Lourdes, France
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith . . . our bodies washed with pure water.
—Bible, Hebrews 10:22
When fourteen-year-old Bernadette Soubirous had a vision in which the Virgin Mary instructed her to dig in the earth until a puddle of water was revealed and to drink from it, she did as she was told. Today, the Grotto of Massabielle (or “old rock”), in southwestern France, with its bathing pools of sacred water fed by the spring exposed by that puddle, is the focal point of a large complex that attracts more than six million people yearly, many ill and praying for a miracle.
If you desire healing or to venerate Mary, visit the grotto. The closest airport, at Tarbes, is 13 miles from Lourdes; Paris is roughly 500 miles north. Take a tour or go alone, but be prepared for crowds since this shrine is the most sacred of all the Marian pilgrimage sites in the world.
Pray the Rosary in the Chapels of Mysteries inside the Basilica of the Rosary. Ask the Blessed Virgin to take your prayer of healing to the Lord on her heart before sliding into one of the seventeen pools of sacred water.
Stunning views of Lourdes—encompassing the Grotto of Massabielle, Basilica of the Rosary, and Basilica of the Immaculate Conception (built directly over the site of Bernadette’s apparitions)—are afforded from the summit of Pic du Jer, rising 1,000 meters above Lourdes.