A Typical Day Working in Lourdes

Our daily schedule is quite full, but so far it has been very enjoyable.  When I wake up, I usually look out the window to a cloudy and rainy day:

Morning prayer is at 7:45.  All of the seminarians pray together in the house chapel, alternating between Latin, English, French, Spanish, and Italian.  Holy Mass follows at 9:00 am.  At 10:30, we meet at the Crowned Virgin statue to prepare to lead pilgrims in the Stations of the Cross.  The life-sized stations wind up a mountain and take about one hour to complete.

Our sign to let the English speaking pilgrims know where to meet:

Lunch is at noon, and at 2:30 pm we meet at the Crowned Virgin statue once again to lead pilgrims through Lourdes on "The Way of Bernadette."  The tour shows the grotto, the Soubirous house, the Lourdes parish church, and the house where Saint Bernadette was born:

At 4:15, we meet in the Saint Pius X basilica to help organize the daily Eucharistic procession.  As announcements and Gospel readings are done in many languages, we must ensure that enough people are there to cover the readings.  The procession lasts from 5-6 pm, and we remain in the basilica to sing in the choir.  Here, we sing the Laudate Dominum as the Blessed Sacrament procession ends in the Basilica:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_CWqQyinf0

Evening prayer is at 7pm, followed by dinner.  At 8:30 pm, we gather at the shrine to help organize the Rosary procession which lasts from 9-10 pm.  As usual, thousands of pilgrims flock to the shrine every night for the candlelight procession:

After I pick a Flos Carmeli....

And give it to Saint Bernadette....

I return to the house for night prayer, and to sleep in preparation to start again tomorrow!

Please be assured of my prayers from Lourdes!