by Gina Cariño
Home >> Postcard from Lourdes and Stories of Altruistic Work
I’m told I was first in Lourdes at the age of two. That doesn’t count. What counts is the first time I went to Lourdes after I’d moved close to the French border. It was to accompany the mother of the friend of a friend of a friend. I remember being frightened at the prospect of seeing many terminally ill people weeping and wailing and flailing their arms like doomsday.
How wrong I was. There was no such hysteria. The shrine is a serene, happy, friendly place. Moreover, it’s too easy to say that an otherwise bucolic landscape of green hills and placid streams has fallen into the clutches of speculation and commerce, with oversized signs everywhere announcing menus, rooms, and bottle-virgins for sale. Mind, the bucolic landscape of green hills and placid streams is there all right. And why be killjoy about the efforts of people who are… well, much into Lourdes.
First, my octogenarian aunt-in-law Anttonita. This wonderfully overbearing Basque lady who gives us never-winning lottery tickets at Christmas has devoted two-thirds of her life to the care and comfort of the sick and disabled. Up to a few years ago, August always found her working in a leprosy center in Alicante province. The rest of the year, she was a regular at Lourdes.
So what a privilege it is to visit the shrine in her company. She knows the ins and outs and has access to every secret niche of the complex, moving around it with authority. She showed me parts of the grounds that are off limits to the public, such as the emergency room of the hospital across the river or the large hall where they keep those funny old-fashioned wheelchairs that make up a big part of the 4 o’clock procession. For years, Aunt Anttonita made it her duty to push an ill pilgrim to the pools. Oh, and close to the wheelchair room are shelves full of patchwork quilts. These quilts are spread over the delicate laps of the pilgrims in wheelchairs. Anttonita had made it her apostolate to knit two blankets per year and now she proudly showed us which of the thousands that were there were made by her own two hands. Nice, huh? She sewed me one such blanket. My cat sleeps on it.
Last but not least, my friends Guillermo and Kevin. One is Filipino, the other is Irish. For ten years now, they have made it their mission in life to spend ten days of September working in Lourdes. Guillermo does physical work, transporting sick travelers from the airport or train station to the shrine and back. Kevin does “police work,� keeping the processions orderly and making sure you keep quiet.
At nightfall they deserve some fun and one can have fun in Lourdes, too. You can eat your duck the way you want it cooked and you can even go to a pub for some debauchery while watching the year’s big rugby game. I know that’s what Guillermo and Kevin did this year. And when the ten days were up, off they went for their cruise on the Rhine.
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Posted on http://www.weeklyletter.com at 2007-11-08 09:00:00 +0100
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Hello Gina,
I’ve never been to Lourdes but I know of many people that have made “a promise” to go to Lourdes to give thanks for recovering from an illness or for surviving a car accident or things like that.
I think that shrines are always nice places to visit because they usally transmit peacefullness.
Regards,
Cristina
Hello everybody,
Really i’m very exceptic, I don’t believe so much in these things.
there are several person that journaly doesn’t make the well around and after, they think that they are beautiful people because they come to make a promise…..
I thinks that Lourdes is a very curious place, like Guadalupe. But I think that there are a commerce around of this.
I believe that God helps every body love it and all the people that need him.
Hello, Gina,
I don’t know Lourdes, but I recognice that it is a very famous place where people go in order to pray and demand something to Vierge, and also to give “thanks” for some special favour, and I agree with Cristina: they are very peacefullness.
These people that work with the pilgrims are very special. I admire them. But also I think that they are happy doing that and for them it is also very interesting.
I think that miracles exist, but I can’t explain them. They must have some of true.
Regards.
Conchi Calvo
My “uncles” Igue and Kevin help the ill in Lourdes and they also help the poor in the Philippines. In Manila, they are very active in the running of a center that takes in street children, puts them in schools, and guides them towards worthy occupations. I know that they spend every Christmas Day with the little boys and girls.
Hi. Hail? We can also talk about altruistic work and charity work in general, not necessarily in places of religious pilgrimage. Is it cloying and sentimental? Is it reactionary? I used to tend to think so, but I don’t want to be a grim and angry killjoy anymore. Poverty must be wiped out on a broad scale and at the root, yes, but there is room for piecemeal actions and individual commitments, why not.
It sounds to me like la tia Anttonita and los tios Guillermo and Kevin have got their hearts in the right place. Are they religious? Does it matter? We will probably never see world poverty or global injustices wiped out, but that shouldn’t dissuade us from doing what we can to alleviate whatever suffering we encounter in our day-to-day lives, how ever insignificant it may seem. I cannot change the world, but maybe I can change it for me and for those I come into contact with. And then, if everybody does what they can …
The strong should help the weak. The rich should help the poor. We should expect from everyone what they can give and give to everyone what they need.
The distance between being well and being sick, being wealthy and poor, is not as large as our wishful thinking imagines. Helping others is really enlightened self-interest.
And anyway, doing anything else is treachery.
Hi Gina,
I’ve never been to Lourdes, but my parents went to Lourdes thirty-five years ago with my sister Elena, who was ill. Since then, in my house there is a bottle of water from Lourdes.. This is a family heirloom…
When I was a child, I always tried to open this bottle…. I wanted to know what was special about this water…. Nowadays, this bottle is still closed…. ;)
Bye,
Leticia
I’ve been to Lourdes twice. I enjoyed it both times. What’s best is that it’s a pilgrimage site in a lovely little French town. The surrounding countryside is breathtaking. I compare it to Fátima. Fátima is an ugly town.
If I had to make a pilgrimage, I would rather do it in Lourdes. There are gardens in front of the basilica and the color I think of is green. The way up to the basilica at Fátima looks like the parking lot at a Carrefour.
Nevertheless, Fátima candles smell better…
The article themes of the last two weeks (Reformation Day & Protestantism and now Lourdes) bring to mind Canterbury in England (to the Church of England what Santiago de Compostela is to the Catholic church in Spain).
...which brings to mind The Canterbury Tales
Happy Birthday, Jeremy. You are up next. I either trust you will change the subject or hope that you will not.
Once, when I was in the Andes, the old car we were driving ran out of water. But we happened to be very close to a religious place that was something like a replica of Lourdes. We were in desperate need for water so… And, believe me, it worked!
Hi everybody! I’m a believer person and sometimes somebody wants to use of the believer people and they do a business of this world. But with Lourdes I think is true, because the Pope Juan Pablo II was a believer of Lourdes.