernadette to make the Sign of the Cross, to make it well and to make it often.
When she had become a religious sister, Bernadette was asked by a fellow sister ‘What must one do to be sure to go to heaven?’ Without hesitation, Bernadette answered, ‘Make the Sign of the Cross well. That in itself is already a great deal’.
A few moments before her death, Bernadette called on her remaining strength and made her last Sign of the Cross. Then she died. It was with the Sign of the Cross that Bernadette entered Heaven.
The first stage of our pilgrimage is going to consist of making the Sign of the Cross well and doing it in the way Bernadette learned to make it with the Virgin Mary. This is with a sweeping gesture and with recollection, raising the right hand so that the fingers touch the highest part of the forehead. Then lower the hand, barely touching the waist and then raise it again touching the left shoulder and then the right.
What to do on Pilgrimage
The Sanctuary gives guidelines for pilgrims to enter the Domain by St Michael’s Gate and to stop in front of the Breton Cross and make the Sign of the Cross slowly and in a recollected manner. Then do the same thing in front of the Grotto and in front of the other places of celebration. At the beginning and end of each prayer, recollect yourself and say in your heart who God is for you. Then make the Sign of the Cross saying ‘In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen’.
2. What is the Sign of the Cross?
There is nothing romantic about the Cross. The Cross represents the negative in human experience: violence, suffering and death. But it was on the Cross that Jesus chose to show his love for us. Not only did Jesus undergo the worst of human suffering and the most ignominious type of death but he, the son of God made man, made it the meeting place of God and man. For it is in the reality of the Cross that we become children of God.
We receive the sign of the Cross on our foreheads at Baptism: a sign of our Christianity. Mary introduces the Kingdom of God to Bernadette when she says to her ‘I do not promise to make you happy in this world but the other’.
For us, as it was for Bernadette, the Sign of the Cross is what we are. By making this sign we are acknowledging our misery, our suffering, our sinfulness and our human condition. At the same time the Cross is a proclamation of the love of God manifested through the life long sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Making the Sign of the Cross, In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we show we are loved by God and by his love we are called to see beyond our suffering and embrace love.
What to do on Pilgrimage
In Lourdes, three actions of the pilgrimage are first to enter the grotto and to touch and venerate the rock. Then pilgrims should go to the water taps (or to the baths) to drink and to wash. Finally, at the evening torchlight procession each person holds and carries aloft a candle while the Lourdes hymn is sung. These three actions are human gestures but for Christians rock, water and light are related to Jesus Christ since He is the Rock, He gives us the water of life and He is the light of the world. Performing these actions leads us to prayer which becomes a meeting with Jesus.
Since these actions immerse us in the mysteries of Easter, we should, before performing them, make them slowly and reverently and with all our heart, the Sign of the Cross. ‘In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit’. In this way we say to Jesus, to ourselves and to others what the actions of our pilgrimage mean to us.
3. Recognising the Sign of the Cross
Our world is marked by a rejection of God, a definition of sin. Because of sin throughout our lives nobody escapes weakness or suffering in one form or another. This is not necessarily the Cross in our lives but rather the human condition. We know love exists in our world because many of us have experienced it in our families and community. When our experience of love falls short of our expectations we cannot call our disappointment the Cross.
Often we find situations of sinfulness and conversion, misery and solidarity, suffering and charity, death and the presence of the Saviour. Here, the Sign of the Cross is found .
In Lourdes, the great sign that has been given to us is the Cross. The spirit of the relationship that exists between someone who is sick and someone who cares for them reveals the great mystery of the Cross. In that relationship, characterised by mutual giving in a reciprocal welcome of one another is made present the mystery of the Cross and its Sign.
What to do on Pilgrimage
Each of us recognises more easily the Cross that is our own. Seeing and experiencing the charitable actions in Lourdes is going to change the behaviour of each one of us in our relationships. This change will show itself first in small deeds: letting others pass in front of us, serving another before serving ourselves, helping another to succeed in the daily actions of life: in short, giving preference to others before thinking of ourselves. Each of these attitudes, each one of these actions present us with occasions to experience the very thing of which the Cross is the Sign.
4. Making the Sign of the Cross visible
The Sign of the Cross consists of a gesture and words that accompany the gesture. When we make the Sign of the Cross, ‘In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit’, we summarise our faith by expressing who God is, who we are and how God unites us.
Making the Sign of the Cross visible does not consist of saying it several times over, but rather the fact that the gesture is never separated from the invocation of the Trinity which accompanies it, which gives it its meaning, which makes it effective.
The Sign of the Cross, however, is not simply limited to an action involving the Trinity. Above all it consists of every situation of our lives.
What to do on Pilgrimage
To make the Sign of the Cross visible is related firstly to our decision to give God His rightful place in our lives and secondly to our desire to love. Let us strive during our pilgrimage to live our lives in complete Christian love.
Let us dare each day to be inventive, imaginative and creative. Then, living ‘In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’ our words and our actions will make the Sign of the Cross visible .
‘Love is always patient and kind; love is never jealous; love is not boastful or conceited; it is never rude and never seeks its own advantage; it does not take offence or store up grievances. Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing but finds joy in the truth. It is always ready to make allowances, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.
Adapted from the guidelines written by Fr Regis-Marie de la Teyssoniere and Horacio Brito for the Sanctuary of Lourdes.