“Going to the well (known as a “grotto”) at Lourdes was a particularly powerful experience for me.
Standing near the water felt as intense as being in a room filled with magnets
drawing impurities out of my body, mind, and emotions. I witnessed people wheeled on gurneys
and saw their beaming smiles as their nurses bathed them in the sacred waters.
I brought home some Lourdes water and gave bottles to friends, one of whom reported
the immediate healing of an injury after she’d splashed the water on it.”
-Doreen Virtue, PhD, author of “Healing with the Angels”
Lourdes water flows from a spring at the same spot
where it was discovered by Bernadette,
by following Mother Mary's guidance.
The original spring can be seen within the Grotto,
lit from below and protected by a glass screen.
People have been coming from all over the world to drink
and bathe in the water!
Each year about 350,000 pilgrims bathe
in the water at the baths.
There have been 69 documented miracles from
drinking/bathing in then water since 1858,
by the Catholic Church.
There are a couple of different areas
to get holy water from the spring!
I'm getting water here at the
"Water Way" which is across from
the grotto and River Gave.
The many "water spouts" are on
the side of the Basilica!
Mailing water home!
There are many different types of holy water bottles and many
different sizes available in the souvenir shops all over Lourdes!! ...
You may find it cheaper and easier to just mail your water backhome!
Most airlines will charge you if your suitcase is over 50 pounds, and it
could get a bit heavy to put in your carry on bag / purse -but of
course it depends on how much you want to bring back...
A box this size in the pic above costs me about $30.00 to mail
back to Florida, USA ... Sometimes there is a small kiosk, just up the hill
from the grotto where you can send small boxes filled with bottles
of water like the one above,back home to friends, family or for yourself
when you get home! When it is not there, you have to hike up a bit of
a hill to the post office in the upper part of town.
You can also do a random act of kindness and send a box to a retired
home for nuns or priests or to a childrens hospital, etc...
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The Baths!
The bath area is a few steps down from where the grotto is.
There are 17 tubs, with a different section for men and women.
They are run by a group, of local dedicated men and women who assist
to ensure a deeply spiritual experience.
The visitors sit in an area where there are many benches.
About 5-6 people are called from the front of
a the lineat a time to go in the bath area.
Each person is then asked what language they speak and then
directed to a dressing room, where they are assisted by
an attendant who speaks their language.
The attendant then places a wide sheet above your head,so that you are
not exposed at all, between you and them,as you place your clothes on
the bench. Then the sheet is wrapped around you and you are guided
to a private bath chamber and helped into
the marble tub.
What's up with the baths?
This tub contains about two feet of 53.6 degrees F of spring water
from the grotto. After entering the tub, the attendant prays with the
visitor and asks if they wish to be immersed. If so, the person sits down
and is tipped back all the way into the water.
Quick note! Mother Mary only instructed Bernadette to wash in the
water, but most people want the full experience of being completely
immersed and find the water exhilerating. Another nice point to meantion
is that all the bath volunteers kiss the ground at the beginning
of each shift after praying the rosary in preparation to serve.
The waiting area to enter the baths...
These are for the people to use
as they enter the baths,
who arrive in wheelchairs
and can't sit up...
The door you enter
to go to the baths inside...
There is a separate waiting
and bath area
for men and women.
"Studies on the properties, effects, and electrical fields of Lourdes
and other healing wells have been conducted by scientists.
Dr. Enzo Ciccolo, a biologist at the University of Milan,
collected water from wells where Mother Mary apparitions had been sighted,
including Lourdes...
Dr. Ciccolo placed small quantities of these Marian waters (named for Mother Mary)
into normal tap water. The tap water’s pH, conductivity, and redox potential were
immediately modified by the addition of the Marian water.
Other scientists have measured Lourdes water using a Bovis scale,
which detects life- force energy. Using the earth’s energy as a baseline,
a substance with fewer than 6,500 Bovis energy units is considered to have
a negative or life-detracting charge.
Between 6,500 and 8,000 units is thought to
be neutral; and 8,000 and above is positive or life affirming.
Lourdes water has been measured at 500,000 Bovis energy units."
- Doreen Virtue
