For this next installment of Faith On The Road, let’s leave Poland for a short time and head to the National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes,
No, we are not going to France to see Lourdes – haven’t been there, YET. On the list of top places to visit though.
The National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes is actually located in Emmitsburg, MD. Just Milites from The National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American born saint.
The Grotto is a Catholic national shrine devoted to Our Blessed Mother Mary.
This is a beautiful mountain shrine that features one of the oldest American replicas of the Lourdes shrine in France, built about two decades after the apparition of Mary at Lourdes in 1858.
In the Grotto is a stone that was excavated from near the miraculous spring where the Blessed Virgin told St. Bernadette to dig and receive water. This stone was donated by Most Rev. Jacques Perrier, Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, France, in celebration of the 150th Jubilee Year honoring the anniversary of the apparitions of the Immaculate Conception to St. Bernadette Soubirous. The Bishop said he was giving us this stone to “spiritually connect” this Grotto to the Lourdes Grotto in France, thus making us all members of the Lourdes Family.
The Stone has been installed at the Grotto Cave and is there for all of us to see and touch.
We visited the Grotto a couple of years ago as part of a great vacation to Gettysburg with a dear brother and sister in Christ.
Let me tell you this Grotto is breathtaking. There are statues and seating areas to reflect, the Grotto itself is fantastic and the view is inspiring. But, as much as I love St Bernadette, the climb to the top was the pinnacle of the visit for me. At the top is the life-size scene of the crucifixion. Climbing those last steps, in sight of Jesus hanging on the cross, drew me to Calvary. Jesus hung there looking across time into my eyes, as I drew nearer, He told me, “Ed, my son, this is how much I love YOU”. And asked, “do you love Me?” Emphatically I replied “yes Lord, You know I love You”. A very moving experience and a conviction of heart to work to show God my appreciation for the cost of His love.