On the Sunday following Pentecost, this year Sunday 31th May, the Church celebrates the Holy Trinity, inviting us to contemplate the very heart of the Christian mystery: one God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This fundamental truth of the faith, though often difficult to express in words, can be experienced very simply in the gestures and prayers of everyday life, especially when we make the sign of the Cross.
On 11th February 1858, accompanied by her sister and a friend, Bernadette went to Massabielle, on the banks of the Gave, to collect bones and dead wood. As she took off her stockings to cross the stream and go to the Grotto, she heard a noise that sounded like a gust of wind. She looked up at the Grotto: “I saw a lady dressed in white: she was wearing a white dress, a white veil, a blue sash and a yellow rose on each foot.” In her fear, Bernadette impulsively took out her rosary to make the sign of the Cross and receive protection from on high, but her arm would not respond, until the Lady she saw in the hollow of the Rock made a beautiful sign of the Cross: in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Where can I find the Holy Trinity in Lourdes?
The great adventure of the apparitions began, like all celebrations in the Church, with a sign of the Cross calling upon the Triune God. During each of her eighteen meetings with the Virgin Mary, Saint Bernadette Soubirous began by making the sign of the Cross. She did this slowly and earnestly. Mary, in silence, showed her the way to reflection and prayer, a prayer that reveals the Trinity.
This simple gesture of the sign of the Cross, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” contains all the richness of faith. It marks the beginning and often the end of prayer, like a doorway into the mystery of God.
During the Mass, this same mystery is affirmed twice, at the beginning of the Mass, with “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,” and at the final blessing, before the sending of the Mass. Three little crosses are also made on the forehead, lips and heart, to welcome the Gospel of the day. Some of the faithful also cross themselves after communion or during a blessing. It’s a beautiful gesture of faith and trust in the Holy Trinity.
During the Marian torchlight procession, at 9.00 pm every evening during the season, pilgrims and visitors to Lourdes raise their torches and sing to the glory of God in his Trinity:
‘Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.’
This is a liturgical prayer in praise of the Trinity, a sung or spoken echo of what Bernadette experienced in silence in front of the Grotto of Massabielle: welcoming God in the fullness of his Trinitarian love.
In its simplicity and depth, Lourdes becomes a place where we can draw close to the Trinity. Mary’s message, centred entirely on Christ and lived in the Spirit, leads to the Father. And this Trinitarian approach is exactly what the Church celebrates in the solemnity of this Sunday: the eternal love that flows between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, touching us deep in our hearts!
After becoming a nun, Bernadette was asked by a Sister of Charity from Nevers, “What must we do to be sure of going to Heaven?” Bernadette replied immediately, “To make the sign of the Cross properly is already a great deal.”
Programme for Holy Trinity Sunday
11.00am: Mass at the St Cosmas and Damian Chapel
2.00 pm: Walk in the footsteps of Bernadette (meeting point at the Information Centre)
3.30pm: Rosary at the Grotto or complete the pilgrim’s gestures independently
• Touch the Rock
• Drink water from the spring
• Light a candle for your personal intentions
5.00pm: Eucharistic procession with blessing of the sick
9.00pm: Marian Torchlight Procession.
