(Rivista
Internazionale - December 1999:CELEBRATIONS FOR THE ORDER'S NINTH CENTENARY-
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CELEBRATIONS FOR THEORDER’S NINTH CENTENARY
Extraordinary International Pilgrimage to Lourdes
The traditional International Pilgrimage to Lourdes of the Order’s members with "Our Lords the Sick", was carried out with particular solemnity for its concomitance with the celebrations for the Order’s nonacentenary. Over 4000 pilgrims, with the sick attended by stretcher-bearers and sisters of the Order from all continents met up in the Grotto of Massabielle from 29 April to 7 May to pay homage to the Virgin Mary, Patron of the Order.
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| Rome. Dames of the Order with volunteers and the sick at the departure of the pilgrims’ train for Lourdes. |
The pilgrimage was led by H.M.E.H. the Prince and Grand Master, Fra’ Andrew Bertie, with members of the Sovereign Council, the Cardinalis Patronus, His Eminence Pio Laghi, the Prelate, Msgr. Donato de Bonis, representatives of the Order’s national and local bodies and the Conventual Chaplains.
On the Lourdes Train, the Grand Master addressed the following message to participants:
Dear Pilgrims,
This year our Pilgrimage to Lourdes has a particular significance because the Order is celebrating its 900 years of service to the poor and the sick. I therefore ask you to address a particular thanks to the Holy Virgin for having protected us in the past and to invoke her benediction on us and our efforts in the future.
For over 30 years, Lourdes has represented a particular event on our calendar because in these few days we can devote ourselves to helping others and to praying for them with our confreres and pilgrims from all over the world. Let us make this a chance to "renew our spiritual batteries" and to pray that strength will continue to accompany us along the path of our nine centuries of history. We have an extraordinary inheritance to hand down and we must all try to be worthy of it.
I invoke the benediction of the Holy Virgin, Patron of the Order, and the assistance of St. John the Baptist and Blessed Gerard, our founder.
Ave Maria….
The Prelate of the Order, Msgr. Donato de Bonis, addressed the following spiritual thought to the pilgrims
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| Lourdes. The ambulance provided by the confrères of the Western Association for the sick during the pilgrimage to Lourdes. |
Spirituality in Lourdes.
The SMOM pilgrims in the Lourdes Grotto are always carriers and witnesses to the "great hope". So many tears, so much suffering, but also so much grace, so much light. It testifies to our respect for "Our Lords the Sick", who are the face of God. It testifies to a great harvest of grace, the Lord and His great mother who use us to carry out divine marvels.
Everyone knows Simon the Cyrenian of the cross. A long ascetic culture has taught us and encouraged us to relieve suffering. But at Lourdes we appear as people who help the suffering to bring joy. Suffering spiritually helps our world which - otherwise - would run along the tracks of efficiency, productivity, trivial work, of things, of business …, forgetting any reference to God, to the Immaculate Virgin, to the essential of life that is the encounter with mystery.
The great SMOM family does not come to Our Lady to present an anthology of pain, but is well organised to express a great solidarity to our brothers and sisters who suffer physically or spiritually, and who desire to breathe in our "proximity", to dissolve that lump of bitterness that everyone has in their throat, in our embrace of comfort, hope and light.
Jesus of the Eucharist is always among us. He is touchable. And Our Lady presents Him to us as the centre also of our suffering, puts Him beside us, tells us that He loves us.
We return every year to Lourdes to demonstrate that there is still the good stock of generous souls in the world.
Lourdes is not a city. It is a temple. The temple of Love, the temple of abandonment in the arms of God, and of His and our Mother. The knights and dames of Malta are the ministers of this temple. For ever!