The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1876-09-17
PILGRIMS TO LOURDES.
ais BEAUTIFUL SURROUNDINGS AND GRAND
CATHEDRAL.
ILonGon Register, Aug. go


the age, there ia "A standing miracle visible
- TO the eyes and audible to the ears OF al
who care to sec or listsn-nOt at the oppO
site extremity of the globe, but within easy
reach of all-in the very heart of Christen
dom. Within the last two decades tn.
scene of this standing miracle has sprung
into celebrity Twenty years ago the name
or the little place was unknown except in
its own immediate neighborhood Now i,
ts not only renowned, but revered and be
loved far and wide in both hemspheres. 1t
Ties on the banks of the Gave, under the
shadow of the Pyreness In its general
appearance it is nothing more impor-
can't than q moderately sized village in
the South of France, not far from the
mountainous border!and dividing the from
eters of that eldest daughter Of the Church
from Spain.
Eighteen years and half ago hardly any
one beyond those who. on some chance oc-
casiop, had actually been in that part of the
country, had ever heard of Lourdes. Now
the difficulty would be to find any one in
the remotest parts of Christendom, in the
Old World or the New, who has not heard
Of Lourdes. The once unfrequented spot
has become place of pilgrimage. A To-
oaiity that only as a score of years ago no.
body ever thought of has, oil of q sudden,
become recognized a holy ground. 1t is
haunted by exquisite recollections. It ia
surrounded with lovely and sublime 1850
Citations. But little more than "a month ago
there were assembled there, to attest the
fact of this standing miracle, three thousand
priests, collected together from the ends of
Europe, thirty five bishops, and hundred
Thousand Catholic laymen, to whom was
addressed, by Monseigneur the Bishop of
FoItiers, magnificent discourse the text
of which was the seventeenth verse of the
second chapter Of the Acts of the Apostles,
wonderful words which are there quoted,
upon the morrow of the Ascension, by st.
Peter, in Jerusslum, from the 32nd verse
OF the second chapter of the Prophet Joel.
- ana IL shall come to pass in the last
days (saith the Lord) l will pour out of my
spirit upon all flesh and your sons and
your daughters shall prophecy, and YOUR
young men shall See visions"
Eighteen years before, on that very spot
the poor little, simple hearted, humble
child, Bernadette Soubirous, had, 10 theee
last days, verified at one and the same time
Che words of the Prophet Joel, and the
echo of them by the Prince of the Apostles,
The spparition of Our Lady-the very re,
dection of whose glory Lad TRANSPORTED the
chIld's face again, and yet again, within
the view of crowds of people of all ages and
OF all conditions-had in the lapse of less
than two decades 30 transformed the rural
solitude of Lourdes that the Bishop of
roitiers in the presence and hearing of
three thousand priests and four and thirty
OF his brother prelates, could ask, without
extravaganza, while standing face to face
"AGu Tue vast concourse, who were Vlslbiy
eager to listen to his utterances
"Eow can my feeble voice pretend to be
heard when the most sonorous organ would
have to acknowledge it's powerlessness
DO we not hear around us in all directions"
he continued" great clamour-a dia-
Iogue in W hich the questions and answers
nre iutermingled with each otheIf For my
own part, saw these places scarcely twelve
years ago. BY what mysterious power have
they been transformed to such an extent
what has been the matter with thee, o
Gave, that thou hast taken to flight, and
retired thitherR Mountains! what trans
port has seized upon ye that ye should
bound like the sheep that greze upon your
Eammits and you, o hills that We skin
hke the lambs that play along your sides Z
And the whole space contained within this
vast horizon exclalms: This land, this
oonntry has bee II disturbed and moved from
one end to the other by tho appariton of
the face of the Lord. AT the presence of
the Lord the earth was movedn For it
was. indeed, the Divinity itself that shed
its rays Oh the features of the Virgin with
out blemish. What AIN l saying2 The
entire globe has felt this comm0tion, since,
by virtue of the celestial commandment,
the stone has been here followed out in the
form OF basin and reservoir, and the rock
has been converted into u fountain of water
which has never ceased To flow; AT the
IEENesence of God, who turned the rock i1to
. standing water and tho stony hill into "a
flowing stream Whence comes the trem-
bling which has communicated itself to
both hemispheres. 1t is here we must look
Cor the root of all this vegetation of sacred
ediflces and religious houses, aud of ell this
growth of alters and sanctuaries which now
makes Of Lourdes a city without parallel,
q place that is unique in the world. And
when the Church, which ia always 30 slow
aud 80 reserved in the face of the pro-
diSies that occur outside the natural order
Of things; when the Episcopacy, in imita-
Gion of the highest dignitariee; and, finally,
when, under the eyes and with the APP
pIause of almost a hundred thousand of the
faithful, the Supreme Pontiff, by the hand
OF his representative to the French nation,
hastens to crown the image of the Virgin
that appeared in this GrOtto, in truth
speech is eupeTfuous, or should, at least,
bound with the mountains and the sheep
and sport with the hills aud the lambs"
Thus, in a rapture of joy, spoke, only the
other day, the Bishop of POitiers.
oF II