Sunday 24 Lourdes at Home Day One Expand On this 7th Sunday of the Easter Season, we have celebrated the Ascension of the Lord and now we await the promised Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Today, the Birmingham Diocesan Family would have begun its annual pilgrimage: tired from the journey but excited to be in Lourdes, a special and holy place. The gathering that we shall celebrate in the coming days will acknowledge all those who would have been in Lourdes: pilgrims with sickness or disability of any kind – the most important pilgrims; young people from schools and parishes of the Archdiocese; medical staff, nurses and many, many volunteers who work especially for the benefit of our sick pilgrims; and a pilgrimage made up of those who have been to Lourdes many times, and those who were to have made their first visit. On this, the Lord’s Day, we join with the Church throughout the world in singing the praises of God and seeking his blessing on our lives. We unite ourselves with all those who wish to enter into the spirit of the Lourdes Pilgrimage this year, with the theme of Mary: the Immaculate Conception. May we experience something of the prayer that adorns the interior of the Rosary Basilica: Through Mary to Jesus. 2pm: A greeting from Lisa Dodd, Tangney Tours The video will launch at 2pm 3pm: Opening Mass Archbishop Bernard Longley celebrates the Opening Mass at 3pm, with Jo Boyce from CJM Music. 6pm: A greeting from Bishop David McGough The video will launch at 6pm 8pm: Virtual Marian Procession (Glorious mysteries) The video will launch at 8pm
Monday 25 Lourdes at Home Day Two Expand Service of Healing and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament On Monday of our week in Lourdes, traditionally, we celebrate Mass in the beautiful setting of the Grotto at which Our Lady appeared to Bernadette Soubirous. We do this with pilgrims from Middlesbrough Diocese and other English pilgrims who are in Lourdes at the same time. Then, later on the Monday of the pilgrimage, we gather in prayer in the Rosary Basilica, for a celebration of the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. We do this in the context of Eucharistic Adoration: two Sacraments of healing. The Rosary Basilica is a most beautiful church in the centre of the domain area where all of our prayers and processions take place. It was designed with 15 chapels, each one representing in stunning mosaics, the 5 Joyful, 5 Sorrowful and 5 Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary. Then, when Pope John Paul II added the Luminous Mysteries – or Mysteries of Light – to the Rosary in 2002, it was decided that these 5 new mysteries of the Rosary should be represented on the front of the Rosary Basilica. We cannot gather in that beautiful building today, but from wherever we are able to participate in this ‘Lourdes at Home’ Liturgy of Healing, we are united in spirit under the watchful eye of our Holy Mother, Mary, Help of the Sick. 10am: Mass from Middlesbrough with Bishop Terry Drainey Click on the image below to join the Mass live stream at 10am. 12noon: Video Message from Mgr Xavier d'Arodes, Chaplain and Vice Rector of Lourdes Sanctuary Video will be available from 12 noon 5pm: Livestreamed liturgy: Service of Healing and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament with Fr Tony Rohan 8pm: Virtual Marian Procession (Joyful mysteries)
Tuesday 26 Lourdes at Home Day Three Expand Memorial of St Philip Neri This morning's Mass is on the Memorial of St Philip Neri, Founder of the Congregation of the Oratory. This year, it had been our intention to make something special of celebrating this Memorial of the Founder of the Oratory by way of marking the first Diocesan Lourdes Pilgrimage since the great occasion of the Canonisation in Rome of Cardinal John Henry Newman: a Saint who lived, worked and died in our Diocese, but who is revered and honoured throughout the Catholic world. Stations of the Cross The prayers and devotions that are part of our life of faith in our parishes and schools take on a special meaning when they are prayed in a different setting. In Lourdes, there are various locations for the Stations of the Cross: some are on ground level and accessible for wheelchairs and those who wish to make the prayer ‘on the flat’. There are also some amazing representations of the Stations of the Cross, high up on a hill which requires some strenuous climbing, and maybe something of what Christ himself endured in the struggle of the Way of the Cross. The images of the Stations that will accompany this time of prayer are those Stations up on the Hill in Lourdes. The Stations have the ability to transport us: picture, for a moment, the Stations of the Cross in your own church or school setting. If you have seen them often over many years, they are very familiar to you. And yet, the Stations of the Cross, when prayed and experienced in a new setting can reveal to us new perspectives on this prayer, this devotion. We pray it together and we keep in mind all those who carry a burden in their lives. We pray the Stations of the Cross with Jesus himself, whose journey to Calvary gives meaning to this prayer. 10am: Mass from Our Lady and St Brigid, Northfield with Fr Cecil Rogerson Click on the image below to join the Mass live stream at 10am. 12noon: Video Message from Rich Miastowski, Assistant Principal Hagley RC School Video will be available from 12 noon 5pm: Livestreamed Zoom liturgy: Stations of the Cross with Fr Craig Szmidt 8pm: Virtual Marian Procession (Sorrowful mysteries)
Wednesday 27 Lourdes at Home Day Four Expand WEDNESDAY - A celebration of the faith of Young People on the Pilgrimage Two of the experiences of Lourdes that we celebrate on Wednesday are the International Mass, in the morning. This is a wonderful gathering of thousands of people from different countries, languages and backgrounds. As Lourdes is a principal shrine of Europe, most of the pilgrims are from European countries but of course people can normally travel from anywhere in the world to this holy place. The International Mass is a Festival of Faith and of different cultures. There are readings and prayers in different languages; groups bring banners and flags which represent their schools and parishes, dioceses and countries. And faith unites us all. On the Wednesday evening, the clergy on the pilgrimage usually gather with Archbishop Bernard and Bishop David. They call it the Clergy Retreat, but we have come to know that it is important time for the clergy to spend together, socially! For the rest of the pilgrims, for many years, there has been an enjoyable concert by the pilgrimage musicians. The combination especially of sick pilgrims and young helpers is a joyful sight. We will try to capture some of that. Today, we celebrate the influence on the Birmingham Lourdes Pilgrimage of our Diocesan Youth Service, of school groups, many of whom find their greatest fulfilment on the pilgrimage by experiencing the joyful faith of our sick pilgrims whom they are called to serve. We pray in a special way for the young people of our Archdiocese who would have been travelling to Lourdes for the first time; that they may have the opportunity either very soon or at some time in their life to discover the meaning of faith in places like Lourdes. As we start the day, the Kenelm Youth Trust present Lourdes 10am: Youth Mass from St John the Baptist, Alton with Fr Paul Whieldon 12noon: Video Message from Kevin Goodyear Chief Brancardier 2pm: Video Message from Paul Smyllie, School Leader St Thomas Aquinas 5pm: Virtual Blessed Sacrament Procession 8pm: Virtual Lourdes Concert with CJM Music
Thursday 28 Lourdes at Home Day Five Expand 9.30am: Mass from Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Bulkington with Fr Michael Gamble Click on the image below to watch the Mass at 9.30am 5pm: Zoom liturgy: Reconciliation with Mgr Tim Menezes 8pm: Virtual Marian Procession (Luminous mysteries)
Friday 29 Lourdes at Home Day Six Expand 9.30am: The Rosary, followed by Thanksgiving Mass from Our Lady of Lourdes Yardley Wood with Canon Sean Grady Click on the image below to watch the Mass at 9.30am (starting with the Rosary) 12noon: Maria is interviewed about her first time to Lourdes 5pm: Closing Liturgy with Bishop David McGough