We have followed the command of St. Bernadette to come in procession, to do penance and to pray. We have remembered and thanked God for the 71^st miracle of Lourdes, the healing of John Traynor during the Blessed Sacrament Procession in 1923. We have adored Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, received him in the Eucharist and he has strengthened us to serve others. Blessed Carlo Acutis, soon to be named saint, said ‘The Eucharist is the highway to heaven’. It is our road to become holy as he became holy: receiving, adoring and serving others as the Body of Christ in the world. As we receive Jesus again in Holy Communion, may we thank God and grow in love of him and our neighbour. We have met Jesus in Holy Communion, in the sacrament of penance and the sacrament of the sick. Jesus the Bread of Life has fed us. Jesus the Water of life has quenched our thirst. Jesus the Blood of Christ has washed us in his mercy. We came as pilgrims of hope to walk with Our Lady and St Bernadette. We have received blessings, made new friends, walked together and prayed together carrying each other’s burdens and joys. We are the Church as a community of disciples walking with the Risen Christ who shepherds us along the way. Now as we prepare to return home, we are invited to make our resolutions and carry the blessings of this week back to others who wait for us. We carry the hope in our hearts that Jesus loves us, saves us and walks with us. We bring symbols of love to others, for example our rosaries, our Lourdes water, our candles and above all our joy to others.

After the apparitions, St Bernadette entered the convent of the Sisters of Nevers but still attracted many people to see her and speak with her. In order to live her simple holy life, she was moved by the Sisters to Nevers where she continued to suffer from sickness, sometimes the challenges of the other sisters, carried the cross and remembered the visitation of Our Lady to her as a young girl. She carried this hope in her heart as a pilgrim. She remembered what Our Lady had said to her, that she would not know happiness in this life but only in the next. Yet she left us a message ‘I am but a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world’. This week we followed the words of this little pencil and shared in the love letter of Lourdes.

Here we have walked, loved and placed the sick and the weakest at the centre of our pilgrimage. We have slowed down to pray and listen to one another. These are important lessons as we return home.

As we return home the Holy Spirit enables us to continue to bear his fruits in our relationships with others: love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control. St Paul reminds us that we are the chosen ones of God, called by name, called into community and called to serve one another. We wear the clothes of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness and love. He tells us to let the ‘peace of Christ rule in our hearts’.

As we return home, I invite you to carry the gift of peace in your hearts. Pope Leo has spoken often of the gift of peace since the beginning of his papacy. Our world is desperately in need of peace: peace in the midst of warfare and conflict, peace in our hearts and families, peace in our lives. We are called to carry some of the peace of Lourdes home to others.

I hope that today you will be able to savour the little, and perhaps the greater, miracles of these days; talk about them, thank God for them: maybe a new friendship, a time of prayer, a new freedom, a calling from God, a deepening of love, a blessing of peace.

Our Lady ofLourdes, pray for us.

St.Bernadette, pray for us.

+John Sherrington