The following was written, by a gentleman fromBath, as a foretaste - even a plea - to the helpers who will be attendingthe 2001 English National pilgrimage for the Sick to Lourdes.
Its message however would appear relevant to life itself:
"How we can better welcome the stranger, the newcomer".
How, when we have welcomed someone, do we listen to what they say andreally let them know they matter and are really loved, just for being therewith us?
I have in mind all those people who answered Our Lady's invitation to HerLourdes Pilgrimage party but who found themselves wallflowers. Not everyonehas the tough flexible outer skin that protects Brancs and Handmaids (labels for male and female helpers in Lourdes) from ever feeling "outof it". Now we are ALL to be "Helpers", we must beespecially aware that being welcoming in Lourdes means more than being withour friends.
Our poor sick country that cannot recognise true unique Humanity in theEmbryo lying in the laboratory dish has great need of the witness andexample of a Pilgrimage Family that values everyone however new or awkward.
We must be brave enough not to marginalise.
We must encourage.
We must explain.
We need to re-affirm.
We need to wait for people.
We must make sure lonely Pilgrims know where we are going, so that theycan be one with us, whether it is in a cafe, or on the prairie, or at theGrotto. Our Lord was Alone on the Cross except for St John, Mary, and OurLady.
Lourdes is Often Full of Lonely people, special friends of Our Lady andher Son. We are in Lourdes to be the special friends of the Lonely not justacquaintances. If we do that properly, Our Lady and Her Son will send moreand more people from our broken world to be with us, to be our friends andfor us to be theirs. That is the only way Our Lady wants our society to be.
A love that is trying to be loving as Our Lady and Her Son are lovingwill grow and grow in the way our poor broken world so badly needs.
- MarkBlathwayt
Last Updated: 11 Feb 2001
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