Fr Abbot’s address at the Lourdes Concert, 14 Dec 2001

St James Church, Spanish Place, London W1

After a welcome by the Parish Priest of St James Church, Spanish Place, Abbot Timothy Wright representing the Ampleforth Pilgrimage spoke an introduction and prayer. He said:

Her father was a failed baker; unemployed, without social security. The family were desperate. Their home was one room for the parents and four children. Three more children were born, seven in all; three died in infancy.

Her health was always fragile: asthmatic from a young age with repeated attacks during her life. Our modern medical aids were unknown; she suffered much. At school she was several classes below her contemporaries.

That was the family and home of Bernardette.

There could not be a greater contrast for us, gathered here this evening.
Her life ended at the age of 35. She did nothing that we would measure as success.

She became a nun at 22, though lacking the academic qualifications. She spent most of her 13 years in the convent infirmary, more as patient than helper. Even her community found it difficult to credit her with success.
Her Lourdes was dominated by poverty, hunger, sickness, the temptation to helplessness and the Visions.

Lourdes today is one of the biggest pilgrimage centers in Europe. Nearly 7m pilgrims a year,  many chronically sick. It boasts the TGV, an international airport, and the greatest concentration of hotels in France. And all because of Bernadette Sourbirous, or St Bernardette. Why ?

It was to the 14 year old Bernardette that Our Blessed Lady appeared 18 times between 11 February and 16 July 1858. She asked Bernadette to invite people:
to come and pray

And the miracle! Every pilgrim is changed. In the spirit of pilgrimage we see another side of ourselves:

and in our service, exhausting and challenging as it is, but fulfilling we find peace;

Bernardette, a poor, uneducated, and sickly girl, revealed, through the gifts of our Blessed Lady and the visions of Lourdes

We come here tonight, preparing for Christmas, to pray that the spirit of Bernardette enlightens us. We come in a spirit of fasting asked by our Holy Father for this day, in solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters. We come in a spirit of generosity to enable many others to benefit from the grace that comes from a pilgrimage to Lourdes. For now: we remember the inspiration of Lourdes, and pledge to live its message:

Bernadette’s life of insignificance holds more meaning than our measured achievement will ever do.

Timothy Wright OSB, Abbot of Ampleforth. 14 December 2001

Abbot Timothy says, “we come in a spirit of fasting asked by our Holy Father
for this day, in solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters” - this is a reference to the fact that Pope John Paul II had asked us to keep this day of 14 December as a day of fasting as a prayer for Peace, a day chosen because it was also the final day of the Muslim fast of Ramadan.

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