Students from St. Julian's with Sr. Helen Curmi rscj

Nine Students from Convent of the Sacred Heart, St.Julians, lived an incredible week.... It was a much desired wish to dedicate some time to voluntary work once the Matsec. Exams were over. This desire was fostered by the Headmisstress and Sr. Helen Curmi for over a year, and it came to be.   The experience was beyond expectations and each one benefited greatly, while we were out to 'serve' in any way. Now that the girls have experienced Lourdes first-hand they cannot steer away from it.   We have learnt so much from what we saw through dedication and spirit of service of helpers. If ever you have the chance to visit Lourdes do not miss the opportunity because you will regret it.......

Affected by the city that has touched the hearts of millions

Mention the name ?Lourdes? to anyone familiar with this famous place of pilgrimage in Southern France and, immediately, the image of miraculous cures comes to mind.  Just as Jesus made the sick and the poor the focus of His public ministry, so too in Lourdes do these same children of God become the focus of the community?s activity and care.  Each day the sick are taken to the baths, brought to the procession with the Blessed Sacrament around the main esplanade of the shrine, and taken to visit the sacred grotto.

It is a known story that of Bernadette going out to collect fire wood and seeing a beautiful lady in white.  Also how she continued having these apparitions, how she was told that this ?lady? was the Immaculate Conception, how she built a chapel in her honour and finally how she was told to dig a hole in the ground and how till this very day water comes out from this spring.  Water, which is believed to heal, water which is said to be miraculous.  In the course of Bernadette?s visits, the ?lady? revealed that she had primarily come to communicate a message of repentance and prayer for the conversion of sinners.  Being part of the group of nine students from the Convent of the Sacred Heart Senior School who had the opportunity to do Voluntary Work in Lourdes, I can surely say that after just a week in this sacred place I felt cleansed from anything that made me feel impure and also renewed my spiritual life.

A visit to Lourdes allows one to reflect upon the ongoing saving activity of God.  The occasional miraculous healings serve to remind us that God can and does continue to intervene in human history.  However the healing I personally felt was not that of physical healing, but a spiritual one.  And this is also what the other members of the group felt during and after their experience in Lourdes.  It is a place which literally changes you and makes you feel like you are worth being called a child of God. 

What also helped this change to occur was the fact that we worked among the sick in a hospital called Saint Frai.  That kind of difference between the sick and the able is no longer seen.  We all felt as one ? we were all on a journey of healing.  This fact made us all equal; we all had to be healed in some way or another. 

Most of the group worked in the kitchens helping in the cleaning and laying the tables for the sick who were accommodated in Saint Frai.  However two members of the group worked in a cafeteria in the Point Rencontre, which was like the meeting point of the hospital.  Being one of these two girls, I can say that we shared a different experience from the rest of the group.  It was here that this unity between the able and the sick was seen most.  They both would come to the cafeteria and buy something to drink and they would start a conversation with anyone, whether you could speak fluently in their language or not.  And no-one would feel ashamed because maybe you couldn?t speak his language fluently and maybe was not able to speak normally. There was no such partition which might be common here at home.  It was a feeling that filled you with this sort of unexplainable energy which even the weak could feel. 

As a group we also had the opportunity to attend the International Youth Mass which takes place every Saturday.  We all agreed that it was the most beautiful mass we had ever celebrated in fifteen years. We also attended the candlelight procession which takes place every evening.  During this procession all the pilgrims recite the rosary together as one with hundreds, indeed thousands, of others asking that God bring peace, strength and consolation.  I felt a shiver run down my spine when I looked around me and I saw so many people holding a candle in their hand and reciting the rosary with you.  I do not think I have ever seen so many people feeling free to show how faithful they are back here at home.  Another thing which surprised us was the fact that we saw so many non-Christians still feeling the need to come to this miraculous place.  They come here because they heard about what it does to people without knowing anything about the Blessed Virgin Mary. This proves how this place of miracles also affects people who do not necessarily believe in what we, as Christians, believe.

Even though only 65 certifiable miracles have been attributed to the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes since the 1^st apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Bernadette Soubirous, day after day, decade after decade, millions of people have been touched and healed by visits to this spiritual wellspring.

Estelle Farrugia
Convent of the Sacred Heart, St. Julian?s
Malta