Words and photos by: Nick Nicolas Jr.
Contributor Writer
This Holy Week, I can’t help but look back at the time when I went to Lourdes, France where I experienced a real miracle. Lourdes is a famous town for being miraculous, so I took the opportunity to visit while I was in France.
Lourdes is a town in southwestern France in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains.
Getting There:
You can take a Train,Bus or Plane going to Lourdes from Paris. The cheapest Standard Class ticket by train is €19 with travel time of 7H20Mins. You can choose a (sleeper) night train, for group of 4~6 pax.(optional). The beautiful small town becomes popular since the young peasant girl named Bernadette Soubirous was collecting firewood when she noticed the presence of a lady in the Grotto. The Blessed Virgin Mary instructed Bernadette to dig in the ground nearby, from which came a spring water which believed to have a healing power.
This is how the Spring Water looks like now
Apparitions:
•A title of the Blessed Virgin Mary during her apparitions in 1858, to a fourteen-year old peasant girl.
•A Catholic Marian Shrine and Pilgrimage site dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes, in the town of Lourdes,Hautes-Pyrénées, France.
Lourdes has become a destination for sick and disabled pilgrims, as the spring water which has flowed from the Grotto since the Apparitions, is refuted by believers as miraculous (famous 70 Medical miracles recognized by the Catholic Church).
This was the site exactly where the young girl (St.Bernadette) saw the vision of Blessed Virgin Mary appeared on 11th of February 1858.
Pilgrim for Healing Miracle from my own life experience
We arrived in Paris in the early afternoon from the US. My son procured our night train ticket together for the 1900H schedule going to Lourdes,France. It was my choice to make a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Lourdes, for my debilitating Osteoarthritis of both knees.
Previously recommended by an Ortho Doctor, a specialist for a Knee-replacement with exorbitant fees for surgery and everything was arranged and ready for the procedure in the hospital in Manila.
This is a photo of me before the miraculous healing
However, I decided to cancel the supposed knee replacement and chose to be healed by miracle through my faith in God with the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes.
We arrived at 0500H the following morning, had a breakfast in Cafeteria beside Gare de Lourdes (train station) thereafter took a taxi at 7AM to the main entrance Porte de Saint-Joseph
From the entrance, I persevered to walk, the cold slightly desensitized the pain in my knees, limping with cane to the Grotto, along with other pilgrims who traveled from different parts of the world.
During the first morning solemn Holy Mass, cold rain of Spring started to pour for a few minutes.
I thanked God for the brief rain as a sign of His blessing.
I fervently prayed to Our Lady of Lourdes at the Grotto for my healing miracle, hoping to walk normally again without pain.
After the Mass, we collected and drank the Spring Water that flows exactly from the Grotto where Our Lady of Lourdes told St.Bernadette to dig.
We traveled back to Paris in the afternoon by train for only 5 hours.
Psalm 9:1- Praising God
"I will give thanks to you Lord, with all my heart;
I will tell of all your wonderful deeds".
Now, I am walking slowly (normal for my age) but I am happy that there is no pain and I do not need to use a cane.
In California, USA March 2023
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