20 years of visiting Lourdes virtually

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ABOVE: A Lourdes Virtual Experience is designed to emulate a pilgrimage to Lourdes, France. Here, a woman touches a piece of the actual grotto rock.

Lourdes Volunteers holds Virtual Pilgrimage Experience at Holy Family Church

By Tami S. Scott, associate editor

“We saw a miracle there,” said Syracuse resident Mike Ayers as he shared the story of his and his wife Eileen’s pilgrimage to Lourdes, France in 2011.

Eileen was diagnosed with breast cancer 28 years ago. She went into remission, but the cancer came back 13 years later — Stage 4. “Through God’s grace and miracles,” Mike said, the couple went with Lourdes Volunteers to the grotto of Massabielle, where the Blessed Mother appeared to 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous in 1858.

“In the Grotto, it all had to do with [the holy] water,” Mike said. He blessed himself, he blessed his wife, and he blessed another person there who was sick. “Eileen has been stable ever since.”

The Ayers were one of many “pilgrims” who participated in the Sept. 8 virtual pilgrimage to Lourdes at Holy Family Church in Fairmount, organized by the same group they went with to France: Our Lady of Lourdes Hospitality North American Volunteers, or shortened, Lourdes Volunteers. This event marked the Lourdes Virtual Experience Tour’s 20th anniversary.

Syracuse native Marlene Watkins founded the not-for-profit in 2002, making it the first Lourdes Hospitality of the Americas to bring the sick with volunteers to Lourdes annually.

In 2004, the organization held its first of what would become known as the “Virtual Pilgrimage Experience,” designed to emulate the Lourdes experience without having to hop a flight to France. It started in parishes and has since spread to schools, universities, nursing homes, conferences and prisons.

“While the Message of Lourdes is for everyone, not everyone can make the physical journey to Lourdes, France,” said Pam Barton, Lourdes Virtual Pilgrimage Experience director and Pilgrimage Advance team leader.

The virtual pilgrimage is led by an in-person guide who shares the message of Lourdes. Local musicians provide the music and “people still touch actual grotto rocks and experience Lourdes water,” Barton said. “When people hear the word ‘virtual,’ they may think ‘on the computer’ but it really is an interactive experience where Lourdes comes to you.”

Since 2002, Lourdes Volunteers has accompanied 6,700 pilgrims and volunteers to Lourdes. Since 2004, more than 300,000 faithful in over 40 countries have experienced Lourdes in a Virtual Pilgrimage Experience.

“We hope our pilgrims experience a transforming encounter with Jesus and His Immaculate Mother,” Barton said. “We know that no one leaves empty-handed. God always gives us a new grace through the hands of Our Lady of Lourdes.”

Bishop Douglas J. Lucia was present for the 20th-year celebration and bestowed the Eucharistic blessing. Afterward, those gathered at Holy Family prayed the Rosary as they processed to the grotto across the street. There, along with Mike and Eileen Ayers, was their friend Eileen Rose, a parishioner of Holy Cross, standing on the upper level overlooking the crowd holding candles. She has been on a virtual pilgrimage before and said she comes to give God all the glory for the miracles in her life.

When asked how she feels as she returns home from these special programs, she responded, “I feel peace, I feel hope and I feel love.”

The next closest Virtual Pilgrimage Experience by Lourdes Volunteers is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, September 29 at St. Adalbert Basilica- Buffalo, NY (212 Stanislaus Street Buffalo, NY 14212.

For more information on Lourdes Volunteers, visit lourdesvolunteers.org, email [email protected] or call 315-476-0026.