Lourdes has been a place for pilgrimage since 1858 when Our Lady appeared on 18 occasions to a poor 14-year-old girl called Bernadette Soubirous. Today over five million people per year visit the shrine to offer prayers, and drink and wash in the spring waters that Our lady revealed to St. Bernadette on her ninth apparition.
It was in 1951 when Dr Michael Strode first visited Lourdes and saw the potential to organise a pilgrimage for disabled children that the seeds for HCPT, Hosanna House and Children’s Pilgrimage Trust, was planted, and 5 years later in 1956 that he took the first 4 HCPT pilgrims (VIPs as they are now referred to) to Lourdes. He had no inkling that nearly 70 years later his legacy would have grown to include thousands of pilgrims each year from 13 different countries.
My first experience of Lourdes was on a trip organised by my school which has a strong Marian devotion and whose patroness is the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady. This is the title that Mary used to tell Bernadette who she was. My parents had a well-developed work and service ethic and that the care of others was more important than consideration of self, so when the opportunity to spend a week camping above the town and helping care for disabled adults, I jumped at the chance.
That first week in Lourdes, totally immersed in helping and caring (service) for others, left a lasting impression; I was hooked! I have been going on and off ever since, and have now been over 25 times. Initially I went with adults, including quite a few years travelling all the way to the small Pyrenees town from England on the Jumbulances.
However in 2003, the opportunity to go with a completely different style of pilgrimage arose, I was invited to join a HCPT group and have been travelling with this amazing pilgrim trust ever since. I think, looking back on things now, that that first week when I was 15 must have influenced my change in direction from considering doing engineering to the more caring profession of medicine, a decision I have never regretted.
Travelling with a group of disabled and disadvantaged children does add a different and uplifting element to the experience as a fellow pilgrim. Over the last 20 or so years I have found myself, during the week after Easter, miles away from home doing things that I could never usually be persuaded to do, even by my own children, such as donning a tutu for the Trust Mass in the Basilica of St. Pius X, the largest of the worship places at the sacred site, attended by up to 5000 fellow pilgrims! (I am still trying to track down and suppress all photographs of me at the event!).
It is a great leap of faith for the parents to entrust their beloved children to a group of near strangers for the week, but in all the years I have been going we have had nothing but positive responses, many of the children come back with new skills they have learnt or picked up from other children during their time away. Families that are main care givers have been given a bit of respite from caring and a chance to rest and regroup.
For many of the VIPs a trip to Lourdes is the first time out of the UK, flying on a plane, staying in a hotel and away from their parents. It provides the children with a mini miracle in many ways, being surrounded by thousands of others in similar situations, providing a sense of community and understanding, being treated like VIPs by people outside of their families and usual social groups. It enables trips such as to a glacier col at Gavarne, a visit to a petting zoo and many café trips all tailored to support their individual needs without any fuss, as this amazing place is so adapted for wheelchair users and people with limited mobility. Seeing the joy on the children’s faces during each experience is something that will stay with me; especially those experiences that we, who are able bodied, take for granted.
Although HCPT does offer smaller pilgrimages at other times during the year, the main pilgrimage, when people from all over the UK and now another 12 countries, is the week after Easter. It is organised into family groups, each group with its own number and colourful jumpers and banners to easily identify fellow ‘family’ members in the crowded streets and busy domain. Games nights, Masses, parties and trips can be organised with other family groups allowing the children to form friendships and bonds without being too overwhelmed with all the new experiences. The only space large enough to accommodate the whole pilgrimage these days is the underground Basilica of St. Pius X, which feels a bit like a huge underground aircraft hanger in which any sound booms and echoes around the domed roof. It is here that the entire pilgrimage gathers for the highlight of the trip – the Trust Mass! This is a celebration unlike any other with VIP input and participation in the procession, music, readings and dancing; a kaleidoscope of colour and smiles to worship at God’s altar.
Lourdes itself is a place of contrast: The town is full of narrow bustling streets with every other building outside the Domain selling gaudy religious trinkets (some of which are truly gross!) that spill out onto the streets. I find this quite off putting, but the VIPs love to explore it. However the Domain, though still teaming with people, is surprisingly peaceful even during the day when it is busy with queues of people waiting to see and touch the exact location of the apparitions; light some prayer candles and bottle some spring water at the many taps; attending the processions or one of the many Tannoy enhanced Masses ringing around the grotto. The VIPs love to play games on the wide grassy prairie on the opposite bank to the Grotto so that during HCPT week you can add the happy ring of children’s laughter to the mix. Night, however, is my favourite time to visit the sacred space: in the silence and the candlelight, it is a very spiritual place.
The miracle of Lourdes for me is the spiritual and psychological uplift that I see in the pilgrims often coping with debilitating conditions and disabilities. With HCPT I have witnessed so many mini miracles of care both from the many service pilgrims supporting the VIPs to the VIPs themselves interacting with their new friends. Children really do open our eyes in their innocent, straight-forward and unaffected ability to care for each other. I have been awed to see our VIPs helping and teaching each other with basic skills, like getting dressed independently, adapting walking pace so that friends can keep up and helping to complete crafts or tasks for others who are struggling.
If you are interested in finding out more, please do visit the HCPT website: https://www.hcpt.org.uk . Here you can find out about your nearest family group, you can live stream the Trust mass (the Thursday after Easter) or find out other ways your support can help this amazing trust that has revolutionised the way that disabled children enjoyed a trip to the famous shrine and helped so many families and children over the last 68 years.
2024
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