Pastoral Theme 2010

Introduction
This year in Lourdes we are starting a three-year pastoral cycle of themes, all concerned with following Bernadette and prayer. This year it is the Sign of the Cross. It is something that we do too easily, and sometimes a bit carelessly. (If you have watched footballers making it as they come onto the field, do you find yourself thinking, “That’s nice – he’s a practising Catholic” or “That is sheer superstition”?)

It was a sign that the early Christians rather daringly adopted as their own, the sign of a brutal and disgusting death. It was a sign that Bernadette was taught by the Lady whom she saw at Massabielle. It is the sign that marks us as Christians, from our baptism to our burial.

When people watched Bernadette make the Sign, they immediately understood its importance: she did it slowly, and expansively, and with great recollection; the Sign of the Cross completely took her over. It was an entry into another world, where the God of Love is very close, the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

To try and make it present in our lives, take four “moments” to consider this Sign of the Cross. You might make them four “days” of your pilgrimage (or four hours in a particular day, or four weeks in your preparation for the pilgrimage).

Day One: Making the Sign of the Cross

Reflect:
How do you make the Sign?
What was the effect on people when Bernadette did it?
Who was the first person who made the Sign over you?
Who taught you to do it?
When do you make the Sign of the Cross?

Something to do:
Go to the Breton Calvary (just inside the St Michel Gate), and slowly make the Sign of the Cross.
Do the same at the Grotto, and anywhere else that you pray or attend a service.
Quietly ask: Who is God for me? Who am I?

Day Two: What is the Sign of the Cross?

The Cross was an appalling instrument of torture, the means to a disgusting death. With great courage, the early Christians made it their secret Sign. Why? Because they were able to see it as the sign of God’s love. That Sign turns us into children of God, so it is a sign of who we are. It moves us from the worst that can happen into the certainty of God’s love.

Reflect:
How do I make the Sign of the Cross?
What is the link between my sadness or my sinfulness and God’s love?
How have I experienced God’s love in my life?

Something to do:
Use the great Lourdes symbols: the Rock, the Water, the Light, which all speak to us of Christ. Allow them to help you enter that other world where Bernadette has gone before us.
Make the Sign of the Cross slowly and thoughtfully
• when you go to the Grotto today,
• when you wash or drink at the taps,
• when you begin the Torchlight Procession.

Each time, tell Jesus, tell yourself, tell others what those great Lourdes symbols mean to you.

Day 3: Recognise the Sign of the Cross

We do not always see the Sign when it comes to us; we do not recognise it for what it is.

Reflect:
We live in a world marked by sin and suffering. And yet: Love is at work in the world, in all sorts of ways. (How have you seen love at work this week?)
Bernadette on suffering: “When you reflect that the Good God permits it, you don’t complain”.
In Lourdes: have you ever noticed the remarkable relationship between “assisted pilgrims” and helpers? What is going on is that each are giving themselves to the other. Have you noticed the joy on the faces of the helpers, and the joy on the faces of those whom they help? Have you ever asked, “Who is giving to whom, here?”?
Mary’s promise to Bernadette, “Happiness in the other world”, that “other world”, our deepest reality, that we can glimpse in Lourdes.
What examples of this have you seen in Lourdes?

Something to do:
• Try making some tiny loving gestures (because you can only spot love when you are practicing it)
• Let someone go first today
• Serve the other person before helping yourself
• Help others to do well in one of the small things of life
• Think of others instead of worrying about myself all the time

It’s not easy, but try it, and you will find that it is an entry into that other world,
where we encounter Jesus,
where there is that unseen presence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit
where the Sign of the Cross is suddenly visible everywhere

Day 4: Making the Sign of the Cross happen

Reflect:
The Sign of the Cross is both a gesture and words: it is a public demonstration (if we get it right) that the God whom we call (quite rightly) “Father”, “Son” and “Holy Spirit” is, simply, Love.
That Love is publicly revealed in the Sign of the Cross
That Love privately reveals to us that our vocation is to love.

It is the Sign of the Cross, however, because suffering and love are inseparable; but if you love¸ then you see your suffering differently. The Sign of the Cross brings us back to God’s loving (and painful) self-gift. The Father gives us the Son, the Son gives us the Spirit, the Spirit gives us the ability to live the painful mystery of love.

How do I “make it happen”? At home? At work? In Lourdes?

Something to do today:
Making the Sign of the Cross “happen” comes from
• giving to God what belongs to God,
• giving rein to our deep desire to love
• recognising that love is the best thing about us.
So: read St Paul’s great hymn to love, written to a Church in terminal decay from their in-fighting (a Church much like ours today): 1 Corinthians 13

by Nicholas King, SJ. Fr King teaches New Testament at the University of Oxford.

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