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Lourdes Theme for 2020
by SOLL21
2020 Lourdes Theme of the Year "I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION"
This year’s suggested theme takes the last words that Mary spoke to Bernadette, thus drawing to an end her conversation with the girl who wanted to know who she was, “I am the Immaculate Conception”.
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In planning this theme, Father Cabes and those with whom he worked did not intend it to be a treatise on Marian theology, but rather a unique opportunity for each pilgrim to find that original innocence, beyond their sin. Reconciliation remains at the heart of the Sanctuary’s pastoral work.
Yes, in this “wonderful and dramatic” world as Paul VI said, not everything is murky, lost, or rotten. It is possible for us to have hope. This hope is an experience that we constantly renew: an experience of the gift freely given and of the encounter: an experience of the truth that is possible in our lives particularly when we sit in front of the Grotto. There, we have no fear of being judged but, on the contrary, we feel welcomed as we are, an experience of Life stronger than anything and which constantly invites us to be reborn.
Mary, the Immaculate, is a woman completely open to the action of God in her. Conceived without sin, she presents no obstacle to the transforming power of Love. She is thus our mother but also our sister on this sometimes harsh path of humanity, our model in listening to the Word made flesh. Thus, the Immaculate Conception is both a name and a mission: to transmit to the world, without impediment, the love of God for everyone.
We received this mission in the grace of baptism. This theme, that will nourish our pilgrimages throughout 2020, has a lot to do with baptismal grace. God offers us salvation, the object of his promise. And God keeps his promises. We experience this in the Church. Pilgrimages are great experiences of the Church. This theme allows us to grasp once again its beauty and its richness and to experience a true spiritual adventure with Mary.
Mgr Olivier Ribadeau Dumas Rector of the Sanctuary of Lourdes
