Lourdes is a French town at the front of the Pyrenees and has become one of the most important places for Christian pilgrimages. During the eighteenth century, a French girl named Bernadette had a series of visions within this town. She had eighteen apparitions in total, and it was during the ninth that the vision revealed herself to the Virgin Mary. During this vision Mary told Bernadette to dig in a specific site ,where Bernadette would discover a spring. A spring of water began to flow at the place she indicated. Gradually, Lourdes became a place for pilgrims, Pilgrims arrive in great numbers throughout the year from all over the world. There are special masses , Pilgrims light up candles, sing Lourdes hymns and pray; the rosary is a form of prayer used by pilgrims at Lourdes. The main attraction to Lourdes is for healing purposes. There are twenty mysteries reflected on the Rosary which are based on the incidents on the life of Jesus and the Virgin Mary that are celebrated in the Liturgy.
The water at Lourdes consists of special healing powers where people are miraculously cured from their diseases. Pilgrims bottle the water and take it home for those who are disabled and were unable to make the trip. At Lourdes, people can experience a feeling of peacefulness in God’s presence. The pilgrims whom bath in the spring, wear special robes so that when they get out, there can get into their clothes without drying themselves which is an essential part of the bathing.
I will now refer to the holy land, Christians of all nations and traditions visit the holy land when it is safe to do so, it is the place where Jesus lived and taught. A pilgrimage makes the accounts of what happened more relevant, part of their own experience.
In Bethlehem there is nothing left of the original stable. The spot, in which it is believed that Jesus was born, is a place which is now known as the church of the Nativity. Pilgrims go down into the small grotto where, on the floor, a silver star marks the place of Jesus birth.
In Jerusalem pilgrims walk along the Via Dolorosa which was the route that Jesus took from Pilate’s judgment hall to Calvary where he was crucified. They stop to pray at the Stations of the Cross (the original places where Jesus stopped on his way to Calvary). The Via Dolorosa leads to the church of the Holy Sepulchre, inside this church is the place where Jesus was crucified and, in the other part of the building was the traditional place of his burial and the place where he rose from the dead.
Elsewhere in the Holy land Christians may want to visit the river Jordon and collect some water from the river in which Jesus was baptized. Nazareth is another option, this is a place where Jesus grew up and a modern church covers the traditional site of the place where the Holy Family lived. Eucharist can be celebrated at the alters near the Sea of Galilee.
Overall, I believe that Christians travel to pilgrimages to step aside from the day to day life to focus more strongly on their faith. At pilgrimages Christians can share their beliefs with other Christians from other countries. By this their faith is strengthened as they are becoming more aware that they are part of a worldwide fellowship. Some Christians may find their attitude to their faith does not change at all, hence continuing spiritually as though the pilgrimage had never happened.
