On this day, the pilgrims joined the international Mass which took place in the underground Basilica of St Pius X and was attended by about 10,000 people.
In his video message today, Cardinal Vincent explains that, although pilgrims come from a diversity of countries, we all share a common language of faith and common words, which unites us all.
Most of our pilgrims were present to hear Cardinal Vincent give the homily in three languages in which he spoke about the 'important words that we all understand and treasure': Jesus, credo, ite, missa, est and amen.
He reminded the pilgrims that we are called to go out and 'proclaim the name of Jesus', that this is our mission and 'we accept it with joy!' (The full text of the homily can be read here.)
Taking place simultaneously in St Joseph's Chapel was the Mass for St Joseph's Pastoral Centre, L'Arche, JCT and the Reds. The Reds are the youngsters who are not yet old enough to serve as Redcaps. It was a lively Mass with a lot of colour, singing and movement. Some of the pilgrims from St Joseph's acted out the Gospel story of Martha and Mary, bringing the events to life for us in a very special way.
During the homily, Bishop Nicholas spoke of the love Jesus has for us and how he asks us in return to show our love for him by loving one another. He told the pilgrims that, as with the Gospel reading where Jesus tells Martha that Mary has the better part for listening to him, Jesus asks each of us to listen to him too. To demonstrate this, he invited Fr Michael Daley to come forward and told him to 'listen to Jesus'. Then, they both went out and told two others to 'listen to Jesus', until soon all present, priests and pilgrims, were sharing the message with one another. It was a simple but effective way of telling us that we too must share in the mission to proclaim the name of Jesus.
At the end of Mass, the pilgrims from St Joseph's distributed handmade ceramic badges to each of the pilgrims at the Mass, so that almost everyone had their own piece of original St Joseph's art.
Wednesday afternoon traditionally is time off, to pray, relax, visit the baths and spend time in the shrine. Several groups went to Lac de Lourdes for some recreation and some of the other pilgrims took the opportunity to go up into the mountains for a change of scene.
A small group from St. Anne's Nursing Home, here for the first time, went for a walking tour of Lourdes and were delighted to visit the places where Bernadette lived and to receive, even after all these years, a small sense of the atmosphere. For all of us, the blistering heat of yesterday had disappeared and our macs and umbrellas came out as rain took its place. Naturally we're all hoping this won't last.
More photos are available here.
