Experiencing Lourdes
An Interview with CUF Member Kerry Crawford, Author of Lourdes Today: A Pilgrimage to Mary’s Grotto

by Regis J. Flaherty

Regis Flaherty: Why did you write Lourdes Today?

Kerry Crawford: This year marks the 150th anniversary of Our Lady’s appearing to a poor, uneducated fourteen-year-old girl, Bernadette Soubirous, in a grotto in France. St. Bernadette first encountered “the beautiful Lady” on February 11, 1858. In her sixteenth appearance, she identified herself to Bernadette as the Immaculate Conception. Bernadette would glimpse Our Lady twice more, with the final apparition occurring on July 16. There is no better time than this year to remember in a special way the message of Our Lady to Bernadette—a message that had meaning to the world then and certainly has meaning to our world today.

What was the message given by Our Lady to Bernadette?

The message of Lourdes is one of encouragement, invitation, conversion, and revelation. The Lady promised Bernadette happiness not in this world, but in the “other.” She invited Bernadette to come to the Grotto for 15 days. The Lady later extended that invitation to us. She bid Bernadette to tell the priests to let people come in procession and to build a chapel. The Lady called for conversion (“Penance, penance, penance! Pray to God for sinners.”) and asked Bernadette to perform penitential acts (“Go and drink at the spring and wash in it. Eat the grass over there”). Finally, on the feast of the Annunciation, Our Lady revealed at long last her identity.

What approach did you take in writing your book?

I went to Lourdes for the first time in 2004 and again in 2006. My own experiences as a “novice” pilgrim guided my writing. After my second visit, a fellow pilgrim sent me a note. He wrote, “As with all pilgrimages, the best snapshots don’t end up in the camera, they end up stored in one’s heart.” I knew right then and there that I wanted this book to bring to life those “snapshots of the heart”—those unforgettable and sometimes life-changing memories that pilgrims experience and carry home with them. To that end, I interviewed more than four dozen Lourdes pilgrims—lay men and women, students, priests and deacons, religious, the sick, and the volunteers who come alongside them to assist. It is through their experiences that I introduce Lourdes and explore what this shrine has to offer pilgrims of the third millennium.

As a first-time pilgrim, what surprised you the most about Lourdes?

Almost everything! When you walk through the gates, it is like stepping into a different world. A sense of quiet and peace prevails in a park-like setting. Lourdes consists not only of the Grotto—its heart—but also three basilicas and many churches and chapels. We often hear that Mary points us to her Son. This is so true at Lourdes. Pilgrims may attend any of the more than 50 Masses celebrated daily, confess their sins at the Chapel of Reconciliation, journey along the Way of the Cross, participate in the candlelight Rosary procession and in the Eucharistic procession. One of the priests I interviewed said going to Lourdes was much like making a retreat on the move—a retreat that draws us closer to Our Lady and her Son.

How might pilgrims best experience Lourdes?

I recommend three very physical ways—rock, water, and light—to encounter Lourdes. Father Régis-Marie de La Teysonnière, a leading authority on Lourdes and a chaplain of the Sanctuaries, explained to me that Our Lady taught Bernadette with what she could see, touch, and experience.

Let’s begin with the rock. What meaning does this hold for pilgrims?

The rock is, of course, the actual Grotto of Massabielle, in which Our Lady appeared. Pilgrims enter the grotto, place their palms against the wet walls, and glance down to see the spring uncovered by Bernadette. Within the grotto, Mass is celebrated daily on an altar hewn from local stone. As pilgrims face the grotto and look high above it, they will see that the foundation of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception rests directly upon the grotto itself. The grotto reminds us that Jesus is our rock, the rock of our salvation.

When people think of Lourdes, many associate it with Lourdes water.

Absolutely! Deacon Bill Olson from Iowa put in perspective why this water is important. “This spring was brought forth by the hand of Bernadette,” he said, “at the direction of Mary whose presence was willed by God.” Within a year of the apparitions, seven individuals who had washed in, applied, or drank from the waters of the spring were miraculously cured. More than seven thousand healings and 67 miraculous cures, many of which are traced to using the spring water, are now attributed to the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes. John Paul II regarded the water of Massabielle as a living source where faith is renewed, body and soul are healed, and the sense of Church is strengthened. Pilgrims today drink the water, splash their face with it, bathe in it, and carry it home to others.

That brings us to the final element. What role does light play?

It was in the niche of the rock that Bernadette first saw a gentle light and within that light, the beautiful Lady who we now know as the Immaculate Conception. Candles burn today in the Grotto as a reminder of Our Lady and as a symbol of the pilgrims’ search for the inner light—Jesus, the light of the world. Each night between April and mid-October tens of thousands of pilgrims process carrying lighted candles and praying the Rosary in their own languages. Light overcomes darkness. That moment, for many pilgrims, embodies the Universal Church. The light of Lourdes extends, however, beyond the Grotto and beyond the candlelight procession. Pilgrims who seek the full experience of Lourdes will find it in the light of the sacraments so readily available there.

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