I have been blessed to go on multiple pilgrimages over the course of my life — some personal, some with very large groups — and I always try to ask the Lord what particular graces he desires for me. Of course, pilgrimages can be a very rushed and sometimes chaotic experience, moving from place to place and adapting on the fly. With this pilgrimage to Lourdes and Lisiuex, I was so grateful to be able to not only experience these holy sites, but to actually sit quietly, reflect, and pray with those experiences right there and then on the trip itself (and not three weeks after the journey’s end)! The slower pace was spiritually fruitful.

To come back to graces received, however — I am certain that Jesus and Mary together have given me, among many other things, a grace of healing through my time at Lourdes. It is truly an amazing place. Mary is always the model disciple, the supreme model. And if at Guadalupe she modeled for us the evangelistic and missionary role of a disciple by converting around 10 million people, then by analogy, Lourdes is where Mary supremely models the works of mercy, especially the corporal works of mercy. It is her “workshop,” and I can’t imagine the untold millions who have received healing through her ongoing work there. Lourdes is also very much a place of revelation, where heaven itself had to intervene to set the matter to rest for the Church: Mary is the Immaculate Conception. She is “the singular boast of our race,” uniquely saved by God from sin at her first moment so that one person among the human race could make a free, full, complete “yes” to God. I believe those who go to Lourdes with an open heart also receive greater insight into who God is and who Mary is.

One thing that especially touched me at Lourdes was its unique harmony of being a place of pilgrimage (where people generally come to receive) as well as a place of charity (where people come to give). The deep reverence given to the sick there is moving, and there is something prophetic in the way they always lead the Eucharistic and Marian processions. I have so much admiration for those who visit Lourdes to serve them, and I saw a fair number of them — doctors, nurses, and other volunteers — taking breaks to pray in the Adoration chapel.

Lastly, about Lisieux — St. Therese has long been a friend of mine. There is so much depth to her spirituality that I think people often miss in saccharine language and sentimentality. But in truth, she was the one who recognized the way of holiness for the ordinary sinner, at a time when being either “ordinary” or a “sinner” seemed an insurmountable obstacle to sanctity (which would discount basically all of us)! Trust and confidence in the good and loving God, against all odds: the whole heart of the spiritual life is right there. It was a gift to join St. Therese in her intercessory mission and receive more deeply from the graces of her life while at Lisieux.

I was also especially privileged to make this pilgrimage as we mourned the death of Pope Francis and interceded with the Church for our new Holy Father. It was a great way to reflect on the gift of his life and papacy to the Church and invoke the Holy Spirit for our future — and I firmly believe that the Holy Spirit is already working powerfully through our new Pope Leo XIV.