As Bernadette had followed the instructions of the lady, she was promised happiness, not in this life, but the next.
On one occasion, the lady asked Bernadette to wash in the spring. There being no spring, Bernadette dug a small hole and washed in the muddy water that appeared. When Bernadette returned, there was an abundance of fresh water where she had dug the hole.
The lady asked Bernadette to arrange for a chapel to be built on that site. The parish priest was only inspired to build the church when the lady identified herself as the ‘Immaculate Conception.’
The spring uncovered by Bernadette was responsible for the first medically unexplainable cure at Lourdes. The present basilica consists of three chapels, erected one on top of the other.
These apparitions and the spring motivated many people to travel to Lourdes, especially Christians, and it therefore became a well-known place of pilgrimage.
People visit Lourdes for many reasons. Some people visit Lourdes to be healed or cured. Others seek spiritual growth and solace.
If you mention the word Lourdes to somebody, they immediately think of miraculous cures. Their family or friends take many disabled people to visit Lourdes in the search for a cure from the spring water. This is often seen as an act of selflessness from those who are assisting these people,
Many elderly or dying people go on a pilgrimage to Lourdes in order seek God in the forthcoming spiritual journey that is the afterlife.
Other non-religious people sometimes go to Lourdes to explore the faith of Christians, or as a general holiday.
Taizé is another place of pilgrimage. In 1940, 25-year-old Brother Roger left
Switzerland to live in France. For years he had been an invalid, suffering
from tuberculosis. During his long illness, Brother Roger felt the need to create a community where simplicity and kind-heartedness would be lived out as essential Gospel realities.
Brother Roger took a modest loan and bought a house in Taizé.
When people were at Taizé, Brother Roger’s sister, Genevieve, asked the people to pray, if they wished to, alone in their rooms.
On Sundays, the Brothers welcomed German prisoners of war that were being kept in a nearby camp. Gradually, other young men arrived to join the original group. On Easter day in 1949, the first Brothers committed themselves to celibacy, material and Spiritual sharing, and to a great simplicity of life, for their remaining time on earth.
Today, Taizé is made of over one hundred Brothers, Catholics and from various Protestant backgrounds, and from more than 25 countries.
‘By it’s very existence, Taizé is a concrete sign of reconciliation between divided Christians and separated peoples.’
People go on pilgrimage to Taizé it is a life of simplicity based on the values of a community. A week in Taizé is a good way of realising the intimate communion with God, in prayer and personal reflection on one hand, and solidarity among peoples on the other.
Each person is invited after their visit to Taizé, to live out in their own situation what they have understood, with greater awareness of the inner life within them as well as of their bonds with many others who are involved in a similar search for what really matters.
Taizé and Lourdes do have one major difference. Lourdes is a place of pilgrimage based on the Bernadette’s visions of the Immaculate Conception. Taizé, however, is based on the community founded solely by a man who wanted to create an ideal society of simplicity and kind-heartedness.
