This pocket guide combines a mix of practical information, history, devotional commentary, prayers and readings for pilgrims to Lourdes today. Universally known throughout the Catholic world, many hundreds of pilgrimage groups visit Lourdes each year from Britain and Ireland. It also includes a detailed A-Z guide to places and events, the engaging story of Bernadette, and other places of interest nearby for extra days out.

In this richly illustrated spiritual pilgrimage, explore the beauties and blessings of the Marian shrines and holy places of France with the Very Rev. Fr. Joseph Roesch, MIC, as your spiritual director and guide. You've accompanied Fr. Joe to Fatima and Rome. Now come along on the journey of a lifetime to the "eldest daughter of the Church": France! This latest A Pilgrimage with Mary immerses you in some of the many shrines, apparition sites, and gorgeous landscapes of France. From Lourdes to Laus, from Rue du Bac to Prouille, journey in spirit across the length and breadth of a land Our Lady has visited many times, discovering a spiritual landscape full of indescribable riches and extraordinary devotions. With the Very Rev. Fr. Joseph Roesch, MIC, as your spiritual director and guide, become immersed in the history of powerful Marian devotions given to us through some of the many French saints, visionaries, and mystics. Rich in beauty and blessings, this book will inspire you to ope

Lourdes is suspended between heaven and earth.

"A charming and touching story that reminds us, with St. Bernadette, that grace is everywhere." —Robert Ellsberg, author, Blessed Among All Women The shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in southern France appeals to Catholics as few other places do. The famous grotto is a place of healing that attracts some six million pilgrims to Lourdes each year. One of these recent pilgrims was James Martin, an American Jesuit. Fr. Martin went to Lourdes to serve as chaplain for a group of pilgrims sponsored by the Order of Malta, an international Catholic association devoted to charitable works. During his stay, Martin kept an illuminating diary of his trip. His touching and humorous account of the busy and gratifying days that he spent at Lourdes is a vivid description of a place filled with a powerful spiritual presence. "Lourdes is now one of those places where I have met God in a special way," Martin writes. Through this diary, we are able to share in his journey and feel the presence of God that he encountered there.

Today's most comprehensive spiritual guide for walking from Lourdes to St Jean de Pied Port in France.Many modern pilgrims desire to walk the primitive pilgrimage route from Lourdes to St Jean Pied de Port, France, and beyond onto the Camino Frances. But, until now, few guides have been published in the English language for the Voie du Piémont Pyrénéen sections of the Camino walk. This three-in-one book incorporates daily devotionals, Bible verses and way guides that will help prepare your heart for a closer walk with God. Included in this book:* Maps for wayfinding* Daily scripture readings - no need to carry a heavy Bible* Meditations that help you hear God's direction for your life* Questions for reflection to make the most of your pilgrimage* Details about where to sleep, daily distances walked and essential websites* Insider travel tips* How to procure a Pilgrim CredentialHere then is a guide ideally suited to you, the pilgrim, who is seeking both spiritual and terrestrial direction while walking the Camino route from Lourdes to St Jean Pied de Port in France.With space to journal thoughts and revelations, you'll hold onto this book as a keepsake for many years to come.Stacey Wittig is a Spirit-led Christian, who was transformed by the Camino experience and now writes about hiking and pilgrimage.

Lourdes was at the very centre of nineteenth century debates on religion, science and medicine. Both the Church and secularists championed the 'miracle' town as crucial in shaping how society should think about the mind, body and spirit. Since the ‘visions’ of Bernadette Soubirous in 1858 transformed the quiet Pyrenean town into an international tourist and pilgrimage destination, it has been a site for controversy. In her well-crafted and carefully researched book, Harris deftly places Lourdes and its attendant spiritual movement firmly at the centre of French history and shows its significance in the country’s development.

Plastic Madonnas, packaged holy tours, and biblical theme parks can arouse discomfort, laughter, and even revulsion in religious believers and nonbelievers alike. Scholars, too, often see the intermingling of religion and commerce as a corruption of true spirituality. Suzanne K. Kaufman challenges these assumptions in her examination of the Lourdes pilgrimage in late nineteenth-century France.Consuming Visions offers new ways to interpret material forms of worship, female piety, and modern commercial culture. Kaufman argues that the melding of traditional pilgrimage activities with a newly developing mass culture produced fresh expressions of popular faith. For the devout women of humble origins who flocked to the shrine, this intensely exciting commercialized worship offered unprecedented opportunities to connect with the sacred and express their faith in God.New devotional activities at Lourdes transformed the act of pilgrimage: the train became a moving chapel, and popular entertainments such as wax museums offered vivid recreations of visionary events. Using the press and the strategies of a new advertising industry to bring a mass audience to Lourdes, Church authorities remade centuries-old practices of miraculous healing into a modern public spectacle. These innovations made Lourdes one of the most visited holy sites in Catholic Europe.Yet mass pilgrimage also created problems. The development of Lourdes, while making religious practice more democratically accessible, touched off fierce conflicts over the rituals and entertainments provided by the shrine. These conflicts between believers and secularists played out in press scandals across the European continent. By taking the shrine seriously as a site of mass culture, Kaufman not only breaks down the opposition between sacred and profane but also deepens our understanding of commercialized religion as a fundamental feature of modernity itself.