Visiting Lourdes is a life changing experience. As a non Catholic I examined my reaction to this visit which was organized for me by Maison de la France in 2008.
Lourdes hosts in the region of 5,000,000 pilgrims and visitors every season, Lisieux in Normandy being the second religious site in France most visited by Christians from all over the world. On arrival in Lourdes, my first impression was driving through the small village where hundreds of children lined the streets, they were mostly handicapped; blind, cripple, deaf or dumb and some with very serious mental conditions.
The first amazing thing to see was that the children were happy, actually enjoying each other’s company and playing as best they could with each other in an environment which was conducive to understanding those who, to our eyes, are not normal. The second thing which amazed me was that at every elevator stop in the hotel in which we stayed there were wheelchairs provided by the hotel as a matter of course; hoteliers, restaurants, tour operators, bus operators who were ultra sensitive to the needs of others. The miracle began to work in my heart.
I was witnessing a miracle of love and caring experienced nowhere else in my travels worldwide. The next miracle was in the morning when we visited the famous site at the grotto where the Blessed Virgin Mary was said to have appeared to Bernadette Soubirous. There is a hospital close to the site, wheelchairs and even beds were being wheeled out from hospitals and various other accommodations in the village.
The streets were lined with uniformed Sisters and Fathers wheeling the desperately ill to the site at the grotto in the hope of a miracle healing. Some were close to death with oxygen, intravenous drips and machines attached to the beds keeping them alive. Questioning regarding actual healings were answered rapidly by our guide and they do have records of several documented proofs of healings by those who have visited the site, but the true miracle of Lourdes for me was the miracle of love.
Love literally poured out by the Fathers and the Sisters and the various hospital staff and volunteers who worked tirelessly with the desperately ill and often not pretty human beings who visit Lourdes. My final experience was in the elevator at the hotel, a Sister with a small child held the child closely while he tried to bang his head against the wall.
The Sister bent down and kissed the little boy’s drooling mouth and he calmed right down and put his arms around her. That was the miracle of Lourdes.
Ranan Christian Pilgrimages Blog 
