Today the Catholic church celebrates the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and a day of prayer for the sick. My parents and I went to Mass and they both received an Anointing of the Sick. In preparation, we watched the movie “Song of Bernadette” which told the story of St. Bernadette. She lived in Lourdes, France, in the mid 1800’s and was very poor. When she was only a young teenager, she had visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. At the direction of “The Lady”, Bernadette dug in the ground and a spring of water rose from it. The water is said to be holy and people have experience healing through it. I remembered my own experience in Lourdes and will share it with you here:

When I was about 4 years old, I got very sick. I remember having a high fever and a rash of water blisters all over my body. I remember waiting in the Emergency room with my mom and thinking it must be pretty bad. There was never a diagnosis for that episode, but shortly thereafter, my parents noticed that I was having a hard time walking up and down the stairs. I was taking them one at a time, with both feet on each step. After a while, I was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Basically that is a form of arthritis that attacks children. Over the next several years, my joints slowly became more and more stiff. I could not open a car door, comb my hair, button a button – I was too stiff. I was also in a lot of pain. The doctors did not have a cure – just different medications to try to ease the symptoms. I took penicillin for a while, and then 8 aspirin a day for years. I went to physical therapy 2-3 times a week and at one point was made splints that I was to use to help keep my joints from crippling further. I had blood drawn on a regular basis to check the red and white cell count. At school I was always the kid that was laughed at and made fun of and picked last for any kind of team – I walked funny, ran funny, and looked funny. My dad was in the military, so we moved often and spent 4 years in Germany. While we were there, my mom said she wanted to take me to Lourdes, France. She told me the story of St. Bernadette – a young poor girl who lived there and in 1858 had visions of the Virgin Mary – Our Mother of Jesus. All the people in the town thought she was crazy. Toward the end of the visions, Mary told her to dig in the dirt in a cave. When she did, a spring of water came up from the ground. This spring miraculously cured people from the beginning, and continues to do so today. My mother and I made a pilgrimage to Lourdes when I was about 11 years old. It was an incredible experience. I remember feeling the spirituality of the place – it was so real and so close. The miraculous spring water still flows from the cave and is routed through channels and into some large baths. My mom wanted me to be immersed into the bath, so one day we got into the long line. As we were waiting, I remember seeing so many people in wheelchairs and with many physical conditions. I felt like there were people who were worse off than me – I was not even worthy to be there. Finally it came time for me to go in. There were nuns who helped take off my clothes and put me into the bath. When I went down into the water, it took my breath away. The nuns took me out quickly, dried me off, got me dressed, and sent me out to my mom. It was a whirlwind of activity that I will never forget. The day that we left Lourdes, our bus took a “wrong turn” and we ended up in Nevers – the place where St. Bernadette’s body is. She eventually became a nun, but died at a young age. After 30 years in the tomb, her body was exhumed and it was found to be incorrupt – it had not decayed! She lays now in a glass coffin in the church in Nevers. As our bus pulled in front of the church, my mom explained to me what I was about to see. I was afraid – I had never seen a dead person before. But when I saw her in the glass case, I thought she looked so peaceful and beautiful. Again I felt overwhelmed with a holy presence. So – as you can see, my experience at Lourdes was one of the most spiritual things I have ever encountered. I was not cured on the spot, but I remember my mom having conversations with my doctors. They were telling her how by the time I was 18, I would probably be in a wheelchair. I remember thinking that that was not going to happen to me. Another time, they said that there was a slight possibility that I would “outgrow” the disease. I knew in my heart that that was going to happen to me. And it did. As I got older, the disease slowly stopped crippling my body. I was even able to do more physical activity and found that the more I did – the more I could do! All the joints in my body are still crooked – there is nothing that is straight. Some days I am still in pain, but I do not notice it much.

If you would like to see a short video clip about St. Bernadette, see here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwx8g8z7FUo

The Lourdes website shows the place live:  http://en.lourdes-france.org/

You can see pictures of St. Bernadette here:  http://en.lourdes-france.org/deepen/bernadette-soubirous/the-intact-body

I Found God today in remembering the most spiritual time in my life.