On 9th, 10th and 11th February, at the Sanctuary of Lourdes, the “Lourdes February Days” will bring together the 850 international actors of pilgrimages (pilgrimage directors, Hospitality presidents, religious tourism professionals, partners of the Sanctuary, etc.).
Registration starts on Friday 13th January on the website: www.journeesdelourdes.org
The Lourdes February Days are an annual event eagerly awaited by pilgrimage stakeholders from all over the world. Arranged to coincide with the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, the format of the Lourdes February Days has been designed to allow all international participants to prepare properly for the 2023 pilgrimage season. This year, these days will take place on 9th, 10th and 11th February.
The website www.journeesdelourdes.org provides pilgrimage organisers with all the details they need about the programme for the days and to enable them to review the plenary sessions.
To build a chapel: to welcome, serve, love.
On Thursday, 9th February, Father Michel Daubanes, rector of the sanctuary, will introduce us to these days which will focus on the theme of the year: “To build a chapel here”.
Father Horacio Brito will present the theme of the year and, afterwards, the pilgrimage directors will be invited, through various workshops, to put the theme of the year into practice so that they can then encourage their pilgrims to live out the gestures of Lourdes.
During these days, we will also hear from the poor and vulnerable of Lourdes so as to know how to “build a chapel” with them.
Friday, 10th February will be a day for building the future… “Our Sanctuary: today and tomorrow”, a look at all the projects through which we continue to build this chapel that the Lady requested when she spoke to Bernadette Soubirous on 2nd March 1858!
11th February is the anniversary of Mary's first apparition to Bernadette Soubirous.
It was on this Solemnity of Our Lady of Lourdes, in 1993, that Saint John Paul II established the first World Day of the Sick. Since then, every year, the Holy Father has published a message in which he exhorts all the faithful to a renewed commitment to the service of those who suffer. “The generous hearts”, as the Holy Father calls them, who come in such numbers to Lourdes each year.
« On 11 February 2023, let us turn our thoughts to the Shrine of Lourdes, a prophetic lesson entrusted to the Church for our modern times. »
(Pope FrancisMessage world day of the sick 2023)
