Details for visit of St. Bernadette’s relics
The Relics will arrive at The Church of Ss. Peter and Paul, Athlone and public veneration will begin at 12 noon on Saturday November 2nd, with a welcoming prayer service. There will time for veneration of the relics between programmed prayer services.
St. Bernadette’s relics will be located inside the sanctuary entrance. Each person will be able to come close to the relics, pause and pray. (Please Note it will not be possible to touch the relics as they are encased in a protective glass box.)
There will be petition boxes for written petitions which will be taken to Lourdes.
The full programme is outlined here
Parking will be limited at the Church. We ask that people keep the church car park free for those who are elderly and for the infirm.
Bus parking is available on Elliott Road between the church and the Shannon. There are three carparks in close proximity to the church. one off Pearse Street, another off O’Connell Street, and another off Connaught street.
The church will open on Sunday and Monday at 8.30am and close on Saturday and Sunday after the prayer service, (Approx. 9pm)
If possible, walk to the church. Entry for veneration will be via the main door and up the centre and down the sides when inside.
While waiting in the church to venerate the relics please keep a respectful and prayerful silence.
St. Bernadette of Lourdes pray for us.
The Meaning of Lourdes
Prayer, Penance & Poverty
The message of Lourdes is the Good News of the Gospel message of prayer, penance and poverty. After four years of investigations, the Catholic Church proclaimed the apparitions at Lourdes in 1858 as valid and pronounced this site a place worthy of pilgrimage.
Today many people want to go to Lourdes to seek healing because of some particular suffering of their own or a loved-one. Other people go to Lourdes to help those who are suffering, even when they are strangers whom they have never met. Still others go to renew their faith and have special time in a holy place with Our Lord and Our Lady.
What unites all pilgrims and volunteers is that they go to Lourdes as a response to an invitation made to them by Our Lady who, as Our Heavenly Mother, seeks always to bring us closer to Her Beloved Son. In going to Lourdes, we offer the spiritual and temporal work of making a holy pilgrimage, opening ourselves up to Our Lady and the Message of Lourdes and opening ourselves up to God’s grace.
“Will you be so kind as to go there?”
When Our Lady asked Bernadette if she would be so kind as to return to the Grotto, the young soon-to-be saint did as she was asked. In Bernadette, God gives us a model of obedience, humility, and cooperation.
Pilgrimage Prayer
Our Lady of Lourdes help our faith!
Open our ears to hear God’s word and to recognise God’s call.
Awaken in us a desire to follow in his footsteps.
Help us to be touched by his love, that we may touch him in faith.
Help us to entrust ourselves fully to him and to believe in his love,
especially at times of trial and illness.
Remind us that those who believe are never alone.
Teach us to see all things with the eyes of Jesus, that he may be light for our path.
And may this light of faith always increase in us.
We make this prayer through your Son, Christ our Lord.
Our Lady of Lourdes – Pray for us.
St. Bernadette – Pray for us.
We look forward to seeing you in the Church of Ss. Peter and Paul’s this coming weekend.
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