05 Jun 2025
Pilgrimage Diary
On May 25th 2025, a group of 100 pilgrims took off on a five-day pilgrimage to Lourdes, led by Irish Provincial Director and Spiritual Leader Fr Joe McGee MSC. Celebrating the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope, each of our pilgrims joined us with their personal prayers and hopeful hearts on this very special journey. Mary Morrish, one of our pilgrims from the MSC Missions Office in Cork, shares her pilgrimage diary with us.
Day 1
Our journey got off to a promising start as we took off from Cork Airport on what turned out to be a perfect flight, which only took an hour and twenty minutes before we touched down on French soil. We were at our hotel before we knew it, and our true Lourdes experience began right away, with a trip to visit the famous Grotto and an opening Mass presided over by MSCs Fr Joe McGee, Fr Tony Horgan, Fr Charles Sweeney, and Fr Des Farren.
After a busy day travelling and finding our feet, we unwound in the evening with a beautiful dinner and we watched the candlelight procession together – an extremely moving and powerful experience to finish the first day of our pilgrimage.
Day 2
Day 2 of our pilgrimage began with Mass at the Holy Grotto, an experience like no other. It was incredible experience to hear Mass in these magnificent surroundings, which we are all so familiar with from photographs, and the atmosphere of prayer and unity was something sacred indeed, with the pure emotion of it drawing tears from many of our pilgrims.
After a delicious lunch, we went on a walking tour of Lourdes, visiting some of the places that were special to St Bernadette in her lifetime. We visited the cemetery where her family are buried, the Boly Mill (her birthplace), and Le Cachot, the abandoned prison where she and her impoverished family lived. We had the opportunity to see quite a bit of Lourdes and it was fascinating to learn so much about the area.
On our return, we enjoyed a truly beautiful penance service, where our pilgrims had the opportunity to talk to our MSCs and be absolved of any sins they might have been carrying with them. It was absolutely wonderful.
That evening, we celebrated a special 87th birthday at dinner, and Fiona and Ann, two of the ladies from the MSC Missions Office, hosted a fantastic evening of Bingo. This was swiftly followed by a sing-song, where Gerry and Dee, our group musicians for the entire trip, had everyone singing along! We all crawled into bed at about 1.00am after a great night.
Day 3
Tuesday marked Day 3 of our pilgrimage, and the morning began with a special ceremony for the anointing of the sick. The one-and-only Fr Charles presided over the blessing of the sick and it was wonderful – despite an extremely inconvenient jackhammer doing its best to interrupt the proceedings from outside! It would take more than a persistent jackhammer to stop Fr Charles, and the ceremony was a very moving experience for everyone. Afterwards, we enjoyed a short presentation about the miraculous healings in Lourdes, before gathering for a very tasty lunch.
We spent the afternoon in the extremely charming village of Saint-Savin. We stopped for coffee, with the breathtaking sight of the Pyrenees as our backdrop. We had Mass as well, before returning to Lourdes for dinner and the candlelight procession – and of course, another round of singing before bed!
Day 4
Wednesday began with Mass in the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, and then there was time for everybody to go for a bit of a wander. I went to the City of the Poor with one of our pilgrims, Idah Kamau, to make a donation to the wonderful sanctuary there on behalf of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. We collected over €600 in donations and were delighted to be able to present it to them to help them in their great work.
In the afternoon, we visited the baths, which was an incredibly profound experience. The group then did different Stations of the Cross – Fr Joe & Fr Des led the Lower Stations, and Fr Charles & Fr Tony took the Upper Stations. On our last evening together with the full group, we had further celebrations over dinner, marking another birthday and a 30th wedding anniversary. We assembled at the Chapel of Lights to pray together and light the group candle for the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, with a final walk together in the candlelight procession. The MSC banners were up on the steps of the altar of the Virgin Mary, which was just lovely to see. We had one last sing-song with the entire group together – an evening of celebrations all round!
Day 5
Thursday was the final day for some of the group, and Fr Joe celebrated one last Mass for our pilgrims returning to Cork that day in the Chapelle de l’Adoration, colloquially known as the Dollars Chapel. The chapel is run by local nuns and is a delightful space. In the meantime, the remainder of the group attended the International Mass in the Lower Basicila. While we bid farewell to some of our pilgrims today, the rest of the day was then free for the others to enjoy Lourdes and its surrounding area at their leisure, before a final Mass for the remaining pilgrims at the Dollars Chapel ahead of their return flight home on Friday.
On this and every day of the trip, our MSC priests prayed especially for our mission friends and benefactors at home and around the world, for MSCs everywhere and the communities they serve, and for the special intentions of everybody who had sent their requests ahead of the pilgrimage, with grateful and hopeful hearts.
Our MSC pilgrimages had to be put on hold for quite a while following the COVID pandemic in 2020, and this was the first year that we were able to return to Lourdes in person. It was a uniquely special experience celebrating the 2025 Jubilee of Hope with such a wonderful group of people in such a sacred space – a truly blessed time of reflection and prayer, while we also thoroughly enjoyed time spent with fantastic new friends, sharing new experiences and making memories that will last a lifetime. With sincere and heartfelt thanks to all who made our 2025 pilgrimage to Lourdes such a moving and memorable experience – until next year!