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The diocesan Lourdes Pilgrimage celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, also marking the 20th anniversary of the youth Redshirts programme. Speaking at a special celebration to mark the pilgrimage's 50th Anniversary last week, Bishop Richard reflected on the graces that all Lourdes pilgrims receive through the lives of St Jean Vianney (1786-1859), St Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879), and St Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897), exploring what we can learn from them while discerning what God is asking of us in our own lives, in the world of today.

Speaking to the many hundreds of people assembled in St Bernadette's Church, close to the location where St Bernadette knelt during the last apparition of Our Lady, Bishop Richard said:

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"In 1789 - the French Revolution started. During the course of the revolution religious life in France was completely suppressed; the calendar was changed to a ten-day week in an effort to stamp out anything that spoke of faith and feast days, as we would understand them in our Catholic life, were banned.

Yet in the wake of the French Revolution, we have three amazing saints - one after another - and despite significant efforts to stamp out religion in France between 1800 and 1880, the years when these great saints were active, 400 congregations of women religious were founded.

God acted - in a very profound way - in the person of Jean Vianney, who was born in 1786.

People travelled great distances to visit Jean Vianney in the wake of the French Revolution, including the then Bishop of Birmingham. He became a person who reawakened the religious life of France and beyond, promoting devotion to the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation - to the extent that they had to build a railway station in his little village.

Jean Vianney died in 1859. Bernadette Soubirous was born in 1844. It's almost as if Jean Vianney put down the baton and St Bernadette, a young girl, picked it up. St Bernadette was little; she came from a poor family and was insignificant on the world stage - or so people thought - however, through Bernadette, we are shown the wonder of Our Lady's place in God's plan.

“I am the Immaculate Conception.”

Mary is the one through whom we receive the Word of God. At a time when faith in France in the wake of the French Revolution, was struggling - comes Mary herself, calling us to visit her and through her, her Son, Jesus.

Bernadette died in 1879. In 1873, Thérèse of Lisieux was born. And so, as Bernadette puts down the baton St Thérèse of Lisieux picks it up. It is not for nothing that in the Lourdes Domain - the great space that we walk around during the Torchlight Procession in Lourdes - passes the statues of St Jean Vianney and St Thérèse of Lisieux.

Thérèse of Lisieux’s message 'The Little Way' is simply stunning; 'Do the little things well'. St Therese entered a Carmelite Convent aged 15 and a very few years after that, died of tuberculosis. And yet, her impact on the world with her simple message has been extraordinary.

St Therese said that we don't need to worry if we can't do things; the Lord loves us. He will pick us up and help us - it is a wonderful and very profound message for us. Perhaps you have had an amazing experience in Lourdes this year and are considering what to do next? 'Do the little things well' and allow the Lord to carry you on your journey.

If we go over to 19th century England for a moment, we have the Industrial Revolution which brought people to look at material wealth in a new way, and saw it become a new God. What do we find happening in England at this time? We find that the Shrine of Walsingham, which had originally existed in the Middle Ages, finds new life.

In 1945, after the Second World War: what happens then? The Shrine at Aylesford in Kent, very close to our Diocese, is re-founded and rebuilt. I suggest that there is a message here: at these moments in our history, when we really mess up on a grand scale, we suddenly notice that God is active in a new way.

What we experience in Lourdes is a part of that - a very significant part - because the message in Lourdes is to 'come in procession' as we have done, to pray, to wash in the water of the spring, all things that we have undertaken. In those simple actions, we find the healing presence of Christ. In those simple actions, we are touched by the Spirit in ways beyond our imagining.

What we celebrate this year is 50 years of the very simple action of pilgrimage, enabling us to have an encounter with God. God acts in simple ways, and one of the problems that we now have, perhaps in a different way to the people of the 18th, 19th, 20th century, is that we live in a world that is ultra complicated and in a world where, if it isn't complicated, we become suspicious. Celebrate the simplicity of the act of pilgrimage; celebrate its simplicity of procession, of water and of prayer.

This anniversary year, we think of and give thanks for the many thousands of people who have enabled, attended and supported our diocesan pilgrimage. But we also need to ask ourselves a question - and this is where I think exploring the history is helpful - in what world do we live now?

It's not the world of the French Revolution; it's not the world of the first Industrial Revolution, but the challenges of faith are there, just as they were when we speak about Jean Vianney, or Bernadette, or Thérèse of Lisieux, or when we speak about those who re-founded Walsingham, restored Aylesford or those who built our own shrine at West Grinstead.

Our times are different, and perhaps the challenges are greater, and so who is going to be the Jean Vianney, the Bernadette or Thérèse of our age? Perhaps I am looking at them now.

Perhaps they are here in this church - the family of our Diocese, our school communities that are represented here so strongly; the clergy of our Diocese, represented by our deacons and our priests; our married couples represented by the families here; those who care for the sick; those who find themselves living with illness and disability.

The world in which we live needs each and every one of us to be His presence today - in this very church there are those who are the Vianneys, the Bernadettes, the Thérèse's of our modern age. Of that, I am convinced.

I invite and encourage you really strongly to reflect on the experience you have had here in Lourdes. Give time when you return home to the UK to notice the lessons and the graces that may have taken place this week, because by doing so the lessons and the graces will continue to live in your minds and hearts. It's by doing so that that you will be able to answer the question of our age; what is the Lord asking me to do? Is the Lord asking me to be the Bernadette of my age? Someone who focuses minds and hearts on the gift that Mary, our Mother, is for the Church and the world through the call that she gives to us to be close to her Son. Is the Lord asking me to be the Thérèse of my age? Doing the small things exceptionally well and relying, not on external stuff, but on the love of God.

Let us pray for a real openness to the graces that we have received this week - and a real openness to the graces that we don't realise we've received yet but will notice in a week, a month, or even several months’ time. If we can take these lessons, these graces, back into the family of our Diocese we will transform the world; if during this week of encounter with Christ, prayer has been renewed within you then let this continue - don't leave it behind. If an encounter with Scripture, perhaps through Lectio Divina has been renewed, don't leave it behind in Lourdes: let it continue.

Let us take the graces that God has given to each and every one of us this week, not just collectively, but individually, insofar as we need them - let us take these graces back to our homes, to our schools, our parishes, our Diocese, and to the wider world - because the world needs this.

The world needs each and every one of us, day by day, to grow closer to the person of Jesus Christ, to whom Our Lady and St Bernadette call us.

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Bishop Richard Moth
Eglise Ste Bernadette, Lourdes
31 July 2024

*edited for clarity