A Late Night Visit to Mary's Grotto

A popular devotion later in the evening here in Lourdes is to make a visit to the Grotto. It is less crowded, quiet...other than the distant song of Ave Maria...and provides an opportunity to reflect on the day, pray the rosary, and be alone with Mary. We ended yesterday with a late visit to the Grotto with one of our Malades. We knelt at the spot where Saint Pope John Paul II knelt on one of his three visits to Lourdes, which is just beside where St Bernadette feel to her knees in the presence of Mary. We walked beside the source of the spring Mary directed Bernadette to find and touched the wall beneath the spot where our Blessed Mother appeared. In these moments of quiet, of prayer, in service to one another we are profoundly aware that we are all Malades. Caring and being cared for by one another.