...and I called it...My Blessed Life...: September 2009

Lourdes (Occitan: Lorda) is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in south-western France.
Lourdes is a small market town lying in the foothills of the Pyrenees, famous for the Marian apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes that are reported to have occurred in 1858 to Bernadette Soubirous. At that time, the most prominent feature of the town was the fortified castle that rises up from a rocky escarpment at its centre.

Following the reports that Our Lady of Lourdes had appeared to Bernadette Soubirous on several occasions, Lourdes has developed into a major place of Christian pilgrimage and of alleged miraculous healings. The 150th Jubilee of the first apparition took place on 11 February 2008 with a outdoor mass attended by approx 45,000 pilgrims.
Today Lourdes has a population of around 15,000 but is able to take in some 5,000,000 pilgrims and tourists every season. With about 270 hotels, Lourdes has the second greatest number of hotels in France after Paris.[citation needed]
It is the joint seat of the diocese of Tarbes-et-Lourdes and is the largest pilgrimage site in France, the second site being the Basilica of St. Thérèse (Lisieux), in Normandie.

Inside the Underground Church

at the Grotto of Mother Mary

Basilica of the Holy Rosary

At the entrance of the underground church

Family Group Hug

Visiting Lourdes is one of God’s privileges to our family. I dropped the fact that we can go and visit the place as the recession arises here in the country where we are staying. Added to it, we don’t have the chance also to stay for more than a week, as the school classes are starting and I know that adding more days means more expenses. But with God’s grace and with the help of Tita Marivic in praying that we may be able to visit this Holy place, we did it! Everything comes into its proper places, from the option of taking a long night train to the 1 hour plane ride via Air France (got a good price better than the train ride) and an 80 meters away hotel from the Lourdes Sanctuary- Hotel Roissy (it is very comfortable since I am carrying an infant and a 5 year old boy + a back pack full of baby stuff. No pressure, no hassles and safe. We even met people of different nationalities, hospitable, friendly and smiling faces all over the place.

God amazed us as we start our journey from his wonderful creations. The feeling was different as we touched the rocks where the Virgin Mary exactly showed up to St. Bernadette. I could not hold my tears as I felt blessed. On our way to exploring what are the things around the sanctuary, we came up to the place of bath. There is a special queue for Mothers with small children and I grabbed it. It was a 2 hour waiting, but it is worth the wait. I’ll not tell what happened inside as I want you to experience it by going there. The amazing God did not stop from surprising us, the next day as we plan to attend the English Mass (Sunday –September 20, 2009) we took our breakfast early and headed right away to the underground church to get a seat… Wow! What a beautiful place it was, you will never recognize its beauty from outside, a structure built in 1958 an immense pre stressed concrete underground church, seating 20,000, was dedicated to Lourdes.

The underground church was designed by the architect Pierre Vago. The nave is oval, 191m long and 61m wide, and slopes gently upwards from the center, where the sanctuary is situated on a raised platform. The ceiling is low, at only 10m high, and is supported by 58 pre-stressed concrete pillars which meet 29 concrete beams which cross the ceiling, giving it the impression of an upturned ship. This design creates a very large open space, of 12,000m2, for maximum visibility from any part of the nave. The walls are decorated with Stations of the Cross, a depiction of the Rosary, and a depiction of the Apparitions, making a total of 52 images, all in the local Gemmail style of overlapping stained glass and hanging images of all the saints (back to back).

As for our knowledge the mass will start at 9:00 am and it’s already 9:30 am and still they are preparing. I asked my hubby to carry Joelle as my I have stomach pain and I need to go to the toilet. As I finished from the toilet, I felt the need to ask why the mass is not yet starting, ooppss, it was a mistake, the English mass is already starting and not in that place. I came back to my family running and tell my hubby to prepare as we will be going to the chapel where the English mass is held. In God’s grace we still managed to attend the mass and finished it, my children were very cooperative, we were standing at the back but you will noticed that they are really well behave. After the mass, we went to the faucet were you can drink and collect the healing water from the spring. Then we headed back to our hotel for check out, did some shopping for our souvenirs and the taxi service drove us directly to the Lourdes Tarbes Airport to fly back to Paris. It will be Gio’s turn to enjoy Disneyland…

*more photos were uploaded at http://fadgeworks.multiply.com

The Philippines capital city and the surrounding suburbs in Metro Manila were badly hit by the typhoon Ondoy. They sufferred from the heavy rain fall which brought flood to most of the areas like Northern Luzon, Metro Manila and Rizal. Many are still missing, hundred of people died of drowning, houses are still sinking in flood waters. Poor and rich, children and old, babies and pregnant mothers, even famous celebrities were affected. My sister and I were so thankful that our old ones are not affected, we don't know what we will do if they belonged to those victims of flood, as we are very far away from them. Thank God for shielding them. We are thankful but at the same time we are sad for the suffering of our fellow countrymen. Now, readers, passersby and friends, let us put our hands together near our hearts and pray with me sincerely for them to stand up again, and gain their strength, so they may be able to face this as a challenge in their lives. Let us help one another by donating clothes, blankets, can or cooked food, medicines and monetary help.