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POPE-LOURDES (UPDATED) Sep-14-2008 (1,280 words) With photos. xxxi
Pope celebrates Mass, tells Lourdes pilgrims Mary leads to Christ
By John Thavis
Catholic News Service
LOURDES, France (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass for 150,000 international pilgrims at the Marian sanctuaries of Lourdes and told them that humble prayer to Mary was a true path to Christ.
The pope said Mary had appeared at Lourdes to invite everyone who suffers, physically or spiritually, to "raise their eyes toward the cross of Jesus" and recognize a love that is stronger than death or sin.
"The power of love is stronger than the evil that threatens us," he said Sept. 14.
The pope traveled to Lourdes, a town in the French Pyrenees, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Mary's appearances to St. Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year-old peasant girl.
After days of rain and cool weather, sunshine broke through the clouds over the pilgrims who filled a grassy field near the sanctuaries. They applauded as the pontiff processed to an altar covered with a sail-shaped canopy.
In his sermon, the pope placed himself among the pilgrim population, saying he, too, had come to pray at the feet of Mary, "eager to learn from her alongside little Bernadette."
Then he made a point he has consistently emphasized when speaking of Marian devotion: that Mary turns one's gaze to Christ.
He noted that Mary's first gesture to St. Bernadette was to make the sign of the cross -- an initiation into the mysteries of faith in Christ, he said.
"Mary comes to remind us that prayer which is humble and intense, trusting and persevering, must have a central place in our Christian lives," the pope said.
"Prayer is indispensable if we are to receive Christ's power," he said.
At Lourdes, he said, Mary also revealed herself as the Immaculate Conception, a person conceived without sin. In this way, she is "beauty transfigured, the image of the new humanity," he said.
This special grace inspires people by reminding them that they are "marked by sin but saved in hope," the hope of salvation that allows them to face daily life, he said.
"This is the path which Mary opens up for man. To give oneself fully to God is to find the path of true freedom," he said.
Many came to the papal Mass in wheelchairs or on stretchers, part of a perennial pilgrimage of the sick who travel to Lourdes for spiritual or physical healing.
The assembly was multicultural and multilingual, and the liturgy featured readings, prayers and responses in 10 languages, including Chinese.
Two young Catholic pilgrims from Myanmar said they had traveled halfway around the world to experience the "spirit of Lourdes" that they had heard about for years.
Zen Huai Mang, 23, said she was also seeking a personal turning point.
"I heard that Mary has done some wonderful things for sick people. I'm hoping for something positive in my own life, too," she said. Like many other pilgrims, she bathed in Lourdes water during her stay and said she felt "newborn" afterward.
Mang and her friend waited for five hours in the cold to see Pope Benedict when he arrived in Lourdes Sept. 13 and were back for a prime spot at the Mass the next morning.
She said her impression of Pope Benedict was that of "a very spiritual man" who shared their devotion to Mary. She said the pope may seem a bit remote at times to young people, but added quickly, "I think he's lovely."
At the Angelus blessing following Mass, the pope spoke about the motives that lead some 6 million people to Lourdes every year. The main reason, he said, is that they feel they can entrust to Mary their most intimate thoughts.
"That which many, either because of embarrassment or modesty, do not confide to their nearest and dearest, they confide to her who is all pure, to her Immaculate Heart: with simplicity, without frills, in truth," he said.
"Before Mary, by virtue of her very purity, man does not hesitate to reveal his weakness, to express his questions and his doubts, to formulate his most secret hopes and desires," he said.
Arriving in Lourdes following a two-day stop in Paris, the pope immediately joined in the jubilee pilgrimage established to mark the 150th anniversary of the apparitions.
Cheered by tens of thousands who packed the streets of the mountain town, the pope first stopped at the parish church where St. Bernadette was baptized, then visited the small house -- a former prison not much bigger than a cell -- where the girl and her family lived in the mid-19th century. There, he kissed her rosary and said a prayer.
Next the pope went to the grotto at the base of a rocky cliff, where Bernadette experienced 18 apparitions of Mary from Feb. 11 to July 16, 1858. Like millions of pilgrims each year, he paused to take a drink of water from the spring she discovered there, a spring said to have miraculous powers.
Later that night, the pope closed a torchlight evening procession in Rosary Square. Addressing the overflow crowd of pilgrims, he paid tribute to simple devotion.
At Lourdes, he said, Mary stirred hope and love "by giving pride of place to the sick, the poor and the little ones."
"In this shrine at Lourdes ... we are invited to discover the simplicity of our vocation: It is enough to love," he said.
The traditional nighttime procession stems from St. Bernadette's habit of lighting a candle when Mary would appear to her. Today, the pope said, the light from pilgrims' torches represents a powerful symbol against the darkness of sin.
The procession expresses the mystery of prayer in a form that everyone can grasp, like a luminous path in the dark, he said. It should also remind Christians of those who suffer, he said.
"We think of innocent victims who suffer from violence, war, terrorism and famine; those who bear the consequences of injustices, scourges and disasters, hatred and oppression; of attacks on their human dignity and fundamental rights; on their freedom to act and think," he said.
The pope remembered those experiencing family problems, illness, unemployment or loneliness, as well as difficulties related to immigration. Those who have suffered or died for Christ must not be forgotten, either, he said.
He described Lourdes pilgrimages as leading to a spiritual place "between heaven and earth." Pilgrims may come secretly hoping to receive some miracle, he said, but more often leave with a different kind of spiritual experience and a changed outlook.
"A small flame called hope, compassion, tenderness now dwells within them. A quiet encounter with Bernadette and the Virgin Mary can change a person's life," he said.
On the plane carrying him to France, the pope told journalists his April 16 birthday fell on the feast of St. Bernadette, and for that reason he felt very close to her.
At Lourdes, he said, people encounter Mary and find that "the mother's love" is what provides true healing for all sickness and suffering.
"I think this is a very important sign for our era," he said.
The pope returned to the Lourdes Mass site in the evening of Sept. 14 to close a eucharistic procession. After kneeling and praying in silent adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, he told pilgrims that the respect Catholics show the Eucharist reflects the awareness that Christ is truly present.
Those who, for some reason, cannot receive Communion may find special meaning in adoration, he said.
"Some of us cannot -- or cannot yet -- receive him in the sacrament, but we can contemplate him with faith and love and express our desire finally to be united with him. This desire has great value in God's presence," he said.
END
Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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